First Week

Right now I am starting my second week in Japan. Many of you are probably thinking right now "second week? What happened to the first week?"

Well my first week was a whirlwind of an adventure but in a good way. I spent most of it getting settled into my new life and getting familiar with my surroundings.

And learning how to drive. Since I have to drive for work, I used my days off to practice driving. Actually it was not as scary as I thought it would be, but the windshield wipers and the turn signal are on the opposite sides of the steering wheel than they would be in America. So when I wanted to turn on the turn signal, I often flipped on the windshield wipers. I'm sure many drivers were confused.

I am living in Yamaguchi City in the Yamaguchi Prefecture. It is located in southern Japan and is actually closer to Korea than Tokyo. On the map below

it is the tiny red circle on the western side of the country.

Yamaguchi is wonderful. Everywhere you look there is mountains and greenery. It is not a very large city (under 200,000 people), and every person that I

have met has been so kind to me. Even if they cannot understand my horrible Japanese, they still smile and go out of their way to help me.

Mountains near my apartment

The reason I am in Yamaguchi is to teach English. The first week was spent meeting my new students and I am impressed by all of them. They are amazing people. There is such a variety of people; some work as accountants while others are artists. Many are in school or have several jobs. Even though they are so busy, they are still taking time to study another language. I am impressed and humbled by this; it means I have no excuse to not work on improving my Japanese.

One of my classes holding a good-bye party for their previous teacher.

Even though I have only been in Yamaguchi for 1 week, I have already had the chance to visit some of the local sites. On Sunday June 20, the former teachers took my roommate and me to Amidaji temple in Hofu. On that day there was a festival for the hydrangea (あじさい-ajisai) plant. There was so much to see and do; we even got to watch a たいこ-taiko performance.

Although my adventure is just beginning, I can already tell that this is going to be an experience that will change my life.

Hello

Soon I am going to begin a new phase of my life. I'm going to move into my own apartment, start my first full-time job, and take on all of the responsibilities that every adult has.

So why I am writing a blog if this is a step that every person takes at least once (hopefully only once) in their life?

Because I am starting off my new life in Japan. For the next year I am going to be working as an English teacher in Japan. This has been a dream of mine for many years now, and I still can't believe that it is finally coming true. I want to remember every moment of this adventure, but as we all know, there are details that slip our mind (or that we purposely try to forget).

I want to use this blog as a record of my journey; I want to put all of my special memories in writing so that I never loose them. I also hope that this blog will be helpful to those that read it; my friends and family can use it as a way to share my experiences. Others can use it to fuel their own desire to travel or to teach abroad.

I hope that you all enjoy what I write here; I want this to be a blog that describes all of the wonderful things I see and do while living overseas.