Best day ever

Ok so I've wanted to try writing in english for some time. This probably doesn't mean that i will abandon swedish, I'll keep all the juicy secrets for the homecountry ;)
As you might have noticed, my stay here started out pretty great. Still, the last couple of days have been even better.
I bought a bike. And if you'd been walking to campus here a few days you would know that it's a big deal.
The university has many campuses spread out across town, I go to two of them.
Kawauchi is a 30min walk from the dorms, not much elevation. I have most classes there. My research training and science classes are at Aobayama campus, on top of a hill, about 20 min from Kawauchi. To give you a sense of the height, when I biked down the hill at the end of the day my eyes watered from the speed and I got "lock för öronen". And for the folks in Uppsala; uppsalaknölen kan slänga sig i backen (inte jag, kanten man måste cykla upp på).
My feelings toward a bike have never been so passionate.
And people bike all over the street, on both sides and on the sidewalks where available, so there's no risk of being yelled at for casually cruising the street where it's the most comfortable (like in another student town I know of)
Second thing, my Research training began. The first day was amazing. The group feels like a big family, Prof. Yamashita bought us dinner and I got a labcoat and started fiddling in the lab right away. Basic stuff though, weighing, dissolving, filtering, calculating yield. (which I did manage to fail :) But its lots of fun, and if i just concentrate I might pick up some japanese on the way. They are doing some interesting research on new electrode materials for fuel cells, replacing the rare and expensive platinum used today.
Peculiar thing is, people stay in the lab until eleven or twelve at night, every single day. They never come in before ten in the morning though.
I was baffled about my schedule before, starting at 9am and ending at 6pm four days a week. But this week I have left the lab around 8pm and I've liked it. They told me I should just leave whenever I want to. We are having dinner together almost every day and afterwards there's a period of stray talking, people brushing their teeth etc.
Something I've unknowingly managed to break by rushing into the lab immediately.
I also noticed that every single bookshelf, machine and big bulky thing in general is fastened to the wall with wires, reminding you of the ever present risk of earthquakes. I probably shouln't tell you that the probability of...no I shouldn't.
I even started thinking that i might skip a class just to be able to spend more time hanging around in the lab. Six hours of experimental physics every week is a tempting sacrifice.

Actually, I've been writing on this blogpost for the last five days. I just don't have any time to spend in my room. It's either staying late at the lab and then getting together with some friends to watch tv-series on the kitchen flatscreen.
Or it's a welcome party somewhere. Or a night out in town. And if nothing else there's allways just a regular corridor-party waiting.

Ou! And I went to Matsushima, one of Japans three 'official scenic wonders'. Apparently the best one of them, if you ask the Sendai:ians. It is a bay filled with small islands that are covered with pinetrees, like a mini-archipelago. My expectations were probably blown out of proportions. I didn't find it supercool, but it was nice. I bet it would be even better if you had your own boat. The tourist round-trip boat was good though. Some of us fell asleep after a long days walking, I discovered the tradition of feeding the seagulls with french fries, I probably shot a hundred pictures in just an hour.
Next week I'll hike the mountains. And Im thinking of taking some daily-life pictures, its rapidly getting colder. Some days are almost too cold to just wear a t-shirt!