Finally... Fukuoka!

I'm here!  It's hot!  

I arrived Wednesday night and was driven straight to my apartment.  The smell of brand-new tatami welcomed me to my new home.  What is tatami?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami Interesting rules govern how the mats are layed down.  Most of my apartment has shiny wood floors.  The tatami is just in the "tatami room."  Makes sense.  

Yesterday I was shuffled around town by Kumi, an office assistant at the school.  She is married to a guy from Florence, Oregon, so she and I got along great!  We registered for my Alien Card and set up my bank account and inquired about internet providers and cell phones.  It felt strange, being totally helpless without her.  I signed lots of things that I could not understand, so I hope I didn't just give my salary or my first-born away!  

Last night I wandered closer to downtown and found an internet cafe where I got to sit in the "ladys only" area and check my email.  We're trying to get a hook-up for my apartment and I hope that will happen soon, but for now I must go to school or this "cafe" for my internet fix.  I took the subway to get out to the internet cafe, but walked all the way back.  I passed a thousand little restaurants and had a hard time deciding which looked like the best to place to try by myself, finally settling on one back in my own neighborhood that looked friendly enough.  Most menus have photos so you can just point to what you want, but this one had hand-drawn pictures of each dish.  Lovely, but tough to figure out what was actually on the plate.  I picked a bowl of ramen that turned out to be cold ramen.  Somehow I didn't see the ice cubes in the drawing of the soup!  I had hoped for hot soup, but it was tasty anyhow.  Finally I stopped at the market near my apartment and picked up what appeared to be shampoo and conditioner and a bag of Asian pears.  I had heard that fruit would be hard to come by, but there was a good selection and the prices were okay.  The only problem was the packaging!

Let me complain for just a moment here: everything is wrapped in plastic!  Everything!  It is so annoying!  I feel guilty about every single thing I buy because I am contributing to the demand for more plastic!  And I haven't yet figured out the very complicated garbage and recycling system, but it seems like most of the plastic is considered "burnable garbage" (which is picked up twice a week) and only specific bottles can be recycled.  Once a month there is a pick-up for "unburnable garbage" but I can't remember what that means.  They do pick up recyclable plastic and glass bottles, but also only once a month.  It seems very wasteful, but maybe I'm missing something...

My only other somewhat negative observation is that it sure feels strange going from the love I felt from my community in Portland to being totally alone and without any friends so abruptly!  I'm sure I'll make friends, but these first few days are awfully lonely!  Talk about culture shock!  I have fleeting thoughts like, "What was I thinking" but mostly I'm just going with the flow and taking it all in.  Today I am going to lunch with another new teacher (we're the first out of six to arrive) and I hope she will want to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with me tonight!  (8:08pm, 8/8/8!)  My TV doesn't actually work, though.  Apparently there is cord I need, which is really annoying because it's not like I'll watch TV after this.  I don't even watch TV at home, where I can understand it!  But I do love the opening ceremonies, especially the parade of nations.  All the beautiful, healthy people from around the world!  It always makes me tear up!  And I love the spectacle of it all.  So wish me luck finding a place to watch it!

I haven't taken any photos yet, but here is a map of Fukuoka with my apartment and school labeled.  I hope everyone is happy and healthy!  I miss you already!  But I think I'm going to like it here!