Nagano makes me happy!

Yesterday I went to Lake Suwa to see a fireworks competition that was being held there. Absolutely amazing use of fireworks! I took pics but they of course don’t come out anything like you saw them. Right after they finished, it poured. And I mean it poured!!! The trains were backed up because of all the people and I was standing under my umbrella in a pool of water almost up to my knees, trying desperately to keep my bag dry which contained my only other clean clothes, not to mention my camera. It was one of those surreal moments where at first you are like “Is this really happening? This sucks,” and then it just becomes “Holy crap, this is awesome. *splash, splash*.” Needless to say I didn’t bring a second pair of shoes so soggy feet became the theme for that evening and the next day. The next day, however, was great. Erika drove us back to the Saku area but along the way she decided to take a detour and we ended up randomly going up into the mountains nearby. Crazy, windy roads and hairpin turns kept us wondering if we would make it down alive. Yet, the view from up above was amazing and we chanced upon a cosmos farm. Cosmos are these crazy flowers that grow almost everywhere around here and are really pretty. They come in several shades of pink and purple and white, which makes for an interesting display when you see them along the side of the road or in this case by the thousands in a field. Unfortunately it was raining the whole day but still saw many interesting things. No monkeys yet. Although, we did stop at a nice little vegetable stand where we bought crazy amounts of vegetables for practically nothing. Nothing like a day riding through the cosmos to make you wish that you could do that all day everyday.

Onward! To Nagano we go!

Today is the day! We took a bus from Tokyo to Nagano, where people separated and went off to their own local areas. It was nice being able to talk to some of the people on the bus and get their back-stories. I was happy to find that most of the people in our group are really down to earth people who are skewed to the liberal side, something that I am quite happy about. I feel like I will be able to make some friends with the people immediately in my area. There is one person who I think I will not get along with because that person is a bit on the immature side. I will try to give that person the benefit of the doubt for the time being and avoid too many confrontations until maybe that person gets better adjusted, etc. We had lunch at a nice rest area near Lake Suwa, which is in Nagano-ken (fyi- ken is the suffix used to mean prefecture). I had tempura udon, which is a soup with udon noodles and tempura in it. It was delicious to say the least. Maybe a bit too hot of a day for soup but it really hit the spot.

Arriving at the point where we were to be picked up, I gathered my things and went to meet my supervisor. Other people were much more nervous than me and I think that this helped me to be less nervous as I tried to assure them it was going to be fine. There to greet me and Tom, the other new JET under the Saku jurisdiction, was Nagaoka-san (my supervisor and a clerk at the Board of Education), Oi-san (another clerk at the Board), Toeda-sensei (the head English teacher at Usuda Jr. H.S., my school), and Erika (a current JET in Saku and block leader for the area). It was really nice to have met them all in one shot, especially for me because I got to meet a teacher that I will be working with at my school. The ride to Saku was long and well consisted a lot of Erika talking to us about the area. There did not seem to be much time for me to talk to the others as she dominated the floor…err rather, the van. Arriving in Saku, we went immediately to the city office and board of education. There, we waited and then met the head of the board of education, who welcomed us to the city. After signing our contracts and making everything official, they presented us with our inkan (our signature stamp), and an official certificate that states we are government employees of the city. It was an interesting little ceremony and Tom and I were both nervous about introducing ourselves and not looking like fools. We did fine and moved on to signing up to be aliens. That’s right in 2 weeks, when my card arrives, I will be a bona fide alien. Ask yourself how many of those you know, lol.

Next, we went to the grocery store. It was littered with things I had not seen before. Grapes were weird looking, grabbed those to try. Produce looked fantastic but it should because the prices were outrageous for some things. Mushrooms, however, super cheap. Berç and I were looking at getting enoki mushrooms to eat in the US and they were several dollars for a small bunch of them. Here, they are $1.00 for a huge amount. J

It was not until the second aisle that it hit me. It was at this moment that I was like “Holy shit…I am in Japan.”  Strange, you would think it would have hit me sooner but everything else just seemed like something that could happen in America (minus the everyone looking and speaking Japanese, lol). But, now, I am standing in front of a display of food, everything written in kanji (Chinese characters) and well, nothing here was familiar to me in the least. Grabbed a few things that I thought I might need and headed for the cash register. Got rid of some of the coinage that I had in my pocket that had been weighing me down (they have $5 coins here! Imagine carrying everything up to a $5 bill in change, needless to say I kept forgetting to use it and would just break a $10 or $100 bill, haha, silly American I am). They then took Tom and myself home, where I got a first good look at my place. I was so happy. The location is not on a main road yet not in the boonies. It is sandwiched between two other apartments, our building being laid out horizontally rather than vertically. And everyone living nearby is a teacher at one of the local schools. My apartment has a decent-sized kitchen (compared to others’), a living space that doubles as a dining area, a really nice sized tatami bedroom with plenty of closet space (tatami is the type of flooring used, it is traditional Japanese style, Google it if you want), and a small bathroom with shower/tub/sink/washing machine/toilet. It really is a hybrid between Japanese style and a more modern type of house. I even have a small back portion of grass/dirt that I am thinking of using to grow a garden of some sort. This excites me. Outside of my house are the Usuda Sr. H.S. and a rice paddy. Yep, I have a freaking rice paddy practically outside my front door. Doesn’t get much cooler than that. All for just over $100/month, I’ll take it! Unpacking was a no go as I had to get up early the next day. Instead, Erika picked up Tom and me and we went out to eat at a restaurant where you touched a video screen and placed your order and the food magically appeared some time later. Did not really like it as I really like some interaction between the waiter and the customer. Got home and went right to bed.

Leaving Tokyo

"What the hell is a powertard brake and what is it doing on our bus?!"

Nagano is so pretty.

Yep, wanted to know where you could get God's hair, where else but Japan.