(I took this pic with my cell phone!!, I am being Japanese in my apartment)
The bike shop just dropped off my new bike!!! They were SO sweet and the owner was such a nice man I am going to buy him a present and bring it to his shop. My bike is so cute!!! I will post pics on here soon. I bought it used for what would be $60.00. It's really nice, it has a basket and a light that turns on automatically when it's dark and the nice old man gave me a lock for free! I have been getting a lot of free stuff lately, I guess because people feel sorry for me (when I bought my phone the sales girl slipped me a phone charger for free. Heehee). Tons of people here in Japan ride bikes. The bikes are so cute out here too. They all look like they were made in the 50s, even the new ones. But they don't have gears, and that kinda sucks.
Well Toride is pretty boring. Not much out here, but I think it is going to be really good. First of all it's really cheap. Secondly the people are so nice out here and they don't speak much English (in fact no one seems to speak any at all) but this is going to be really good for me, I will learn Japanese more quickliy this way. I need too anyway, I feel so lost sometimes. It is really hard not knowing the language. You really take for granted how hard it can be to communicate without good language skills. I am doing my best. Thank goodness the ICs are so helpful and nice. The area is very suburban, a little rural even. I live in a very quiet and uninteresting neighborhood. Some parts of the area are quite ugly even, but it's the kind of place Japanese people live, most Japanese people I would say live in areas like this. The area seems kinda sad to me, but that could be because it is so unfamiliar to me, also it has been really overcast the past week, everything looks kinda ugly when it's overcast. I also don't have any friends yet, so its kinda lonely. But in the sunshine the area will hopefully look diffrent.
My apartment is a 9min walk from the station and a 4 min bike ride. It's not the main station in Toride, but that is about 5min away on the train. East Tokyo is about 40min from here. It costs about 700yen about $6. I will definitely be going into the city A LOT because there is nothing going on out here. I am going to be busy with school during the week and on the weekends I will be exploring Tokyo. It would be nice to make a friend out here, someone to go out to eat with or watch a movie with. Hopefully I can meet someone.
My place is really nice though. Its brand new, I have internet, TV I can also do like a pay per view thing. The place is TINY, but it is plenty of space for me. There is lots of storage space and the bathroom is really nice. I have a big deep tub. HOWEVER…..Let me tell you about Japanese futons. They are nothing like western futons. At home we have futons and they are pretty thick and hard. In Japan the futons are REALLY thin. I bought mine yesterday. My bed is basically on a loft type platform. My futon lays on this platform. It is HARD let me tell ya! I kinda like slightly hard beds, but this is really hard. I am sure lots of the other teachers are having a hard time, because they complained about the hotel beds being hard, and that was a mattress. This is a thin pad on top of a wooden platform!!! I am getting used to it, but I must admit my back is a little sore. Maybe in the end it will help my back, that's what the Japanese say. Another thing that SUCKs about Japan is the trash pickup system. Well it's really great for the environment, but it sucks for me. You have got to sort your own trash, so it all can be recycled. You can only put trash out before 8am, and certain stuff goes out on certain days. It is SO confusing. For example, cans every other Tuesday, burnable garbage on the 1st and 3rd Monday, unburnable garbage on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday and so on. AHHH It does my head in just thinking about it!
My cell phone is SO awesome though. Its red and the screen swivels all around. The camera is AMAZING!! And I have all these crazy features (even a bar code reader!!!) it has this finger print reader too, so to turn on the cell you have got to scan your finger print so no one can access your cell but you!!
Over all I LOVE my apartment, I don't love the area, but it's OK. I have everything I need out here so that's good.
Tomorrow morning I have an interview for a privet schools job.
Wish me luck…or wish me unluck, I don't know if I want it or not.
Talk to you soon
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