So I flew in two days ago to Kitakyushu and apart from the sweltering heat I couldn't be happier! Patrick is in the apartment building next door, so the two of us were shown around together. On our first night Dan, our prefectural advisor, took Patrick and I around town. We started by walking over the river to Dan's place so he could put his bags down and change out of his nice clothes. Then we walked down the river to the Board of Education so that we knew how to get there. We even walked to Kokura castle, which is less than a half hour walk from my apartment! We also went to Riverwalk, a big shopping mall/arcade/restaurant building with both a movie theater and live theater on the upper stories. If you go up to the 5th floor, there is a really nice place to sit outside that overlooks the castle and the city. We hung out there for a while. Then Dan had to meet some teachers for dinner, so he took us to the monorail station. Patrick and I decided to get some dinner while we were still downtown, so we went to a place Dan suggested. We each had some beer and shared some beef and cabbage in a spicy miso broth, it was great!
Yesterday we did all of our bureaucratic stuff. We filled out official change of address cards so we would be in the Kitakyushu system, signed our work and apartment contracts, got phones, and got bank accounts. It took a really long time, but Dan and Juha (another JET who's been here a few years) took us out to a restaurant yakyudori for dinner. It's a play on the word yakitori (a way to prepare food, usually grilled or fried and on a stick) and yakyuu (baseball). The food was amazing and we all had a few beers.
All the new JETs have today off, so we're doing our final unpacking and then meeting up for lunch and to go shopping for anything we need. I have so much more to write about how great the apartment is and great all the people are, but I really need to finish unpacking. I'll write more later!
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