it's only been a week...

wow, it seems i've been living in japan a LOT longer than one week. i'm getting so accustomed to this place and this different life. it's easier for me to think and perhaps easier for you to read if i write this in bullet form. below are some highlights of the last few days....

~on friday we had a meeting where we taught english games to the jr. high english teachers, and they taught us japanese games [see picture below]. as soon as we walked in, one of the outgoing woman teachers said "Hello~ This is mr. ____. He teaches at the jr. high with me. Of course, he is single!" HAHAHAHAHA i was dying inside. holy smokes, i could hardly handle such a funny way of saying things. the teacher was wicked cute, so i'm surprised he is single... ;)

~yesterday morning i had my first official japanese lesson. we can go every week and it only costs 300 Yen, [$3!!!!] for the class which lasts 1.5 hours. i was completely overwhelmed and could only understand about 5% of what the teacher said. however, there were very practical activities and we learned along with a partner. i really enjoyed myself and plan to go every time i possible can!!!

~yesterday [saturday evening, tokyo time] i went for a walk around my new town. it was sunset and everything was gorgeous. the beaches here seem to be pretty dingy; they smell bad and nobody really hangs out there. i saw plenty of people, to whom i said good evening. when i saw students, i always said "hello" bc they know english. one girl was very surprised to hear me speak and said "hello" quickly back, then turned around to look at me as i walked by! i took some great pics, even though that made me feel a bit touristy!

~last night at this local hole-in-the-wall bar/food joint called saboten, a little baby kept walking by with one of his parents holding onto his hands. his dad would always try to get him to say "hello" or "konban wa [good evening]" to me... THEN all of a sudden his dad picked him up and had me hold him~ i was thrilled [if completely shocked!!]. i said all sorts of random nonsense to him in english and japanese; he didn't say a single thing back but just looked at me curiously. it was super cute; kinda a movie-star moment. i wanted to take a picture, but my arms were quite full :)

~i wore a kimono today. it was quite an experience [really heavy and super tight on my stomach, full from lunch]. my new friend nana and her family took me to Kanazawa, which is in the next prefecture. we both tried on kimonos and walked through this gorgeous garden. her family is SUPER nice and took wonderful care of me. [we went to the grocery store so they could help me interpret the fat content of all the milk available, haha!]

~this week i'm visiting schools, which requires a TON of bowing and some jumbled japanese introductions on my part. i definitely know how to tell about myself but i get wicked nervous around a huge group of people, especially my japanese co-workers!! [particularly if they are single of course... haha, JK]. we'll see how it all goes...

Enjoy the pictures below :)
[for you, fanster. even japanese karaoke knows the goodness of sandi thom :)]

[gorgous sunset when i woke up at 4:30, my first morning!!]

[my cutie little apartment :) this is the sleeping/ relaxing/ working section. hopefully i'll get a video on here soon; i took a little camera tour, but the file is really huge~]

[my first solo train ride to takaoka city. gorgeous view of the sea of japan!!!!]
[awesome teachers~ the one sitting down is "of course, single"!!!]

[central himi- our cute river :)]

[modeling kimono life with nana and her parents!!!]