Mt. Fujisan

Wow...I just got back from Mt. Fuji. I went with some great friends: Yuka, Masashi, and Emily. We hiked the Yoshida Trail in a total of 10 hours. Six hours up and four hours down. We met some new friends along the way. One had hiked Fuji 6 times already. After we had returned he told Masashi that the Yoshida Trail was one of the most difficult and many people do not climb to the top. They give up. He told us he was very proud of us for continuing.

There were many amazing things about this trip. First, we started climbing at the 5th station..which was already above the clouds.I took many pictures of clouds but only put one here. Ok, one more, why not?

The lava rock was awesome. I found several stones where you could see where the lava had poured out in layers. Others that had multiple layers of different colors.

There was a large stretch where we had to use our hands to climb up the mountain and make sure we had good foot placings. I started to get weak between stations 8 and 9. There are ten stations. We made it to the top and the coolest part was looking down into the crater. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up and it didn't save most of them. Including the crater pics. Rrrrrr. the pic below is one of the sides of the crater but I really wanted the one looking straight down the hole.

The climb up was draining. Down was exhausting. And by the end I couldn't even think straight. It wasn't until at the onsen later that I saw how bad my sunburn was. And it wasn't until the next day that the blisters started to appear. They are all over my face, arms, chest, and back of my neck. Not fun. Praying that skin cancer doesn't get me in the end. I will henceforth carry sunblock with me everywhere I go.

Holy Hannah!

Wow! So much has happened since I blogged last. Let's see. A couple of weeks ago a cockroach made it up to the 7th floor into my apartment...after Troy told me they can't go that high. Right. Evidence below.

There was also a cicada in my apartment last night. It was huge! Unfortunately, I did not think to take a picture.

A good friend, Scott, was only here for a couple of months and just left last week. I miss him already :-( He was a lot of fun.

Let's see, on Sunday, July 17th our district left for Fukuoka to do temple work. We left at 10:50 pm and arrived at around 5:30 am. I did endowments at 6:40 and then initiatories at 10:40. We started for home at around 2:00 pm and arrived at around 9:00 pm. I was able to talk with Alejandro in Spanish for about an hour and a half on the way there and most of the way home. Although, I feel like my vocabulary and grammar is getting bad, I was able to understand him about 95% of the time and communicate what I wanted to about the same.

 Believe it or not, there's a typhoon on it's way when these pictures were taken.

Tuesday, schools were canceled due to the typhoon. Schools had never been canceled before due to a typhoon so I was surprised. It didn't seem too bad so Scott, Tamara, Kristin, and I went to karaoke at Round One in Takamatsu. Unlimited free drinks were included. I was able to sing some songs that I've been wanting to sing karaoke. I think my favorite one/best one I sang was "Only Hope" from A Walk to Remember. Dedicated to a friend of mine who will remain anonymous. It is something I should have sang for him a long time ago.

Wednesday of the same week I had a meeting with my boss, her husband, her son, and Troy-whom was my translator. It lasted almost 2 hours and was basically a list of why Fumi didn't like me. We had not been getting a long from the beginning. I admit some of it was my fault, but a lot was hers also. Long story short, they wanted me to quit but stay as long as they wanted me to. They gave me the option of quitting immediately or in 3 months but refused to fire me even though they wanted me gone. A few days later they told me I had to move out of my apartment and could live with Fumi. Ummm....no. Troy gave me my options, as my translator, and was so stressed over it all that he literally cried on my shoulder. Fumi wanted me to sign a ridiculous contract saying I would not leave MIA earlier than 3 months (so she could find my replacement) and I refused to sign it. On Sunday I asked friends about jobs in the area and they gave me information about Gem School. I spoke with the owner and decided to go work for her when things fell apart. Which, turned out to be very quickly. I told Fumi she would have to fire me if she wanted me out of the apartment since it wasn't fair to kick me out with only one week's notice. She did fire me but within 12 hours took it back. How do you take back firing someone??! Anyway, I had already made plans to got to Gem, although I had not signed a contract yet, so I had to leave by the end of the week anyway. I told Fumi I quit but I would stay until the end of the week. Then she decided to try to make me feel guilty and manipulate me. I told her I didn't come to argue with her, but to quit and told her goodbye and walked out. The next morning I signed the contract with Gem School and was working for them. Yes, Jesus loves me! Not only that, but Miyuki, my new boss, told me she would prorate a bonus for me since my visa will expire in 8 months. So I will be getting 76% of a one year contract bonus as well as 76% of my return flight paid for! She seems to be very reasonable and thoughtful! 

On Friday, I cleaned the apartment in Marugame and organized information to help Ryan (my replacement) in his new position. I spent Saturday night at Kristin's house. Bless her! We went out for pizza (which was actually really good) and then hiked Sanuki Fuji (the miniature version of Mt. Fuji because it looks like it). It started to rain half way down and we were soaked! But it was great fun! Upon returning home Scott called!! Yay! His flight left yesterday afternoon for Portland. I miss Scott-but truthfully, I'll probably never see him face to face again. Sunday afternoon President Jackson and his family were SO amazing as to drive me to Takamatsu to move into my new apartment. Leigh has been a great help in helping me get acquainted with things here. 

Like I said, a lot has happened. One day I'm possibly going home, the next I'm fired, the next I'm un-fired, and the next I have a new job and am staying until April!

This is Eruni! She is the English teacher at Utazu Kita Elementary that I was a native English speaker aid for.

This is just me walking the railroad tracks...which are very active here.

Tender Mercies

The Lord has blessed me significantly since I have come to Japan and I have been meaning to write about the many ways for quite a while. I have already mentioned "The Prestige" being found in my apartment. I have learned a great deal about how the Spirit works in our lives. He speaks so quietly you can't really hear him. It's more like a faint impression. More frequently than not, I feel like I'm wandering in some direction and don't know why until it's obvious. Example: I made a list of things I wanted to buy at a 100 Yen Shop but didn't know where a good one was. I was in Marunaka Super Center one night and for reasons beyond my understanding decided to wander to the far side of the store where I had not investigated yet. I found a 100 Yen Shop on the other side of the store. Within 30 minutes I had wandered down random aisles and found all the things on my list.

About a week or so later, Yuka and I were headed to Troy's home in Takamatsu for a little gathering. Yuka was driving and we got lost. As we sat at a light where the road came to a "T" I kind of felt like the road to the left was highlighted or lighter to me. I told Yuka we should turn left. We did and as we drove I remained open to promptings from this source that lights up an area. I felt we should turn left again after a grouping of large trees. As we drove there were only small streets and I did not feel impressed that the left we needed to take was any of them. We got to a large intersection and turned left. I looked around, waiting for another impression but did not get one. I asked Yuka if she knew where we were. She looked around and said "Yes! I do. We are going right there!" and she pointed to a sign just half a block away. We turned in and picked up Masashi (I did not know we were picking him up) and continued just a few blocks away to Troy's home.

Another great tender mercy happened just a few days ago. I was recently called to be the Sunday School Teacher for our English Gospel Doctrine class. I was trying to prepare the lesson whilst getting everything done and didn't feel like it was coming together just right. As I approached my apartment complex Saturday night, I felt like I should take the elevator. I really didn't want to though since I had eaten fried food that day and had not had time to exercise for a few days. I really wanted to climb the seven floors to my apartment. Not being sarcastic. But I decided it was best to follow the prompting and as I approached the main entrance to the complex I thought "Oh, I might as well check my mail while I'm at it." I did and found that the last 3 months of Ensign's were in my mailbox!! I have been emailing Church Headquarters to find out why they were not forwarded and here they were! One of the 3 months was the Conference Issue of the Ensign. I looked through the topical guide and found 6 talks directly relating to Loving One Another (the topic for Sunday School the following morning). I decided to read all 6 that night in hopes of finding some great comments by the brethren. As I sat down to read, a page jumped into my mind. Page 47. I opened to find perfect quotes and thoughts by Elder Ballard that are directly related to the chapters in the New Testament that we were covering.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I didn't get to go over everything I wanted to in class, but that's ok because President Jackson came in to talk about Helping Hands and how the Church was paying for transportation, hotel, and meals for those wanting to go to the Sendai area to help with the relief effort. That fit in perfectly with the lesson and I am now excited to maybe have the chance to do something to serve the people here in Japan.

Last night Wakako and her husband came over and showed me how to make Udon. Just before they left I had a very strong impression that they needed to come to church with me and be sealed. They are such a great couple. They love and serve each other all the time and have a great relationship. The thought persisted and I was almost ready to just word-vomit a persistent sounding plea to come to church. Just before they left, I found the words and told Wakako she and her husband should come to church with me sometime. She said she would. These great people have to know about eternal marriage.

July 1st was Troy's birthday! Yay!! Happy birthday! It was a surprise. We made calzones and ate this amazing cake Yuka bought.

Cultural Differences

Sorry it's been so long. A few interesting things have happened over the last month or so. First, I can't believe it's been a month. So crazy. I went to a big 'mall-like' place called YouMe where I found some peanut butter!! Unfortunately it was only about 8 oz for $4.98. See Image 1. Maybe one day I will get it and down it in a single sitting. Haha.


What else...? I went to a Wakako's home a few weeks ago. She taught me some Japanese and told me her husband wanted me to wait until he gets home because he wanted to meet me. It was a Sunday and he was coaching a boys baseball game that day. So, he came home and we chatted a while. What a witty fella. They invited me to stay for dinner and we had one of favorite, if not my favorite, Japanese foods to date: Oyako Donburi. The literal meaning is 'parent-child bowl.' Bowl meaning bowl of rice even though donburi is the word for an actual bowl. Wakako showed me how to make it and I promised I would show her how to make American-style pizza. The ovens are very small here so I ended up showing them how to make calzones and Better than Anything Cake. I met her daughter that night. Nice girl. Her son is finishing grad school in Australia right now. Sweeet. Wakako also came over to my apartment last Monday. I taught her to make homemade ice cream in ziplock bags. She brought Japanese children's books written in Hiragana and had me read one. I could read it alright...but had no idea what the words meant. It was about a white and black rabbit that liked to play together. The boy rabbit looked sad occasionally and the girl asked him why. He finally said he wanted to spend all his time with her and was sad that they would have to eventually stop playing. They decided to get married. You know how bunnies are. :-D It was a cute book.

Troy (my co-worker) and I have been working on a plan to restructure my bosses entire school program by program. That has been going well so we hope to present it to our boss this week sometime.

There have been some interesting experiences with culture here. Not all have been positive. I will give only a brief synopsis of those things. Japanese people are obsessed with calories. They are deathly afraid of gaining weight and getting fat. Fat being a skin crease when you touch your toes. Multiple people made comments about my weight and/or eating habits (just based on their knowledge that I'm an American) within a 24 hour period a couple weeks ago. The ignorance bothered me badly. Another is the driving. I will not try to describe the attitude with driving herein. If you want to know let me know and I will chat with you about it later. There is a pervasive attitude of lying here. They expect to be lied to and lie whenever they feel like it. That really bothers me because the world would be lost without a sense of truth and honesty! My boss has lied to me on multiple occasions. Not just yes/no lies but entire developed stories that had absolutely no truth to them. President Jackson (Bishop) says that this is because it is more important for Japanese people to 'save face' than to get a bad image for irresponsibility or mistakes. The final thing is that members of The Church here cling to socially/culturally acceptable things here over what the brethren have said. Such as talking badly about your spouse and marital situation. I tried to explain how this should be handled (work with your spouse, church leader, and possibly a counselor) to one of my students who is struggling with her husband and is a member of The Church. She didn't understand and thought it was better to talk to her friends...even if she wasn't willing to accept advice and seek change. I had to tell her I never wanted to hear about her husband again.

On a positive note, yesterday was my mommy's birthday! Yay! And there are some super adorable children here. I wish I could pack a couple in my suitcase and take them home with me but customs would be a terrible hassle. I've decided that if I'm not married by the time I'm 32 I will adopt at least one Asian child. Maybe a boy and girl whom are siblings. That would be good. Anyhew...still trying to decide if I'm moving to Texas or Utah when I get home. I'm more drawn to Texas but need to visit and see what the Lord whispers before deciding on that one. A great excuse to visit my Sarah, Chris, and Thom!! I love you guys!!

Until next time...

Famous Amerikan

On Monday, I called my visiting teacher to see if she knew someone that could go with me to the doctor. I had this terrible something going on in my throat and could barely talk for a week. I wasn't sure if I would get over it without some form of antibiotics. Also, my toe, which has been infected since December had gotten really bad. The only reason I let it go for so long was because I thought I had stubbed it and forgotten about it and that the bone was maybe bruised. Anyway. I went to a clinic, which prescribed some medicines (3 of the 4 we would just use Robitussin for but there are no over-the-counter medicines here) for my throat. They then sent me to the hospital saying they wanted a surgeon to cut my toe open to let the puss out. But they just looked at it and told me to put some cream on it twice a day and come back on Saturday. Way better than having someone cut into you. So I have to take 5 pills three times per day and put cream on my toe twice per day. I have added a lot of Vitamin C and a heavy duty multi-vitamin to that mess....at my own accord. Awesomely, I found an almost completely full super-sized bottle of Kirkland daily multi-vitamin and minerals in the apartment. Yes, God loves me. As further evidence of this fact, there was also a brand new copy of "The Prestige" in the apartment when I got here. Seth, Kurt, and I were talking about watching it before I left but didn't get to. So, two nights ago I watched it. Courtesy of God and whatever angel bought it from who knows which Walmart.

Yesterday I went to a neighboring prefecture (Ehime) for a multi-district Day Camp. It was a festival-style fundraiser to help EFY kids get to EFY. There was a beautiful porcelain Japanese doll in a kimono for only 500 yen ($5.00) but it was in a glass case and pretty big. I wasn't sure how I would get it home. I should have bought it anyway. On the way there a boy who was going to college in Takamatsu was in my car and very curious about me. He asked me questions the whole way there. It took about 2.5 hours. It looked quite overcast yesterday but he explained that what I was seeing was what is called the "Yellow Sand." It is sand that has been blown from the Kobe desert in China to Japan and it is at times so thick that it blocks out the sun. I met two Bolivians from my district while there. They are brothers. The elder brother, Luis, has been in Japan for 9 years and the younger brother, Alejandro, has been there for 7. They are both married. Luis has 2 girls (9 and 5) and Alejandro has one. They are all in Bolivia still. Louis says they are both accustomed to being away from their families. They both speak enough Japanese and English to translate for me and if they don't know what to say in English they just tell me in Spanish and I understand. Haha...it's an odd system but works. Now I know what it must have been like for my friend, Clark, on his mission when he needed to teach in Basque. By the end of the day I had eaten some great Japanese food, made great English and Spanish conversation, and attempted to make a ceramic bowl. The pottery specialist had to fix mine. Wish I had taken pics of that for y'all.

Today I went to Marugame Castle to see the Golden Week festival. There were a ton of street vendors selling food. I climbed the mountain up to the castle where I took some pics of Japanese people dressing up in historic attire. They looked so honored to have an Amerikan taking a  picture of them. Some even took pictures of me...and I wasn't even dressed up. I suppose I was the highlight of some of their days. They are all so eager to see and say hello to the Amerikan. I would have taken more pictures but my batteries ran out. While at the castle I heard a lot of banging that sounded like a band warming up...with no structure or musical desirability. When I got back down to the street I found out why. Every 40 feet or so there was a group playing drums and chimes to people doing dragon dances. Each group was playing a different song so put together it sounded terrible. But each group had a definite beat and song.

New Friends=New Experiences

This has been a kind of slow week for me. I didn't have to go to the elementary schools which feels like a huge relief and break to me at the moment. On Friday, Amy, Fox, Cash, Coset, and I went to a mall in Takamatsu to support a mutual friend and English student, Miwa. She is a great lady and has volunteered to be my Japanese mom while I'm here. Miwa is in a gospel choir that was involved in the music festival celebrating the national holiday on Friday. That national holiday celebrates the birthday of one of their past emperors. There were different music groups performing throughout the mall. The one performing just before Miwa's gospel choir was comprised of 4 people: a female vocalist, an electric pianist, a base guitarist, and a drummer. We got their toward the end of their show. They sang/played a couple of songs by The Carpenters. The Carpenters are really big in Japan.

After the performance, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Well, a Japanese Italian restaurant. The portions were relatively small and it cost a lot. The lasagna was made of green lasagna noodles. It was really good though. On the drive home Fox pointed out some things to be aware of such as an onsen (public bath) near their home which is co-ed, tinted store windows (even if the title of the store seems innocent), and certain kinds of hotels where Japanese men take their mistresses and pay by the hour. I forgot to mention that on the way to the mall we saw a Dominoes Pizza delivery guy on a scooter. Fox thought they had closed and wanted to know where they had moved so he followed the guy until he entered a one-way street going the wrong way. Scooters, bicycles, and motorcycles have different rules here. So we lost him to be found another day.




Some insightful highlights from the kids this week: a boy and girl from the After School group told me my body looked funny because my boobs were too big. I guess that's something they don't see too often here. And while Troy was teaching the Saturday kindergarten class he told them he was fat and pushed out his stomach to which a little boy responded "not as fat as Heather Sensei." Gee---thanks, kids. Little do they know that I've lost 5 pounds since I've been here and actually look pretty good after my Christmas break food experiences.

Speaking of which, I really want to exercise but for the past week have had this terrible infection going on in my throat. There is bacteria here that my body is not immune to and it sucks. All my American friends say this is normal and to expect it at least once a month for the first year I'm here.....the whole time I'm here in other words. Fun! There are disgusting brown pockets of bacteria coming out of my throat when I cough (which is frequently) and my voice is often non-existent and I have this to look forward to for a year. :-D I'm seriously considering swallowing just a bit of hydrogen peroxide to get some bacteria killing going on down my throat. I did try this once when I lived at Glenwood and it only made me a little queasy. (Side note: the poison control guy was really nice and sounded cute.)

This week is Golden Week. Almost an entire week with no work! Yay! My next class is Friday with the Utazu Elementary 1st Graders. This week I plan to relax and hopefully get better. Tomorrow is a Day-Camp where people can bring foods to sell to help kids that want to go to EFY get there. It's in the mountains somewhere a couple of hours away. I plan to go to that and will fill you in on the adventures later. Yesterday, Wakako (the secretary at Utazu El) invited me to her home where she taught me some phrases in Japanese. Her husband wanted to meet me so we waited until he got home from coaching his baseball team's game. He is a silly funny guy. They invited me to stay for dinner and Wakako showed me how to make Oyako Donburi (parent-child bowl) which is chicken and eggs over a bowl of rice. Mmmmmm. We talked a little about the gospel and the LDS Church. They are very nice people. They have a son graduating from graduate school in Australia this summer and a daughter that lives at home and works for the department for public roads. She let me borrow "The Family Man" in Japanese and I promised to show her how to make American pizza and Better Than Sex Cake next time we got together.

I'm sure I'll think of more to add to this later. If I don't record it asap I forget bits and pieces. TTFN!

Great Food!

After teaching some adult ladies at Marugame City Hall Thursday afternoon, they invited me to lunch. Went to a new  restaurant below is sweet potato tempura and some kind of seafood tempura. Mmmmm.

Must...learn....to make....

I went shopping at an awesome super center today. Clothes, shoes, electronics, baby stuff, food, pharmacy...it was great. Interesting highlight for today: The stores here use what we would call "gift cards" to pay. You give them 10,000 yen and they give you a card worth 10,000 yen. Each time you use it it auto-deducts the amount due from it and stamps it with the remaining amount available. You must pay for shoes in the shoe dept, hydrogen peroxide (below) in the pharmacy, food in the food department, etc. Good thing I ran into one of my students...otherwise I would be a little confused and embarrassed at the checkouts. Above is a small assortment of the fish department.

Fish, anyone? Pick a fish...any fish!

Live eel in the top right.

My new indoor shoes (yellow-about 400 yen) and some really cute new slip-ons which were only 1,000 yen ($10)-they are brown/white plaid with white daisies...yes, Lorinda, I will pass them down to you when I'm done.

Super good candy bar for only 88 yen (88c)

In loving memory of my dearest Sarah. Of whom I thought when I saw this beautiful Japanese mango in the store. After which I bought it and ate it on her behalf.

Post mango dental floss.

The hydrogen peroxide I mentioned above. The largest bottle is the size of a small one in the U.S. and it cost 460 yen ($4.60). Oh, and next to that is the stuff AAA gave me when I got my international drivers permit which explains road signs in Japan...which I did not read. Ha...oops.

Lost

So, what is being lost? How about not being able to read Kanji and ending up on another island? I accidentally took a wrong exit/branch and it took me to a one way toll bridge entrance. I got the attention of a worker and he kindly gestured for me to stay to the left. At least that's what I thought he was saying. It turns out he meant for me to pull over to the left. I didn't understand and ended up on a very big bridge. Although the speed limit was 50 km/hr (about 35 mph) everyone was going about 120 km/hr. I ended up on the other side about twenty minutes later and tried to explain to the workers on the other side that I was lost and accidentally got on the Seto-Ohashi Bridge (picture above).They gestured how to get back to Shikoku and took down my plate info to call the other side to prepare them for my arrival. They were all so nice and understanding. How bad do I feel that I don't speak Japanese at this point? Pretty bad. The whole drive over the bridge the first time I was just telling myself "what an adventure! Oh well that I'm in a fix...look at the beautiful ocean, islands, clouds, and sunset whilst on this crazy journey."

My work schedule is crazy. Most days I start at 8:30am and don't end until close to 9:00pm with little breaks-depending on the day. I have Sundays and Mondays off. The kids in the elementary schools are a kick. Funny how you can tell who the class clowns are without even knowing what they are saying. One little boy in particular at Utazu Kita Elementary is quite a character. We have been learning how to introduce ourselves at UKE. The teacher introduced a new song to teach the word 'tomorrow' to the students. It's the famous song from Annie. It was the first time I've heard the words clearly enough to understand them. What a sad song. I got teary eyed thinking about home every time I heard it. We listened to it 3 times each class period for a total of 24 times over the last few days. Yet, it opened my eyes to a new idea. Annie was a sad little girl who always had hope and optimism that tomorrow would be happier. The sad part was that tomorrow was always a day away. Tomorrow's happiness was always postponed. It never arrived.

Last night I was out late with a new friend from the Marugame Branch, Kristin, who was kind enough to spend 3 hours shopping and showing me how to prepare a Japanese dish. I met a friend of her and Kevin, Adam. Several of my students are very hesitant to talk. As I've talked with more of them I've learned it is because they do not have a good vocabulary. I definitely need to take my dictionary with me to explain what things are better. 3G or 4G would be great in these parts for my job!

The Branch here is very friendly, just like all the other Japanese people I've met to date. Half of the Branch Presidency is American. The R.S. teacher did not show up to teach so the RSP had me and another sister bear our testimonies...for only 10 minutes!! After my testimony they had a Q&A session. One of the questions reminded me of my stereotypical impression of the Japanese culture. The sister (shemai) asked "What is you life motto?" I was sort of taken off guard but replied that my motto was to love and serve others as Christ would love and serve them if He were here. One shemai said something in Japanese to which several shemai nodded their heads. The translator said 'they say you are cute.' Many Japanese men and women have asked if I am single. When I say yes they seem somewhat surprised. One of my 6th grade students called me a 'beautiful woman.' Then said, pointing to me then himself, "beautiful woman, handsome man, love love love love." All of this was in Japanese of course. Troy was translating for me. I wonder what they are saying because they know I don't understand.

My boss continues to be difficult to understand and many times just assumes I know exactly what I'm doing and need minimal instruction. That's a little frustrating but I know that for most things I can turn to Troy.

Flight Hangover

At 8:00am on Wednesday, April 13th my two brothers drove me to the Hart Building on BYU-Idaho's campus to catch the Salt Lake Express to the Salt Lake Airport. The drive didn't seem all that long. We made a stop to get gas just an hour outside of SLC where another SLE driver was also fueling up. He just happened to be my nephew's paternal grandfather. We arrived at the SLA at around 12:40pm, I checked my bags and proceeded to the security inspection where I removed my shoes from my feet and my laptop and all liquids (which I placed into a plastic ziploc). This was one of 3 times I would do this. I also had to do the aforementioned in the SFO (San Francisco Airport). The Tokyo Airport did not require me to do any of the above. As a matter of fact, when I took my laptop out and placed it in a plastic inspection crate, they looked at me a little strangely.

My flight to SF was just under 2 hours. I had a layover there for about 2.5 hours. As I waited I wasn't sure when the flight meal would be provided so I caught a bite to eat. Everything at the airport was expensive. I bought a 10" (at least they said it was 10 inches) pizza with almost nothing to it for $9.40 then a yogurt parfait for another $6. I went to the terminal where my flight would leave to eat the parfait. I smartly spilled part of the yogurt contents on my pea-coat and a very nice Japanese man saw me and went to the bathroom to get me paper towels. I boarded my flight to Tokyo at 6:55pm. It was an 11 hour flight during which I couldn't really sleep. I did, however, watch Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows (for the first time) as well as Tron: Legacy. For some reason the seats on Japan Airlines are labeled "A" "C" "H" "J" "K". They skip B, D, E, F, and G. Not sure why. I sat in "H" and there was no one in "J" or "K". This flight was the most comfortable because it was a much bigger plane, hence, less noticeable turbulence. The flight attendants were all very kind and helpful.

I arrived in Tokyo at around 9:30pm. It was already dark but the weather was great! It was about 60 degrees F with slight humdidty. I took the free transport bus from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal just to find out I wasn't allowed to stay there and had to go back to the IT to "rest." I "rested" there until about 5:30am when they would let me go back to check in. I wasn't able to change my U.S. dollars to Yen because the currency exchange center was closed until 9:00am and my flight was boarding at 9:30.

I arrived in Takamatsu at around 11:30am. Fumi and her husband Shigeyoshi were waiting for me. Fumi was so sweet as to think of me and bought me a bag of groceries to get me started. They took me to "Joyful" for lunch and pointed out my apartment building just down the street. We then went to MIA and City Hall to do my immigration...stuff. I was able to register as an illegal alien :-), register for health insurance, and do tax information paperwork. I also received a statement so that I could open a bank account as a foreigner. After City Hall we went by another CH building where I will be teaching adults on Thursday afternoons. We then went to the bank where I changed my Dollars to Yen. All except one $100 bill passed. There was a stamp on it that the machine didn't accept. They sent it to their corporate office to verify authenticity and will put it in my new account as soon as it is done. We then proceeded to my apartment when I was able to "relax." My word for unpack and keep my mind preoccupied so I didn't melt-down. Fumi drove to MIA once and expected me to remember how to drive there on my own. I was also expected to know what and how to teach every age group and start the following day. Add to that the expectation that I would be driving the following day as well...on the wrong side of the road....the wrong side of the car...in crazy traffic with no signs in English. I was sufficiently overwhelmed.

I found out when I got there that I was the only female teacher so I would live alone. Sad. I was looking forward to having someone to chat with and go on little adventures together. I tried to get on the internet but there were no trustworthy wireless connections in the area and I didn't see a router. I cried and wanted my mommy. Then, the great miracle happened...I found the router but it was only 6 pm my time which meant it was 3 am in Idaho. I unpacked about half my stuff then felt tired around 8:00. I noticed that the sun goes to sleep as early as 7:00 pm. I also happened to notice that the sun comes up around or before 5:00 am. I slept until about 7:00 then exercised and showered. I was able to talk to Dad, LeAnn, and Mary for a few minutes before Fumi called to say Shigeyoshi couldn't pick me up and I needed to walk to MIA. Which is a few miles away. However, as I started, I got lost and Fumi had to come pick me up.

I had 4.5 classes today. Half because one of the class members from earlier in the day decided she liked me and she wanted her teenage daughters to learn English under me. I found it easier to do this because they were starting out so I began with the ABC's and words that start with the letters etc. Three of the other classes were all adults and the class just before the teens were 18 and 19.

I took pictures of my apartment, it's view, etc. I will upload them soon. The view from the balcony is of the northeast side of Marugame. The view from the balcony outside my front door is of a well packed-and well populated- cemetery.

Something I learned today: the Japanese Characters for "Entrance" and "Exit." I also learned that the best way to learn an area in a completely foreign country is to get lost. You remember things better that way. I drove for the first time today also. Troy was God-sent. He had to wing it when he came also and understands so he is going out of his way to help me acclimate and give me teaching hints. Tomorrow: church and finding creative ways to teach children. Ie games and activities. I'm starving so peace-out.

Monitors on the Japan Airlines flight from SF to Tokyo

In flight entertainment.

My initials: HJK. I sat in H.

Modern Japanese toilet.

Public doucher instructions.

Traditional Japanese toilet, complete with balance pole.

Japanese hand dryer. Tokyo Airport.

Care package...complete with alien paperwork.

The following are pics of my apt.

Short but deep enough to cover knees and chest.

Dryer (as in washer and dryer)

view from my apt.

No English.

The 'oven.'

My neighbors.