Shurijo Castle

Main Hall of Shurijo Castle

The weather was nice so I decided to drive the 30 km (18 miles) to Naha and do some sightseeing of the famous Shurijo Castle in Naha. The map booklet I have has a number code for the various sights and I managed to convince my Japanese-only car navigation system to accept that code and suggest a route. For most of the way I ignored its navigation suggestions because I was going the slower route 58 instead of the Okinawa Expressway. I wanted to see the various (pretty ugly) cities on the way: Yomitan, Kadena, etc. In downtown Naha, though, the navigation system came in handy. It got me where I wanted without any detours. I spent some 2 hours walking through the grounds. There were already plenty of Japanese tourists around even though the tourist season has not started yet. I was surprised how relaxed and happy they were two days after the big earthquake on the Japanese mainland. After last weekend’s visit at Zakimi Castle where only ruins are left, it was nice to see Shurijo Castle which was rebuilt after WW II. That gave me a very good idea how the other castle might have looked like. I made of course (way to many) photos which you can find in this Picasa Album. On my way home, I could not convince the car navigation system that I am going home and it kept suggesting U-turns at every intersection. I still need to figure out how to turn it off or how to tell it to tell me the way home. One step at a time, I guess.

Artisan Bread!

Taking our new car out for a spin,

Our new used Nissan Cube

I tried and managed to find a place I heard of during lunch this week. John D. at OIST, married to a Japanese woman and fluent in Japanese, told us about a tiny bakery and cafe just outside of Onna Village. He gave this Google Map pin drop. You need to zoom in quite a bit. He warned us that the street doesn’t look like there is anything up there. When I drove up  this narrow one-lane uphill gravel path leading to it I was surprised that to my right actually was a house. I pulled into the little parking lot in front and could see a woman inside the house getting ready to greet me. She was a little worried that I was lost and told me in broken English that they make bread – so I found the place. She told me that they open only at 12 (noon) – it was 11:20am – but then she hurried back and I could see the bakery. She came back saying that today the goodies will be ready by about 12:30. I decided to do my grocery shopping in Ishikawa first. When I came back at 12:40 another car with a family was already there and waiting. The baked goods just came out of the oven. A wood fired stone oven at the side of the house! The baker just brought in some rolls topped or filled with things. I took 4 different ones. It turned out that they don’t bake bread every day. The half loaf I purchased is from two days ago. It just looked too good to leave it there. I need to learn when they bake what and go back.

Filled rolls and bread

I am now eating the rolls for lunch. Beats instant noodle soup hands down. They are still warm. I will try the bread tomorrow for breakfast. The whole bounty cost me ¥1040, so not cheap but also not outrages for the quality. I will definitely go back and tell everybody about it. And here is their lovely web site: http://yado-tropical.com/ (put the URL into  Google Translate)

Some pictures – finally

I have created a Picasa album with a number of pictures from my apartment (hover over the pictures and you’ll see my comments). As you can see, it is not much more than a hotel room but it will certainly do for under two months.

View from the balcony of my apartment

My temporary furnished rental apartment

The view from the balcony, though, is quite nice.

I have finally unpacked my suitcases this morning. I was surprised that everything actually fit in the dresser and the closet. It is a little crammed but will do for two months.

It is now Saturday and the first week at work is over. A lot of “firsts” this week. I met a lot of very nice people at OIST and started to fill my role as HPC manager. People were glad to see that someone is now taking charge of things. We had our first outing from the IT group on Thursday – we went out for dinner – but more about this in a later post. It was a really good start. I bought a car and have a loaner car until the real car is ready. Driving on the left side of the road turned out to be not so difficult. The biggest problem is that blinker and wiper lever are swapped in cars here. It takes a little focus to not turn on the wipers when I want to signal a turn. I will practice later today by going grocery shopping in Ishikawa.

The Bat Across the Street

When I went to Okinawa for the first time in October for my job interview, I saw a number of huge bats flying around the back of the hotel. Back at home everybody just said “yaeh yaeh, giant bats, sure”. Now I have proof! I saw one in the trees across the street from my apartment and managed to get a photo of it. It was a smaller one with maybe 2-3 feet wingspan but still pretty impressive. These guys are Ryukyu Flying Foxes. Click on the picture for a larger image.

Ryukyun Flying Fox

Inkan

At the beginning of my beaurocracy frenzy yesterday I did one more thing that I have not written about because I really wanted to post pictures. Mrs. Siler from OIST gave me my personal inkan which I had to register at city hall. An inkan is a stamp with ones last name name in Japanese handwriting hand carved into it. Once registered it is used instead of a signature on many forms.

My Inkan

My name in Japanese Katakana characters is: アルフ　ワックスマン And here is a picture of the resulting inkan for me.

Inkan close-up

With this inkan I could open my bank account – a signature will not suffice for that – and forget what else I used it for yesterday. I will be buying a car with it and I could also buy property now (not that I will). The little plastic card in the picture to the left goes with the inkan and proofs that it is registered. Every time I use the inkan I also need to show that card. Click on the images and you can see them in higher resolution (i.e. larger).

Beaurocracy Frenzy

Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be my first work day at OIST but they decieded that today, Monday, is a good day to get all the required off-OIST paperwork done – and so we did. It was amazing how well organized they are. Each new (foreign) employee gets a folder with a checklist sorted by priority: bold red for “necessary for survival”. My stop at the convenience store on the way from the airport to my apartment was in that category 😉 Today, I was picked up at 9:30am by Mrs. Siler from OIST HR. She drove me around all day and did the translations etc. We started in Onna-son city hall and applied for my alien registration card. I don’t need to carry around my passport any more once I receive that card. Then off to the bank. We opened a checking account with the Japanese Post Bank. It took forever but they have nice sitting furniture to wait in in the post office. While we were waiting Mrs. Siler called the Nissan rental car place and found out about the Nissan Cube that will be up for sales soon. I could pick between a gray-blue one and a red one. Denise likes red, so red it is. It turns out that the car will be in Onna-son on Wednesday to look at. Once I say yes, they will even “rent” me the car (I believe for free, but we will see) right away until all the paperwork with titel etc. is done. That means I will have a car much earlier than expected. Maybe even by the end of the week already. After the bank, we drove to the immigration office in Kadena to get my Japanes Re-Entry Permit. It turns out that I get this only once and can now leave and re-enter Japan as many times as I want within the 3 years of my visa. The interesting part waa that this agency does not accept cash (credit cards are practically useless in Japan). We needed to buy a special “tax something rather” certificate at a bank that then got licked and glued to the application paper. After that on to the JAF (Japanese equivalent of AAA) to get my German drivers license translated. Japan trusts the German drivers license process enough to not require any special theoretical and practical tests. Denise will need a real Japanese drivers license or forever keep renewing the US International Driving Permit issued by AAA which is valid only for one  year. The translation of my license turned out to be trickier than we expected because I have this pink paper license and a comment stamped in the “restrictions” filed saying “Sehhilfe erforderlich” (help for vision, i.e glasses or contacts, necessary). Unfortunately, the ink of this stamped comment was washed out enough for the JAF woman to say that she can’t read it and, therefore, cannot make a translation of my license. Her boss was at his lunch break and could not be consultat so she called the JAF main office (we believe in Tokyo) but they could not give her an answer right away. So we waited for maybe 30 minutes for something to happen. That I had my (expired) German Internaional Driving Permit with me that included that very same stamped notice didn’t help. Eventually, someone from the JAF main office called back and gave her the green light to go ahead with the translation and believing me what the note says (I wrote the two words on a piece of paper for her to compare letter by letter but that wasn’t good enough initially). Mrs. Siler and I could finally go and eat something (I had Japanese stir-fried veggies) and go shopping while we waited for the translation to be finished. An hour later we picked up the translation and everybody was very happy. This not ironic. During the entire day I found that the people were all very friendly and extremely helpful. It was, indeed, pleasant. Back to the shopping we did while waiting: The FamilyMart (= Japanese version of seven-eleven) style food I was having is not that great so I bought some bananas, orange jam, some nuts for snacks, and some cokies for my sweet tooth. My furnished apartment has, essentially, an empty kitchen: two cups with saucers and two glasses. No plates, no silverware, no pots and pans. Next to the grocery store was a Daiso (= Japanes Dollar store) where we went and bought two plates, two bowles, two forks, two spoons, a butter knife, a cutting board,  and a fruit knife. 100 Yen each 😉 From the JAF, we went back to Onna-son where we went to a local market. Denise will like it here. We went upstairs to the french bakery to buy very fluffy french bread to go with the orange jam for my breakfast and some fresh sushi for dinner tonight. On our way back Mrs. Siler showed me where I have to take the bus tomorrow morning at 8:30am to get to OIST to work and at 3:15pm we were back at the apartment. Now I am sitting again in the lobby of the hotel to type this. I will get an OIST laptop and Blackberry tomorrow. The apartment has wired Internet connection so that I will finally be able to post some pictures.

Trip Report

My flights were nicely uneventful. Both flights were on time and the planes were not very full so I had empty seats next to me on both legs. United Economy Plus is a big step up from the “normal” seats. My frequent flier “Premier” status made that possible. I was picked up at the Naha airport by two people: a driver and a translator. They were excellently prepared and stopped by a FamilyMart convenience store to buy me some breakfast and lunch for today (Sunday). My apartment is like an old, cheap hotel room. I will post pictures once I am better connected than via a PC in a hotel lobby from where I am writing this right now. The rest of the day is just taking in easy and settleing in; maybe watch some Japanese TV. My apartment is a room on the 6th floor  of the buidling and does have an ocean view. Today it is very gray and overcast with almost no wind. Decently warm and very humid.

Done with ‘lasts’ now come ‘firsts’

Five months in the making and now it is as real as it gets. I am sitting at the gate at SFO to fly to Japan. It has been nice to know for such a long time that this would happen because it gave enough (?) time to prepare. Denise and I met with all our friends to have one last dinner with each of them. I will miss you all so much and hope you will come visit. My last Stanford exercise class last week. The people there have been so great. The last Yoga class on Sunday. Dina’s classes at the JCC have been so physically engaging and mentally relaxing. A little calm oasis in all this craze.  And Wednesday was the last day at SLAC. My colleagues gave me a nice farewell party. A lot of “lasts.”

Now that I am on my way to Japan it is time for all the “firsts.” Monday will come my first encounter with the Japanese beaurocracy (driver’s license, bank account, alien registration card). Tuesday will be my first day at OIST.　I am really looking foward to all of it.

Pictures of OIST

I read this press release from OIST today: Creating a New International Graduate University in Okinawa. At the end of it are 4 really nice pictures of the new OIST campus. There will be more buildings coming. Click on the thumbnails to get the pictures in full resolution.

OIST Campus

OIST Campus

OIST Campus

OIST Campus

Last Travel Preparations

I received a very detailed email last night from the OIST relocation person about (mainly) money. I will need to bring a bunch to get me through the first two weeks. Japanese seem not to use credit cards for most of their expenses. I will need cash for my daily expenses and buying a cell phone and a car. Once my first salary will be deposited in my new Japanese bank account on March 17, I will be able to pay things from that. I believe I will get paid once a month in the middle of the month, just like it is in Germany. It looked from their web site that Travelex at the Stanford Shopping Mall sells traveler’s cheques in foreign denominations but after calling them that turns out to be not the case. My bank’s (Bank of America) web site says that they sell these but going through their online ordering process, all I could get are Yen in cash but not in traveler’s cheques. I am very sensitive to these bank promises because when I came to the US, I ran out of money because CitiBank in Germany simply lied to me about how to get access to my German money from the US. I specifically changed my accounts over to them because of their promises. They were unable to deliver and I ran out of money after about two weeks (I brought over some money in traveler’s cheques but not nearly enough). Needles to say that I canceled my American CitiBank account right away and switched to Bank of America. I really want to avoid this kind of problem moving to Japan.

The OIST relocation person also mailed me last night that a used Nissan Cube will be available from Nissan rent-a-car in the second week in March. This car is totally ugly but whatever – it’ll do. It seems that OIST gets good car deals from these rental car agencies and they told me that these deals are better than the buying a car on the open market (better cars for cheaper).

I was also told that my temporary furnished rental apartment does not have towels or bed sheets but I won’t have enough space in my suitcases to bring those with me. I will have to buy them over there. We will see how that all will play out. My current plan is to pack all my clothing and everything else I need until our household items will arrive by ship in June (or even later) in two large and one carry-on size suitcase. I really hope everything will fit.