I Live!!!! *insert lightning bolt*

Hello all, I finally have the internet *whooot*  ^0^. 


Ok so here's some info: *ignore grammar mistakes...it is late*


Here's the hotel that I stayed in in Tokyo for Orientation: http://www.keioplaza.com/index.html
And let's play a rousing game of: Guess what this is???   Just post your guess in the comment box :)










Ok, so that aside, here are the details of stuff ^^
ok ummm I luckily didn't get jetlag from the flight, I took a few short naps on the way over and convinced myself that although it felt like 13hr flight it was really 2 hours (we left at 3:30 Detroit time on saturday, and landed in Japan at 5:30 sunday)......luckily my lack of concept of time and lack of caring my body shrugged it off and accepted that it didn't miss half a day of sleep lol ^^.  then we were herded onto buses and taken to Tokyo, well a small corner of Tokyo, but we went past Tokyo Disneyland and it looks pretty epic, and there was this giant ferris wheel......and of course my camera was tucked away in a bag in the bus luggage compartment -.-....I took the fancy shinkansen or bullet train to niigata, then was driven up to sanpoku....at first 4 people picked myself and one other Jet (Walter) up at the train station, one lady could speak english pretty well, the other lady not so much, and the two guys very little-none.....after getting some paper work out of the way the lady who could speak english the best left, then I went with one guy, the other guy left, and Walter went with the other lady who could speak a bit of english.  So I had a good 45 min drive with someone who can't really speak english and I can't really speak japanese, but luckily neither of us minded the silence so it was more relaxing than awkward silence. After getting to my 'city'...more like a small town...he picked up this younger lady Yukiyo (older than me, but younger than him), and she could speak a bit of English. The two of them took me shopping for food, then showed me to my house and left it at that for the night.

            The next day one of the teachers at the Junior High was with the guy who can't really speak English (Homma-san)....but the junior high teacher can't speak too much either, but it was enough to help clear some things up....and we went to all of the schools that I'll be teaching at, two kindergarten/nursery schools, two elementary schools, and the junior high....then more paper work was filled out and more shopping for food since the first time they had me just get enough for 2 days......then the junior high teacher had to go, so he went and got the Yukiyo girl to help out, filled out more stuff, set up a bank account and rental car papers and such, then they stopped by the house to get the stove fixed....they misunderstood when I asked if I could use the bathroom before heading back to the junior high (they thought that I wanted to shower) and I realized this, but said nothing b/c I wanted to try to find my way to the junior high myself....so they left, I ate lunch with my extra "shower time", then tried to find the junior high...........

    ...I found the elementary school next to the junior high -.-, so I went in and non of the English teachers are there so I asked in broken japanese where the junior high was b/c I forgot.....since they couldn't tell me b/c I don't know japanese, the principle got one of the teachers to walk me next door to the junior high -.-''''''' once I realized that the junior high was next to that elementary school I of course felt a tad silly, but not too much since driving around a winding little town and seeing 5 schools and then being asked to go to one of the 5 after running around all day, it's kind of surprising that I was at least headed in the proper direction lol......anyhoo, I sat at my desk and none of the English teachers were in, so I couldn't really communicate too well with anyone, so I started studying hiragana and katakana......then the principle came out and tried to ask were I was from, which lead to me finding it on a map and trying to explain that the weather wasn't too different....then......................*suspense*...............................................................................................

I busted out my camera and showed them pictures of my house and parents and such and they were all very happy to see pictures and it really warmed up the atmosphere.....Everyone was very impressed as to how strong looking my dad was, everyone who saw the pic immediately gave out a gasp of "ooohhhh!!" lol.  And then I commented on how Harley was like Scooby-doo, an american anime (anime literally means cartoon in japanese)....but no one had heard of it so they googled it and one of the teachers said, Oh same anime creator as Flintstones, and I said yes and then everyone laughed and talked about something scooby doo and flintstone related in japanese.

Then we just talked back and forth in broken enlgish and japanese for a while then it was 4 (the time that I leave) and so I headed back home. ...then at 5 Homma-san and Yukiyo showed up to take me to get the rental car, and I drove behind Homma, b/c I wasn't positive on how to get back home (it's kinda sadly close to my house, but Japan doesn't have street signs, and a lot of the buildings look a lot a like so navigating is a tad difficult -.-).  The next day bright and early was yet another meeting way down in Niigata for all of the JETs, so the other guy who couldn't really speak english picked me up (Oda-san).....and since I'm like an hour away from everyone else it was a long car ride, but it was nice^^. Oda-san....as is everyone that I've met/talked to...is super friendly and nice ^-^. he took us along the beach route rather than the mountain route, so I got to see the sea of Japan^^....he would occasionally ask me questions in broken English and japanese, and I would try to respond in broken Japanese, and English....stuff like what sports do you like, and did you watch olympics, and this beach is this, and monkeys have been seen by this beach, and this part is called this, and I fish here and I played baseball and such and such^^, it was nice considering how fragmented all of our sentences were lol.....Oh and by the way, we took the mountain-ish route to get to Sanpoku the first night and I saw a monkey crossing sign ^0^....Anyhoo Friday was a long day with meetings, but fun, a lot of the kids in the JET program are super nice and very easy to get along with^^.

Then after the meeting we walked around Niigata a bit, and went to a bar....then I had to try to find a train and get back to where I live....a 2nd year JET girl, Natasha helped me get my ticket, but the machine wouldn't give me a proper ticket so I was given a small slip of paper and told to pay the difference when I got to my station,......though the ticket, as far as I could tell, had no seat number so I just sat down...then this older japanese guy sat next to me....and then there was this lady and another guy who seemed to give him and me dirty looks (I figured that I must've been in one of their seats, but having the other japanese guy sitting in the isle seat and having a small rolling suitcase in front of him I couldn't exactly get up and move.....the guy finally got to his stop and the lady sat down, and then a ticket guy came around to check tickets....once the lady, who was earlier upset about her lack of seat saw that I had a dysfunctional ticket and couldn't read or speak Japanese, she gave me a sympathetic look and she seemed to warm up, though we never talked or anything, but she did keep looking over at what I was reading.I called Yukiyo and asked her to drive me home, I felt bad that it was so late, but the train going to my station is very spread out in time and since I couldn't find Natasha to take me to the train station earlier I had to wait for the later one...but she didn't mind, especially after I explained the excursions of the night and trying to find Natasha so I could leave and the bad ticket and everything she laughed and said she was happy I made it back from such an eventful night^^.

Then Saturday the Northern Niigata JETs were going to meet up and go to the beach.....but the train station in my town had really spread out hours, so I could've either gotten there early afternoon and wait around for hours, take an expensive train that would be closer to the time, or a cheaper train that would get me there too late......but the whole "go to the beach thing" was just not going to work out for me from the get-go....first the spotty train schedules, then my bike got a flat b/c I went to put some air in the tire, but the bike tires here are different and the second you take the cap off all of the air rushes out and there is no way to put it back in TT^TT.....So I couldn't ride around and try to get to know the area better or ride to the station.....I didn't want to drive b/c I don't know where you're allowed to park (can't read the signs lol ) and it was way too humid to walk there......so I basically gave up hope, and started to clean...and then watch interesting Japanese tv, and cooked and took a nice bath^^, so all in all it was still a nice day.

Sunday was more cleaning....I still need to sweep the floors......and I watched some ghost hunt ,and more japanese tv, and chatted with the neighbors a bit (I'll talk about them in another post), and that was about it...very nice and relaxing ^^.  Monday I had work 8-4, and it was just the principal and myself... and he can't really speak English at all, but he can pronounce it rather well once he looks it up in the dictionary.....so we'd both be flipping through our dictionaries now and again to chat a bit, and he would come out of his office now and again to tell me to get up and take a short break b/c I was working too hard lol (I was learning hiragana and katakana and reading over Gina's old lesson plans)....then we ate lunch and watched a game show, chatted a bit more and then back to work....then it was getting dark out and I think he wanted me to head out early....not sure what he was trying to say exactly b/c it was in japanese...but either way it started pouring down rain before I could ask him if he wanted me to leave early....so we talked about the rain, each of us looking up phrases in our japanese-english dictionaries....then 4 came around and it was still raining so he said he'd drive me home....shortly after starting to drive off the rain let up, so we both laughed, but he drove me the rest of the way anyway, and as soon as I got inside it started pouring again...............and then today was another day 8-4 of chatting with the principal now and again, I showed him pics of cincinnati and hanover, and looked up google images of giant hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, giant wild hogs in america, american bears, and a few other random things......and he came out again about 30 min until 4 saying stuff in japanese, I think he was telling me to go home early, but I still have no clue -.-, so I just started to pack up slowly and chatted with him long enough to make it 10 till 4 when I left lol ^^.....and that brings us to today^^. I uploaded pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/84941064@N02/  more will come once I stop being a bum and go out and take pics....though I feel kinda silly going around taking pictures of everything >.>....Anyhoo, it's really late, so please pardon any and all grammatical errors and the such. G'night and I'll post more stuff later. ^^