sunday!

Hey, here's some torii gates leading to a shinto shrines on the castle grounds I visited on Friday. I'm facing away from the shrine, the other side doesn't have the kanji on the posts.

saturday!

ok, feeling much better today. i think i have finally caught up on sleep and am feeling much better oriented in the city. when i left today there was a sign up in the apartment about a local festival, in which our groundskeepers's "hawaiian band" is supposed to be playing. I rode around on my bike for a little while, but couldn't find it. but I like riding around here in no particular direction, so that's okay. the neighborhood streets are all very narrow, and always lined with flood canals and everyone seems to have perfectly trimmed little trees and bushes peeking up from behind walls. then also admidst the buildings are little rice paddies. really, they:re about the size of a Fishers' house but they're in the middle of the city. one of the guys in my apartment said its because the Japanese government places high tariffs on imported rice, which drives up the price of rice in japan. this allows people to use city land for farming and keeps rice prices high in the grocery, which they surprisingly are.

I've learned how to orient myself in this city, so i'm pretty much free to wander around. My system works by using the castle. seriously. you can see it from anywhere and can pretty much determine compass directions from looking at it to find where you are. My apartment's a bit northwest of it, and downtown is directly south from the castle's front. thus, by looking at the castle, i can instantly tell where I am and which direction i need to go. which is convenient because apparently the japanese don't use maps or label their streets. wait wait- not label them, name them. they don't name their streets.

this afternoon i found the *cultural exchange center*, which has free internet and a few books in english i might check out in a bit. from here they don't look too appealing though.

love,
allison

Friday!

Argh! I just got the most wonderful email from Josh, who is having a wonderful time visiting all the local schools in the area with his supervisor and interacting with the office staff. Hopefully I:ll get to go into my school on monday. Normally JETs go into their schools for the summer, and sort of sit around for awhile not doing anything in particular. Well, my supervisor told me he wants me to take all of my vacation days (paid and non-paid days) now, as in immediately, as in, when i don:t want to and am unprepared to take them. as in, i get 7 summer vacation days, and 23 *nenkyu* or paid vacation days and he wants me to use up about 17 days now. At any rate, its kind of upsetting and I called him up and sort of demanded he take me to my school, or someone does, so hopefully I:ll be going at the start of next week.

when i called him he invited me to aikido class tomorrow night, which was very nice. so i hope he doesn:t kick my ass for harassing him. he:s a fourth degree black belt. if that:s not motivation to behave well... also, i:m having dinner at one of the :aussie:s: apartments tonight, which should be good.

I biked to the 100 yen shop today, picked up some household stuff and what not. then I thought I:d try to bike downtown. I accidentally took this winding back road, going through all these residential buildings and stuff and all of a sudden I came upon this big shrine\temple. It was really beautiful and unexpected. I walked around to the side of it, and there was an enormous steep staircase going up this big hill. so i started climbing it and turned around so I could see over a nearby wall and there was this big cemetary with all sorts of graves crammed together. so i turned around and started climbing again. I got halfway up and a little dirt path shot out from the side of it. i followed the path, and it took me to another temple,with a small note in english introducing the temple. it was built in 1716 by Masaｋuni Sakamori, or something like that. it was really really beautiful. the roof and sides had all of beautiful. the roof and sides had all of these buddhist carvings. I have pictiures, will get them up once i get internet at my place. anyway, i got to the top of the hill, and there was the most stunning vew of the city and the castle in the distance. I walked up all these stairs thinking that there would be a great shrine or something up there, to ｍｅｒｉｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｉｋｅ，　ｂｕｔ　ｊｕｓｔ　ａ　ｓｐｅｃｔａcular view of the castle. oh well. so i went back down and biked back to the castle, biked around the outside grounds, came upon some more little shrines. there was a big buddhist looking temple, and right next to it, two smaller shinto shrines. the shrine in the back had all these red torii gates leading to it. (i have pictures). all these places are completely empty too. no one has been at any of them. not even a monk or nun or anything. just empty. so on my way hｏｍｅ i went back to the same internet cafe Iwas at yesterday, and am there now typing. this keyboard keeps screwing with me.
oh, hey, i have my phone number! 0792-955-387. I hope that works.
do you want the rest of my address too? how nice.. It:s, #205 shirasagi residence, 3-8-1 shinzaike- honcho. 670-0092, himeji, japan.
I think once i settle in and get to school things will start picking up. or at least i hope so.
got to run, internet cafe time is up!
love,
allison

positive things?

Oh, so I thought I:d list some of the bizarro things in my apartment. first- the shower. there:s a shower room, with a bathtub in it. I tried to take my first shower there this morning, but couldn:t figure out how to keep the water reasonably spraying into the bathtub, in which I was standing. Until, i figured out that the whole room is the shower and it:s ok if the water gets outside the tub. also, I have no dryer. what am i supposed to use to dry my clothes? my shower room. seriously. I:m supposed to hang them in the shower, and turn on the dryer/shower, which pushes hot, dehumidified air through the bathroom for a set number of hours at varying temperatures. I also have a camera door answering thing. Someone rings the bell to be let in, and a camera puts them on a small monitor on my wall. Its really weird. I also have one of those toilets that sprays water at your bum, i forget what they:re called. they:re in all the hotel bathrooms and stuff, I guess the japanese really like them. I have yet to get up the courage to use it. they have hilarious diagrams of the jets of water and a butt drawn on all the buttons. there:s also a little sink, that:s all i can figure out what it is, on the back of the toilet, like on top of the tank. it automatically turns on when I flush. but there isbn:t anywhere to put a bottle of soap or anything, so I:m not sure what to do. It also runs for a really long time. also, although my building is only for english speakers, they have left all the instructions for the air conditioner, stove, washing machine, drying shower, etc in japanese kanji. Which means i can:t read any of it. All from here, I think my internet cafe time is running out, I will try to figure out the international calls system soon. Until then,
Allison

Himeji, begin!

So, first full day in Himeji city. I got in yesterday afternoon to my new apartment building. The city has clumped all the foreign english language teachers together in one very western building. I:m not sure what to think of that, or where the apostrophe key is on this computer. Pluses- large support network, being able to share ideas for classes or activities, instant friends. Minuses- doesn;t feel like japan, no shoji doors (traditional japanese architecture), no futon, none of the `japanese` things I was looking forward too. No Japanese neighbors to exploit language learning or learn native culture. I went out to dinner with a few of the other ALT::s in the building last night, they seemed fun. I met a few other people in my building, there are a couple of older people who seem like they might be more useful for information and stuff.
So today I went and got my alien registration card, opened a banking account, and got ushered randomly onto a bus by my building:s custodian, Saito-san. I was trying to ask him if I got to the grocery by walking down the street, but I think he somehow thought I was trying to get downtown and pushed me onto a bus that was at that moment passing by. So here I am, downtown. Downtown is mostly a shopping and eating area, with a big `outdoor` mall with covered streets, which i soon tired of. so I left and walked to the area outside of the castle, which is at the center of the city and is huuuuge. I mean, its on a hill elevated, so you can see it from pretty far away, but then there:s these huge castle grounds and moat that take up a ton of space. I was going to go in, but I want to take a full day for it, and with camera in hand (as in not in my kitchen).
My supervisor seems pretty nice and helpful, I wish someone would help me find me a bike though. All the other people in the building are off at work and can:t help me out now though. anyway, no one is supposed to take me to school for another week and a half, so I don:t know what I:m supposed to be doing until then. I:d like to go, even if I don:t have anything to do when I get there. I think it:s a trick by my supervisor to make me take all my paid vacation days now, instead of later when there:s something interesting I want to do. mmmmmm. I:m going to have to figure outa way not to let them do this.
\also, there doesn:t seem to be a bus route map. there are plenty of bus schedules, but i even went to the himeji tourist center, and they didn:t have one. Wish me luck,
Love,
Allison

ROUND 2: BEGIN!!!!

Hey! I'm in Japan!
Got in alright, just finishing up my post-departure (arrival?) orientation in Tokyo. Been out a little bit, will write more about the kabuki-cho (red light district), toilets that play music as you go, and other discoveries later. Pretty exhausted, getting up early tomorrow, so I'm going to head off to bed pretty soon. I'm heading to my new apartment in Himeji City, Hyogo prefecture, JAPAN tomorrow. Will post more when I next have internet.
till then, bye!