Finally Home?!?!?
Well, right now I am sitting in my office that overlooks Uchinoura. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon. Well I am sure that most of you are already wondering how life has been so far. Well luckily my predecessor has been here (until a few minutes ago when they took her to the airport). Therefore, life with translations has not been that difficult. Everyone has been really nice and been bowing to me all day long. As a matter of fact some guy on a bike that passed me this morning as I was walking to work gave me a free canned caffe latte (it was surprisingly similar to an iced lightly sweetened latte back home)...think Double Shot but MUCH better.
My house...well, I have a big yard but the outside of the house is a little run down, although I do have a traditional Japanese style roof. As soon as you come in you have a genkan where you take off your shoes to step up to the wooden floor. When you first enter there is a hallway. The first room is a large room with a hard wood floor. It is about 15 feet by 12 feet and is an office type room with a hand sink, lots of windows and a separate entrance... I think its kind of like an efficiancy. This is where I brush my teeth and shave (I will tell you why in a second.) Down the hallway there is my toilet room that is maybe 3.5 feet deep and 2 feet wide. It is really nice but only houses my toilet and a sink the size of a softball that only turn on for 2 seconds (literally) when you pull out the knob. My shower room looks like a utility room and it houses my washer. I had a slug come up the side of my tub on the first day. I was freaking out. My predecessor said she never saw one before in there. My kitchen has very nice light colored hard wood floors and has just about everything I need. The next 3 rooms are in an L shape and all have traditional tatami floors with paper wall and lots of sliding doors. I have two large but short coffee tables with some floor chairs, a tv, built in dresser and armoire, a small wooden dresser with mirror and a wall with floor to ceiling windows. One of the tatami rooms serves as a dining room with a normal 2 person dining set and a small book case. This is the room that the mouse lives in that I see every night and the spider that looks like a tarantula (that big too) but is fast like an ostrich. I am thinking of perhaps gardening because everyone here does it but I guess since my house was always for the foreigner that the foreigner never gardened.
Speaking about my town, almost everyones house is traditional (think Last Samurai) with incredible gardens of vegetables, flowers and bonsai. The town is surrounded by these beatiful lush green mountains which meet the sky (I still have not seen their peaks). The town hall where I work si pretty impressive for the size of the town at four stories high (it looks like something out of EPCOT). A little ways down they are building a town center that is the size of the ODome in Gainesville or the Miami Arena which is also impressive. The water in the beaches are blue and crystal clear from what I have seen as I drive next to them (I still have not gone).
A quick comment about the food (SO GOOD!). Today I had sushi 6 pieces and two rice pastry balls (not sure what that is) for about 2.50 american. I bought it at the grocery store ACOOP. They also have fresh sashimi there for about 6-9 dollars. At work they make fresh green tea and coffee at least twice sometimes 3 times a day. I also had ramen yesterday at a small shop that is not like your ramen back home. It was made with fat wheat noodles soaked in this delicious broth of green onions, garlic and (real fatty) pork.
Well thats it for now. Ive been sending out some emails but have not received any replys. I think that my aol may not be receiving new emails. So therefore try to post comments on this web site until I can get a new email. Talk to you probably next Monday because I still dont have Internet at home. (The school computer guy fell off a cliff while fishing, I am not sure what is going on with that). Oh, and this weekend there is a town festival that they keep on inviting me too. My boss asked me to sing kareoke there (I dont know about that... he said YOU SING AMERICAN SONG KAREOKE). Who knows maybe, what do I have to lose.
Oh and I speak with Cristina every night. I still havent seen her because she had her welcome party yesterday and still doesnt have access to her car but perhaps soon. I speak to her every day though.
My house...well, I have a big yard but the outside of the house is a little run down, although I do have a traditional Japanese style roof. As soon as you come in you have a genkan where you take off your shoes to step up to the wooden floor. When you first enter there is a hallway. The first room is a large room with a hard wood floor. It is about 15 feet by 12 feet and is an office type room with a hand sink, lots of windows and a separate entrance... I think its kind of like an efficiancy. This is where I brush my teeth and shave (I will tell you why in a second.) Down the hallway there is my toilet room that is maybe 3.5 feet deep and 2 feet wide. It is really nice but only houses my toilet and a sink the size of a softball that only turn on for 2 seconds (literally) when you pull out the knob. My shower room looks like a utility room and it houses my washer. I had a slug come up the side of my tub on the first day. I was freaking out. My predecessor said she never saw one before in there. My kitchen has very nice light colored hard wood floors and has just about everything I need. The next 3 rooms are in an L shape and all have traditional tatami floors with paper wall and lots of sliding doors. I have two large but short coffee tables with some floor chairs, a tv, built in dresser and armoire, a small wooden dresser with mirror and a wall with floor to ceiling windows. One of the tatami rooms serves as a dining room with a normal 2 person dining set and a small book case. This is the room that the mouse lives in that I see every night and the spider that looks like a tarantula (that big too) but is fast like an ostrich. I am thinking of perhaps gardening because everyone here does it but I guess since my house was always for the foreigner that the foreigner never gardened.
Speaking about my town, almost everyones house is traditional (think Last Samurai) with incredible gardens of vegetables, flowers and bonsai. The town is surrounded by these beatiful lush green mountains which meet the sky (I still have not seen their peaks). The town hall where I work si pretty impressive for the size of the town at four stories high (it looks like something out of EPCOT). A little ways down they are building a town center that is the size of the ODome in Gainesville or the Miami Arena which is also impressive. The water in the beaches are blue and crystal clear from what I have seen as I drive next to them (I still have not gone).
A quick comment about the food (SO GOOD!). Today I had sushi 6 pieces and two rice pastry balls (not sure what that is) for about 2.50 american. I bought it at the grocery store ACOOP. They also have fresh sashimi there for about 6-9 dollars. At work they make fresh green tea and coffee at least twice sometimes 3 times a day. I also had ramen yesterday at a small shop that is not like your ramen back home. It was made with fat wheat noodles soaked in this delicious broth of green onions, garlic and (real fatty) pork.
Well thats it for now. Ive been sending out some emails but have not received any replys. I think that my aol may not be receiving new emails. So therefore try to post comments on this web site until I can get a new email. Talk to you probably next Monday because I still dont have Internet at home. (The school computer guy fell off a cliff while fishing, I am not sure what is going on with that). Oh, and this weekend there is a town festival that they keep on inviting me too. My boss asked me to sing kareoke there (I dont know about that... he said YOU SING AMERICAN SONG KAREOKE). Who knows maybe, what do I have to lose.
Oh and I speak with Cristina every night. I still havent seen her because she had her welcome party yesterday and still doesnt have access to her car but perhaps soon. I speak to her every day though.
posted by Jesse Montano at
2:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home