first Japan update

hi!!! We've been waiting for the past month to get Internet hooked up at our place. Tonight, our new friend Shin helped us get wireless up and running. He's a young Japanese guy who works at the local Yahoo place...his wife is a New Zealander, so he speaks English pretty fluently. We are planning to get together with them sometime over the weekend.

Anyway, life is good here. Ben and I each taught a half day today. Me from 1 to 5, and Ben from 5 to 9. Our students are great and we're getting to know many of them better with each passing day. There are a handful of real regulars who come in almost every day for a lessson, or to visit the "voice room." The Voice room gives students of any level a chance to come in and speak in what usually ends up being a free discussion. Topics can range from one that the teacher chooses before class, like food or travel, to something more strange like Vanilla Ice (or "Banirra Ice.") Regular lessons are still just 40 minutes, just enough to practice a short conversation. In some of the lower level classes, we're teaching things such as introducing yourself, ordering food in a restaurant, or weekend plans, and in the upper levels we're discussing things more like workplace discrimination or how to tell a good story.

Our city is beautiful and we're so happy to be here rather than a larger city like Osaka or Tokyo. A few minutes from our apartment are rice paddys and green mountains, but we're still only a 5 minute bike ride from work, which is inside the train station (the trains pass directly over our classrooms and are quite loud!) The downtown area is very quaint and reminds me a little of Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz. So it's not completely boring- there are lots of shops, as well as 2 large malls within biking distance. Also, other Nova teachers have informed us there are a lot of great bars around town. And it goes without saying that the streets are littered with Pachinko Parlors and Karaoke rooms. We just joined a club called "Cybec" where we pay by the hour for open use of ping-pong and pool tables, darts, an arcade, internet, slot machines, karaoke, and an unlimited amount of vending machine drinks. It's a lot of fun! Fukuoka, the largest city on Kyushu is only a 40 minute train ride so when we do want to get out of town it's still close by.

I hope you like our pictures. We will post more soon. We miss you.