First days in Japan. Challenges and pleasantries.

It's our first Friday since we are in Japan. Georg worked by now two full days. Zhenya was busy with figuring things out in the shops (and also doing the python course).

Everybody at Georg's works seems to be super nice. On Thursday Zhenya joined Georg's group for lunch and we went to a cool restaurant 'Nishio Yatsuhashi no Sato'. By Georg's group we mean Kaoru and Shunsuke - the late and early stage PhD students. Kaoru is also a co-founder of the company. They are both nice and smily if you promote them. Sometimes we misunderstand what they say. Japanese accent and small features in the way they express themselves are rather unusual for us. Georg noticed that instead of saying "l" they say "r", as "l" sound does not exist in the Japanese language. So the question "What are you plans for the weekend?" becomes rather difficult to understand:

"My prans for the weekend? You mean friends?.."

We have already bought quite some stuff required for living in Japan for several years: some plates and cutlery and hairdryer and so on :)

And we finally did some sightseeing today! First time in the Kyoto city center and we finally got the feeling that we are living in the touristy town and not in some sleepy village. (Our area around the house gives out a rather sleepy vibe). We went around the Gion (though we didn't get that we were in Gion famous for Geishas until looking at the map now), to Yasaka Shrine and the Shrines nearby (we should look up what a shrine is and how it is different from a temple), and to the Maruyama Park, which impressed us by being very pretty!