Things I've Noticed

 Yesterday I was taken to Youme.  In Japanese it is pronounced "you-mey" and means "dream," but the name is printed in English as You me.  It is a rather large shopping mall.  Two days ago I went to Fuji Grand, which is another shopping mall.  Both of these malls are withing long walk/middling bike ride distances from campus.  In the US these places are dying everywhere, but here they are thriving.  It's a significant difference.

The other thing that is interesting is there are no "zones" in the city.  A typical American city separates out residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural areas.  Here everything is mixed together.  A house with a farming plot is right next to a metal working factory.  There is a lumber storage facility that shares a property line with the guest house.  On the other side of the house is a dental office.  Practically every square inch of land is being used for something.

The roads are very narrow.  There are many two-way roads that are only wide enough for one vehicle.  Brooke showed me a video of one such road with a bridge on it.  A large delivery truck was on the bridge and there were three cars in a line coming at it.  Both directions were stopped as they sorted out what to do.  I'm glad I won't be driving here.

Next week we are going to a mixed state of in-person and remote classes.  It's unclear to me (and everyone else, it seems) how that will work, precisely.  Something about different years attending on different days.  However it goes, I'll figure out how to deliver content.  I was told almost no one has experience with the 50/50 split all of the US professors have learned how to do.  My ways are strange and somewhat confusing, I think.  But it all works well.

I shall brave Donki this afternoon.  I'm looking for a tripod so I can mount my cellphone and use it as a webcam like I did all last year.  If it weren't raining, I'd probably try riding to Fuji Grand and see what I could find there.  I have no desire to be rained on while I ride, so I'll walk.

Tami was very right in telling me there is a lot of downtime for the exchange professor.  I stayed pretty busy the first two and a half days, but I can see I will need to make myself a schedule so I don't fall into too much Internet time.  Things are probably exacerbated by the pandemic.  No students on campus means no one to stop in for a chat.  I have projects I can do.