Well, I guess I will try and see how this whole blog thing works. I tried it before I came to Japan, but I've been a little preoccupied the last few weeks, so I neglected to post! So, we'll see if this works... I just got back from the Chiba prefecture orientation in Chiba City, which is about 2 hours from Tateyama. There were about 50 new English teachers in my program who came to the orientation, so it was really good to see people I met at the first orientation, and just talk about our experiences so far. It was cool to get into a big city, but I definately love my small Tateyama!

The best part of orientation was probably the food- yeah, I don't think I'll be losing any weight from eating too much rice and raw fish anytime soon! We went to Outback Steakhouse the first night. It was kind of like we escaped into America (or any English speaking country) because the waitresses spoke English and we ate American food. I ate 2 loaves of the bread- it was the first brown bread I've seen in Japan! And last night we went to a Japanese restaurant where everyone just orders and you eat family-style. Everything was really good- I can't speak about the heart meat, though- I decided not to try it! Before we came back to Tateyama this afternoon we went over to a French Target (that's the best way I can describe it!) We gorged on bread and crepes! It was so good to have sandwiches and cheese and everything not Japanese!

Yesterday afternoon we went on a tour of the Institute for Developing Economies Library. While we were on the third floor, the earth started moving! At first it felt really small, but it lasted for over a minute, and some books fell off the shelves! It didn't really feel that big, but it was the longest earthquake I've been in. I don't think most of the Japanese people who were studying in the library hardly looked up, but we were all excited about the earthquake! I guess I'll get used to them, which is hard to believe, but probably true!

I've been going to a small church that a couple of the other English teachers go to, but it's hard because I can't understand what's going on. The pastor's wife can write in English, so she makes a little summary of the sermon for us that we can look at afterwards. When I listen to the sermon I mostly try to pick out the words I know, which is good Japanese practice!

Life is good in Tateyama. I have lots of downtime, but have been enjoying BBQs, meeting friends who studied English at Western, watching the beautiful sunset, running, and getting used to life in Japan. This week I will start helping out at my schools preparing students for their English speech contests and this weekend I will help out at an English camp for new high school students. In the next couple of weeks I will hopefully get to meet a lot of friends from Western- either by going up to Tokyo or having them come down to visit me.

Well, that's it for this post- we'll see if it works!!!