arrival in Toyama
I've been here for over a week and haven't had any time to update! gomen ne
I only have a few min on the internet so I have to make this short. I will try to fill in the details when I get hooked up with Yahoo BB at my house.
Our house is small, but bigger than anything I was expecting. It has three tatami rooms, a living room, a large kitchen and a wash room. There's also have a bit of backyard that's surrounded by rice crops! The neighbors are all older couples who tend the crops. Harvest is in 2 weeks. Until then the town has some time to relax, so they had a small neighborhood festival where I got to make my first town introduction. I wore a yukata (summer kimono) and got up in stage in front of the whole town where they interviewed me and had me sing karaoke. They insisted I sing the oldie song "Diana" which I only know maybe 2 or three words of, but they didn't seem to care.
the yukata nakayama san lent me
this is the stage I had to sing from- sorry about bad quality, its a phone picture!
Mostly I've been hanging out alot with the other JETs in the area. We've got a fun bunch from all over the place- Montreal, Australia, Scotland, England - very few actually from the US!
This is my second day at work. Right now we're in summer vacation so there's not much to do, but its given me a chance to meet some of my students. They seem excited to have a American teaching them. Ive been getting bombarded with odd questions like how much bread I eat and why my eyes are brown.
I met a ton of elementry kids at the festival who were leading me around all night asking if I've ever heard of various playground equipment and then having me try each one in turn. Its not easy going down a slide in a kimono.
a couple of my students that were leading me around
They also showed me some of their pets- a rabbit and a chicken- and then asked if we have rabbits and chickens in the US... and snakes? and horses? and foxes? no way! Apparently I'm the first American (and foreigner in general) they've ever met. It's funny hearing what impressions they develop of Amerians from the media and such. I will have to remedy this.
I will add pictures of my town another day (perhaps the end of the month when I expect to get my internet hooked up) otherwise I can email you any pics from my cell camera if you're really interested in seeing something!
I gotta wrap up- hogging the only computer in the office with internet access...
Another pic taken with my cell phone: reads "Welcome to Fukumitsu!"
I only have a few min on the internet so I have to make this short. I will try to fill in the details when I get hooked up with Yahoo BB at my house.
Our house is small, but bigger than anything I was expecting. It has three tatami rooms, a living room, a large kitchen and a wash room. There's also have a bit of backyard that's surrounded by rice crops! The neighbors are all older couples who tend the crops. Harvest is in 2 weeks. Until then the town has some time to relax, so they had a small neighborhood festival where I got to make my first town introduction. I wore a yukata (summer kimono) and got up in stage in front of the whole town where they interviewed me and had me sing karaoke. They insisted I sing the oldie song "Diana" which I only know maybe 2 or three words of, but they didn't seem to care.
the yukata nakayama san lent me
this is the stage I had to sing from- sorry about bad quality, its a phone picture!
Mostly I've been hanging out alot with the other JETs in the area. We've got a fun bunch from all over the place- Montreal, Australia, Scotland, England - very few actually from the US!
This is my second day at work. Right now we're in summer vacation so there's not much to do, but its given me a chance to meet some of my students. They seem excited to have a American teaching them. Ive been getting bombarded with odd questions like how much bread I eat and why my eyes are brown.
I met a ton of elementry kids at the festival who were leading me around all night asking if I've ever heard of various playground equipment and then having me try each one in turn. Its not easy going down a slide in a kimono.
a couple of my students that were leading me around
They also showed me some of their pets- a rabbit and a chicken- and then asked if we have rabbits and chickens in the US... and snakes? and horses? and foxes? no way! Apparently I'm the first American (and foreigner in general) they've ever met. It's funny hearing what impressions they develop of Amerians from the media and such. I will have to remedy this.
I will add pictures of my town another day (perhaps the end of the month when I expect to get my internet hooked up) otherwise I can email you any pics from my cell camera if you're really interested in seeing something!
I gotta wrap up- hogging the only computer in the office with internet access...
Another pic taken with my cell phone: reads "Welcome to Fukumitsu!"
Comments
Glad that you're enjoying the inaka life. E-mail at my addy not Ed's.
Lots of love! - Cathy