It's been one week since...

Wow! What a difference a week can make. I have gone from being a homeless, nomad wandering through the mountains of Western Canada, to being a well respected government employee, making an excellent salary, in return for full time work. On top of that I have an apartment with a full size fridge, two bedrooms and a great many amenities that my last apartment did not have.

When I was in PG I wrote a post joking about my “significant firsts” including using a push mower in a bob wig. Well that push mower is pretty insignificant compared to the things that I have experienced since I have gotten to Japan. Unfortunately I do not have time to go into them all now, as I am off to a festival a few towns over. I will give you a few teasers though. I have a cell phone. I used a bidet. I used a squat toilet. I have an inkan, you me town.

It has been a pretty overwhelming 7 days, I have had so much info thrown at me, that even if I could understand half of it I wouldn’t be able to remember it all. Things are going very well though, our apartment is great, in a great location, my job, and co-workers and supervisors, all seem really good. Everyone in Japan seems quite friendly and helpful, unfortunately I can not really communicate with them, which has been the only (but very predictably) frustration.

The next two weeks are looking to be pretty busy as well. We have to go to Hiroshima City next week for another orientation as well as more conferences. The following week we have a five day language camp, which hopefully will help break this language barrier a little bit.

I will try to put some more about my house and life and toilet adventures up when I get a chance. We do not have an internet connection yet, and all of the websites I use are blocked on my work computer. So be patient. If you need to talk to me, like I said I have a cell phone now, email me for the number.