Field Trip!

I went with my sponsor off base on Tuesday.  I tried to snap some pictures from around town, I don't know where I was or what anything is!

 The street my sponsor lives on.

My sponsor's house.

Out to Eat

So on my first full day here a teacher from my school took me out to eat.  We went to a restaurant right off post.  The food was good, though they like to serve you items in sets, and they don't break up the sets.  I found this out the hard way!

I wanted a noodle bowl with shrimp and crab in it, but I didn't want the rice and soup that went with it.  I got the WHOLE thing.  Then I wanted a tempura plate, I got the tempura with rice and soup as well.  I'm not 100% as to how much this all cost me, but I know that the Japanese customers thought I was a REALLY hungry American! Here's my receipt - I don't even know what it says! :)

The New Classroom

Here are some before shots of my new classroom.  It has  A LOT of storage.  I know everything can be easily stored here.  Do you see the refrigerator? Apparently every classroom has on of them! This week and next week as I begin working on it I will update the post with more photos.  The only sad thing I saw was my classroom printer, but with 6000 copies a month I'm not worried about it! I am going to ask for more student computers though, I only have 3 :(

Blog Note

Some of the stories are out of order, please disregard that, I'm trying to write as I remember them.  The blog is mainly for the pictures and partly for the stories.  I'm going to brush up on my story telling skills.  Give me time.  It will get better - I HOPE!

Who needs gasoline?

So, I was supposed to take the shuttle from the Narita airport to the base.  However, my principal was coming to pick up his wife so he said he could pick me up as well. This is unexpected, but I go with it. I can get to know him and his wife a bit.

Everything is going fine, we are traveling about 60 miles an hour in what seems to be a car with a moped engine. I'm not kidding this little car worked its little heart out! As we begin our two hour journey Dave, my principal, mentions that he's not quite sure about how much gas we have. I didn't pay much attention because, I taking it all in.  I'm really thinking about how I already miss air conditioning, but I'm not too concerned.  We are driving along fine, passing Tokyo Disney (which you know does not do the real one justice), the Tokyo tower, etc.  Well as we approach the Hadena airport Dave starts to really worry about gas.  Apparently the light is blinking.  We get off the expressway at the airport, thinking there may be a gas station near there.  Why, I don't know, I can't recall seeing gas at any airport, but we try anyway.  Not too surprisingly, we don't find any gas.  We are starting to get a little more anxious, the moped has got good gas mileage but we are really testing the limits.  After driving around for about 30 minutes we pull up to and Eneos gas station.

Apparently in Japan most gas stations are full service.  They clean the windshields, check tires, and if necessary empty ashtrays.

Dave says welcome to Japan, I say - this is going on the blog!

My new TEMPORARY home

I have to say I love my temporary lodging.  It's actually about the same size as my old apartment, but with better furnishings! And it's only $55 a night! This sure beats any other military temporary lodging I've been in!

Here are some photos of my place!

Long Distance Traveling

After a 5 day delay due to the passport people I was on my way!

The trip across the water was as bad as I thought it would be.  Thankfully the flight wasn't too full so I was able to spread out a bit.  I think the trip could had been better if the plane had been new.  This plane was OLD SCHOOL. No individual monitors, but rather a couple of screens that had a yellow tint to them! and they were so small it wasn't worth watching anything.

The thirteen hours flew by pretty fast.  I slept some, played with my "toys" and ate.  They feed you  A LOT on international flights.  I thought we would travel east over Europe on our way to Asia, but we went west into the sunlight.  There was no Friday night for me, which made it harder to sleep, but I made it work.

Customs and immigration were a breeze as well, thank the Lord. Just give your forms and grab your bags and your off! I thought I was going to be searched and asked a hundred questions, but God was looking out for me.  He knows how anxious I have been!