I finally found a sofa that I really like so here are some pictures of my more filled out apartment:

This is a picture of a small portion of Handa, that I can see from my front door. My three day weekend starts tomorrow! I think it's Labor Day here or something. Becky and I are also going to try again to get our cellphones tomorrow morning. Our first attempt this afternoon was a complete failure. We had no idea what the girl in the cellphone store was saying and then when I thought I had finally figured out what she was talking about and had chosen the phone I wanted, she told me that the one I wanted was for kids only. Ugh! So then we gave up and went back to work. But we're going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully we don't get the same girl, that would be pretty embarassing.
This coming Tuesday will be my one month anniversary of being in Japan.
I still feel like I've just landed though.

Last night Becky and I met some friends and their friends in Kanayama. Then we took the train to Kamezaki and hung out at this guy Tim's HUGE apartment. There was a typhoon last night that mostly struck the island of Kyushu but it rained a whole lot where we were. During the night that guy Tim took us all to see the ocean and then to see some temples in the woods. Here's a picture of Becky and Paul (from my training group) outside one of the temples. It was raining so much I didn't want to get my camera out for too long, so this is the only decent picture I took.

My apartment and work place

Here are some pictures of my apartment. It's a lot better than I had expected. I moved my futon into the bottom level of the closet, so that's what those stripes are.


In the kitchen, the stove is on top of my little refrigerator, then the sink, then the washing machine is over by the door.



These are pictures of my two bathrooms. One has the toilet with a sink on top of it! And the other room is for the shower.




Here is a picture of the reception desk at my school.
The girl at the desk is Etsuko, she is a receptionist
and the guy is Kazuki and he's a teacher.


I think I like my job. My students and co-workers are all really funny. Yesteday I taught six classes and gave three check-test exams. I was really busy but it made the day go by much faster. I have to go to Nagoya on Friday by myself for a study meeting thing at the head office. So it looks like this week will be really busy.

Training is Over!!!!

Today was our last day of kid's training and I was so grateful for it to be over. I will really miss all of my training friends though! It has been so great hanging out with all of them. We all liked each other a lot and had so much fun together, it's terribly sad to leave them. Here is a picture of all of us, moments after leaving the training building.

Tomorrow I go to Handa. We'll see what that's like. Tomorrow I observe some classes there, but on Friday, I start teaching on my own. Scary!!! Then me and Becky's welcome party is on Saturday night, after I teach like 7 classes that day. I don't think I'm even going to feel like going out, but I guess I kind of have to. I have to stay in a hotel for 4 or 5 days when I first get there, so I may not be able to update typekite for awhile. We'll see. Wish me luck!

Adult Training Graduation and After Party

I finished Adult Training last night and we were all so relieved and excited we went out afterwards and partied like there was no tomorrow. At work last night, when it was all over, we got our business cards (pictured below) and the Aeon pin. To celebrate we went to Sakae area. First we went to a bar/food place and ate okonomiyaki and drank some beers. It was really fun. Then, we went to a karaoke place and basically brought the whole house down! It was definitely a desperately needed night of debauchery after so much stress all week.
Tomorrow I start kids training which I think will be basically just learning songs to sing to the kids.

This is my business card! Aren't I professional?




This is a bowl of okonomiyaki. I think you can get all different kinds, but mine was cheese. It had bacon, an egg, some cheese, green onions, these squares of coagulated rice, and some kind of like dough-batter stuff. You have to mix it all up in the bowl before you cook it.




This is me and Jonathan who is another trainee, cooking our okonomiyaki on the frying pan thing that is built into the table. I guess you just cook it like a pancake, let it get crisp on one side and then flip it over. It was so good!