home at last

With wireless internet freshly installed in my house, I am finally able to sit down and take the time to publish my first update from Japan! On Wednesday, August 27 at 1:04 PM, I and my fellow AETs left LAX airport and arrived eleven hours later in Narita Airport, Tokyo on Thursday, August 28 around 5:00 PM. Time is a funny, funny thing and I don't pretend to comprehend it. The next couple of days were a blur of combating jet-lag as we trudged through a procession of meeting the superintendent of the board of education and the mayor of Moka; procuring national health cards and registering for our gaijin (foreigner) cards; setting up bank accounts and filling out tax forms. It seems absurd to realize that I've only been in the country for six days. A month, perhaps, would feel more like it, and I haven't actually even started working at school yet!

Already I'm quite clear on the fact that I must learn Japanese if I'm to get the most out of my time living in Japan. Prospects are good, however, since according to my observations so far, Japanese seem to use the same handful of phrases over and over again for a wide variety of situations. Every interaction I have, I seem to hear:

hai (Yes)
arigato gozaimasu (Thank you)
sumimasen (Excuse me)
gomennasai (Sorry)
daijobu (It's okay/fine)

With these five phrases I feel just about ready to take on the entire Japanese archipelago. If I want to ask for assistance while in the grocery store in discerning the difference between two kinds of tofu, however, I might want to work on extending my vocabulary.

Perhaps.

Already I've learned that a few Japanese words and a lot of elaborate sign language can get you far.

Pictures from my new life are soon to come. As I said to the teachers at Yamazaki Chu Gakko in my speech of introduction yesterday, "Please be patient with me." I am doing my best to take things as they come and absorb my new surroundings without neglecting my other responsibilities. This includes learning Japanese as well as maintaining contact with people back in the States and in other countries that are not Japan. So, although I want to continue to elaborate on the idiosyncrasies of daily life that have already surfaced since my arrival in this country, the need to go to bed and get some sleep requires that I save these things for later. Until then, know that I am well and loving Japan. Thanks for reading.