Back in Ja-Ja-Japan

Hi everybody. I made it back without much difficulty. The flight was actually really good. I asked for a seat in the emergency exit row and I actually got it; that meant I could stretch my legs out as far as I wanted and in turn meant I could actually get a bit of sleep. So I have adjusted to the time change pretty well already.

My apartment is quite nice. It's new and a bit bigger than the last one. Also, it seems as if it has been very well designed to take advantage of every possible bit of storage space. So it's small and cramped in places, (like the micro-mini-kitchenette) but it has somehow managed to swallow up all of my belongings with ease. The last place was even smaller and had no shelves or storage, really, so I ended up filing everything under 'F'... on the floor.

It also has a neat BroadBand internet connection with a TV set-top box. This is some sort of thing that lets me get 8 digital TV channels over the internet as well as the ability to rent videos over the web. It also has a very badly-designed web browser thing built into it so I can surf the web on the television. This doesn't seem to work very well, however, so I guess I'll be here in the internet cafe once in a while.

The kind of disappointing thing about my apartment is its distance from the station and the supermarket. Both are about 15 minutes walk from the apartment. Right now, with the beautiful May weather we're having (sunny and 25 degrees) it's not a problem, but when it gets swelteringly hot, I can imagine that trudging to and from the grocery store will be quite unpleasant. I will also have to get used to being drenched in sweat by the time I get to school in the mornings. Oh well...

Another thing: I'm a bit disappointed to hear that I'm going to be the only teacher returning to the University. The other teachers I worked with last term have all moved on to different jobs, but they're all still in the Tokyo area so perhaps we can get together. My next-door neighbour and fellow teacher this time is from the UK and seems like a nice guy. It's his first time in Japan, so I'm doing what I can to help him out. There are 4 others teachers who live in a separate apartment complex, so I haven't really met them yet, but I will in 2 days when we have our orientation and training.

Anyway, that's about all I have to report. I'm pretty bored right now, because I have been doing basically nothing for the past couple days, but that will change soon when school starts. Being back in Japan is very strange -- it's kind of like I never left, but at the same time, almost everything is different. More when I have it...