So far so good!

Japan is treating us well, considering we don’t know the language at all and are probably pissing off people on a daily basis with our lack of cultural know-how.
Jeff loves how any sense of politeness goes out the window. “No thank you” quickly turns to “No” and any form of greeting turns into a bow, which is easier than formulating a sentence.
We really thought that by arriving in Tsukuba and attending this conference would ease us into the Japanese culture. We were really wrong on that one. We’ve had to just dive right in. Very few people in this city of 200,000 speak English. We’re fine if we can point to pictures on a menu. However, yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant and the waitress did not speak English and the entire menu was in Japanese characters. We were screwed! We pulled out our little dictionary and learned the phrase “What do you recommend?” She pointed to something on the menu, we nodded our heads and waited in anticipation for what was going to arrive. Out comes noodles with pesto and prawns. Phewf! It was delicious. One of the best meals Jeff and I have ever had! That worked out!
The rest of the meals have not been such a success, but we are surviving, Jeff better than me since I’m a bit more picky….For example, I’m not such a fan of hot and cold served together or having my food touch. These two concepts go out the window here. In fact, they’ll just pile hot and cold things on top of each other.
Another things we’ve noticed here is how small the portions are…then we realized that they are an ideal size and don’t promote over-eating like in Canada or the States. We leave every meal satisfied, but not full. Probably good for us and that’s probably why every person here looks fantastic and fit. Obesity is not an issue at all. We’ve only seen one larger person in the whole time that we’ve been here.
Went to the welcome reception for the conference last night. Had some beer and met a few really nice people. The conference doesn’t have much going on today and it’s raining out so we’re just doing some work in our hotel room (I’m doing Cybera stuff and Jeff’s working on his company) and then we’re heading off to the Expo and Planetarium this afternoon.
It gets dark here really early, at around 6pm every night. Had I know that, I would have stayed in the hotel closer to the conference centre. Instead, it’s a 10 minute walk and Jeff has been escorting me there so I don’t walk by myself in the dark. I wouldn’t mind though since this town is extremely safe. It feels way safer than Calgary!
Back to work and then time to explore Tsukuba a little more!