Welcome Party

Well, last night my research room/zemi (seminar) group finally had a welcome party for me at an izakaya. My professor apologized for having it after I had been in Tsukuba for 2 and a half months but hey, if they want to treat me to a free meal, I'm all for it. Seriously though, it was nice to get to talk to some of the people though. As you guys probably know, I am a shy person around people I am not familiar with, which unfortunately, are most of the Japanese people here. I have weekly conversations with my tutor, but only passing and short conversations with everyone else. Even though I couldn't understand a lot of the conversations that were going on, it was still good practice and I did catch bits and pieces. And really, every talks a lot more after some drinking. I think my professor was going through the details of how he met his wife. Overall, it as pretty nice, and hopefully I will be able to talk to them more often (have some confidence John!!!).