The first days at work

My first days at work have been filled with numerous new experiences and challenges, both professionally, practically and socially.

Just to mention a few:
- My new colleagues, all with names that could sound alike for the untrained ear.
- The new car I had to pick up at the parking lot after the first day at work, with a navigator in English, but with all addresses and maps in Japanese!
- The new procedure for changing clothes, which include taking off the shoes, BEFORE entering the locker room.
- How to register what you want to eat the following week and how to register that you actually eat what you chose - with a hanko-stamp.
- The electronic melody, several times a day, at the start and end of every break.
- Saying ohayō gozaimasu instead of bom dia, good morning or godmorgen.
- Receiving several emails a day in Japanese.
- Eating with chopsticks at lunch and always accompanied with a bowl of rice.

Even though many things are new to me, my colleagues at the same time help me to gain a social network and to have normal conversations in English, which is where I found a vent for the life here in Koriyama, which so far only has been characterized by conversations that is limited to bowing and saying I’m sorry and thank you very much, when we have left the apartment.
All in all it has been a very positive experience and challenge to start this new job, and with all the new things I will learn and the things I will be involved in, these three years will be very inspiring.

Just to comment on driving in Japan; the steering wheel is in the right side and you drive in the left side of the road. And the first time I tested myself in the traffic was with immense concentration. Luckily it sounds harder than it is. Actually it is just a matter of paying more attention the first days and making sure that when you turn right, - it is the long turn...