Whew! It has been a very busy day and a half for me!

I'll start with Friday:

Marshall, my roommate from orientation who is going to Nii-gata, one prefecture north of Nagano. We had breakfast, and bid goodbye to each other and to other friends we had made over the last day. I met up with Ben, my Prefectural advisor, in the lobby at 8. We walked to Shinjuku station and boarded a train. The ride was about an hour and a half and I made small talk with Ben and read the paper. At Chino, a 1/2 point point between Nagano city (up north) and Iijima, Ben and I split up as I met Matsuzaki-san, a member of the Board of Education (BOE) and Kasuga-sensei, head english teacher in Iijima. They drove me back to Iijima, but along the way we stopped for lunch. After reaching Iijima, I dropped my luggage off at the apartment. While we were there, a representative from the gas company came by, turned on the gas, and gave me (through Kasuga-sensei), a tutorial on how to use the gas in my place (i.e. I need to turn it on to use my stove / shower) We then went to the city's municiple office, where I was introduced to the city's head of education, his office, and a few others. I was then given my 'contract' in a semi-official ceremony, accepted it, and then went upstairs to meet the Mayor. It was particularly intimidating because of the attitude that Kasuga-sensei had (which was extreme respect). I then had a discussion, through Kasuga sensei, with the Mayor, the vice-mayor, and two other big-wigs in Iijima. I had the realization that when under pressure, my Japanese is even worse than it is normally. :-( After the meeting with them, we went downstairs and began to fill out the volumes of paperwork I have to do, starting with making my 'Inkan', the stamp that Japanese people use to sign their name (Bethany attested they do this in Korea as well). Unfortunately it can be difficult to take care of all this stuff w/out the inkan, which they were making for me. I had the choice of choosing 'DG' or three kanji with the sound 'do' 'whi' 'to'. I'm pretty sure they used the kanji 'temperature', 'meet', and 'person'. Furthermore, we got some forms filled out so that my electrical, gas, and water bill will be taken out of my bank account automatically. I'll head back there in a couple of weeks to get my alien registration card, and drop off my omiyage for the mayor, matsuizaki-san. We also picked up my other luggage bag, and brought it back to the apt. When we got back, Kasuga-sensei and I noticed that I did not, in fact, have a bike (Jon gave his away, and I never thought to ask him beforehand). Kasuga sensei then took me to the school I'll be working at and introduced me to the vice-principal and the staff. It was nerve-wracking but fun to meet people. Kawai-sensei then accompanied myself and Kasuga-sensei to a local motorcycle shop to see if they had any extra bicycles to use temporarily until the BoE can get me a new one. The guy had a few, but wanted to get ahold of the owner in order to make sure I could use it. We then passed the interveining time by going around time and seeing where the train station, conbini's (convienance stores), and grocery stores are located. We then snagged some coffee at a nice place outside of Iijima proper, but still in the area. We then returned to the bike shop, and I was allowed to use one of the bikes, although it's rusty and looks like it was painted in 1992! Unfortunately, Kasuga sensei's vehicle couldn't hold it, so I had to ride back to the house on the bike, but of course I'm in my dress clothes and tie :rofl: I'm sure anyone that saw me couldn't help but laugh hysterically at me. :-P Once I got back, I bid farewell to Kawai-sensei and Kasuga-sensei. I went inside, and turned on my computer since I was told that my internet wouldn't be turned on for a week (although the router was on). I was happily brought to rapt attention when I heard skype beep for me, which meant I had internet! :-D I started to chat to Bethany.

Then, out of nowhere, I heard my doorbell ringing! I got the door, and was suprised to see an American standing there! It was Jesse, a 3rd year JET from a town over. Nagano is broken up into several 'blocks', and Patricia, the suwa-ina (my block) leader gave Jesse a heads-up that I was getting in and so he stopped by. I taked with him for a long time (as bethany can attest too, sorry!) and then as he was saying good-bye, my neighbor came up. Jesse talked with her briefly to help give me an idea of where some of the things in town are located. Upon his leaving, I got to know my neighbor. She was willing to take me to the conbini, which was a really nice gesture. Along the way I talked with her more, and I had a great time getting to try and use my Japanese and periodically trying to help her with her english. She's a lunch lady for the school, so hopefully I'll get to see her around either at school etc. in the coming days, as she's quite nice. After I got back, I had my dinner (cheap delicious conbini sushi!) and began my unpacking. By the time I had finished up, I was practically a zombie I was so tired. I went ahead and washed off in the shower and figured I'd treat myself to a nice hot bath. It was so fantastic to get to relax, although I nearly fell asleep in the tub I was so tired! :-p. It was a hectic, but interesting and fun day.

I woke up this morning at ten (although I first woke up at 7, damn jet (hah!) lag. I was surprised by a guy pulling into my front lawn. Kasuga-sensei and I had been laughing about the long grass (Kasuga joked that I could just pour chemicals on it), and this guy was there to cut it for me. He used a weed-whacker with a buzz-saw on the end of it, and spent the better part of an hour cutting and raking up my lawn, it looks much better now!

I then walked around town for a couple of hours, saw the local shrine, found my way to and from some of the points of interest, and went to the station and talked with the attendant about times for the train, since there is a good chance I will need to take it to a BBQ with other new JET's in this block tomorrow afternoon (hopefully I can get a ride though!) I then went to the grocery store, and burned a quick 40 bux on food (but it's delicious and fresh!), made some soup-ed up ramen for lunch, and now am writing this HUGE blog entry. But I'm getting to watch and laugh at Star Trek on my cpu while I write this, I suppose that's why it's taking so long. :-P

I have to prepare a sel-introduction for monday that I will deliver (in japanese) in front of the entire school on stage. damnit. I figure giving my Japanese a shot will at least demonstrate my willingness to give Japanese a shot, even if I do bumble through it terribly! :-P

The weather today has been rainy and humid, but the upside has been that periodically I can see clouds alighting on the mountains off in the distance!

Hope this tides you guys over while I enjoy myself!