So I'm in Japan now! I was in Tokyo for 3 days at the Keio Plaza hotel which is a five star hotel in Shinjuku. It was pretty fancy. I was also able to meet up with some of my friends in Tokyo while I was there. I saw Naomi, Satoko, Yuka and Aiko, all except Naomi I haven't seen for about 5 years. We went to an Izakaya for a little bit and then Naomi had to go home because she had to wake up at 4:30am the next day. Then I went to another Izakaya that Toronto JET and JAVA people were at and we drank some beer and then went to Karaoke. It was really fun but there were only about 10 of us left by the end of it.

Yesterday I left Tokyo to head off to my prefecture and city. I got on the shinkansen (bullet train) and rode for about 2 hours until Nagoya. From Nagoya, I met me Supervisor Mr. Inuzuka and we took the train to Higashi-Okazaki which is where my office is! I didn't know until I met him that we would be going straight to the office to meet everyone where I would of course have to introduce myself. I worked on my introduction on the train and Inuzuka-sensei helped make sure it was ok. Then we finally got the office and I met everyone. They are all really really nice and funny, but no one can speak english very well so I guess it's a perfect opportunity to learn Japanese.

After the self-intro, I went with Inuzuka-sensei and another lady from the office tsuda-sensei to do some errands. I went to city hall to apply for my alien registration card, then I went to my predecesser's apartment to get some things that she had left for me and finally I went to my new apartment. Actually, it's a pretty old apartment. . .but it's only about $80/month!!!! It's bigger than the ones my supervisor was looking at previously and so cheap! so I don't really mind that it's old. I have a traditional Japanese toilet (http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~mcswain/Sapporo/DSCN0397.JPG) but I've used them before and they're good excercise I think haha. Also there was brand new tatami mats put in so it's also pretty clean. The only problem I guess is that everything runs on propane. . .including my shower so it kind of worries me. . .I should probably get a CO detector asap. . .

Oh another awesome thing is that I bought a bike for about $25! and it's red like my bike at home. . .it's only one speed though and it's a girly bike. . .boo but it can get me from point A to point B so yay!

So there are 2 good examples to dispell that myth that living in Japan in ridiculously expensive! However, I think that heating is really expensive and power generally. . .internet is apparently going to cost about $60/month and I'm getting my cell phone today so I guess that might be another kind of pricey thing. Anyways, I don't really have any computer hook-ups to upload pictures to my computer at the moment, but I haven't really taken any pictures anyways. . .hee
They will be coming soon though so check back if you're interested!