Just getting out of jetlag...

So... Long delay was long.

Went to Japan. RIKEN, in Wako, Tokyo. Worked morning 'til evening almost every single day. A co-worker planned and I strung along for a single trip outside of Tokyo, to the bonsai village in Oomiya and a way too late sightseeing tour on foot of a few parts of Kawagoe. When I say "planned", I mean that after a few hours of walking around a diffuse area of a few square km we asked for directions in Japanese, and fortunately I knew just enough Japanese to pick out some keywords. The trip to the bonsai village took about 3x longer than expected, so it was pretty much dark when we arrived in Kawagoe.

I did go twice to Akihabara (of course), and tbh, that place is too nerdy for me. I know that sounds like a blatant lie -- I did enjoy trying all the amazing keyboards they make in Japan, and I bought two old SNES games in mint condition boxes for a friend of mine as a wedding gift -- but the other trip was much nicer... This was strictly business. I'm the producing kind of nerd, not the consuming kind.

And the food... Nostalgia and colors and delicate flavors and everything that is Japanese cuisine for me... The one thing I regret is that I didn't have enough of the shrimp snacks that I love so much. Another co-worker told me "these snacks were made for you, I can see it from the way you're eating them". And he's Japanese. I actually know _exatly_ how and where to put them into my mouth, infallibly, one after the other.

Calpis concentrate!

I also ordered a violin from a company in the UK while in Japan, a Romanian Gliga Gems 2. As mentioned in another post, I had picked up the violin back in my family home and enjoyed it so much I wanted to start playing again. The seller sent it to me immediately (after some nerdy requests from me, esp. that I wanted the original tailpiece and just a single fine-tuner on the E, like the professionals have it), but it took about 2 weeks until I had sorted out the payment, but now it's finally paid for. I'm practicing my vibrato at least every evening, together with intonation and some bowing that's become a bit shaky. I want to play so many songs now...

And the jetlag title. Well, ever since I came _to_ Japan, I've woken up at 4-5 o'clock in the morning. And this didn't stop until just yesterday. I've lived off of ~5h of sleep every night for over a month. I'm exhausted. For some other reasons as well, but, uh, not important (I know, you don't have to :p ). Anyhow, I've been practicing my vibrato some mornings at 6 o'clock as well, that was the point with this paragraph.

There's really a whole lot more to say about Japan even if I didn't go out much, but I think the best way to explain it is to force you to just go there. It's such a nice place. First day after I came back to Japan, I went into the GSI cantine and thought "open mind, fresh thoughts, let's enjoy German food!", read the first sign saying "Pommes Frites und Putenschnitzel" and then I turned around. Figuratively.

Pics because it all happened:

Fyi, Grim Fandango remastered.