Days 1 and 2

I have so much to say it cannot possibly fit in this blog!


I am in my apartment in Nagasaki! It is shared by me and the two other interns, Carley and Mai. We each have a teeny-tiny bedroom (like 5x10...literally) with a little closet-enclave and a window and an outlet. I am SO grateful that Japan's electricity system is the same as America's. The voltage is lower but all the plugs FIT! No more blowing out my hair straightener like I did in France. We live on the 2nd floor and all share a bathroom. The first floor is the kitchen and the living room which is also the classroom where we teach "English club" on Mon and Weds afternoons. The third floor is Guy and Yoko's office. (Guy and Yoko are the husband-and-wife team of Guy Healy Japan, the company I'm interning for.) Our neighborhood is called Shindaiku machi (新大工町) and it is so cute! The main street is closed to cars, so everyone can just walk in it, and there's all these little shops with banners and wood signs.





After flying from San Diego to SFO, Carley and I flew from SFO to Tokyo Narita airport (成田 a.k.a. Become Field.) We got lost in the airport and then found our gate and waited a really long time and then flew to Fukuoka, which is on the southern island of Kyushu. It's the biggest city in Kyushu with around 3 million people. There, we got picked up by Guy and Yoko. They are so nice. <3 It sucks how there's no reason to speak Japanese, and Carley doesn't know any, so I haven't had much excuse to practice yet, except for with the flight attendants/workers/etc (which is barely more than an "arigatou gozaimasu.") We stayed in the Ohmiya hotel in Fukuoka last night. It was cute and they had a little cotton yukata robe for us to wear ^_^. In the morning we ate 和食 (Japanese breakfast) at the café next door and had about an hour to explore Fukuoka. It was raining pretty hard, though, so we were lame and basically just stayed inside the mall that was connected to the main train station the whole time. It reminded me of Les Halles in Paris (the giant metro station with the mall inside.) Then we took a 2-hour bus ride to Nagasaki (verdant countryside and overcast skies!) took the tram to our apartment, unpacked etc, and had a training session with Guy. Now we are chillin' before we go out again to get a late dinner and explore the town.

A note about public toilets in Japan. They all have 3 buttons going down the side: oshiri (which means butt), bidet and flushing sound. I don't know the difference between oshiri and bidet. They both spray water. Needless to say I haven't tried it. At first I was like "wtf is flushing sound?" But after using public toilets a few times I realized--it's to hide the sound of your peeing and pooping! Yes, I really think it's so that people don't have to be shy about other people hearing their pee and poop. So they push a button and a sound like a waterfall, or a sound like a toilet flushing, comes out of the toilet. That is all.


The service is REALLY good here. The workers of every shop say "irashaimase!" which is one way of saying welcome, to every single customer who enters every time, regardless of whether they're going to buy anything or who they are. (Unlike the douchey workers at Burberry, etc. in Santana Row, who won't even look at you unless they think you're going to purchase.) There are A LOT of thank you's, and excuse me's, and general politeness. I really appreciate it. It makes everyone really polite and grateful. I wish all societies could be like this...especially Parisian society, where table service is so shitty and everyone is rude to each other.

We're hitting the ground running--tomorrow we teach classes! Luckily we're all together and it's not one-on-one. I'm really excited. The kids seem really cute. We watched a video of Guy interviewing some of them. I've just got to remember to 1) make it about them and not about me, and 2)calm the eff down and just have fun. Guy said it himself, if you're more relaxed and just having fun, you'll be a better teacher.

I'm so excited to get to know my neighborhood better, visit all the touristy spots in Nagasaki, and get into a routine here! <3