Travel Log (and such)

JAPAN!

This is going to be a some-what truncated intro blog since a lot has happened since arrival and is about to happen soon! But here's a bit of a thoughts from places:

Before...

...and after! (Back pack not pictured containing mostly paper and laptop)

Last looks out to familiar scenery~

Grama and Mom put on brave faces seeing me off at the airport <3

Special Vegetarian flight food~

 A short caveat. On the plane I watched movies to stay awake the whole time:
Wreck it Ralph; Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters; Jane Eyre; One Day; The Goonies (I was very loopy at this point and having a tough time keeping silent on the slumbering jet); and two episodes of Doctor Who: "Asylum of the Daleks" and "Dinosaurs in Space"

Airport entry at Narita Airport

Little FYI: This is the airport we had to stay up all night in before flying back to America last time. We played cards, learned dances performed by Japanese children, and braided hair while melting in no AC.

Standing in the queue for the buses to take us the the hotel~

A well balanced breakfast for a hungry hungry hippo!

Finding our Prefectures

So Orientation was fun, exciting, exhausting and left me pretty giddy afterwards. It was amazing to see and meet so many dedicated and motivated people. I made some new friends and had a very productive time~

The view from the 43rd floor ladies' room wall of glass

Oh, Hey there Tokyo~~

(I feel rather politically incorrect or something but MUST add this now that it's stuck in my head:

Seriously, watch the video ;3

views at night!

slightly blurry, sorry

Night Life (headed to Karaoke, of course~)

Morning Life

Ritzy Hotel Life...

...with wonderful room amenities

Tokyo (from the bus going back to the airport to leave for Hokkaido)

How you know you've arrived in Hokkaido

Katie, Jenny, that was for you~

Arrival at the Hokkaido airport was a swift affair as we managed to collect our bags and shuffle towards a large conference room where they lined us up, took our name tags, read off our city's name, and then were collected by our representatives; all while the other 40+ people waiting in the room stared at you and your friends around you barely had time for parting waves. It was a bit like that "adoption day" feeling all over again. But my boss and a younger man (who I eventually fund out was one of the teachers I'll be working with) took me for tempura udon at the airport right away--and I warm up very quickly to people when they feed me ^^;

Again, I mention that I was feeling some what giddy. That led me to struggle to maintain composure when my colleague (who is smaller than me ^^; ) offered and then carried my 30lb bright red Cheerleading duffle-bag through the airport. I failed to refrain from giggling during the 2 hour car ride through the mountains, however, but I blame the abundance of tunnels for that:

It turns out my supervisor was born the same year as my own father, and likes "Western" music like Queen, Foreigner, et al. too! He doesn't speak very much English (more than none, but usually just a common word here or there) but now a week past and we communicate really well. My colleague is actually a year younger than I am, and only started his first year teaching this April, so he's nervous about school, too.

At the the Shimizu Cultural Center, where "the office" is, there are six other people working there, including my boss's boss. They've all been so kind in helping me get settled, and put up with my struggles in conversation. I'm happy to say, however, that after a little over a week in Hokkaido and true "immersion" I can definitely feel my speaking ability improving! It's much easier to recall words and grammar, and I've been practicing kanji (much to my co-worker's amusement and amazement).

All in all, I think I'm going to like it here~