#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.