Atsui Desu Yo!

That means "It sure is hot!" It's over 30 C every day, and I figured out last night that 78 F is about 24.5 C. I think 40 C is 100 F. The rest is math involving 5/9 blah blah blah. It's freakin' hot.

I live in a much more rural place than I had expected. There is a train stop about 2 blocks from my apartment building, and that's really good, because from there I can get all the way to two of the largest megalopolises in the world (Kyoto and Osaka) in less than 2 hours (I think). But in the short term, I shop for food at LIFE (raifu), and I got my two-gas-burner stovetop from a local "home center" (homu sentaa)... carried it home walking, which was "aho," or the local dialect's word for "stupid." I have 3 rooms plus a kitchen with some extra space. Two of the rooms are 8x8, with faux wood floors that is actually sort of springy, spongy vinyl. The main room, which was originally going to be my bedroom, but I dunno now, is about 10 x 8, and has tatami mats on the floor. The kitchen is probably 8 x 16. There's a college sized refrigerator that my vice-principal and the head clerk from the school (Oyodo Senior High -- Oyodou Koukou) carried up to the 4th floor for me.

I have seen a beetle the size of my big toe (I wear size 11) and two moths the size of my hand (I am six feet tall with long fingers) -- one of the moths I mistook for a small bird until it landed. There are spiders all over my apartment complex, some of them strange colors, and most of them big, and all of them looking pretty sinister in the dark. Cicada call all morning long (I can hear them now). There is a rooster in my neighborhood, and he's going at it from about 4:45 PM til dark (7;20ish), and starting around 5:30 in the morning. Since it is so hot, though, I bought a $650 air conditioner and had it installed on Sunday, so I don't hear him singing until I go in the other room to get my clothes in the mornings.

I only have 4 pieces of furniture right now: a bookshelf and futon (not the couch kind with the frame, but a spongy mattress for the floor for sleeping) left by my predecessor (James Kennedy, who was very generous), a camping chair made of vinyl, and a camping stool that I use as a table. I should have more stuff once I get paid on August 21, but for now, this will do. Ascetic. That's it. Right.

The food is great. I can have the nigiri selection of a "Swordfish Supreme" for under $9.50 every day if I want (and 50% off after 7 PM) if I got to LIFE's delicatessen. (I also just learned that you need to use SHIFT+CAPS LOCK to turn the caps lock off on Japanese computers. guh.)

I cannot get a cell phone from the best local company (DoCoMo) until I get my alien registration card (some companies will let you get it with just the form that says you applied) so it will likely be August 29 before I can get it. Ah, well. Hopefully, my computer will arrive here today or tomorrow, and I will have home phone service and Yahoo!BB broadband by next week.

More soon... hope you are all doing well! Ted, lemme know when you're back in the country.