My feet hurt

So, today was an AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME picture day!!!! Ummm too bad I was retarded and left my camera at home! Gah! I am seriously still kicking myself for it. I tried taking pictures on my phone but it was being stupid and the quality isn't as good and it was tedious and I got over it. BUT the good news is, a) my friend Andrew took pictures he promised to send me at some point and b) I plan to repeat this day trip quite soon it was that fabulous! Sooo what did I do, you ask?
I went to Dazaifu, which is about 20-30 min away by local train from me. It has a HUGE famous shrine that I learned all about in the museum. This guy was a pretty big deal (click link for more info). The coolest thing is that after he died, he was buried under the shrine I visited and became a god in the form of an ox (Um hello I am the year of the ox!!! Coincidence? I think not! Ha) and was called Tenjin in his god form. Ooooooh! I GET IT!!!! (Tenjin=downtown Fukuoka). So next time I am partying it up there I will think of him. Anywayyyy I almost cried not having my camera here because this place SCREAMS "Hi!! You are now in ancient Japan!!! Look at all this nature and traditional Japanese stuff!!!" It was so beautiful. We ate lunch at a place right on the water with a bunch of reeds and TURTLES (so cute watching them swim) with wisteria growing off the roof.

(In fact the whole area had this kind of feel to it):See why I am so mad I did not have my camera?????

We also kind of started to hike. But I plan on returning just for hiking it is so beautiful there. But what is REALLY random (and I still don't understand) is while we were hiking up the hill, we discovered.....................an amusement park?? We couldn't figure out how to reach it because it was at the bottom of the hill with no trail...but wtf? An amusement park in the middle of beautiful nature and shrines and traditional cultural stuff? An American must own it. Ha.

Then I went back to Futskaichi where my friend works and hung out. It is basically the suburbs of Fukuoka so there wasn't too much to do. We wound up going to an electronic store (like Best Buy but with an obnoxious Japanese music theme playing over and over and over...) and sat in massage chairs for like 30 min haha. This was the best massage chair I have ever sat in I must say. It felt like they paid a human to stand in it and knead my back. They probably did as it cost over $4,000 USD. I did have a quick fantasy of owning it in my apt and sitting in it every night. Haha. I wish.

Then I took the train back to TENJIN (that word seriously has a new meaning to me hahaha) and planned on going home but wound up walking over to Canal City (in case you care) to look at any home furnishing shops (And I am making a mental note right now-LUSH and Zara are on the 3rd floor so next time I want to do real girly shopping I can head straight there haha). Wound up buying a small outdoors backpack because I am SICK of lugging my purse around on day trips. There was also this neat circus group performing in the main plaza so I watched that for a bit. Then decided to just walk back to Hakata and take the train because I didn't feel like spending money on the subway. After many checks with a map I (thankfully) grabbed at Canal City and a few wrong turns and about 20 minutes I made it to the station. I have definitely satisfied my curiosity on whether or not it is possible to walk from Tenjin to my apt (I already knew I could walk from my apt to Hakata in about 30 min). But do I recommend it? NO. My feet HURT (well we must also factor in I was hiking all day, but STILL-no).

*Note- I just took that image off of google somewhere, no idea where that actually is.

Quick Day "Trip"

I decided to do some exploring today so I went to check out Momochi Seaside Park. Only a couple subway stops from my home and about a 15-20 minute walk. You can tell the whole area is very very new and modern. Fukuoka Tower is there, and it is kinda like the Seattle Space Needle. So I decided to be touristy and go up to the top. Apparently since I am a foreigner I get discounts at "major" tourist attractions to promote tourism! So I only paid 640 yen instead of 800. Ha. Anyway the view was pretty neat. Except looking in a pamphlet they had up there I kinda wish I had gone at night to see the city with the lights and everything. Ohh well. To be honest I was not sure where Momochi Seaside Park was I had just wandered off in that direction, so I got excited when I saw below me, this little European/resort looking beach area thing and decided I wanted to go there next. Turns out that is Momochi Seaside Park, haha. So I went there after and sat down at a cafe and had a beer and french fries because I was starving and that was all they were serving at the moment. The beach itself is man-made with imported sand, so there are no waves. It was kind of weird to be sitting there in almost silence right next to the water! I kind of felt like I was on a private island or something. I decided to go check out "Hawks Town" next- the Softbank Hawks dome, and huge mall area they have attached to it (Softbank Hawks are Fukuoka's baseball team FYI). So I wandered over there and got ice cream. So by now I was feeling a tad homesick. I was at the beach, and just consumed beer, fries, and ice cream so I felt like a fat American, and was nearby a baseball stadium...yet I was surrounded by Japanese people and kanjii. I kinda just started yearning for a Dodger game, and a restaurant that spoke English to me when I sat down. Oh well. At least in Japan people are much more polite/eager to please their customers. For example- at the crepe/ice cream place I went to in the mall, I left my jacket. I had already wandered half way across the entire mall when I realized I had. I spun around to head back and low and behold, the lady at the counter was standing there, slightly breathless, holding my jacket. She had clearly hunted me down. In the US if this had happened they would have shrugged, and put it on the ground behind the counter in case I ever returned. I guess it isn't half bad here...

Applause, please...

No, I did not win an award...BUT I did finally get around to completely unpacking/making my apt look as nice as I possibly can. I am on the lookout for decent "living room" furniture....everything is sooo expensive though and most of that you would have to have delivered on top of that (kinda hard to carry 2 living chairs on a subway for a few stops and then walk a few blocks sadly). But for now I am satisfied. I figured a video with some narrative would be more helpful than a bunch of pictures...but the video refused to upload... you get pictures anyway... hopefully this will answer some of your questions (I am sure you all lose sleep every night anxiously wondering what my apt is like haha). I REALLY like my apt. It is very nice. Some elements of it are slightly humorous to me though.

What my apt looks like from the front. Kinda like a prison ward. JK it's actually very new.

The view of part of the park from my front door.

Please take your shoes off/ignore my poorly manicured toes/pajamas

Now let us continue to the entryway/laundry room/"kitchen"

A closeup shot of my "kitchen"

The "kitchen" then leads to the toilet area. You actually wash your hands above the toilet.The toilet area leads to my tub/shower room. You must turn the lever below the hot/cold knobs on the sink to the left to make the water come out of the shower head. Be careful and make sure you turn it back if you wish to only use the sink, otherwise you will have an unexpected shower...like I have a few times.Birds eye view from the loft of my main area. See all that space I have to the left?? I need some living furniture....Another angle shot of my room. Table/closet/mirror...

The actual loft where I sleep. It isn't as claustrophobic as it looks. And that is coming from a major claustrophobe.This would be the lovely view of a parking lot from my balcony.

This is where I hang my clothing to dry on my balcony like I am in the 1800s.

So yep, that is where I live =) It's in a very nice/convenient part of the city too. I hope this shows it is actually a decent size for one person. No more than one though. It is definitely enough for me though. One thing I forgot to point out was my cool "security camera peep hole" that I am so excited about for who knows what reason haha. When someone rings my doorbell, the little monitor flashes on and I can talk to them/interrogate them/observe them until I decide whether or not they are worthy of me opening the door, ha!

Here are some pictures I took today that I don't feel like including in an album:

A car dealership. Ok? You ask. It's on the 6th floor of the mall. Yeah, I am not sure how that works either, but there are a bunch of dealerships on that floor!!




I just love finding little treasures like this. This is in a small shop in "Tenjin Core" which is this MASSIVE shopping mall that is seizure inducing due to too many bright colors/lights/loud music/people everywhere you turn. It's a bit overwhelming even browsing for things over there... Oh and if you cannot read the bottom (it's the best part) it says "Everyrhing masic." Just makes my day really.... =)

Time for an update

I am still exhausted, but this past weekend was VERY fun (well 95% what I did anyway, ha). Teaching 6 classes wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and my welcome parties were REALLY fun. I met some really awesome students and had a fantastic time until about 6 am haha. I am just glad that I am now good to go at work, and will have more time this week to get prepared for my lessons. I finally got a cell phone. It's funny because it was considered one of the "cheap/older" phones, but yeah much cooler than anything we have back home! The screen actually flips horizontally so I can watch Japanese tv on it. Not like I have a desire to watch Japanese television on my cell phone, but the fact I HAVE the option is what counts =) I also like turning it for when I check my email and such.

Finally uploaded the pictures I have taken thus far. STILL no apt stuff though as I did not really unpack today like I told myself I would. Instead I explored my neighborhood. I REALLY like where I live!! I can actually walk to work if I so desire to and have 30 min to spare (I doubt I ever will though) 3 min train ride to work regardless, right by the subway and a nice gym, HUGE park right outside my apt with lots of neat statues and flower gardens and ponds and such. Lots of neat alleyway markets and neat things....etc etc. Very nice. My only problem is my apt key is actually a card like at a hotel, so I have a problem right now thinking I am living in a hotel, meaning I think my door will automatically lock itself, and it doesn't. But I have remembered every night eventually to lock it. Just gotta get into the habit!

Excuses, excuses

So, I realize you all are just dying to know what the apt looks like, or maybe even what JAPAN looks like because I have completely failed at uploading pictures, but let me explain why you will not get any of that until AT LEAST Mon...

For the past week I have been doing around 10 hours of training a day. That seemed a little rough, NOTHING compared to moving over to my actual school. O-M-G. OK, well first of all to give it all credit, everyone is super nice and awesome and I am really grateful to work at a school with other foreign teachers (who happen to also be awesome and helpful and fun). But it is just very exhausting for me taking over the departing teacher and learning about 10 bazillion random things that hardly make any sense to me a day and then teaching and then meeting people with names I cannot even pronounce, etc etc.

Now, why you won't get anything stimulating to look at/hear about until Mon...well it is Thurs and 11 pm and I just got home. I left my apt at 11 am. Yeah. Tomorrow I ASSUME I will be home around 10:30-11 as well. SATURDAY is the kicker. As I will be teaching SIX classes (I only taught 1 today/will teach 1 tomorrow THANK GOD). Now, from this Sat forward I will always be teaching these 6 classes, but since I have not done this yet, I know how tired I will be at the end of the day. Oh but wait, when IS the end of the day you ask? 7pm when my classes are over? No.... because after that is a welcome party for me. Sounds like fun in theory, and I am sure it will be very nice and fun, but at a school welcome party you apparently spend the entire time meeting tons and tons of people and don't even get to eat the food at your own party. Hmm. (For my Theta people-it so far sounds a bit like recruitment day 1 lol). Then, there is a 2nd party after that, followed by a third party. I have already been informed that it is likely I will be out til past 4 am that day.

Sunday I have some more commitments as well. Much more fun ones. But still no sleep/relaxation/getting settled in yet. SO that is why there is nothing because, yeah I am f-ing exhausted lol. I don't want to do the apt picture whatever thing until I have the place a bit more put together because right now it just looks like my suitcases exploded all over my apt. But the apt is amazing. Japan is amazing. I also feel very VERY lucky about where I was placed and think I am really going to enjoy my job/coworkers/students....I just need to get a bit more settled and into a more solid routine before I can begin to appreciate that I think (and maybe the fact I am in Japan?...) =)

*Note- I promise I am not writing this out of annoyance to all the requests and although I am worn out, I am liking it here so far. I just wanted to explain why I haven't been on top of communication things lately. I love getting your msgs though even if I can't respond right away =)

Moving today

I am moving into my apt today!!! The long awaited mystery of "how small is it really??" will be concluded in just a few hours! I was going to just post my address here, but then thought maybe some creepy people I do not know could see it and stalk me, so instead I posted it on my private facebook profile. SO if you are my friend on facebook, use that in case you know...you want to send me letters or packages...or yourself. If you aren't my friend on facebook, either add me or email me and ask for my address =)

I am still trying to figure out how it is going to work transporting all my bags along with myself and not dislocating any joints to the apt...

I FINALLY

ate sushi in Japan. It was amazing. I was and still am happy.

One more day (today) of training!!! You have no idea how excited I am to move, get my stuff back, and get into some sort of routine!