My Apartment!

This post is going to be full of mostly pictures and captions so you can see the inside of where I'll be living for at least the next year. I couldn't be happier with my apartment so far, and I hope that it stays that way (but I've only been here for a week so who knows).

This is the entrance to my apartment in Odate.  To the left is a cupboard where we put shoes because you don't wear shoes inside houses in Japan. That has taken some getting used to (especially the whole slipping shoes on and off thing), but overall it's fine. I enjoy going barefoot anyway!

This is my bathroom. To the right is the sink and washing machine (which I'm using right now). There is no dryer because the Japanese do not tend to dry their clothes, they hang them up around their house (which is going to take some getting used to). In the back of the picture is the shower and to the right is the toilet.

This is a close up of my shower with a small tub underneath it. Apparently, what you are supposed to do is take a shower and then soak in the bath, but I haven't done that yet. However, the shower is actually great-I have great water pressure and generally am very happy.

This is the toilet (obviously). It's pretty standard except for one thing-in the winter I can plug it in and use the seat warmer!!! I'm pretty damn excited about that because it's gonna get cold!

This is my living room (I'm sitting on that couch right now). To the right is a bookcase filled with books left to me by my predecessor and also a collection of movies and tv shows, mostly Sex and the City, but also the Wedding Singer, Arrested Development, and other things. To the left is obviously my tv which has a dvd player and vcr. I can't play American dvds on it unfortunately, but I can buy English dvds here which is excellent! Under the rug is my second favorite part of the room, my HEATED CARPET! During the winter I will definitely sit on this carpet and huddle for warmth-it'll be great! But my favorite part of the living room would have to be what's straight ahead...

My hamster!!! Meet Nemen (named after the Nemean Lion), a female hamster that I bought a couple of days ago from a pet store that is very close to the apartment. I wanted to have some living company in my apartment that doesn't include bugs, so Nemen was perfect! She's adorable and often comes up to the top of the cage to play (she's doing it in the picture). Surrounding her are plants that I haven't taken a picture of yet, but one of them is obviously a cactus. 

This is another picture of my living room, and is another favorite of mine (I just love my apartment). Shane, Mike, and Mariko-san were waiting with these signs for us when we arrived at the Odate-Noshiro airport and they were so great that I had to hang mine up immediately! Surrounding that are pictures from home that really make my apartment mine. I'm glad that I thought to bring them.

This is my bed...well, futon. It consists of a pad on the bottom, the futon itself, a cover sheet, and a blanket (I have about 7 extra blankets come winter or when people visit, wink wink). It's less than a foot from the ground (just a guesstimation), so I'm surprised that it is so comfortable. While I'm normally a horrible sleeper, I've only had a couple of really bad nights, which for me is awesome.

However, the one annoying part of the bed is that I have to fold it up and put it away every day so it doesn't get mold. This isn't actually a big deal, but it means that my bedroom often feels very empty. This is a view of my bedroom without my bed (it's bigger than this, but this is just to give you an idea). I have my map up with postcards and pictures on the wall, and of course Speckles (my bear) sitting on my pillow. 

This is my "closet", complete with iron and ironing board thanks to my predecessor (I really did have everything I could ever need here, including a tracksuit). 

This is my desk and computer with an awesome desk chair. I alternate between sitting here and on the sofa, but it's been treating me well.

This is the view from the big window in my living room, it's going to be gorgeous in the winter (although still not looking forward to the snow).

Finally, this is my kitchen. I have the largest refrigerator out of the five of us which is great (although I haven't taken full advantage of it yet. The kitchen is slightly small, but it does its job and is full of pots and pans and things. I haven't done too much cooking yet because we have gone out a lot, but it'll be great. For those of you who know me well, the big question when seeing the kitchen must be "so how's the milk situation?" Well, the title of this blog used to be "A Year without Milk in Japan", but I have obviously changed it (the new blog title will be explained at a later date...or today if I keep blogging). There is milk here, and I have been drinking it occasionally, but it's just not the same. So therefore, while I do have milk, I miss my two gallons of milk that I used to have in my fridge back in America at all times (this fridge would be perfect!), but I'll deal. And with that, I finish this blog post and move on to bigger and better things (or I'll make a new blog post).

Tokyo!!!

Alright I know that it's been a while since I've updated my blog (it's been almost 2 weeks since I've been in Japan), but at least that means I've been super busy right? Oh you couldn't be more right. Since coming to Japan I have: bought a cell phone and a hamster, gone grocery shopping in places where I couldn't read the majority of things offered, taken an intensive four day Japanese language course, and kicked butt at mini golf and karaoke. But more about those things later, I should probably start at the beginning right?

Before Japan the furthest that I had ever traveled from the United States was Hungary, and there I was with people I knew and in a country where I could read the writing (even though I didn't understand what it meant). Now I'm in the world of anime, Kanji, and sushi (along with many other differences). So anyway, I'm going to use this blog to let y'all know about the last three and a half days (it feels like so much longer). Let me go back to before my actual journey began, back when I was still in good ol' Calvert County, Maryland...

I only had three weeks at home before I left for Japan and those three weeks went by very quickly. I accomplished almost everything that I wanted to and for those things that I didn't get to do, I'll just have to go back to America eventually to finish them I suppose. But for those three weeks the big thing that was always on my mind was, of course, packing. How do you pack for a year (or possibly two or three or four or five) in only two big suitcases, a carry-on, and a messenger bag? To be fair, I still don't know if I can answer that question but somehow I managed to do it, or so I think. The real test will be when I am living in Odate and find out if I actually have everything that I need. So after weeks or packing and unpacking and packing again, August 3rd came about much too soon. That last Friday in the States was filled with orientations at the Japanese embassy in Washington D.C. The orientation itself was long, but it did end up being very helpful. One was being able to meet Sensais (teachers) from Japan who came to the States to study English. I met about 10 out of 100 and I got to talk about Japan and get some questions answered which was great! The other highlight was that I got to meet Aftan who is going to Odate with me! She and I got along really well immediately and I'm glad that we will be living in the same building (and it helps that she also doesn't speak Japanese). Other than that the orientation was alright, but I agreed with mom that it should have taken place in the middle of the week, because I could have used a break between that and the ridiculously long day that I had the day after.

The next thing that I knew, it was Friday the fourth and I was awakened at 4:00 by my alarm in order to start my journey (for those of you who don't know me, I am definitely NOT a morning person. Most of the trip is pretty uneventful, the large luggage that I had made it through security (see above picture for my luggage), the plane rides (one from VA to Chicago and the other from Chicago to Japan) were filled with movie watching, Stephen King reading, and a little bit of sleeping (probably an hour and a half over the 16ish hour plane ride).  But y'all aren't interested in that so let me skip to the good part. We got to Japan at about 4:00pm on Sunday the 5th (we passed the international date line so instead of going back in time we went forward...google it if you're confused) and breezed through security. Then we got on a bus for an hour, saw some nice sights:

Tokyo!

The main hotel of Tokyo Disney (yes, I do really want to go there.

The Keio Plaza Hotel , where we stayed. (I did not take this picture)

My room in the Keio Plaza Hotel (I shared with Shelby, a JET also from Calvert County Maryland (small world, right?)

The rest of the 2 1/2 days went by quickly, so instead of boring you with more paragraphs, I'll sum everything up with some nice bullet points (and more pictures).

• Orientation was filled of a ton of information, mostly about how we will suffer from culture shock at some point (Stage 2 of 5 for JET emotions) and how the alcohol tolerance limit is 0.00 while driving (seriously, I think we heard this about 5 or 6 times in great detail-if you drink and drive you can get jail time and a fine of hundreds of thousands of American dollars). 
• In the evening we explored Tokyo a bit. We (meaning the people that I hung out with and I, not the whole JET program) took the Tokyo metro and wandered around for a while, we also walked to the top of a tall tower and looked out at Tokyo by night, and of course ate some interesting food, including pickled plum cereal.
• Finally, and most importantly, I met some of the people who are going to be my closest friends and compadres over the next year. I met a lot of great people at orientation, but the two people that I have been spending the most time with (and will continue to spend the most time with) are Gerald and Aftan, the two other new JETs in Odate. It's nice because we are all in the same apartment complex in Odate, and they are both really cool, so I couldn't be happier (see the bottom picture above for a picture).

Finally orientation was over and it was time to head to Odate. We waited in the airport for five hours with 2 other people, John and Madeline, who were also going to Northern Akita (the others left earlier who were heading to Southern Akita). After that long (but not painful) wait, we headed to Odate-Noshiro Airport and met three other important people. Mike and Shane are the two other ALTs who have been there for at least a year (Mike 1 year and Shane 2) and who have been showing us around and taking us everywhere for the last week. The other important person is Mariko-san, our amazing supervisor who has been doing this job for 25 years and couldn't be better at it. She has been our translator and parental figure and she's absolutely amazing. Anyway, that's the end of this post...hopefully I'll post more later because I do believe that blogging is important, especially for y'all back home whom I'm sure would love to hear all about my adventures. Sayonara and keep following my blog!