Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Day 1 at MSRA

From my apartment to the nearest subway station: 10 minutes on foot.
Subway ride: 20 minutes. My subway line is new, so the trains are clean, with good air conditioning. I can avoid the rush hours.
Zhichunlu (知春路) station to MSRA: 3 minutes on foot.
This is all very good, by Japanese standards.

What did I do at MSRA today?
I signed lots of Chinese documents that I cannot read, and
verified that this is not just a chopping board.

2 comments:

  1. Do you find local people assume you're Chinese and expect you to be able to speak the language? What do you do when this happens? Or do you walk around with a rising-sun "Banzai!" headband on so people know you're Japanese. (Note: I am not recommending that you do this.)

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  2. > What do you do when this happens?

    Every time this happens,
    I apologize in Japanese and
    commit harakiri.

    There's security check at every subway
    station in Beijing,
    so the harakiri sword which I carry with me is causing problems...
    (The first half of this sentence is true by the way.)

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