Bridge the World

Two weeks have already passed and I cannot believe time goes so fast.
Before the trip there was so much work to finish in Oslo but, since the week of the departure, it has been about getting ready for the work in Tokyo, packing, moving, traveling, starting in a new office and getting a bit settled in the new place I call "home"... its said that "time goes fast when you have fun" and this is the feeling I have..

Picts from my first 2 weeks here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24849304@N00/sets/72157604213698381/


I only realized that I was leaving while looking by the window in that plane from Helsinki. With so bad weather outside, I could not be happier of the spring time that waited for me in Japan.
If you ever decide to make such a long trip, it might be a good idea to avoid sleeping the day before so you have to sleep in the plane. If you cant, enjoy the stoning view of snow pikes from the window while you are reminded
"not to grab" the wing, wonder why they give you metallic knives on board while you could not bring them from outside or enjoy a movie in "Castilian" while trying to figure out which one is the "Port of disembarkation".


When finally arriving to the Narita airport, it was very interesting to see how people respect more the "forbidden to smoke" sign than the "do not use mobile phones". I would have enjoy this more if I would have known that from now on, every restaurant or hotel room has the potential problem of stinking of smoke... God bless the one who passed the law forbidding to smoke indoors in Norway!


After the train/bus from the airport, it is all about finding your way in this net of train lines. Someone tried to explain me why there were so many private subway companies are and why they cannot agree in having a one common map but, I cannot still understand why hasn't someone realized it is a problem and make a common system (apart from the one in the mobile phones which unfortunately only works if you speak japanese...).
Something else I do not understand is why it is so hard to accept VISA cards for ATMs with the "VISA" logo.. I can only get money in post offices, citibanks or 7/11 stores.


In the less complaining-ish side of the story, the office here is great! It is located in a really cool neighborhood next to the river, bordered by many sakura trees (those that get pink at this time of the year), there are also so many nice small restaurants around where we get great lunch for around 1000 yen (aprox 50 nok). The office is a large space divided in two, one side for engineering and the other for sales and marketing and everyone has been super nice and friendly. After some days working, I felt something next to my leg and I was surprised to find the cutest robot dog ever, he likes it when I scratch under his head and I actually think he is learning to like me because he constantly comes next to me asking for attention (yes, machines are getting better in training their humans )


It is also very nice living close to the office, specially considering that my line is usually very crowded. It has been fascinating to see how many people can you still fit in an already crowded place if someone is pushing hard enough.

And I could not be luckier about the weather, while it is again snowing in Oslo here we have some early spring and we actually managed to have our first spring lunch in the park last week... the weather felt just like early summer in Norway. I am spending this week in Kyoto so will be posting more picts soon with the Kansai update..