quick update..hopefully i:ll get internet soon

Wow, so much to catch up on! The nightlife here is crazy, the last train is at midnight, and they don’t start running again until 5am, so if you miss the train you are stuck out! Sarah and I met up with my friend Jonathan from Orlando one night and went to a Pub. We met a few people (out of the 3 Floridians I’ve met, 2 of them were from UCF!) and had a blast drinking with a couple Japanese guys who told us that everyone wants to practice their English when their drunk, haha. They all wanted to take pictures with me and Sarah, lol. Sarah and I moved into our apartment on the 22nd. We live in Sagamihara, which is really far from where we work. We found a 100 Yen shop (like a $1.00 tree) and got cleaning supplies and I scrubbed the hell out of our apt, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the last people moved out. We didn’t bring shower towels and couldn’t find them ANYWHERE, we had to settle with dish towels, haha, we had to dry off with a tiny dish towel for almost a week. I finally found real towels at a department store near the train station. My commute is about an hour and a half each way, BLAH! The trains are SO crowded, I’m lucky if I get to sit down for 10 minutes, everyone is packed in like sardines. People will seriously shove everyone in so they can fit too, it’s crazy! (Think NYC times 10!) One of our neighbors can speak a little bit of English, so she has been a big help to us. No other Nova employees live around us, which pretty much sucks! Our refrigerator wasn’t working for a while but we finally got it fixed..I have lost so much weight but I’m starting to get my appetite back so I’m sure I’ll gain it all back soon.On the last day of training, Sarah, Sara, David and I went out with a couple of teachers to get a few beers. When they invited us out we expected to go to a bar…but no, they scouted out a place near a vending machine! Haha, we seriously drank beer out of a vending maching in the middle of the sidewalk near the train station, it was so weird, but it was fun. Then we had this bright to miss the trains and stay up all night, we thought it was a good idea…until we wanted to go to sleep!! We went to a restaurant to get food and apparently you have to buy a drink too AND pay a cover charge, which was weird, b/c they didn’t tell us about the cover charge until we were leaving.. Then we’re like, what the heck are we gonna do for 4 more hours?! Karaoke is HUGE in Japan, so we decided to check it out. Well the one that we went to charged 3800 Yen (about $38) per person! Usually they are only like 10 bucks, so we found this dart bar, which was 300 yen per person and decided to just go in to sit down since we had so long until the trains started. Then when we were leaving they show us a small sign that says everyone had to buy a drink, haha, of course! Damn all these extra charges on EVERYTHING here!! So by now it’s about 4am and we still have an hour before the trains start, we decide to go find an internet café. Outside was crazy, I was shocked at how many people were out and about, even a hair salon was open and in business!! There were at least 3 people getting their hair done at 4am!! The internet café was insane…it was like a hotel, there were showers and each booth had a computer, a couch, a tv and a door. WIERDD! When Sarah and I walked back to our apartment (it’s a 10-15 min walk from the station) it was completely light out. I still can’t get used to how early it gets dark here since they don’t have daylight savings. Training went well, it lasted for 3 days, Sarah and I had it together (even though we work at different branches) along with our friends Sara and David. Work was a bit overwhelming at first, but after the second day I felt a lot better about it. Each lesson starts with an assessment, then consists of sections that deal with main language, pronouncing certain sounds, listening, activities, application and a wrap up. The classes are all 40 minutes long and range from 1-4 people at a time. We have a 10 minute break in between each lesson to assess the previous students and prepare for our next lesson. It really isn’t enough time considering all the lessons are different; there are hundreds of different levels we choose from. We usually teach 4 lessons, then get a 40 minute break for “lunch” then teach 4 more lessons. Once a day we teach a voice lesson, which pretty much consists of a few people wanting to converse in English. I pretty much go in and just chat about anything for 40 minutes. We are finally registered aliens ;), we have yet to set up our bank accounts and get internet but we did get cell phones!Russell’s words of the Blog…Please-Kudasai (Koo-dah-sigh)Yes-Hai (Hi)
the subways get soooo packed!!!

Central Tokyo-October 21

This is a toilet!! They have
normal ones too (LUCKILY!)
but they really expect you to
just pop a squat!!! haha






Yesterday Sarah, Sara and I went and saw the government building and went up to the 51st floor of some other building to look down at the city, pretty amazing view, but all there is in Shinjuku are a bunch of skyscrapers. (Tomorrow we're going to go to Central Tokyo and hopefully it will be better, bc there isn't much to see here!) For lunch we went into some restaurant that looked good and just randomly picked out a picture that looked appetizing. I got fried rice, dumpling(amazinggg) and a noodle soup in pork broth..it was pretty good, but none of us finished, the portions were so big. We went to a hands on science museum, which was fun trying to figure out what to do since most of the directions were in Japanese.
We were up this morning at 7:30 (we're almost over jetlag) so we got going early, we hopped on a train and went to Central Tokyo. Here it actually felt like we were in Japan, not just some big city! :) We went to see the Imperial Palace, which is home of the Imperial family. It was build in 1888, but destroyed during WW2. (You know you're impressed by my history lesson!!)It was rebuilt in 1968. Around the castle are stone walls and moats, the picture of the 2 bridges that form an entrance to the palace are called Nijubashi. Then we went to see The Japanese Parliament or The National Diet of Japan. This was the first parliament ever to be established in Asia. We also went to Yoyogi Park, where the Olympics were held in 1967, and the NHK studio, which produces TV and radio stations. We saw a few people running in the 'Race for the Cure' marathon. We also went to Shibuya, where we saw Hachiko, a famous statue of a dog, and went to Ginza which has all the prestigious stores that I wish I could afford to shop in..Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Tiffany and Co., Gucci, Coach....which we were walking around we saw some guy doing a photo shoot in the middle of the square, we don't know what for but keep an eye out for this guy. Let me know if you see him in GQ or something!
The temperature had been nice, 22 degrees C, I've been comfy in a long sleeve shirt and jeans. Everyone really obeys hte crosswalk signs here, unlike NYC, when the light is red, NOONE goes, even if there are no cars in sight..there are no buttons to push when you want to cross either, you just have to wait. It's so funny to go into stores because the majority of them have american music playing, I must have heard Justin Timberlake 3 times today, haha. I haven't heard ANY cell phones ring, it's kind of nice! Not many people even go around talking on them, however they are ALL constantly texting on them, even while eating. Today was the first time we saw people in Komonos, they are really pretty, noone wears flipflops unless they are wearing them, and in that case they wear white socks and wooden flipflops that just do not look comfortable at all!
Everyone said that the people here are really short, but that's actually not true, they are all normal height, of course there are a few really short people, but the majority of them seem normal height. They say all the seafood and stuff is what makes their hair so beautiful but they must be lacking in calcium or something because all the older people seem to have osteoporosis or back problems. They look so old and can barely stand up, they seriously walk halfway crouched over, it's terrible!
Russell's words of the day:
I don't understand-Wakarimasen (Wah-car-ee-ma-sen)
Teacher-Sensei (Sen-say)
Water- O Mizu (Oh-Me-zoo)

Jet Lag sucks! October 19th

I passed our around 11 last night and woke up at 5:30am..yuck! Luckily I heard Sarah's door open around 6:30, so we went down to breakfast in the hotel. Breakfast consisted of Croissants and rolls...no fruit or anything else. After our meal of carbs, we decided to go explore. Not much was open at 7:30 in the morning, but everyone was rushing to work. The sidewalks are so crowded, you have to watch where you're going or you'll get run over..by a bicycle! There are vending machines everywhere, which have water, juice, coffee and BEER! We walked around for a couple hours, but even that was hard because we couldn't read the signs, so we had no idea what anything was! It's wierd to walk around and see only a sea of dark colors. They all wear dark suts and have dark hair. Seriously, all the men today were wearing the same black suit, only with a different pattern on their dark blue ties. If I didn't already stand out with my blonde hair, I definately will with my bright shirts! We passed a few gutsy people in colors, but only like 1 in 25. It's wierd. We found a bookstore open and looked around, trying to find something in English, haha no such luck. We passed a karaoke bar and planned to go in tonight but we are too exhausted. After exploring for a coupe hours we came back to take naps. Sarah and I planned on meeting around noon (it was 10:30)...well neither of us woke up until 5:30, hahaha OOPS! By that point it was too late for us to do anything productive, we were planning on setting up our bank accounts when we got up. It's frustrating that Nova isn't very helpful, the packet they gave us helps but how do we set up a bank account when noone speaks our language?! Well after our "nap" we woke up Sara, the other girl in our hotel, and found a place to eat dinner. It's really neat, most places have models of the food with numbers on them, so you decide what you want, go to the machine, put your money in and push the number. It prints out a paper and you give it to the chef. :) It's easy for us because we don't have to try to communicate but it's also a mystery of what we're eating! I chose a noodle soup with "something" on top. That "something" ended up being squid! It was actually really good, a bit chewy though. The noodles were so amazing! It was very filling and only cost 370 Yen..which is less than $4.00. It gets dark SO early here, like around 6pm! After dinner we just came back to the hotel to try to get used to the time difference! OH, I almost forgot! On our way home from dinner we passed a guy with his pants down, just casually peeing on a building!! haha, who does that?! I miss you all already! Download Skype, it's free, I talked to a few people today and it sounds like you guys are next door, it is so clear! :)
Russell's words of the day:
Excuse me-Sumimasen (Sue-me-ma-sen)
Good Evening-Konbanwa (Cone-
bawn-wa)

The journey..October 18, 2006

Kinichiwa! I'm finally in Japan!! I left Jacksonville this morning on an 8:30am flight to Detroit. From there, Sarah and I boarded a 3:00 flight straight to Tokyo. 13 hours is a LONG time to be on a plane! Thank you guys for writing me plane letters!! I had 35 of them, so that definately helped pass some of the time :). We got off the plane, and while we were waiting in line at customs, we watched everyone get their bags searched. Sarah and I were groaning, because we had soo much stuff (i def went over the limit on my 2 "50" lb bags..they both weighed close to 70lbs each..oops) it would have taken us FOREVER to get through!! When we got up there, they asked us what we were doing and how long we were there for, when we told them we were teachers, they let us right through, without even opening one bag. Everyone said they really respect teachers here. When we met up with the other Nova teachers, they tell us that those staying in hotels will need stuff for 4 days, because our luggage will be delivered to our apartment on Sunday(it was Wednesday). That was really frustrating, because we had specifically asked them before we packed and they said we'd have all our luggage while we were in the hotel. Well Sarah and I had to go through all our bags and get clothes and cosmetics out in the middle of the airport. After that, we took an hour and a half train to Shinjuku, where our hotel is. Then John, a Nova guy, met us at the train station and walked us to our hotel. It was pretty much like, "here you are, here is a packet of information...someone will pick you up Sunday" UMMM, hello did you forget none of us can speak Japanese and it's only Wednesday?! lol. There were 4 of us staying here, but 1 got to go to his apt today, so now there are 3. Our hotels are TINY! They are pretty much the size of the bed, haha. They provide a nightgown for us, and slippers that we are supposed to wear around. We were all beat so we just went across the street to the convenience store "ampm" and got dinner, I got cup noodles. After we ate, we all showered and passed out.
Russell's words of the day:
Good Morning-Ohayoo Gozaimasu (o-hi-o Ga-zi-a-mus)
Thank You-Arigato Gozaimasu (Ar-i-ga-toe Ga-zi-a-mus)