First impressions

I was picked up from the airport by Mr. Kato, a assistant researcher not much older than I am, who speaks a bit German (I was surprised and impressed), likes Germany very much (he has seen more German cities than I have) and guided me around the rest of the day. In general, it is less formal than I expected. Everyone laughs a lot, they bow not so much as I expected (/was told), until now it find it rather normal :)

My lab
Again, an interesting fact first: Everyone here knows that I do Karate and want to train at a local dojo. On our way through the department and to the Mensa I meet a lot of my future colleagues/superiors and everyone made a comment about me doing Karate, reaching from “Oh, you’re the guy doing Karate” to a smile and the typical hand gesture associated with Karate. Even that night at a Student supermarket (connected to the University building) we meet a friend of Mr. Kato (I have to ask for his first name…), who instantly associated me with “the Karate-guy”… There is no such thing as bad publicity :)


I meet Professor Shimokawa in his office and after a short talk he introduced me to my colleagues and showed me my desk, than left me there with the Instruction “Talk to your colleagues”. I did and it seems they are planning on giving a welcome-party for me, with lots of beer. I like :)