Nagoya Update

Greetings all!

My sincere apologies at not getting back to you all sooner; but I've seen more of Japan in the last 24 hours than I did by airplane. Yesterday was very busy: I woke up in Osaka, had breakfast and walked around the city a bit, then got on the train and traveled about 2 hours to Nagoya with 4 other people (including a guy who lives upstairs from me), and moved into my apartment! I even met one of my roommates before I got inside! He was on his way to the store to get some groceries.

My room in the apartment is one of the larger ones, 6 tatami mats (about 9x12), but doesn't have a closet. It makes up for it by having a window on one wall, and a sliding glass door to the balcony on another. So for the summertime at least, that will be very nice. My apt is on the 5th floor (hence the #503) of 8, located right along a main road, two blocks from the subway station, two blocks from the local gov't building, and about 6 blocks from Seiyu - the Japanese Wal-Mart (literally). So we definitely have a good location! The only downside is that the traffic goes 24 hours a day, and is pretty noisy. My roommates, Alwen and Devon, are both pretty cool; Alwen is from New Zealand and has been here since January, and Devon is from Chicago and had been here since March. Devon is actually originally from the Cities (Wayzata, I think) and graduated from Macalaster last year.

I'm doing pretty well settling in; I took a *nap* last evening - 6:30pm to 1am - but slept again from 3am to 8am. Hopefully I'll be adjusted by the time I start orientation on Monday!

I have more stories to tell, but I'm paying 400 yen an hour at the International centre, and hopefully I'll have internet in about a week. But no worries Mom, I'm writing it all down! ("No worries is something that Alwen says a lot, along with "Good on ya!")

I love you all, and I'll write again as soon as I can!

Always,
Thom

Crunch Time

Well folks, it's about that time again; I'm down below 36 hours, and I think the coffee-maker is going to be running non-stop for all 36 of those hours.

Here's a brief overview of recent events, before I lose internet connection later today:

I spent Thursday and Friday in lovely downtown Chicago, where I was getting my worker's visa from the Japanese consulate. The process was remarkably smooth! I also got to spend time at the Art Institute of Chicago, which was amazing!

My house is mostly packed (mostly), and I'm moving things to various points for storage (thanks Anne and Eric!). Please pray that I get all the clean-up packing done and get some sleep tonight.

I've finally received my webcam in the mail, so hopefully some of you will actually be able to "see" me while I'm abroad. For those of you who can't, I'll be purchasing a digital camera (hopefully today), and taking copious amounts of pictures; which I will then upload and make viewable to my adoring public.

Well, back to work...

-t