Blind Canadians, Suntory Time and my new Palace…

April 22nd

Welll… We finished training on Saturday and the training group decided to celebrate by spending a night out in Nagoya. We found a small bar in Sakae which served only Suntory whiskey and beer.
We had some young guys from the local army barracks extend us some hospitality. When I tried to speak some Japanese they said “No, no… We want to speak… English!” They were awesome, and really fit. They did some of their army drills for us. People love Barrack Obama here. I know most of the world loves him (except Kansas and Texas), but here they REALLY love him. At one point they started chanting “O-BA-MA! YES-WE-CAN!” over and over. They were lots of fun.

When we left in search of another bar we asked some local girls if they could give us directions. They agreed to help us in exchange for some photos. Cheeky girls. As you can see, the two Canadians are looking a little worse for wear… It was a very fun night, apart from the fact that we had to take care of these two blind Canadians.

On Monday I moved into my new pad in Okazaki. My new palace, in fact. I met up with my supervisor, who got me registered as an alien and he showed me around the local area. After a good stroll he shouted me to Mexican, Japanese style Mexican. Tasty.

I must say… my apartment is pretty sweet. It’s got a loft bed with a wardrobe underneath, which solves most of my storage problems. It’s also got a large bookshelf and comes with internet, a microwave, toaster oven and a TV (although I haven’t really used the TV yet). It’s got a balcony and is right next to Okazaki River, where they hold the annual fireworks festival. There are often young people playing guitar and hanging out at the steps of the river. I've included a video tour of my apartment at the bottom of this post.

I’m also less than a kilometre from Okazaki Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okazaki_castle). When I walk out of my apartment complex I walk straight into the castle grounds. They’re great to have a stroll around at night. Traditional Japanese music is always played there during the day. It’s the place where one of the three great Shoguns was born, Ieyasu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyeyasu.

All in all I’m very happy with my placement. The teachers in my area are nice and fun, the area itself seems lively enough and my apartment is great. =)

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Stef xo