I've Been Here Over a Month Now!

I can't believe I've lived in Japan for over a month now! And I've only taught for 8 days. I'm on break now, but I didn't have time to plan anything much because it came so quickly, so I've just gone to the beach with Makiko, the manager of the Tsu school; seen Harry Potter 6 with Katie and Hisae, the manager of the Ise school; and hopefully I'm going to Nagoya to see a castle, a shrine, a Ferris wheel, and find an English bookstore tomorrow. And I went on a walk. I actually will keep this brief because I want to take pictures of the sunset (and post them with the hoards of other photos I have on Facebook). It's beautiful out now, but still too hot.

Forget brief. I left to take the pictures already. The sky was pretty clear, not really any clouds, so sad things there. I do love clouds. While I was walking I ran into a little old woman who talked to me for fifteen minutes. Normally this would have been fine but I only understood about eight words she said the whole time. After I told her my name, she crouched over and wrote her name in the dirt using a stick. Not sure why saying it wasn't enough, but I am now 100% sure her name is Miura. She was very friendly, and I think we both said something like "see you again here" when we left (we were up on a hill looking at the sunset). Now I have a friend to watch sunsets with.

It's time for 5 Things I've Learned in Japan:

1. There can never be too many vending machines.
2. Kawaii means "cute". Kowaii means "scary". Don't tell people their kids are "kowaii".
3. Sometimes you see a frog on the floor of a bar.
4. The coffee isn't great, but the tea is delicious (totemo oishi desu).
5. People here assume that I'm from Australia.

And 5 Things I Still Don't Know About Japan:

1. How to get to the post office.
2. How to sort my trash correctly (It's combustible or not-combustible here. Go figure).
3. How to get proper storage for my closet (right now it's like a big empty box - the Hello Kitty curtain rod failed).
4. How to meet Japanese people older than 14, younger than 44.
5. How to find a website for cheap flights to Korea. 80,000 yen, really?

My iTunes Shuffle is currently playing the nun choir's "Morning Hymn" from The Sound of Music. "Rex admirabilis..." I still can't set up my TV here (it's complicated) and I'm not convinced that it would work, even if I could plug it in. So iTunes and Youtube are entertaining me when I'm at home. Oooh the shuffle just cut to Jerry Orbach!

I'm pretty much settled in here (apart from the closet debacle) so look for more conistent updates from me! Huzzah.