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Just a week ago I arrived in Iida, although it feels as though I`ve been living here much longer. There `s a lot of work to be done as soon as one gets to Japan: foreign registration, signing up for a bank account, cell phone, getting water, gas, garbage, etc. at your apartment, stocking the pantry/fridge, buying the necessities the school didn:t provide you and/or predecessor didn:t sell to you for cheap. (Have you figured out by now I can:t figure out where the appostrophie sign is on a Japanese keyboard? Oh wait, I think this is it.. It’s on the 7 key.. you have to press the shift button). If it weren’t for my caretaker I might have been in trouble when it came to some of these tasks. While I can speak a little Japanese and can do a decent job at introductions, talking about school, etc., I do NOT know the vocabulary needed to set up a bank account, etc. Needless to say I’ll be taking studying much more seriously now.
This weekend was a lot of fun although a lot of tasks I needed to do around my apartment went undone. I ended up seeing the new international students from MU on the Japanese puppetry program at a rehearsal, as well as at one of their performances, meaning that I also saw members of the Imada Puppet Troupe who were as nice as ever. They threw a thank you party for the people who helped them out when they visited the US, where my friends and I got to eat a bunch of delicious Japanese food and watch a few of the male members get alittle durnk. I:ll also be able to continue studying puppetry (and thus Japanese) with them, which is really exciting. I also was able to meet my hostfamily this weekend and ended up being invited to their BBQ.
This week there:s a few more tasks that I need to get done. Since it’s summer break for the students there’s no class, however, the teachers have to be in school nonetheless. I’ve been reviewing their textbooks and otherwise keeping myself busy.
