I have Internet (やった！）

So after being in my new house nearly a week, and a two day ordeal with NTT communications, I finally have internet! Sweet sweet internet, and really really fast internet too (100mbps!). I have so much to talk about, I'll probably be posting things for the next few days, at least until Thursday when I'm set to go camping for a week (on the clock no less).

I guess I should start though, with Ama-cho, my new hometown. I was told by my predecessor and what little info I could find that Ama was a small island town of about 2500 people. It's actually a much bigger island than I was lead to believe, and the small town is really a collection of a half dozen or so small villages that dot the island. Weather has been very cloudy, but I guess that's for the best. I can only imagine the heat and humidity if the sun were out all day.

I haven't really had much to do yet, other than basic paperwork and formal introductions, a very set, traditional procedure in Japan involving formal language and bowing multiple times. When we flew out from Tokyo, I was told that it would take everyone in my prefecture up to 3 hours to get to their destinations. 5 hours later, I set foot on my island, feeling hungry, tired, and very hot in my suit.

After quick introductions with people at the board of education and town hall, I was brought to my new abode, a small house, with one bedroom, a bathroom/laundry room, a living room, and a kitchen/dining area. It's actually pretty roomy, and rent's only 25,000￥ ($250) a month. Later that night, I met my supervisor, and several teachers, and a small dinner at her house.

Since then, I've been driven around town and introduced to seemingly every school, board of education, and town hall employee in the town, including the mayor. I've purchased a cell phone, set up a bank account, and walked all over the place trying to explore the island. More on all of those adventures in their own separate posts.

I'm just glad for now that I have internet, because I was running out of things to do. I wake up every morning at 6:30 to an announcement over the town wide loudspeaker (the purpose of which I can only presume is to prevent people from having any excuse to be late to work). I'm up and showered and fed and exercised by 8:00 at the very latest, but I don't get picked up for work until either 10:00 or 1:30. Or in today's case, I didn't even leave the house and had the day off. Even if I worked a full day, there's nothing to do at the junior high school because it's summer vacation, and I'd be out at 4:05 anyways. My TV only picks up 3 fuzzy channels, all in Japanese (none of which show anime :( ), and there's really not a whole lot to do in town, at least not in my section of it. To be honest, it's been kind of lonely. But anyways, it's great to be back, more from me in the coming days