The Sights

These are the sights I have seen in Japan.


There are about 127.5 million people living in Japan. Japan is about the size of California. Approximately 75% of Japan is mountainous and uninhibitedly. Figure that one out.



This one is for you, Dad. The laundromat next to my temporary apartment in Sendai had a sneaker washer. Go figure.



We have a gas stove, which is fine, except is scares the shit out of me every time I turn it on.



There are spiders everywhere. Surprisingly, I have come to find them somewhat peaceful. However, I have yet to find one in my room. I'll keep updates of my spider terror threat level, currently at code blue (guarded).



This is the view from my window. I know it doesn't seem like much but I think its pretty amazing. Look, can you see those? Those are mountains. I can see mountains from my window. How amazing is that?! I can not tell you how awe struck I was when I woke up the morning after I got to Fukushima and saw mountains out of every single window in my apartment.


For more pictures visit my Flickr page.

Sign Here Please

Today was another great day. I got my first piece of mail, which was also my first package. My super awesome friend Kristin sent me a care package full of essential American goodies. Seven pounds of Vanity Fair, Newsweek, People, pistachios, gum, Easy Mac, and more. I was so excited. THANK YOU!!

It was my day off today so I scouted the city a bit more. I'm stocked up on food now so I'll be attempting to cook new and different things. I also found the ingredients to make salsa. Some things never change. If anyone has any interesting Japanese recipes, send them my way, I'll try them out. Unfortunately, I don't have an oven so baking is out of the question. I do have a "fish broiler" though but I'm too afraid to use it. With that said, its time for my midnight snack... cookies or grapes?


*BTW I have been using Skype to talk to friends and family. My skype name is TrinityinJapan so if you have skype already, put me in your contact list and give me a call. If you don't have skype, I recommend you get it. Skype (for Mac) Skype (for windows)

Pictures

I just want to let everyone know that I will be posting my pictures from Japan on flickr. If you direct your attention to the right hand column of my blog you will find a link labeled "My Pictures." That is where my pictures will be. If you would like to view pictures of my vacation in the Smokey Mountains and pictures of my going away party(s) they are up now, however, I am still uploading pictures I have taken here. Thank you for your patience.

Thats Good Crack

Today I learned that in Ireland it is common to say "that's good crack" when you like something. For example, "Have you been to karaoke?" "Yeah, its good crack." Apparently in Ireland there is a lot of good crack.

The last few days here have been FANTASTIC! Really, fantastic. The weather had been incredibly beautiful. From what I'm told, it wont last long so I have been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and its a crisp 18.9 degrees.
Perfect biking weather, which is good because I've been doing a lot of it. We'll start with Friday.


Friday, September 22

I woke up early Friday morning (as I do everyday because the sun comes up at 4 am) and tried to recoup a little from the days past. Training was long and very overwhelming. I realize I came here to work, but after being here for only a week I had moved and lived in two different cities, met three new roommates, experienced a Shinkansen (bullet train) catastrophe, and been trained for a completely new type of job that is unlike anything I've ever done before. If I were a PC, all you would see is the blue screen of death. So after three days of On the Job Training, I spent Thursday going through Kids training. Not surprisingly, there is an entirely different system for teaching English to kids. When I was finally allowed to go back to Fukushima I was exhausted. So Friday was my day to take a breather.

That morning, my roommate, Katie, let me know that I had been invited by a Japanese friend of hers to go to dinner at his house with her and another mutual friend. This sounded exciting but what really sold me was the promise that his mother was an excellent cook. I was sold. A smart man once said "A little birdie told me that the way to your heart is through your stomach." (Its true.) But first, I needed a bike. The only way for me to get to work is by bus or by bike. The bus is 600 yen round trip so I figured I should get a bike. So, Katie and Donna took me a few blocks down to a little bike shop where a little old man made me test ride a teal bike with a black basket on the front. FYI: all bikes have baskets here. Because I hadn't rode a bike in about a decade I think the bike was testing me more than I was testing it. After the handing over of about 6,900 yen the bike was mine and we were on our way. (More bike story to come.)

After a quick stop at the apartment Katie and I ventured out to meet Yoko so she could drive us to dinner. Katie's friend lives at the base of the mountains just beyond fields of peach, pear, and apple trees. The drive was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it before. The mountains were gorgeous and the rice patties were so quaint and simple. I couldn't imagine a more peaceful landscape. When we finally arrived there were slippers at the door and food on the table. After the brief niceties and short conversation the feast began. There was so much food, I ate until I thought I would burst. I think maybe there was an Iron Chef hidden in the kitchen because everything was delicious. There was shrimp tempura, potato salad with egg and shrimp, mashed okra with chicken, smoked chicken, smoked ribs, smoked cheese, a pear, apple, and peach salad with croutons (yum), sweet potato cake tarts, and HUGE purple grapes. And, not only was the food great, but the company was too. I met a few very special people who really made me feel at home. Thanks guys.


After dinner, I had my first bike riding adventure. Katie and I rode to an electronics store to buy a wireless router so we could all be connected to the internet at once. I started off a bit wobbly but gained my composure fairly quickly. After all, I have been told that riding a bike is just like riding a bike... Yeah, try telling that to the guy I almost had a head-on-collision with. Oops. Helmets and knee pads are welcome care package items.

Needless to say, I slept pretty well that night.

Saturday, September 23

Saturday was my first official day of work. I must say, it went smooth as pie (or is that easy as pie?) Everyone was really nice and extremely helpful. All the students were curious about me and did very well in their lessons.

*An average day is 8 hours with 8 forty minute lessons and a food break

Pete, another Nova instructor met me in the morning and we rode to SATY (the shopping mall where the Nova office is) together. He's Irish (good crack) and I can barely understand a word he says but it was nice to have the company for the long bike ride. Speaking of which, I had no problems on the way there but I did totally wipe out on the ride back to my apartment. Don't worry though, a wooden railing broke my fall. Again, helmet and knee pads welcome.

I've been experimenting with food a bit more. That night I had udon noodle soup which I ate with chopsticks. Pretty impressive, I know.

Sunday, September 24

I woke up Sunday and went straight to work. It was the first time I rode alone to work and I had more of a chance to take a look around. It is absolutely gorgeous here. The shops are so different and even somewhat humorous. For whatever reason, Japanese people like inserting English words into random places. So you will see signs written in Japanese that have 3 words of English inserted in the middle somewhere. I would say its helpful but its usually not because the words are mostly ambiguous. I also ride over a river that has a small park next to it. Very scenic. The best part is I get to ride through a mountain. Yeah, right through it, down this long tunnel. Its a pretty awesome bike ride. The whole thing takes me about 30 minutes, so I am definitely getting my work out. Everything I do not only keeps me on my toes but keeps me pretty tired. With that said, I bid you farewell.

The Sun Will Come Out...

The sun is out today! The clouds are white, the sky is blue, and the sun is out today. This may be the best morning yet. The floor by the kitchen balcony is warm and my feet are comfortably soaking up the heat rays without any socks on. How exciting! I'm going to wear a skirt to work today.

Lesson E15

My first day of training!

It went really well. I was a bit nervous at first and a little unsure of myself, BUT I did great! (at least by my standards). We actually had to teach half of a lesson by ourselves today. Oh, and when I say we, I mean everyone in my orientation group, which is ONE other person. Anyway, we both had our own lessons and our own group. There were four people in my group and they were all really great. It was such a neat feeling actually showing them how to pronounce words (we focused on intonation today) and letting them think up examples and questions on their own. I mean, my job is actually really easy. I just read off this paper, throw in some "drills," as NOVA likes to call them, and then sit back and let them talk. It was very exciting and I was so happy with myself after I actually did it. I'm sure I have a lot to learn still but it will be easy enough. Tomorrow I have to teach three whole lessons by myself. Scary.

Anyway, I'm actually tired today, not just too bored to stay awake, so I am going to bed now. Today was rather exciting. I'm continuing to meet really cool people and I learn more and more about Japan and Japanese customs everyday. For instance, taking off ones shoes before going into rooms with thick carpeting, like the one we had our training in today, can get extremely annoying very quickly. Its a good thing my straps were velcro.

FYI

There is Internet in Sendai!

How exciting.

Yesterday was yet another adventure. I spent 2 hours at the train station waiting for a train that never came. Apparently the Shinkansen (bullet train) comes and goes like clockwork. Its always on time no matter what... except for one exception... when some one throws themselves onto the track and commits suicide. Now, I didn't see this happen and I don't know for sure that it did happen, but from what I understand that's the only reason that train would be late. And, to top that off, the train company, or whoever, charges that person's family an exuberant amount of money for the loss of business that day. So, what that meant for me was an agonizing wait at the train station trying to figure out, through a few helpful people's broken English, what was going on. I finally managed to find out that there was an "accidento" and that another train would come and take me to Sendai at 2:52. That was great, except I was supposed to have left at 1:11 to be at orientation at 2:00. Well I did finally get there, about 20 minutes before orientation was over, flustered as could be. Oh, and the best part was, one of the wheels on my suitcase is busted so it kept flipping over throughout the whole trip. Its ok if you're laughing right now, I imagine most of the people around me were too.

On a brighter note, my roommate here is super nice. I'm using her internet and her phone as well. I don't really like the city though. Its too big and its not as clean as Fukushima. I only have to stay through Thursday though. I think I'll take today, Sunday, my day off, to explore a little and find some food. As long as I don't have to get on a train I think I'll be fine.

#401 Moriya Bldg

I'm here!

I never thought that one person could feel as many emotions all at once as I have since arriving. Its a constant cycle of ups and downs, not only of my emotions but of my physical being as well. On this plane (up) off this plane (down) on this plane for 13 hours (up) off this plane (down) on the skyliner train (up) on the bullet train (down down up down) my apartment (4 floors up). I'm still getting adjusted, of course. I'm not sure if I'm still suffering jet lag or what but my body definitely doesn't like whats going on. It could be that I'm sleeping on a futon on the floor with a rice bag for a pillow, or it could be the food that I'm NOT eating because I'm afraid to (trust me, no matter how many Japanese restaurants you've gone to, you haven't seen anything like this). I did manage to find some noodles and spaghetti sauce today, so I will be trying that out for dinner. I also found a real pillow and a new pillow case. Oh, and if you know me and the amount of clothes that I own you will definitely get a kick out of this. I don't have a closet. Instead, I have one clothes rack on wheels and a three foot high plastic drawer set maybe about a foot wide, also on wheels, for the rest of my clothes. I will most definitely post pictures as soon as I take them.

These last few days have been so busy. We just had the Internet hooked up today, thats why I am so late in updating my blog. And, unfortunately, I will be moving to Sendai tomorrow for orientation and training, which means I will be gone for 5 days and unless the apartment I am moving into has the Internet (which I doubt) I will not be able to update or email. :( But no worries, I will be in touch after that. Please keep posting and emailing, you really have no idea how much it means to me. It gets lonely when I'm not on the go and I want to keep in touch with everyone even if its only a line here and there. Sona is going to be my gossip columnist but I still need others to cover, weather, movies, American news (local and domestic), maybe Ali can keep me posted about whats going on in Hollywood, and James has already updated me on the lack of hurricanes in the Atlantic and the presence of a typhoon about to hit South Japan.

As far as my schedule here, I've really only been here 2 days. I got here 11:00 Wednesday night, which was actually 10:00 Wednesday morning Eastern Standard Time, and pretty much went straight to bed. The 13 hour plane ride was horrible. I can't sleep sitting up so I pretty much didn't sleep. After I landed, immigration and customs were a breeze. There was a group of about 25 Nova teachers on the same flight so we waited about an hour for another flight of 30 Nova teachers to arrive and then we split up and slowly thinned out onto trains and buses until I was on the bullet train, by myself, headed for Fukushima, my new home. I guess that took about 3 to 4 hours. I was met at the train station (or ekimae) by one of my new roommates, Katy (American), and two other Nova instructors, Pete (Irish) and Damion (Australian). They were all very friendly and helpful and some how managed to keep me from realizing how scared I was to be in a completely different place. All told I did about 40 hours of traveling (including time difference).

Yesterday, I had corn flakes and soy milk, and then waited for my luggage to arrive, which was late, which really stressed me out. Then Pete, who had the day off, took me to the city office to register for an alien card. lol I'm an alien. Then we walked around the city, bought minutes for my phone card, stopped at one of the Nova offices and met some new people, ate lunch at an authentic Japanese French cafe, and finally called it a day. I soon realize how important having a bike is going to be. We walked around for about 4 hours and I was beat. Then, I helped Katy move all her stuff in (up 4 flights of stairs, yeah and I thought I was tired before). She has been here working for Nova for about 3 years, so she had a lot of stuff. It was more than worth it though because she has become an invaluable source of information.

My other roommate, Donna, showed me around today. She has been here for about 3 months and seems to get along fine. She even knows a good amount of Japanese. I can't wait to be able to understand what people are saying to me. Its very exciting to think that I will be able to speak, at least a little, Japanese when I come home. Donna basically showed me where to shop today, which was very helpful. I got a pillow, hold the rice, and a pillow case, another drawer for my room, soup, spaghetti, and lemon tea, yum. I actually had a lot of fun today. Even though I was doing very simple things, it is all new and, yes, exciting. I bought a coke today to find out if it was flatter than in the US but it is not. I broke a 10,000 yen bill today and counted to make sure he gave me the right change. I priced umbrellas and socks and 2 different stores. OH! and Mike! Someone please make Mike read this part of my blog. Donna and I went into this international store and they totally had smoked Gouda!! I was so excited. And they have Camembert at the 7-11's. BTW 7-11's are everywhere but they aren't gas stations, they are convenient stores like a Walgreen's or something but they have more food. You can get minutes on your phone card and even pay your bills at 7-11. Its pretty interesting. They also have 100 yen store, which are like dollar stores in the US. Good for buying little necessities.

Well, I am off to make dinner now. Hopefully I will be able to post soon and when I do I'll also get some pictures up. If you don't hear from me soon, don't worry, I will be back in 5 days.

Boeing 747-400

OK, so I thought I would post just one last time before I left. I'm feeling a little bit nervous, a lot excited, and some amount of sad which I haven't yet calculated. I finally finished packing and now I just have to try to get a few hours of sleep. Thank you everyone for your support. I'm sorry to anyone I was cranky with. Remind me later and I'll reapoligize. I'll post again as soon as I get there or as soon as I gain internet access. I have a huge smile on my face. I can't wait to see my new home. I hope everyone is as excited to hear about it as I am to write about it. Please send me comments and emails so I know you're there (and so I don't get lonely).

I'm off!