おはよう ございます!

Hello hello and welcome to our blog!  Since this is the first proper entry, I should probably explain what this is all about.  My name is Ryan and my fiancee Joanna and I are just starting jobs teaching English in Japan through a private corporation.  This blog will serve as a way to document our Japanese adventures and anything else along the way.


I myself just arrived in Japan yesterday.  After a really long flight over the Pacific, I was met at the airport by the other two people in my training group.  From there we took the bullet train (which was AWESOME by the way) to Okayama , the location of the training center.  And who was there to meet me at the train center but Joanna!  See, she's already been here a week for training, but thankfully there's a day or two overlap so we get to see each other before she gets sent to her school.

After getting settled in at the company dorms, she showed me around and took me to the convenience store and a huge electronics store called BIC CAMERA.  5 floors of constant lights and sounds and Japanese things yelling at you.  It was nuts!  But I was able to by an electrical converter there, which, along with wifi leeching, is how I'm able to type this now. 

Today was my first day of training.  I won't bore you with the details of it, but it was a half day so the trainer took me and the other two trainees out for lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant.  We all had a sushi platter thing and it was delicious.  Afterwards he basically set us free to wander around and get lost, and that's exactly what we did!  Well, not entirely lost, because I made it back to type this blog.

A couple of stray observations about Japan so far... for one, everything either talks or makes music.  The elevator thanked us for using it.  So did the train.  BIC CAMERA had its own theme song.  The toaster oven played a cute little ditty when my toast was done.  It's all so darn cute and charming!

Which brings me to my next point: everyone in Japan is super stylish.  Seriously, I felt like such a scrub walking around today.  Even the babies are dressed nicer than me.  It gives me a drive to improve my wardrobe, but in the meantime I'll just have to feel like a slobby American.

And finally, heated toilet seats.  Why doesn't everywhere have these?!

But anyway, words words words.  Nobody cares about reading all of them, so here are some pictures!

The authors of this wonderful blog in their professional best.

This is Mosu!  He's a Shiba Inu who hangs out in front of a shop on the way to the training center.  He is also maybe the cutest dog.  He winked at me yesterday, I swear to god.

A bronze statue of Peach Boy out in front of the train station.  He's a major character from Japanese folklore and Okayama is where his story took place.  As such, they seem to love him here.  Even the manholes have pictures of him on it!

A view of Okayama's major intersection.

These ladies were part of a wedding procession.  Beautiful!

Tonight we're going out exploring again and tomorrow we're visiting Okayama Castle.  I know Joanna went there already, so hopefully she can post some pictures up soon!