Sunday in Tsuruga

WARNING! PICTURE HEAVY POST AHEAD!

And it's a really long one too.


Well, first thing, I went out last night to an Italian restaurant after I was done class. Long day yesterday. Started at 11:30 as normal. Taught from noon to two. One hour break from 2-3. Then taught straight from 3-9. Long day. Teaching is my favorite part of this job, so not a bad day, just long.

Afterwards went to an Italian restaurant. I had octopus tentacle. I don't know if it was cooked, well I think it was cooked, but it looked raw, so maybe boiled or heated up in a pan? I don't know. Either way, still had the suction cups on it. It was about the size of my thumb and I ate it in one bite. Well, I put it in my mouth in one bite. Octopus. Octopus is chewy. I mean really chewy. I probably chewed on that thing for a good minute to minute and a half. As I was chewing the suction cups kept coming off, and they were crunchy, so I would swallow them and then continue to chew the tentacle. Yeah, it just tastes like chewy fish. Really really chewy fish. If you like fish and like chewing gum, might I recommend octopus tentacle. I don't think it will be a main staple of my diet. But, I still want to try takoyaki, which is octopus mean rolled up into a ball and deep fried. That is supposed to be extra good.

They served a pizza with an egg on top of it. Lots of stuff in Japan gets an egg thrown on top of it for some reason. Not raw, but not completely fried, like halfway in between. Yeah. On a pizza. I don't know about all of that. The rest of the pizza was pretty darned good. Also had some spaghetti, or spaghetti pasta with meat and a non-tomato sauce. Maybe butter sauce.

Oh, and asked for a vodka and coke. Got a tall skinny glass and I couldn't even taste the vodka in it. I think they must have put like a single drop of liquor in that damned drink. Oh well, know not to order that again there.

Then I got home and couldn't sleep. Finally went to sleep around 4 am. Woke up around noon. Went to the convience store to get some morning refreshments and hung around the apartment watching "Greek" on dvd. Such a good show. then I realized I was wasting my day away, and it was a beautiful day out today, no rain and not overcast for the first time in over a week. Decided must go out and explore Tsuruga.

So that is what I did. Walking shoes on. Ipod ready. Crap! I forgot my sunglasses. Walking shoes off. Run back to the bedroom, grab the sunglasses, put walking shoes back on, and away we go.

First I decided to walk to Tsuruga shrine since I knew where it was and wanted to check it out.




A shared garden. These are all over the place in Tsuruga. I think it is kind of cool that they set aside a place for people to do gardening.

No idea what those plants/vegetables are though. Some of the shared gardens are complete rice paddies. Next time I see one with a person wading through it I will take a picture.




A Japanese middle or high school, not sure which. Notice how run down and prison like it looks. Just like American schools!



The Gate to Tsuruga shrine from across the street. Note the foreboding clouds over the mountains in the background.




The gate up close. The blue tarps are covering stands that will soon be put up for Tsuruga festival which starts September 3rd. One of my students is dancing in it and I want to go, unfortunately it is in the evening when I am teaching. I think it goes through next weekend though so hopefully I will get a chance to check it out.




The shrine part of Tsuruga shrine. I got there right as this woman was finishing her prayer so I didn't get to see how to do it. Maybe next time.



I think these are prayers people tie to the lines. God I am so ignorant.

After the shrine I continued walking, further and further away from where I had previously been. There was a sign for the "Kensi Pine Forest" 3km, I thought I might try to make it there.




A statue. What are they? Earthworm collectors I think.



The artistic perspective. Yup, pretentious is my middle name.




What a cool building. Check out the ball in the middle of the two towers. Think that is the president or ceo's office? Or, could just be an observation tower. If I knew any Japanese I might be able to share. I kind of like guessing at what stuff is though. World is much more interesting this way.




Don't know if this registers at this angle, but that old man is on a tiny bike. I mean tiny. It is like a child's bike with with tall handle bars. And he was teetering and tottering all over the sidewalk. Bikers are dangerous here. I, of course, include me in the dangerous biker category, especially when I put something on the back of the bike. That extra weight that doesn't move makes the bike a lot different to ride and control.


Continue my walk...



Oh look, another prison. I mean school.

About a mile or so down the road (or 1.5 - 2 kms (grrr))




I found water! A river, and it looks like it leads to a bay! I am going to check it out even though it takes me away from the Pine Forest direction.




The river heading inland toward the mountains. Tsuruga is contained by mountains on three sides and the ocean on the fourth.



Slightly to the right of the last picture. Notice the cool cloud formation as it passes over the mountain. They have some of the neatest clouds here.

Speaking of which...


Back the way I came. Uh-oh! Those clouds are looking pretty dark over there. And I didn't bring my umbrella.


So, I walked about five minutes up the river, and lo and behold what did I see?




The beach! What little beach there is. These guys were just finishing up a cookout.



There were more people down the beach running on jetskis and having a bbq (which is what all Japanese people call eating at the beach, no matter what they happen to be eating i have found out).




Tsuruga Bay. The mountains even extend around the ocean here.




The panoramic view of the bay. The lovely shipping yard sitting off to the right of the beach.

After spending a couple of minutes at the beach and getting dirty looks from two old people I continued on.

After another ten minutes or so of walking I came across a sign for a temple. Well, you know I had to check that out.



Japanese architecture is cool.

I didn't go in. Not sure if I was allowed. And since i didn't see anybody around I decided not to chance it. Last thing I want to do is get arrested over here.


In the back of the temple is a large graveyard. The tombstones (or whatever they are called here) are all really tall and tightly packed together. And they all have spots on the front of them for people to light incense or candles as a way to remember the dead (I am conjecturing here). As a result, the graveyard was very nice smelling.

At this point I had been walking around for about an hour and decided that that was enough for the day. Besides, I had to go to the store on the way home and I wanted to get there before it was too late or I changed my mind. So, I headed back.

On the way back I saw a Tanuki statue. Ah Tanuki.



This is my favorite odd thing about Japan so far. Tanuki is a racoon god who is renowned for being a drunkard and never paying his bar tab. He is also often depicted as having large balls as you can see in this statue. I see these statues all over the place outside of restaurants and bars, and oddly enough, daycare centers (usually without the big balls though). Anyone who played Super Mario Bros. 3 might remember the flying racoon suit? Yeah, apparently the offical name for that suit was the Tanuki suit. Ahh, the things you learn.

So that was pretty much my Sunday walking around Tsuruga. I also went to the grocery store, but that is another post.

What I did in school today

A kid cried on me in class.

But not because of me thankfully. The other kid in his class was being a real jerk and was running around taking stuff out of this kid's hands. And this little guy was just done with it. So he turned into his mother's lap (parents sometimes accompany their kids into the really small kids' classes) and started to cry.

But you know what, I am a pretty damned good teacher and switched the game up as soon as I saw what was happening. Okay, I am not that good because I didn't prevent it from happening, but still. And within five minutes the little guy was smiling again and participating. It also helped that I played "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" which I found out is his favorite song. He loved that!

Also, several of my students have complained that I talk to fast. I. already. talk. like. this. in. most. of. my. classes. Iiiiii....guessssssss....Iiiiii....wiiilllllll.... haaaaavvvvveee... toooooooo....taaaallllkkk.... liiiiiike....thiiiiiisssss....froooommmmmm..... noooooowwwwwww.....oooooooonnnnnn.
I am at a loss in this case. Oh well. Either I will figure it out or they will figure it out or neither of us will figure it out and I will get in trouble.

Since Mom asked:

My work days are really long, but my teaching days aren't especially. My typical day starts at 1140ish (noon but in Japan on time is considered late, plus I have to change when I get to the school and get myself presentable looking) and lasts until 930 or so. I usually don't have any classes until after 4, some days I have one or two between noon and 4, but during the week that time is mostly free (of classes). The first half of my day involves preparing lessons for the second half of my day, and trying to get ahead on lessons for the week since my week is back-end loaded. My Fridays and Saturdays are almost non-stop lessons so I really need to make sure my lessons are planned prior to those days, otherwise I won't have time to do the prep. It usually takes me between twenty and thirty minutes to write up a lesson plan for each class and make props for the class. This time should cut down a good deal as I accumulate props. By the way, anybody want to send me any magazines, please feel free. I need the pictures. I don't want Japanese text on the pictures, and besides, I am afraid of their magazines. I can't tell which are porn and which aren't yet.

I typically get something to eat between 2 and 4 depending on my class schedule. Today for instance I had a class from 2-3 and then one starting at 4. So I went to McDonalds and got a burger (I know, I know, and I would have loved to have gone somewhere else, but it is quick and right across the street, and I don't know if I have time to go and order food and eat and get back and be ready for class in 45 minutes or so) at about 315 (after all of my students had chatted with the manager and each other and left the school after class). That means, if I am there until 930 I pretty much work an entire day after I eat without a meal break. I would love to be able to take my dinner break at 6 or 7 instead, but my schedule simply doesn't allow it. And after work I am always hungry and nothing is open except the convience stores and bars so I end up eating crap for dinner. I am going grocery shopping with a Japanese speaker tomorrow so hopefully she can show me exactly what stuff is and I can start cooking at home to eat better and save money.

After 4 my schedule gets really hectic. I typcially teach one class, have a five to ten minute break and then teach the next class. That "break" is what I use to put away the materials from the last class and get out the stuff I need for the next class. I am on constant run mode at this point. And by 9 I am wiped. This job absolutely forces you to be organized. There is really no downtime in the class time, and the classrooms are so small you can only keep the essentials in the room for each class during each class time.

And then at 9 I am done. Luckily my last classes of the evening are usually upper level classes and they are the most fun for me. These students can pretty much speak English. They might not know every word or phrase (idioms was a fun class I had last week) but they can speak and understand English at an almost bilingual level. In fact most of the higher level students have lived in an English speaking country for an extended period of time. These classes are the most fun for me because the students can have a discussion and the texts are more interesting to me. This is the same reason I want to teach High School or college, more interesting for me. I am selfish like that.

Actually, I really like the slightly older kids classes too. The 8-10 yr olds. They are just old enough that they don't act up all the time, but they are still kids and still really good learners. I can still do kids games with them without having to worry about them crying in the middle of it (hopefully). Yup, whatever is easiest for me.

Since i am being selfish and all. If anyone wants to send me stickers, send me stickers. My kids love stickers (they are Japanese after all) and I am having a hard time finding "boy" stickers. All the stickers I have found so far are really cutesy bunnies and Hello Kitty stuff. I need "boy" stickers, or gender neutral stickers. The last teacher had some good star stickers but I ran out of them almost immediately. Maybe I should ask where the sticker district is. I bet they have one.

Rainy weekend

This weekend was pretty rainy. And kind of chilly too. I wanted to go to Tsuruga shrine, but didn't really want to go in the rain. Since my main purpose was to take pictures of it, not really pray.

Basically spent the weekend at the apartment. Trying to get everything put away. There is plenty of closet space in the apartment, but not much storage space. I still don't know where to put my deodorant and extra razors.

I went to the dollar store (or the 100 yen store as it is known here) and bought some chopsticks and a glasses case and some notebooks. Hell, I could have gotten plates and dishes there, or reading glasses, or kids' clothes. They have so much stuff at the dollar store it is ridiculous. I don't know how they make money.

Then I went and had some delicious spicy chicken curry to warm me up. Then I went to the grocery store and bought some rice, which I thought was pretty expensive ($15 for about a seven lb bag. seems high to me, especially as rice is the base of Japanese culture) and some jam to make toast with jam for breakfast. Yum.

The grocery store is really really confusing for me. Of course everything is in Japanese, but I don't even understand what most of the stuff is supposed to be. There are bags that look similar to Lipton instant soup all over the store, and the pictures on the bags are of meats and porks and chicken and seafood (sometimes all on the same bag) all on a bed of rice or noodles. I don't know if these bags contain dried product that I add water to to give the flavor of the dish, or if they are spices to add to the dish, or basically what is in the bag. (What's in the bag!). I am going to have to go shopping with an interpreter sometime just to find out what I am buying, or at least, what they heck it is that I could buy. I don't have enough money to just buy random stuff and hope it is something I can use.

Basically shopping is confusing for me. I just wander around looking at pictures and try to find something that I either recognize or can take a good guess at what it is. This goes both for grocery shopping and shopping at the department store. The department store is a bit easier, I can tell clothes (shoes on the other hand, they are all small here so I don't know what are men's shoes and what are women's) and I can identify electronic goods by what they are.

So that was my weekend. I walked around a bit looking for stuff, came home, ate, slept, watched Japanese baseball on tv, got up walked around a bit, came home, ate, slept. Ah, the excitement of living in a foreign country!

I really like not having a car by the way. I like that I am forced to walk places. First off it makes me not be so lazy. The grocery store is about a mile away, it is about a block and a half from Geos. If I had a car I would definitely drive there. But, since I don't I must walk. Walking is good for me. Not only is it good exercise, but I feel like I am experiencing more of the city this way. I don't just drive past eveything, I have to take the time to walk by it. For instance, yesterday I heard people screaming and cheering and took a detour off of my route and discovered a baseball game being played. I stopped and watched for a few minutes before moving on. I doubt I would have heard those cheers nor seen that game at all had I been driving a car.

Although, having a car would make it easier to get to different places and do some more exploring. Trains are fast and efficient here, but they are not cheap. Especially for somebody who isn't going to recieve a pay check for the next 30 days.

A bunch of pictures of my walk to work. See how nice it looks. That is why it is hard to tell how big the city of Tsuruga is. There is nature, and the streets are clean, and look how low all of the houses are. No high rises.



Barber shops are still easy to identify




A school with a full sized locomotive engine in the playground. Pretty cool.





I have no idea what order these go in. I can only identify my way to work and back because at one point the road ends then I turn and go down the next road. Then I keep heading down that road until I either get to the school or get to my apartment. Yes, I am a master navigator.




The ubiquitous vending machines. This is a crappy one. Only has odd stuff in it. I haven't found a beer or porno one yet, but I am sure I will. Scratch that, I have seen several with beer in them.

What a cup!

Cup O Noodles are really expensive over here, about a dollar each at the grocery store. And at first I was appalled. Why, in the country that invented cup o noodles would they be almost twice the price of the same thing back home?



Well, this is why. The cup o noodles here are filled with stuff! Real shrimp(or at least reconstituted shrimp looking things that taste and have the consistency of shritmp), eggs, meat cubes! Just lots more stuff!








Delicious!



And a bonus picture of me eating without a shirt on for all you perverts out there.

Japan vs. America

Japan is very similar to America, just askew by about 10%. That is my prognosis after spending one week in country.

But that slight difference makes a huge impact on my daily life. It constantly reminds me that I am in a foreign country.

For instance, Japan is always noisy. The crosswalk chirps when people are allowed to cross. And the one outside of the Geos school talks. On the train platform there are constant announcements. And once you are on the train, well they don't stop. A constant stream of announcements the entire hour and a half trip I took. I just tuned them out because I speak no Japanese, but I wonder how the Japanese do it, do they also simply tune out the announcements? And if so, why even have them?

They drive on the opposite side of the road here. I am getting used to looking right then left instead of left then right. I have almost been hit more then once. And on top of being the opposite side of the road, you must remember these are all Asian drivers, and the stereotype.....well....


They have very few choices in food and drink. Where as we have 25 items on the McDonalds menu they have 7 (yes, I went to McDonalds today. I had less than a one hour break between my classes and didn't have time to go get real food. Good news, Big Macs taste the exact same in Japan as they do in America). Their soda selection consists of Coke and Calpis (which tastes exactly like it sounds). Gatorade? Lemonade flavor only. Luckily that is my favorite flavor so all good. Tea? Green or black only. The 7-11 drink cooler in America is an entire back wall of the store, here it is three sections.

Automatic doors. The sensor is about two feet from the door. You are forced to pause before going through the automatic doors. I don't know if that is on purpose or not. And they have automatic doors everywhere. Tonight I went to a bar that was above a store. And after you went up the steps but before you entered the bar there was an automatic "paper" door. Interesting.


Oh, and the packaging. I have never received more useless trash in my life. Everything is wrapped up. At the Dry cleaner, my jackets and pants came back individually wrapped in plastic, then put in a plastic dry cleaning bag. At the convience store I get a bag for my drinks and a seperate bag inside the bag for any food product I might buy. At McDonalds I recieved a paper bag for my burger and fries. A paper bag to hold my soda cup. And both were put into a plastic bag. It is amazing to me the number of bags this culture goes through. And I can't even use them as trash bags because they have special gov't issued trash bags that must be used. I basically do nothing with all these bags. And i feel like an asshole because of it.

Food. Food is generally served to the middle of the table and everybody eats from every dish. And of course chopsticks. Oh, and "American" food is just odd. I got some chicken nuggets the other night on the way home from work. And the "fry" part of the nuggets is so different from what I am used to in America. It isn't bad at all, just different.

Everything is just slightly different. It is interesting to me to experience all these differences and compare and contrast them with my embedded world view to see how it could be different or perhaps better.

And that is after one week. I can't wait to see what happens over the next month and year.

Random

This has nothing to do with Japan, but Garfield Minus Garfield is absolutely my favorite thing on the internet.







Somehow, by taking away Garfield the strip turns into a must read for me.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Today was not a good day

In fact it felt like a cruel joke.

I got fucked hard at work today.

My manager wasn't there today due to her having to attend a meeting in Tokyo. And because of that I had to open up the school. Not a big deal. I knew I had to do it so I was prepared.

Also, the other teacher at the school didn't come in until 4 pm.

So, from noon til 4 it was just me. Meaning I couldn't leave the school for any reason.

I didn't have classes until 330 today. So from noon to 330 I did lesson preparation. No problem. But, I was getting kind of hungry. I am not used to this schedule and haven't figured out the right eating schedule. I wake up and am not hungry, so I don't eat. But, then I get hungry halfway through the afternoon when I am at work. You know, like at a lunch time.

Except, today, I couldn't go to lunch because no one was there.

I thought, hey when the other teacher comes in I can just pop across to McDonalds (I know, but it is right there and it is "fast food" which is what I needed because I only had 20 minutes between classes) and get something before my next class. Oh wait, McDonalds was closed today. What?!?!

So no McDonalds. But, I had another break because one of my students called and cancelled and he was the only one in the class. Excellent. All I had to do was make it through one more class and then I could go get something to eat. When I exit the class I see someone sitting in the lobby of the school. He is one of my students later in the week. He knew he couldn't make his scheduled class so he came to today's class instead (a perfectly fine thing to do in his case). Augh! No dinner then. And I had classes back to back from that point on until 9pm.

Oh, and I had to close the school up because my manager never made it back and the other teacher left at 815. So I didn't get out of there until almost ten.

At which point there is nothing open around the school. I need to find a late night dining spot.

And the classes today! One of my classes was a two year old that stared daggers at me the entire time. The only thing he said the whole class was where is the previous teacher. I don't know what to do with him. Then I had a class with a student who just transferred from another teacher's class who was described as having "severe emotional and attention problems," and boy did he ever live up to the hype. Out of control. And I don't know what I can do in my position. I feel like I can't discipline him, only ask him to calm down and sit down.

Maybe it is just that I haven't been around the public in so long that these things are killing me. At the airport if someone was annoying me I would tell them to take a flying fuck or destroy their luggage. Here I really don't have that option.

Although, the end of the night was nice. I had two high level classes in a row, basically people that can speak English. I spent those last two hours getting ideas of what I should do while I am in Japan and places I should go see. Apparently I need to eat Takoyaki. Or, deep fried octopus. Hmmm. I thought it was a joke the first time someone told me to try it, but almost all of my students have said it is delicious, so it is on the list of things to experience.

Whew, I feel better. All I know is that tomorrow can't possibly be as rough as today. Here's to tomorrow!

First day of class

Today was my first day of class. Actual teaching of actual Japanese students! I had two classes of kids, including one of preschoolers, and three classes of adults today. Surprisingly I wasn't really nervous to get up in front of the class. That is a happy change in my anxieties. I just hoped that my lessons went over well and that the students weren't completely bored. Other than that, all I feel right now is exhausted. I have to get more sleep, get adjusted to Japan time. I go to bed around 1 am and get up at 6 am. Not cool.

Vacation is over. This is no joke. I have lots of work to do every day. I go in to work at noon and stop teaching at 9 five days a week. And while I don't have classes for the entire nine hours, i am working the entire time, working on lesson plans for all of my future classes. I have around fifteen different classes each week, so that is fifteen lesson plans I have to develop each week. That is a lot of work, especially for someone new to the game. Hopefully as I get into the groove it wont take the hours and hours to prepare these lesson plans that is has taken this week. But, I feel the need to over-prepare. Today I taught a lesson and ran out of stuff to do with almost a third of the class left. I had to force the kids to play the last game three times just to fill up the time. I will get the time down as I keep teaching as well. These first few weeks are going to be rough, after that I should be able to really start enjoying my time over here. Right now though, I am just tired. The novelty of being over here is still going strong though. I hope I can get my teaching responsibilities down before the culture shock sets in.

This weekend I am determined to do something touristy, go to a shrine or something. I think I need the help reinforcing that I am in Japan, not just in another city doing another job.

Look what I found in my apartment yesterday!




If you think this cool chess set isn't coming home with me, you don't know Trout.

Everything is in Japanese!

I finally arrived in Tsuruga yesterday.

The hotel I stayed at the night before had a complimentary “traditional Japanese breakfast” in the lobby in the morning. What is a traditional Japanese breakfast? Rice, fish, and soup apparently. Along with coffee. The rice was pretty good, especially after dipping it in the soup. Truth be told, I was so hungry by the morning that I would have eaten anything I think. But, either way, not a bad breakfast.

After breakfast I had to meet Bruce who took me to the train station because I had to take an hour and a half train ride from Nagoya to Tsuruga at 10 am. It was actually a really nice ride. Some of it was scenic, some of it was like taking the train in America, it goes through all the crappy parts of town. When we came to one town two thirds of the way through the trip, everyone on the train got out of their seats and rotated the seats to sit the other way. What?!!?! The train goes backwards after that town, I guess it must be the end of the line right there, so everyone turns the seats so they are sitting forward. All these little things the Japanese think of to make their lives more comfortable are really neat and interesting. Another thing like that, on the streets and in the train station there are rows of tiles on the floor that have three raised rows that look like little parking spot bumpers, just running down the sidewalk and in the station. Apparently, they are for blind people, to warn them they are getting close to the road or to the wall in the case of the train station. Lots of little things like that, just the inventiveness and thoughtfulness is amazing.

I was picked up at the train station by my manager, who speaks very little English so we were miming to each other the whole walk from the train station, and was taken to my apartment. The apartment is small, but not super small. I can live here for a year.


This is what it looks like when you first walk in the door.



A small hallway with the kitchen and bathroom areas off to the left, and the main living area/bedroom directly ahead.

My bedroom, messy from unpacking. Notice the closet which is the biggest closet I have ever had. There are a set of drawers in the bottom to put stuff in, as well as a shelf above the rack to hold stuff as well. Notice also the short black table. There is a seat against the wall to sit on when using the table, but it is gross, so I don't see myself using it too much. The person I am replacing left a lot of stuff for me. A TV (thank god for tv, especially when I don't have internet) and that table to the right of the picture (that has my hat on it) along with several chairs. Also a calander, a Japanese-English dictionary, some cleaning supplies, and other various stuff. Oh, and a bike! Apparently my school is a little far for walking, so yay!

You will notice in the left hand corner closest the corner of my bed.

Here is the bed. Notice the tv on already. There is storage underneat the bed, so Mom, that is where I can put my suitcases. Another cool storage thing is the steps leading up to the bed.

Closed

Open

Pretty neat.

Close up of the kitchen area

That fridge is tiny. Notice how it barely is higher than the stove/sink behind it. Yeah. Unfortunately that means I can't buy lots of groceries at once, rather I will have to shop for a day or two at a time. Oh well. Or I could just eat out all the time. That is the better idea I think.

My huge stove/sink area. Above is a cupboard full of dishes. The description of my apartment from Geos led me to believe there would hardly be anything in it, but I guess over the years people accumulate stuff and just leave it for the next person. Works out for me. And the next guy too!

Here is my awesome washer. I was told they are usually on the balcony, which I do not have. And there is no dryer. Must remember to ask where I am supposed to hang clothes to dry. Very important.

The bathroom. Which is actually split into two rooms. I appreciate that.

The toilet room/closet. It is tiny in there. Notice the faucet on top of the back of the toilet. when the toilet is flushed water automatically comes out of there to wash your hands with. I am sure it is clean water, but it is still going to take some getting used to. Also notice the grungy towel. That is the other thing the previous teacher left me, filthy disgusting towels. If I didn't know already, it would be easy to tell a guy was staying here last. Must go buy new towels. I don't even want to touch those old things.

The bathroom shower part. It is hard to get a good picture of this because the hallway is so narrow, can't get the whole thing. Basically it has a sink and a tub. Did I mention how deep the tubs are in Japan? They are a bathing society, so all of their tubs are really deep. Seeing as how dirty that tub is, I can't imagine I will be having many relaxing soaks in it. The entire room is a wet room with a drain in the floor. There was a shower curtain on the tub but the guy took it. Of all the things he left behind, he didn't leave his shower curtain? Odd. Will have to find a place to buy one of those sooner than not as well. You might notice that the shower head is connected to the sink. There is a little lever that controls where the water goes, sink or shower. Not bad. And good water pressure in Japan. Yay! I hate taking a shower with no water pressure (Mom/Dad I am looking at you) it just makes me feel wet, not clean.

So, that is my apartment. I got in about noon on Sunday, and promptly went to sleep until 5am Monday. Well, I kept waking up because I couldn't figure out the air conditioner. It would work for a little while then turn off. So I kept waking up drenched in sweat because the apartment was so hot. And of course all the buttons and the instruction manual are in Japanese so I couldn't figure out how to operate it properly. I will ask my manager today.

I feel like I missed an entire day, because well I basically did. But even more so because I am now on Monday and it is still Sunday back in the states. Hopefully I will become acclimated to the time difference quickly and be able to sleep normal hours.

Today I get my first look at the school where I will be teaching. Hopefully I will also go by some shops because I would like to get some food and other things for the apartment before too long.

Did I mention Japan is freaking hot? Well it is. And humid. I have been wearing a long sleeve shirt because of my tattoos and I didn't want my trainer and manager to judge me on them before I started, but that is going to have to stop. It feels like a Baltimore August here. I haven't really been around Tsuruga too much yet, but it doesn't seem like a huge place, which is nice, and it is really green. I will have to take my camera with me when I go out today. I believe Bruce mentioned that I am close to the beach. How close?