First impressions from the lab

Now that I've been working here for more than a week, I think it's time to share my first impressions of the lab I'm working in.

There is a very convenient shuttle bus from my apartment at Toyonaka campus to the lab at Suita campus. Convenient in this case means that it is free, almost door-to-door (check out the track if you like), and runs three times an hour. Also, the last bus leaves at about 7pm, so that's an incentive to not stay too long in the evenings ;-)

The lab basically consists of three smaller offices (for the professor, associate professor, and secretaries) and one big room where everybody else is sitting. Everybody else means about 20 to 30 people (have a look at the lab members page to see who "everybody else" is).

And, of course, as we are in Japan, it is required that you remove your shoes and put on slippers before entering the lab. Although there are guest slippers available, I bought my own after a couple of days because I just like to wear my own shoes - who knows what kinds of feet the guest slippers have already seen?

Aren't they beautiful? ;-)

My desk sits somewhere in the middle of the room, and it features a snowman carrying a Christmas tree. I'm not really sure why it is there. Maybe they put it there to remind me that it (luckily) won't get cold enough here to see any of that freezing white stuff?

Apparently, there are no real coffee breaks at the lab ("real" meaning those that I got used to in Erlangen, where everybody gathers in the kitchen at a specific time and has coffee together). I'm going to miss those for sure!

Instead, there is a mini-shop inside the lab's big room which is basically just a shelf with goods and a box to put your cash in. This shop features lots of canned coffee (think Red Bull - style cans, just filled with coffee or espresso) and some other stuff, like chocolate bars and instant noodles. In short, everything a PhD student needs to survive so he never, ever has to leave the lab ;-)

So, every once in a while somebody will walk to the shop, return with a can of coffee and maybe stop for a little chat at another person's computer on his way back. And that's it for socializing over coffee (not that I'd understand any of the socializing in Japanese that would be going on).

In addition to the mini-store, the lab is also equipped with a fridge, microwave oven, sofas, and a flat-screen TV. You can see most of this stuff on this picture I made:

There are quite a few non-Japanese members in the lab, especially among the post-docs and assistant professors. The countries they are from include Australia, Korea, Poland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and (of course) Germany. I hate to admit it, but their big advantage over most of the Japanese lab members is that their English is a lot better.

For lunch, most of the lab members either bring food from home and heat it up in the microwave, or eat some of the instant noodles available in the mini-shop. Luckily, there are a few guys who regularly have lunch at one of the university cafeterias available on campus. Having lunch with them is just as funny as the lunch times back in Erlangen always were - I'm feeling really lucky!