Each day here is getting easier and easier. I realized in Egypt that by the end of the 4 years I had generally forgotten what it was like to start a brand new life. It's not easy.
I left the States for Fukuoka on August 4th and didn't arrive til the evening of the 5th. We were ushered by school admin from the airport to our hotel quickly and efficiently and passed out after some much needed showers.
Day 1 I woke up in a hotel room in downtown Fukuoka after a few hours of solid sleep and had to prepare to meet people from school and take care of the essentials. This day would see us doing our alien registration, signing up for bank accounts, taking a look around our classrooms and school, eating at the mall, picking up our signature stamps and getting a subway card. We were met at 10:00am by the incredibly helpful Kumi and shuttled all over town. All-in-all we put in 5 or so hours becoming 'official' here, and that's about all I could handle with the jet lag/time difference. Changing my day 13hours ahead really puts me into zombie mode around 3-4 in the afternoon. Staying awake becomes a struggle, and you know that if you fall asleep, you'll only be up at 3am ready to go. After the full day, we had grand plans of going to the neighboring pork restaurant, getting a delicious meal and a drink. That devolved into convenience store food and a shower.
Day 2 we checked out of the hotel and moved our stuff into our new apartment. The apartment is about what I expected. I knew it would not be as large or open as what we had in Egypt, but was definitely going to be bigger than the studio I dwelled in for my year in Jeju. This place has 2 bedrooms, 1 'tatami' room, a living room and kitchen/dining 'area'. There is 1 bathroom with a separate toilet closet. And when I say closet, think about the size of an airplane bathroom. But smaller. The bathroom itself is probably larger than what he had in Cairo, but we had anticipated 2 toilets, not one. It was our own fault, we just didn't look into the details thoroughly enough and made assumptions. But the toilet does have buttons so you can choose to use it as a bidet if you want. We also got the internet set up and cable hooked to our new 47” 3D/LED/LCD LG TV which has made the down-time a little easier.
Days 3, 4, and today have basically been all about cleaning, rearranging, unpacking and watching TV in between. The house is generally set up and and livable. It's nice having multiple rooms which gives us an extra buffer zone and there is an OK balcony which I look forward to enjoying if the rain ever stops. As I write, I'm sitting in the tatami room which is basically a traditional Japanese room with rice-straw floors, wooden ceilings and a very mellow feel to it. We can't have any traditional furniture in this rooms so I'm sitting on a big futon-type cushion with some pillows. It's really a relaxing room and a good place to just get a little alone time to unwind. Unfortunately, I'm just realizing that we'll have to go through a ton more unpacking when our shipment from Egypt arrives during the 2nd week of September. Until then I'll be running on about 3-4 work outfits.
During one of our first days we were fortunate enough to get a call from some returning teachers whom took us to a restaurant where we ate a huge meal, had some drinks and got to know our new coworkers. It was great getting out of the house and was really appreciated. Today a new friend (whom we share a mutual frien) picked us up and took us to a nice little store with a lot of imported goods including imported beers, salsas and snacks.
I really like the city so far. We are a short bike ride from the beach, baseball stadium and some parks and live on a river. Our commute to work will be about 8-9 minutes on foot or 3 minutes by bike. Quite the improvement from Cairo. The city is really green with water on one side and bordered by mountains on the other 3. Unfortunately with this typhoon going by, we haven't seen much of the sun which is a big change from Egypt and definitely affects my mood. My lack of Japanese language knowledge in addition to the lack of English being used in businesses has kept me from venturing out too much, but I'm getting better about it. 2 days ago we peddled our bikes to the Atago Shrine for some nice views of the city and then on to a large furniture store (we're looking for a new couch). We probably rode for a couple of hours, and this seems to be the way I'll be getting around the most. The other day I was even lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day to ride along the river to the base of the mountains and back. The further I got from downtown Fukuoka, the more and more green rice fields I got to wind in and out of.
A couple of days ago we got a few tickets to the Softbank Hawks baseball and took advantage of that. We rode to the stadium and sat in bleacher seats in the left field. It was my first indoor game. It took about 4 hours (!), and wasn't as exciting as an O's game, but it's nice to have so close. I couldn't really figure out what made the game so freaking long. It could have been the cheerleaders, lack of knock-out pitching or the tons of foul balls. In the pictures you'll see the interestingly shaped yellow balloons which are eagerly launched in the 7th inning to help spurn a rally. That was quite the scene.
As stressful as it's been adjusting here, we seem to be surrounded by some pretty good people in a really nice city. The more comfortable and knowledgeable I get, the more I think I'm going to really like this place. But I'll always miss Cairo and the friends I made there.