The Adventure Begins

This is day-four (I think) in Japan. It is diffucult to sum up everything I've been experiencing here...so I will write a haiku to attempt to convey my feelings. *begins stoically and clears throat* 

tasty and small everything
walk on the left side
beer before karaoke

I've done so much in the past couple days it's been hard to muster the will to begin typing about it! The tutors here are amazing...they're combination traslators, city-guides, friends, heck, I wouldn't be suprised if they were trained EMTs too. The last couple days we've been toted everywhere (toted has a negative connotation, but I feel it best describes the level of dependence...), various grocery stores, home improvement stores, peoples' dwellings, campus buildings, kendo arenas. The night we arrived when Mike and I were dog-tired, they were waiting in my apartment holding a tea-party and the feeling of commardary hasn't left!

So far I've had a lot of questions about the food here. My response is: TASTY! All. of. it. Yeah...so far, I've eaten everything ever put in front of me without many questions (it's my challenge to myself). I've liked everything people have put in front of me and not just kind-of either, more like ravinous-dietary-deficet-chowing. Though to be fair, I do have werid tastes for an America,  I tend to like "cheap" cuts of meat (I put cheap in quotations because nothing is cheap here, a quarter-pound of chicken skin was $2.50). Running on the tangent of affordability, pre-made meals from the supermarket plus rice and a salad (both made at home) make a tasty, affordable and quick meal. Mike and I haven't had many chances to do this though, because we're always being invited to friends' and friends' of friends' apartments for dinner! It is a very social culture! I find this style of eating to be the most fun. You sit and talk in someone's nice cozy apartment, hudled together under this heated table-thingy, they give you food and you pay your share. Wonderful, wonderful system! I plan to have people over soon.

Stay tuned to PITiBSJ for updates on my classes, my apartment, the puffy stray cat outside my apartment, how freakin' cold it is and the hand washing habits of the Japanese peoples. Along with photo collections of toliets, pastries and vending machines!