Yuki is here!

Yuki's arrival

Yuki's arrival went very smoothly. His plane was even 20 minutes early and it took him only 30 minutes from the time the plane landed, to get through customs, get bags and meet me. Japan is so efficient. We were hungry when we got back to Fukui (maybe 9 a.m. Toledo time/11:00 p.m. Fukui time) and went to this portable ramen shop that is sometimes set up near the station. We took a taxi home. Yuki seems to be adjusting to the time difference very well because he kept up and stayed awake for the busy weekend.

Tojimbo Cliffs

On Saturday I met with one of my JTE's and one of his friends who wanted to "meet foreigners" at Starbucks (I think it is the only one in Fukui). I tried a matcha (green tea) frappacino. Good stuff. The girl ended up being really kewl, my age and we plan to hang out again. I was asking them places they would recommend that we visit and it ended up in actually going to one of them that day. We visited Tojimbo Cliffs...cliffs overlooking the ocean...and we went during the sunset. A must see in Fukui. Fukui is underrated. Many Japanese have never been here and many foreigners don't plan to visit here... but there is so much to see!

Host Family

We met with our host family again on Saturday at a local festival. Our host mother took us back to her house...3 stories I might add (this is HUGE for a Japanese house). With buttons in the bathroom that you can use to control the toilet cover! And we took a ride in their Mercedes Benz van to visit some local popular places...waterfalls and a reconstructed samurai village. The family is banking...but they are still very modest, humble and so welcoming. I still haven't met the father...I think he works a lot. The kids are a lot of fun. The girl is willing to try out English and teach Japanese. The 3 year old boy is tons of energy.

School

Yuki has come to school yesterday and today with me and helped me with classes, met students, etc. It has been great to have him here and I think many of the girls are quite taken with him. Yuki is very observant...and makes me think about differences that to me now seem like normal. For example, their school lunch here is better than Japanese food back home! I am getting in the swing of how to teach English classes here and adjusting to working with 10 different teachers. The first class sometimes goes crazy but I always have 8 more tries. It is interesting that each class has different characteristics based on how the teacher runs and interacts with the class. I am excited because I found out now that I have 10 minutes of each class to play a game or activity...instead of only teaching from the textbook. I am trying to start learning Japanese by listening to the translations the teacher gives and asking students how to say our vocabulary in Japanese.

Outside of school

Yuki and I went on a price comparison shopping trip yesterday...and found out produce is expensive everywhere! For example, we saw two pears for 398 yen. Tonight I have Japanese class and haven't studied in two weeks...whoops. Yuki will start aikido tonight.