September 28th, 2007
Fukuyama
Marc and I got up and out earlier than usual this morning to go downtown to the government building and pick up our foreign registration cards. There was no problem or anything particularly interesting about that except that it’s the first photo ID I’ve ever had that I actually like. Then again, I took the picture myself and submitted it as a passport photo. Too bad you can’t do that with a driver’s license back home!
On the way back we ate at a place called Cho-Co-Cro. Marc had okonomiaki, while I had something that I am going to call a “breakfast pizza” (ham and cheese and egg on a pizza crust) and some kind of hollow roll with ham and cheese inside (Like a hot jelly donut with cheese instead of jelly). It was really good and I will try it again sometime.
We then walked back to Okayama station and met Mrs. Y there, who rode with us to Daimon station, which is on the outskirts of Fukuyama. The ride took about an hour. There, we walked about 20 minutes up another freakin’ mountain to get to the school. What is it with Japanese and schools on mountains? Anyway Mrs. Y walked up the mountain like she was a born mountain goat, while Marc and I are both wheezing and sweat-soaked by the time we get to the top. That’s always a good way to make a first impression, right?
When we get there, an American who went to the same university as we do, but has been teaching in Japan for over 20 years, met with us and showed around the place. There are also two other people there who teach English, one other American and a guy from Australia, but he talks funny (hah!). The problem is that they don’t have any idea what to do with us. They were just told that two new guys would be joining them, but they didn’t know for what purpose, how long, or even why. They all seem nice enough, but they’re also pretty busy, so what we will be doing there is still a mystery. I suspect it will be lots of observation, rather than interaction, but I guess that’s OK too. They have something else they all need to deal with next Friday, so we have the day off next week. We’ll start the week after next. We will be arriving there at 10 in the morning, but how long we’ll stay or what we’ll do is a mystery. We don’t even know for sure at this point if it will be every week, or just once a month, or anything in-between! When we finished discussing all the things that non of us can answer, the walk down the mountain was easy enough and we rode home, arriving back in Okayama around 4:00.
I had considered going straight to the library to apply for a card, but since I didn’t have my computer with me, I decided against it. By the time, I could pick up my computer and head back there, it’d be after 5:30, and they close at 7:00. I’ll do it Saturday or Sunday. It looks like tomorrow might actually be the first day of autumn- it’s supposed to be in the upper 70’s and cloudy all day. I think my plans to return to the beach are off for Saturday at least!
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