My office

Today is my first full day of PhD life, and as one might expect I have been a little distracted from Higher Learning by such things as setting up my computer (for the next week I am using my laptop from home while my PC is on order); working out how to use the obligatory hot water pot (visible at lower left), and exploring my strange little office, with its huge whiteboard and table (never had either of them before!) and its rather excellent view of the University. I am on the 6th floor of 'ichigokan' (building number 1) of the faculty of engineering and science, which sprawls over 3 buildings.

The numbering scheme of these buildings says it all about the Japanese approach to addresses. The faculty has 3 buildings, numbered 1,2 and 3 (ichigokan, nigokan, sangokan). One might expect that they would be numbered in order of their age, but no - ichigokan was built second and sangokan third, and nigokan (building number 2) was built first. Wierd. Also ichigokan has no lifts, so maybe I will lose a kilo or two waddling up and down. In truth since I moved to Tottori I have probably lost 2 kgs of weight, but it was mostly muscle, so a few stairs could do me good.

From my window I can see the hills of North Matsue, and just a moment ago a hawk circling over the parks North of the University. The view is pretty and is going to be quite stunning in winter - a disturbing thought though winter is in this town, given that my office has no air conditioning but has two (!!!!) heaters, a feroicious looking gas heater and a static oil heater at opposite ends of the room. I can't wait!

Anyway, without further ado, some of the stranger things from my room have been collected for your consideration. Because I am crap at putting up photos in one post, they are spread over several posts. I hope they entertain.