First day of work

Since I was so tired from the journey, I actually slept well. I was surprised that the sun was already very bright at 7:30. In a conversation with a landlord, I learned that the sun rises in Sapporo at around 4 o'clock. After shopping at 7/11 and Tokou Shop and buying many small things, but also basic groceries such as eggs and rice, I set off for work at 11 o'clock. Although I only needed about 40 minutes and didn't have to be there until 1 p.m., I thought it would be better to be early. As it had been raining slightly like the day before, I arrived slightly wet at the university around 12 o'clock. The way was easy to find, although I am used to it being different from HHU. Upon arrival, I spoke to the gatekeeper, who led me to the secretary. Then I had to wait a bit, but after about 10 minutes, another secretary took me to my mentor Ken. Ken is 24 years old and originally from Sapporo. He is currently in the 1st semester of his master's program. The Japanese university system seems to differ greatly from the German system. With us, one does about 3 months of bachelor's thesis and 6 months of master's thesis. Here, one works in the respective working groups already in the bachelor's program and apparently also throughout the master's program. He showed me the premises and to my surprise, here you can conduct experiments and simulations in parallel if you wish. Then we had lunch with colleagues and had pork on rice with a sauce. It is apparently a specialty of Sapporo and was really delicious. The Japanese were very impressed that I could eat fairly well with chopsticks. This was followed by the first meeting with Prof. Maeda, where we discussed the further course and he immediately invited me to 2 parties. One tonight and one on Friday, where apparently on Friday we will go play baseball and then have Japanese BBQ. Work continued until the party at 6 p.m. At the farewell party for the colleague (he is going to America), there was food and drinks provided. Then there was a somewhat more formal part where everyone had to stand up and say something for the farewell. I didn't understand much because most of the time Japanese was spoken. Of course, I had to say something to the person I had just met for the first time. I contributed to the general amusement with that. Then there was a lot of drinking and I got to know my colleagues and Prof. Maeda better. Around 10 p.m., I went home and also quickly fell into bed. So, my first day of work in Japan was already unforgettable.