Welcome to... Mayberry

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have arrived. It was a long and tedious trip but, I have finally reached the place that I can call home. At least for the next little while. Things here are awesome! Ayumi found us a great little apartment, Hershey is alive and kicking and our air conditioner works. Comparing our apartment with the rest of the city, it looks like we are in one of the best (and newest) structures in the whole place. So far I have yet to see the sea. I know we are on the coast but, not like I imagined it. From what I understand, Shima today was five years ago, a series of little towns. For one reason or another they decided to take all these little individual settlements, throw them into one and call the place Shima. I am living in the city called Isobe. I guess you could consider it like Shima is to Salt Lake what Isobe is to Sandy, but on a much, much smaller scale. This town is honestly even smaller than I imagined it.

From what I have been told (and seen) years ago this place used to be quite the hip spot. This place was famous for its beaches and surfing (which still exist). An amusement park was built here and people would come from miles around to spend the weekend and this was a thriving resort town. For one reason or another people stopped coming. The amusement park is still here (and we can see the nightly display of fireworks) and attracts a bit of a crowd but, not to the extent that it used to. The town is now full of closed hotels. Its a small place, and a bit off the beaten path but, I like it none-the-less. The Mayberry analogy comes from this town being so old and small... no comical police regeim though.

From Tokyo, we took a train to Nagoya with is the biggest city around here (about two hours by train) and from there a train to Tsu, the capitol of Mie. In Tsu, we were greeted by our supervisors who then drove us the rest of the way. One thing I can say about this place is that it is super green. On the drive, I noticed the towns getting smaller and smaller and the forests bigger and bigger. For those who have seen the Japanese cartoon "My Neighbor Totoro", the forest roads look a lot like the ones from that show. We arrived here (with my co-worker, a New Zealander named Shelley) and were taken right away to go meet the Principal and Vice Principal of one of the High Schools that I am going to be working at. From there to my apartment to see Ayumi. One thing I can state with confidence, no matter where I am or what I`ve been through, it is always nice to be with her. Well, I got home, showered and we went out. That night I thought I was going to die by drowning on my own sweat. The apartment was so hot, I literally was dripping buckets of sweat off my forehead. After a while Ayumi went and turned on the air conditioner and now the apartment is really quite comfortable.

The apartment is nice and new. We are on the fourth floor of six and about a five minute walk from the train station and about fifteen from the school. I`ve yet to see my second school (the one I need to take a ferry to) but, have an appointment to see the teachers on the tenth. Next to us is the community center where the other night we spied upon a hip-hop dance class being conducted there. The town has two small supermarkets, a bookstore, post office, bank and train station. Last night, we took a train with Shelley to the next town over to buy some supplies we were lacking, and to visit the dollar shop... the coolest shop in Japan. There in the other city we ran into some other Jets from the nearby towns and had a bit of a chat for a while. There were about seven of us and all from different countries standing in the heat all excited to see each other. We had a New Zealander, Australlian, America, Scottsish, Irish and English person in that conversation. I was cool to talk and hear all the different accents.

So far, no phone or internet in the apartment. With that being the case, I suggest to those who read this blog not to look for an update until at least Monday. I`m doing well, things are great. Honestly, I couldn`t be better. The people I work with are all amazing and, all around the same age as us. Yesterday, they took Shelley and I out to lunch and we just kind of shot the breeze while we ate. Half of them live in town and the other half commute every day. We were invited to go and have a barbeque with some of them tomorrw afternoon so, definatley looking forward to that.

Once I get the internet at home I`ll be able to take more time and make this blog a little more interesting but, in the meantime because I am at school kind of hesitant to do too much. More later to come!