I wake and get ready to be picked up by my boss whose name starts with a "S". Only to hear a knock at my door. I open it and am surprised to see Dan. "Hey little change I am taking you to Mr. Somiya." Oh right that's his name! Dan is still talking, "I am going to drop you off at the Yakuba, and he will take you around from there. Your going to be meeting the principals of your schools, then sounds like maybe some touring and shopping for food and things you need so write a list." I smile, "I already have my list ready. During my time off I took a deeper look around my apartment, whoever was last here left some good stuff and looks like all I really need is food and to learn how to use some of the devices." Dan laughs, "Lucky, I will try to come over and help you with what I can. Your lucky, when I was here I had to figure this all out on my own. I was one of the first here." I just smile and nod, knowing that I am very lucky to have Dan here and appreciate all the help he has given me so far. I just hope I do not get on his nerves. The last I want to be is a burden and a pain to him.
I get to the Yakuba and go up to the 3rd floor, proud of myself for remembering where to go. After all being in a new country its the little things you remember that are victories. As well as the bigger things. I am immediately greeted with smiling faces and people saying hello. Mr. Somi... shoot still can't pronounce it! Comes up and asks if I need anything, a drink? I tell him no thanks I am fine. He shows me a seat in front of a female who is very nice and pretty. She informs me that she speaks a little more English and will be coming with me and Mr. S today. Then she asks if I have had enough time to settle in, and if I am happy with everything. I tell her I have had time to unpack and I am happy with everything. I also tell her I have made a list of things that I would like to get while we are out, if there is time. She asks to see the list and translates to everyone what we had been talking about. Like I said before the office is like a school setting all the desks face each other as in a big group format with no dividers. Everyone hears everything. They look at my list and are a little confused by some of the items. They ask what a toaster is. When I described it they all went "OH OH OH! AHHH, OK" Of course they have different names so somethings must be described. I am grateful toaster was the biggest word issue on the list.
We get into Mr. S car. I find out that it was Mr. S who cleaned my apartment before I came here. In America we would have hired a cleaning service. I feel very honored that my boss would take such close care that he would clean the apartment to make sure it was ready for me. One of the things Dan told me to pay attention to was the direction of the schools. I needed to know where the schools were and how to get there. This was a task I found difficult because Mr. S was a very fast driver, and I am a visual marker kind of person. I did try my best. I was also grateful to get the front seat. As I found out quickly the roads are very windy where my schools are in the mountains. The view is stunning, however, and I knew that when I make my own drive up I would try to stop and enjoy some of it. As we drove I laughed out loud, which was met with question marks in the others faces. The reason I started laughing was because we were approaching a tunnel. The tunnels remind me of my family and of Jay and I. Whenever I go through I tunnel I either hold my breath, or I yell,"TTTTUUUUUUNNNNNNNNEEEEEEELLLLLLLL" all the way through the tunnel. I explain this to the other members in the car. Then they inform me that there will be many tunnels while driving to my schools. This brings a big smile to my face. I love tunnels!
Ok so my first school, its called Kuze and it will be what they refer to as my "Home-school" this is where I will get most of my information from, or where I will spend most of my time. The principal is a very nice man and very funny. I think we will get along very well. I am also introduced to the head Japanese English teacher who I will be working with. He speaks very nice English and seems to understand a lot already. This eases my worry about not being able to communicate with the faculty at all. Kuze is 20 minutes from my house. The next school is about 20 more minutes deeper inside the mountain. We have to cross this amazing bridge and then go on a very narrow and windy road. Seeing these roads makes me more nervous for when I have to start driving. The school name I am visiting now is called Sakauchi (Sack a ooh chee). We do the same drill as the last school and again I am happy with the principal and the teacher. Only one more school to go, but I am told that we will not be seeing them until later that day.
They take me to a Japanese restaurant, and yes, you guessed it. We sit on little pillow (tatami mats) and cross our legs. They do have western tables but they are already all taken. The server provides us a menu and the the woman who has been my translator helps me pick out some food. I go with a teriyaki dish that has soup and rice. When the food comes out I was shocked! The bowls were HUGE!!! I was told everything in Japan was small... oh no... not at this place. I take a bite and I am in heaven! The food is delicious! We eat and talk a little bit and I take some pictures (I will post later). Then they paid which I was again grateful for. Then I guess there was still time so they took me to do some touring. We traveled up the mountain some more to a big dam. It was amazing, compared to the dams I have seen in Utah, this one puts them all to laughing shame. Not only is it huge, but you are allowed to walk across it!!! I was enjoying myself. I took some pictures and they took some pictures of me. I made them laugh with my noodly, funny self. We also went and saw my first castle. It was beautiful. Although smaller then I expected and I was mostly saddened we could not go inside. Still I enjoyed being able to see it.
We finally headed down to the last of my schools. This was my elementary school and it was really close to my apartment. Which meant I could walk there if I wanted to. This Principal seemed a little stand off-ish. But his assistant vice principal and faculty were all very friendly. When I walked in they were all very welcoming and even had written my name on a sticky name tag and pasted it to my chair. It made me smile to know that they were excited to have me there. I also knew that I would have a mentor to help me transition there since none of the teachers at this school were comfortable with speaking English. After that last school I was feeling a little tired. But I still needed to get the items on my list. So off to the last stop, or so I thought.
The other two guiding me around thought it would be fun to take me to the mall to go shopping. The mall is huge! It has tons of stores with shoes, clothes, food, movies, books. If I had the money I was trying to save it would have been so much fun. Unfortunately I needed to keep I tight chain on my wallet. I was taken through store after store and shown so many things. I could tell they were trying to find what I liked so I did some window shopping saying I would come back later. Then they took me to what is called the 100 yen store. It is what we would know as the Dollar store. This I knew I could get a few items from. Such as razors and a couple of decorative items. As I was looking around I could tell what some things were. However I could not find razors. So I went to the woman with me and described that I needed razors. It took me gesturing saving my legs but eventually we were able to find them. It was then that I learned there are not only razors for saving the regular things such as arms, legs, pits....but they also have special razors for eyebrows!! I bought some just in case. ;)
Finally I convinced them I was really done with the mall and wanted cereal and milk. They took me to the first level of the mall into the international shopping zone...The only thing I recognized there were M&M's....and no I did not buy them. I looked around but in the end I told them that I needed to go somewhere else. They took me another grocery type store where I bought milk, eggs, cereal, spaghetti with sauce. And for some strange reason they thought I really loved pancakes so when they saw those they happily and excitedly grabbed them to show me. Being polite I smiled and took them. Mind you this was pancake mix, not actual pre-made pancakes... Now I needed to learn how in the world I was going to cook eggs, pancakes, and spaghetti... let the games begin. Finally at about 7:30 p.m. they dropped me back home. Where I took out a bowl poured me some tasty cereal and ate breakfast for dinner. Delicious! I settle in to relax and fall asleep in the comfy bed.... then I get a call at the door.......To be continued....
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