Wasabi Trick

Ichikawa-san (市川) was explaining to me during our welcoming party a wasabi trick. As most people remember (very vividly, for me), wasabi leaves this extra rush to your nose. However, if you drink Coke after eating a wad of wasabi, this aftertaste will be gone! Sooo.... I tried really hard to find a packet of wasabi for Ichikawa-san.


Ichikawa-san ... wondering what he's done to deserve such suffering. [note: he doesn't like wasabi very much]


He looks unhappy because he has just ate a wad of wasabi (and is ready for a big gulp of coke).


Apparently, the wasabi trick works! TATA!! mahou desu!

Kawabura-san (桑原) was so impressed that he wanted to do it too!!! :D



He also confirmed that it works. Maybe next time (when I have enough courage) I'll try it, too! :D We ran out of wasabi. Ichikawa-san was trying to persuade me to try it, but I wasn't sure if he was saying it worked out of spite or something... xD

The lab people are so nice and welcoming. I know I'm going to have fun this summer!

Settling In

The lab here hosted a welcoming party for us yesterday. It was really nice, because we had the chance to meet the grad students, undergrads, professors, etc. The students here are super funny and they all tried their best to speak to us in English. In a way, it's nice, but I must admit, I should really take the initiative to learned Japanese (like Ava-san!).

Maya, Prof. Ellisman's daughter, persuaded/forced some students to do a bit of role playing. Kawaii, ne? ^^v

デイビッドさん, 生日 おめでとう!

Today was the first day of "lab" (actually, we did nothing but catch up on personal e-mails) and also David-san's birthday!


[note: This photo was taken in my room. I was surprised us 4 kids all fit in there. Good times, good times]

Presents

I thought long and hard about what to get the folks in Japan. I know fruit is expensive in Japan (and that's something so bountiful here in sunny California), so I've decided on dried fruit! I'm pretty sure TSA wouldn't smile too kindly on upon bags and bags of oranges or apples... so dried blueberries, grapes (raisins), apricots, and mangos it is. :)

I've additionally made them a little picture frame (it's wrapped now, so I'll take a picture of them later) along with a nice photo of us 4 kids in Osaka! This took a little bit of photoshop to make it happen, but nonetheless, I hope they like it. [note: the four of us have never been a single photo together, so I had lots of fun editing pictures swiped off facebook]

Aren't we just darlin'?



Here's a picture of it in the frames I made:

A Shaky Start

Okay, so apparently, when the e-ticket says "MON," they mean that the plane will arrive in Osaka on Monday. I found out fairly recently that I am leaving for Japan a day earlier than I anticipated! Carpe Diem, I guess. Good thing this misunderstanding was cleared up in the nick of time.

Happy Beginnings!

If you would kindly notice: [1,2,3] are all PRIME numbers. *cough* anyways........................ [scurries off]

EDIT: Okay, it took me a while, but I soon realized that 1 is NOT a PRIME number. *awkward silence*