We finally made it to Shimotsuke, our home base for the next 9 months. Week 2 was mostly spent settling in, building furniture, and moving between hotels.
some pictures of our apartment (after we got furniture)
After settling in a bit, I got to meet my advisors and some other colleagues in the family medicine department. Everyone was so kind and welcoming! One of my advisors even took Kyle and I to buy some household items. My advisors are both doctors and leading researchers in Community Medicine. I am so honored to be working with them, and so happy to be a part of the community medicine team. Later, we had a welcome party, and ate a lot of delicious food! If there’s one thing about Japanese welcome parties, it’s that there will be a lot of food.
The next week, It was Silver week, which doesn’t always happen every year. This year, there were 4 public holidays in a row, so many Japanese people use the time off to take a vacation. It was also my birthday week! Kyle’s childhood friend and his girlfriend came to visit and celebrate with us. We ate at an Oden restaurant and played Quiplash, which is pretty difficult with a language barrier. It was great to see them and get to hang out.
On my birthday, we tried out a new restaurant, which was themed like One Piece, one of kyle and I’s favorite shows! It had a huge ice cream sundae, which, of course, I had to get. It was very surreal to spend my 22nd birthday living in Japan.
The highlight of my birthday week, however, came a little later, because one of my best friends from America had come to Japan for a family member’s wedding!! I was so excited to get to hang out with her and show her a little slice of my favorite things to do in Tokyo.
The first night we met up, I took her to Kabukicho. First, we showed her Japanese Karaoke, which is always a good time. After that, we went to Golden Gai, a famous stretch of tiny bars that are usually cash only. There, we met a pilot, who was also in Japan for the first time. He tagged along with us for the rest of the night. After getting a few drinks at Golden Gai, we went to my favorite place ever, DJ Bar Bridge. It’s an underground bar that puts a big focus on music, and most importantly, vinyl DJing. We took them there and danced for a long time.
One thing I love about the music culture in Japan is how friendly and welcoming people are. If you go to a place like Bridge, you have to love music, or a good vibe at the very least. We met some laid back people there and made a few more new friends.
After we were done at DJ bar, we stopped to get some food. One thing I love about Kabukicho is that it never sleeps. We found an Izakaya at around 2am, and maybe it was because it was late, but we all felt particularly daring… so, we tried Horse Sashimi, which is basically just raw horse meat. It honestly wasn’t bad, it kind of reminded me of deer meat. I don’t think I could ever eat it again, though. For the memories, right?
the raw horse meat in question
Overall, these 2 weeks were mostly settling in, and a lot of adventures with friends. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Thanks for reading!
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