ようこそ！Welcome to Japan!

Chuck this post is for you!!

A lot has happened the last week, but I want to share some of the highlights with you.

I am not officially IN Japan, IN my house for the next year (possibly more?), and IN a lot of information and Japanese! My house is old, but has a lot of room, actually.  Much more than I need, at least. Only downside is that my kitchen is very small (さすが日本ね！)

It gets so hot here during the day! I have been truly very surprised! But it cools down quickly. I have my windows open and a fan blowing. And that helps a lot! BUT, it also lets in a large population of small bugs. Alas! But I am getting pretty good at ignoring them. They don't want to hurt me so I simply ignore them. :)

I have a shed next to my house that has my MAMACHARI (bicycle) and also my new boyfriend- Jimmy the HUGE spider. Hokkaido def has large spiders, but I have been told that they are physically incapable of biting you. Also, that they will NOT drop down on top of your head. But still... EEK! Jimmy protects my bike for me, though. And for that I am glad!

I haven't spent much time exploring the town on my own yet. I'm still adjusting/settling into my new home and Japanese almost all the time. I have been watching CHUCK whenever I feel particularly out of sorts.

Today I did lots of errands, with the help of my amazing supervisor, Matsuda-san. She is SO helpful and kind and really fun to chat with. She is very patient with me an my (often incorrect) Japanese. Today we went to the town hall to apply for my Fooreigner Card. That basically says I am a foreigner living in Japan so I can do things like open a bank account and get a phone plan and stuff like that :) Also part of the deal- my very on Inkou! A wooden stamp with my name engraved on it! I get to stamp official documents. It is quite exciting.

I met the Board of Education (afterwards called BOE) which hired me, and got a cool paper saying I was working for them and stuff. I also got to go to my schools (Jr High and Elementary) and meet a few of the teachers (it's summer break so many are gone!). Opened a bank account, went to lunch.

And lunch was AMAZING! I will definitely go back to this place. A Yakiniku (meat!) / soba (noodle!) shop. You order and they bring you your raw meet. There is a grate in the center of the table that you cook your meat on, and then put it on top of the rice/soba that comes with the meal. It was SO GOOD. and really quite a good price (under 1,000 yen; apx $10) We asked if we could get a smaller rice portion and the owner have us a bowl of ice cream at the end to make up for it. SUPER nice, right? It was wonderful. I had Genghis Khan, which apparently is lamb! Huh! So good.

Then I got a JAPANESE CELL PHONE. Yeah. I am super legit. I have been practicing texting in Japanese all afternoon, wahahaha.

One cool thing about Japanese phone services- you get an e-mail with your phone, and people can send a message to your e-mail (from a computer or a phone) and it goes straight to your phone. And you can message them back from your phone, too! Super nifty!

Well, I should go make dinner, so that's all for tonight! At some point I will have to post the pictures/video I've been taking, and tell you about my adventures in Tokyo. Tomorrow I am heading to the nearest big town, Iwamizawa. I'm going to look for my church building and try to do some shopping. Maybe get some rugs or something to make my new house feel more like home. Also, I want an acoustic guitar!

Also on my to-do list: plant a flower garden outside my house.

Ttfn!

JeJira