The First Week

Today marks exactly one week since we've arrived in Nagoya, Japan.

We hit the ground running. The first full day were were here we lugged three suitcases down to Costco. We opened a membership up in the USA since they're recognized internationally and it is obviously much easier to start an account in English. Costco was a hike and a half, but we were able to get some basic necessities like pillows (used clothing as pillows the first night) and we were able to get a real blanket- what a luxury! Pictured is our shopping cart full of goodies.

The second day we also lugged two suitcases down to Ikea. It was also a hike to get to, but well worth it. We got some more necessities, and their food court served wine! Needless to say, we were quite thrilled about that.

This first week we did a ton of other things such as go to the ward building and get our residency cards, go to immigration to get Tori's work permit, Tori applied for a part-time teaching job and prepared a demo lesson. Additionally, we started the process for opening bank accounts, researched which phone company to sign up with. We checked out a bunch of home good stores (for when we get an apt) and found and scouted out second hand appliance stores.

Most Japanese apartments come completely empty, meaning we will need to provide a/c units, light fixtures, washing machines, a fridge, etc. Yesterday we visited 5 different apartment complexes, but we were not satisfied with any of them. Ideally, we would like to have doorways where Miklos does not have to duck to get through. We are also not a huge fan of tatami flooring, the traditional japanese bedroom flooring made out of rice straw. That's the perfect scratch

material for our cats, and they would tear that up in a heart beat. Unfortunately, we have to crop the photos we post here, which is not ideal. Pictured is Tori in one of the apartments we visited. She's standing in a room covered with tatami flooring.

Currently, we are in a temporary housing unit which is quite small. There's one bedroom with a Japanese sized bed. It's bigger than a twin but smaller than a full. We have a small balcony, and a room adjacent to the bedroom. That room has a small kitchenette, one closet and open space. Next to that room there is a room with a shower and a sink, and next to that there is a separate room which houses a toilet. Check out the picture displaying the toilet. Yes, that's a sink above the toilet. When you flush, clean water is coming through the tap and you can wash your hands. The waste water from that is used to refill the tank. Talk about resourceful! Also, unlike in the USA & Germany, it seems common to have showers/bathtubs in

a separate room from toilets.

This week our second home has been Starbucks, which has been a necessity to access Wi-Fi. And despite being in this whirlwind of adventure we've made plenty of time to explore and take in our surroundings. We went to shrines, temples, parks, eateries, checked out different neighborhoods, and tons of stores. Pictured in Miklos in the basement of a department store eating a giant pork dumpling. In the big department stores in Japan their basement is an entire food court. We loved experiencing and walking through this.

We were also able to visit Miklos's work. Again, the photo is awkwardly cropped. We were blown away by ITbM's building. Background: ITbM stands for Institute of Transformative Biomolecules and is affiliated with Nagoya University. It is a fairly new international research building that centers on plant research (various labs and projects are housed in this building). Since their aim is for 50% of hired scientists to be non-japanese, the working language is English.

We're finally starting to get over jet lag and get acclimated to Japanese time, although Tori is still a fan of going to bed at 8:30PM and waking up between 5:00AM-6:30AM. There's still room for improvement, ha.

On average, we're walking more than 10,000 steps per day. Feel free to challenge us to competitions on FitBit ;).

Still lots to explore and lots to do! Still missing everyone in the USA and Germany, but still enjoying our new adventure!