I'm now in the process of getting settled into my new home in Fukusaki-cho/ work in Ichikawa-cho. I arrived on Wednesday, and I've been pretty busy since then. I won't have internet in my apartment until sometime next week, but my neighbor/co-worker/awesome new friend Kelly is letting me use hers until then. I'm so happy to find there are cool people here, even though I do miss all my folks at home.

On my very first day here, Fukusaki (the town I actually live in, right next to Ichikawa) had it's summer matsuri, or festival. Everyone thought I would be too tired to go, but I'm not one to miss a party! Borrowing a yukata from one of the ladies Kelly knows in town, we got dolled up and went to the festival in traditional style! Here's a picture taken at Kelly's apartment:



And at the festival, we met up with Vihn and Katie, the actual Fukusaki town JETs. We took a picture while the fireworks were going on, but it was hard to get a good shot of them:



The next day, it was back to work, doing things like meeting the mayor, visiting all 8 of the schools I'll be working at, getting my alien registration card, etc. Saturday was more fun and games, visiting Himeji for the first time. It has the largest standing castle in Japan, and it's only about 20 minutes away from my home. We did a lot of shopping, sight-seeing, and dinner with a bunch of the JETs in the area. I'll have pictures of that later I'm sure. Today is Sunday, so it's kind of a lazy day, but Kelly and I might work on some lesson planning, and maybe I'll practice driving my car here for the first time (I'm super nervous--the roads here are SO narrow, plus getting used to being on the other side of the road will be tough).

Expect postcards in the near future folks. Much love til I talk to you all next.