So I made it to Kyoto and the next day, powered by salad, pickles, and rice from the hotel breakfast I found the university. It was full of parked bicycles but strangely quiet and I was sure that some sort of plague or alien had swept in and destroyed all the humans. But I continued on and gave my talk, which I ended by saying “okini” which I’ve been told is kansai dialect for “thanks a lot!” When I said this, the twelve-man panel, who were all vigorously nodding and note taking throughout my talk, laughed and clapped, and I sighed with relief. I was pretty sure I would screw up and say “oniki” or “oishi” or it would turn out that the postdoc that told me to say
okini was really just trying to sabotage my chances and so my talk would be met with the sound of crickets rather than clapping. But it all went extremely well, and after some deft question answering, I headed across the street to gather the envelope of money covering my plane fare. A friendly biochemist showed me around the lab space, and I chatted briefly with a young assistant professor who I promptly intimidated somehow (I’m like 5’4” in heels, so I guess it's understandable). While I learned very little about the position, department, or university, I did discover that you have to change shoes when you arrive at work, and you actually have to
change them again when you go into some special rooms. I’ve never dropped anything dangerous on my feet in the lab, but I’m confident that once I’m walking around in slippers I will begin to do so almost immediately. Fortunately, as a guest, I didn’t have to change shoes (except of course when I went into the special rooms) so my powers of intimidation were intact throughout my tour. And that was it. I left, ate some ramen, went to kiyomizudera to see the momiji in their autumn colors, ate oyakodonburi, went to the hotel onsen, had a beer in my room, watched some Japanese game shows, and fell asleep.
So I made it to Kyoto and the next day, powered by salad, pickles, and rice from the hotel breakfast I found the university. It was full of parked bicycles but strangely quiet and I was sure that some sort of plague or alien had swept in and destroyed all the humans. But I continued on and gave my talk, which I ended by saying “okini” which I’ve been told is kansai dialect for “thanks a lot!” When I said this, the twelve-man panel, who were all vigorously nodding and note taking throughout my talk, laughed and clapped, and I sighed with relief. I was pretty sure I would screw up and say “oniki” or “oishi” or it would turn out that the postdoc that told me to say
okini was really just trying to sabotage my chances and so my talk would be met with the sound of crickets rather than clapping. But it all went extremely well, and after some deft question answering, I headed across the street to gather the envelope of money covering my plane fare. A friendly biochemist showed me around the lab space, and I chatted briefly with a young assistant professor who I promptly intimidated somehow (I’m like 5’4” in heels, so I guess it's understandable). While I learned very little about the position, department, or university, I did discover that you have to change shoes when you arrive at work, and you actually have to
change them again when you go into some special rooms. I’ve never dropped anything dangerous on my feet in the lab, but I’m confident that once I’m walking around in slippers I will begin to do so almost immediately. Fortunately, as a guest, I didn’t have to change shoes (except of course when I went into the special rooms) so my powers of intimidation were intact throughout my tour. And that was it. I left, ate some ramen, went to kiyomizudera to see the momiji in their autumn colors, ate oyakodonburi, went to the hotel onsen, had a beer in my room, watched some Japanese game shows, and fell asleep.
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