It Begins

I'm on a piss poor wireless connection until my fiber optical internet is set up later in the week so in efforts to get a post up before my internet cuts out again I'm gonna copy an email I sent to my parents a couple of days ago after my first day of work where I actually went to school.

Today was my first actual day at school. Classes don't start until Sept 3rd though, but a lot of kids were there for their sports clubs so I got to meet a fair bit of the kids including 3 kids on the 15 member baseball team named Yuya. They all have the same haircut but one of them is shorter so he's little Yuya for me. As for the other two I'm sure I'll find a way to distinguish them soon enough.

The school is actually quite nice. I was a bit shocked actually cause a lot of the schools I have seen here are fairly junky looking. They have this new buidling to the side that was built when the school amalgamated with another school. Inside there are actually rooms for the students to stay in if the roads get closed in the winter. One of the feeder schools (that I'll be making a number of trips to about an hour bus ride away) is way up in the mountains and prone to heavy snowfall. Since the kids come so far they built that building with facilities to keep the kids if necessary. There's also a massive dojo on the second floor which got my heart pumping. It's way bigger than any one I've ever been in before.

As for my place, it's not massive by any means, but it's bigger than where I was before and is quite sufficient for myself.

The place I'm in is kinda out in the sticks though. The nearest train station and the center of my city is about 30 minutes by bike. I have a bus pass to get to school but it's only good for the ride between my school and home and school is in the opposite direction of the city. The train that runs through my city is pretty slow, expensive and doesn't run often either. So for me to get to some place like Kyoto I have to leave about 2 hours before I need to be there. I think I might buy a little scooter just to get from home to the station or to get to the main train line. Scooters are fairly cheap, they get decent milage and I don't need to take a motorcycle driving test to get one.

The heat here has been killer. Yesterday was record setting all across the country with some places seeing temps of 105+. Luckily for me I was at the ocean with Keiko and her parents so I got to enjoy the cooling ocean waters. I did get a bit of a sunburn though.

Once my good internet is up I'll put up some pictures and stuff.