So, It's official... I live in Japan. Let me break down the first few days in Nishinomiya.
Saturday August 1st - Well, I might not have any clothes to change into, but my excitement and optimism could not be higher. I know this because at 6 am when I wake up I do so with a smile and anxiety that keeps me from rolling over and going back to sleep as I usually do (maybe it was jet lag, just a thought). I putter around the apartment, chat with some folks on Skype (look
me up and add me), and stare at the phone hoping to hear about my bags. Somehow I manage to stretch these activities out until 2:00 when I get my first real taste of Japan. Mayumi guides us (Michelle, the other ALT and I) to the bus stop near our apartments and we ride the bus to the train station. The public transportation is every bit as convenient as I had imagined. We ride the bus to Kobe and begin to explore.
1st stop, Chinatown. Now, if your thinking that it is strange that I would fly all the way to Japan to go to "Chinatown," then you are thinking exactly what I thought. Of course, this was a great experience and I had a blast. After leaving we walked around Kobe seeing sights and doing some shopping. Apparently Kobe is going through an identity crisis, because our next destination was an area with a bunch of European tourist spots complete with French wine German houses and this little Austrian village where you can take a picture with your face in a cut-out... couldn't resist.
As the night wound down (or up) we made our way to a Heineken roof party where for 3,500
yen you could eat and drink all you wanted...
Good stuff. from there we watched the Kobe
Fireworks festival which made the display we see in America look like sparkers and pop-its (their average fireworks display lasts over 2 hours and has more than 5,000 fireworks).
We called it a night from there and rode the train and bus back home.
Sunday August 2nd - I wake up at my usual Saturday morning time of 8:00 am (well not exactly "usual") wondering if I am going to start a trend in Japan wearing the same clothes every day. I still have not received my bags and I am starting to worry. around 8:30 I get a call that my bags were found and would be at my apartment around 10:00, YEEEESSSSS! Of course, nothing is that simple. at 10:30 I get a call, from what I later found out was a delivery service, unfortunately the man on the phone only speaks Japanese, and though I am a quick learner I have not mastered the Japanese language yet. So I hang up the phone and rush downstairs to see if he is there... no such luck. Around 11:30 I get a call from the airline attempting to confirm my address. Though this person speaks English we still have a hard time communicating and I end up giving out bad info. After making a few call I track down a person from the ALT program that speaks English (thank God!) an within 2 hours I have my bags and some clean clothes. The rest of the day is spent finding the grocery store where almost everything is in Japanese and exploring the rest of my neighborhood with Michelle and Mayumi on foot. The next day was bike day, I could only hope that my bike was going to be something to write home about.
More tomorrow, sorry to leave on a cliffhanger like this but I need to get some rest. I have been running every morning at 6 am and I am completely worn out by 10. By the way, when they say the humidity is bad here, they are not joking, this includes 6 am. I'm sweat-er, but this air makes the simplest tasks sweat-creators *whew*.
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