Journal 1 - FINALLY MADE IT

Hello All,

So, I finally made it to Japan. I am sitting in this closed off booth on a leather chair with my feet propped up, typing this email to all of you. Am I in my apartment? Nope!!! This would be the internet cafe ... pretty weird. So, where ‚s‚ start. After leaving Calgary on the 12th, I ‚†‚Œ‚…‚— to Vancouver where I trained for the week. I stayed in a huge house which kind of reminded me of a frat house. There were 14 other people staying there as well. Everyone was pretty much going through the same emotions as I was ... fear, excitement, anxious. It was actually nice not being the only one. I won't give the details on the week, but basically what we did was get trained on the teaching curriculum and also taught 2 classes of our own to actual Japanese students. Mine went alright (the second one was better then the first). But, I think for first time teaching I did pretty well. Everyone else felt the same way. The traing was done on Thursday and we flew out Friday. I flew with 4 other people, so at least I wasn't alone. After a very long 10.5 hour flight, we arrived in Nagoya. It's Sunday ‚‚†‚”‚…‚’‚Ž‚‚‚Ž right now and I left on Friday, wow I lost an entire day.

So, what was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this place? WOW!!! I am in a completely different country on the other side of the world . It's really cool!! There are some things here that are very much the same: The cars, department store, there's malls. But, if you add a lot more bright lights, electronic billboards, live advertsing screens, then you have Japan. Has anyone seen Back to the Future where he actually went to the future? Well, it's not far off (except for the giant Jaws coming out to eat him, I have yet to see that). I did't get a chance to see a lot last night, because I was pretty jet lagged, but I saw a bit and I even managed to take the train by myself ... It was only 1 stop and I got lost in the station, but technicallities ... I have to take baby steps. Oh by the way, Ihaven't actually made it to my city yet. I've been staying in a hotel and not leaving tomorrow for my city. Yaizu is about an hour south east of Nagoya. I heard it's very nice and it is along the water. I'll have to admit, Nagoya's not the greatest looking city, but I was told that before I arrived here. It's very plane looking compared to the other places. I am very anxious to get to my city and see my apartment. I saw a friend of mine's who is living here and, yeah they're pretty small, but I was told that mine might be a little bigger because I am going to a smaller city ... I will let you know.

OK, so this keyboard is driving me nuts, I need to get used to it. But, Iam going to close here. For those of you who were able to make it to my final party, thank you so much for a great night. For the others, I am sorry I was not able to see all of you, but I will keep in touch via email For everyone, it is much easier to include you in a generic email (and cheaper), but if you would like to send me personal emails, I will try very hard to get back to you. I will be getting my own connection, but it probably won't happen for a month or so.

Anyway, this is where I say sayonara and I will email more again later. Take care everyone.

Love Joe

P.S. Almost forgot my mailing address. This will be effective Tuesday, September 21.

Joe White
Leo Palace Yaizu II 202
1-8-25
Yaizu city
Shizuoka
Japan