I am, in fact, alive

Ohayoo gozaimasu! It's 9 am here in Higashidoori Village, and I am at school, before morning classes. I have three today, mostly introductions, so it should be easy.

ANYWAY.

I am actually alive, I just have been cut off from the world by virtue of the fact that my free house does not come with internet. It doesn't come with a lot of indoor plumbing either (flush toilets, evidently, are not common in the older buildings here), but the place fits into my budget perfectly.

So, here's what's happened since Hachinohe. My branch manager picked me up at the hotel, and we hit the trains, traveling by increasingly smaller vehicles until we were finally on a single trolley car traveling alongside the seashore. Totally nuts. Reached Mutsu city, the closest to where I live, and immediately met with the Higashidoori Board of Education.

I haven't understood a word since.

After introductions and a flurry of business cards (I met the BoE, the Superintendent, one Principal, and the mayor; in Japan, upon meeting someone in a professional setting, one bows and holds their business card with both hands, facing so the recipient can read it, and passes it to the other person), I finally got to my free house. It is predictably somewhat old, but in decent enough shape for me to live in.

Oh, PS, it's freaking beautiful here. Rice paddies, sudden mountain ranges, huge beaches, wild horses, windmills, all that good stuff.

Afterward, made the rounds and introduced myself (in a combination of Japanese and English) to the staff at all the schools I will be working at. Everywhere I went, it was explained by some BoE staff that I nihongo o wakarimasen (do not understand Japanese).

First day of school was an Athletic festival for the district, which was an awesome and easy way to get introduced to the students. Each school in the district had their own uniform (and keep in mind some of these schools are tiny, about ten to twenty students) and sent their 1st through 6th graders through the 100 meter dash, a kilometer relay, and a kilometer race.

Yeah. Think about that.

The kids are so freaking cute, it's unreal. They are fascinated by everything I do, not limited to eating with chopsticks, speaking in Japanese, having hair on my arms, or my nagai hana (long nose). I was like a new car; they swarmed me, poking, prodding, punching my stomach (steh-ki gah skides ka? Do you like steak; for the record, I kept my mouth shut, but wanted to say iee, urusai otokonoko o taberu no gah skides: No, I like to eat loud little boys).

Oh, you know how we were into dinosaurs as kids? Well, these children are really into f-ing beetles. Yeah. For instance, I was at a small kindergarten (about 6 kids in total), where the children insisted on showing me a small cage in the back of the room. I expected a hampster, gerbil, or some other cute little animal.

But no. It turned out to be a scarab-sized beast with the Jaws of Life for pinchers.

Anyway, spent saturday with Geran, the JET ALT from oklahoma who also works in the district. he took me to Hell. When I can, i'll post pictures.

Am spending most of my timing cleaning and driving to Homu Centah, Sunday! A place somewhat akin to a Home Depot minus the construction plus a Linens and Things. Actually, it's just a Bed, Bath, and Beyond with tools and a ridiculously bad name.

Off to class, more when my free house gets internet.