Metamorphosis

Hey everyone!! This is the first report back from Japan. I'm wrapping up the first week of work now. It's been extremely difficult to find internet access. Even here, at work, the proxy servers are extremely tight.

So I've been here for only less than two weeks, but it feels like I've been here forever. The first week was spent moving into my dorm and visiting Kyoto (a 3 hour bus ride away) Thanks Amika, Shogo, Yosuke and Mamo-chan for the sightseeing and the food! This second week work started, as I try to get into some sort of rhythm.

It's hard. Although I want to maintain some of the lifestyle habits I enjoyed in Canada, things are so different here. I can't eat half of the same amount of fruit I used to eat without going broke; I love morning workouts but none of the gyms are open before 10:00 AM; skim milk,whole wheat bread, any kind of bagel and cereal are a rarity.

My Japanese is steadily improving. It was extremely fun the first few days as I put to use all the grammar I had learned for the past year, but then I soon plateaued and got pretty sick of repeating the same simple sentence structures over and over. I'm waiting for classes to start next week to learn new grammar. It's slightly annoying that since almost everyone wants to practice their English on me there is a clash of interests of sorts when communicating; i.e., I'll talk in Japanese and the other party will respond in English. My listening is not improving as fast as I would like as a result. (Neither is their's...)

Don't read too much into my post - I'm loving it here. There's so many cool and interesting things about this country too. I'll write more about that later. Later.