Hi everyone! I arrived safely in Japan, spent three very long days in Tokyo, then flew to my new home in Kunisaki, Oita. Of all of the new Oita Prefecture JETs, I had the shortest distance to travel, because the airport is in my city. In fact, the closet convenience store to my new apartment is inside the airport. My supervisor, Okano-sensei, picked me up along with two others. I am horrible with names, so I don’t remember theirs. We went to lunch right across the street from the airport, then went on to the Board of Education.

I met a few people there before heading to the Municipal Office to meet the mayor and register. I got my residence card actually registered and applied and paid for a year’s worth of insurance for the car. From there, we went back the BOE, but not much happened there. I was told to rest after the long day, so I sat at a table towards the back and eventually read a bit of Goblet of Fire since I’ve not been able to read it much lately.

Next, Okano-sensei drove me around my neighborhood a bit before taking me to my apartment. My predecessor called the landlady Tsuru-sensei, but she told me that it was fine to call her Minako-san, because her husband is Tsuru-san, and calling them both that would make it confusing. Tsuru-san called the electricity company and just had me be like, “hai,” and tell them my name. Pretty soon, the gas guy showed up and got me set up, too. I found out today when he came to do a couple things that his daughter is going to be one of my students.

After everything was set up, Minako-san took me to the next closest convenience store, where I got something to eat so I wouldn’t have to cook. I also picked up a drink. I later went for a walk and stopped in at the Seven Eleven in the airport and got a Boss for the morning and a bottle of water. On the way out, I picked up a pouch ice cream from a vending machine.

My pred left me lots of books. One of them I happened to bring with me, so I now have to copies of An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, the sort of third Genki. There’s even a book that teaches Oita-ben!  He also left a Bible and Book of Mormon as a gift because they helped him during his stay. (I then found another Book of Mormon in the glove box of the car.) Not sure what I’m gonna do with them…

This post might be weird, because I’ve decided to add everything before getting internet access to the same post. Everything before now was day 2 in Kunisaki.

On the third day, Friday, right after I borrowed my landlady’s computer to post to facebook that I was fine but without internet yet, one of the two other JETs in the area stopped by.  Until I arrived, she was the only girl in Kunisaki, since my predecessor was a guy. The other JET went home for the summer, so I won’t meet him until September, most likely.

Anyway, she brought me the PS2 that I bought from a nearby departing JET, some flowers, and a huge bottle of water.  We talked for a few minutes, then decided to go to one of the supermarkets nearby. I’d already gone to my closest market, but we went to another that is closer to her house and where we both work. I got some items I’d found I needed/wanted. Another clothes drying hanger (the pred left one), some kitty slippers, a few more sweat rags (two for me and one for each neighbor), Pokémon tissues, a variety pack of miso, toilet paper, and a few other things, probably. We then went across the street to a hardware store, where I found an electric kettle and a clothes drying rack thing.  Altogether, I spent about $70 on essentials/sort-of-essentials.

I’m ending the fourth day now, and finally have some form of internet. I went to the au store and got an iPhone 5 with free tethering. It was quite fun trying to get it done, let me tell you. My Japanese is nowhere good enough to fill in a phone contract, so for a while, he had to do a combination of saying and miming things before I could be sure I knew what he was saying. He ended up calling the help line for a translator for a couple things. I THOUGHT he was asking me about insurance, but he didn’t say Apple Care until he was talking to the translator oops. He stopped trying to talk to me once he figured out he could get a translator on the phone, though. Oh well.

I also washed clothes for the first time since getting here. I put them out to dry pretty early, so they ought to be dry by now. Tonight, I’m going to take a bath for the first time in my super deep tub, yay!