Our ride...
I also got my first taste of strange potato chip (or as all the Brits I've met so far call them, crisps) flavors. These were curry. Not bad actually, but you can't eat many of them in one sitting. Probably a good thing :)
When we got to Gifu City, Kyle, Dan, and I met our new supervisor, Mr. Mitsuhashi. We also found out that there was a 4th ALT coming to Takayama that we hadn't met! Her name is Theresa. The 5 of us piled in a BOE van and headed off for the 2+ hour drive to Takayama. First though, we stopped for lunch at an inexpensive sushi bar in Gifu City. The kind with the rotating conveyors!
And even though it was not considered world-class in Japan, it was gooooooood
We were also fascinated by the way they figure out how much you owe. Since you just grab a plate off the conveyor as it goes past, they don't really know what you ordered. Instead, they have colored plates that tell you how much each dish costs. When you are finished you stack your plates and a server will come by and wave a wand over it that calculates how much it costs. I can only imagine they have some kind of RFID (<--- look Dave!) tags in them that transmit what they cost to the handheld device. Anyway, then they transmit that to these little card things that you take up to the front to pay. We were so enamored with it, I'm sure the Japanese people in there were quite amused ^__^
From there we drove to Takayama on the toll highway, which is much faster than the regular windey road. It's not as scenic I guess, but I still thought it was pretty as hell. Takayama is in the Hida region of Gifu, up in the north in the mountains. So right now it's not as hot and humid as it is in the south, but come winter time we'll get slammed with snow and cold. And no central heating...
When we got to town we went straight to city hall and the BOE office to meet the superintendant and get our foreign residency card applications filed. We also "officially" signed our contracts, although technically they consider your getting on the plane to Japan your acceptance of the terms. Then we all gathered our luggage, which I was dissapointed to find out was at the BOE instead of my apt (b/c it was so heavy I didn't want to haul it up 3 flights of stairs...) and then we split up and headed out to our respective new homes.
Theresa lives in a town south of me, so I was on the way to her place and she ended up tagging along as we all hauled my luggage up to my apartment. Lucky for me, Japanese men like to show their machismo and I only had to carry my backpack up the steps, heh heh. One guy from the BOE carried that 69.5 lbs suitcase all the way up BY HIMSELF.
After I got my stuff indoors, Mr. Mitsuhashi took Theresa and I to a restaraunt in Miya that is sometimes open. Sometimes not. And you never know when it might be... they serve Chinese style food there and we all got ramen. Mmmmmm. It was yummy
After that Mr. Mitsuhashi and Theresa headed off to her place and I came home to begin unpacking. And to check out what all there was in my apt. And that's when I found out that the internet didn't work. Turns out I needed to install some software, but it was all in Japanese so I had to wait unitl Mr. Mitsuhashi could do it for me. He is such an awesome guy, I feel really lucky to have such a great supervisor.
My town, Ichinomiya or just Miya for short, is very small. There is one grocery store in town that is open until about 6pm. It is kind of like a small country store, they don't have everything but they carry the essentials. There is also a branch of one bank, although they don't exchange money there, you have to go in to central Takayama (herafter referred to as Takayama) to do that. There are 2 convenience stores that are open 24 hours that carry a suprising amount of things. I am happy to be here, there's open space all around, farms and rice fields and it is REALLY pretty.
View from my apartment, rice fields and Miya beyond
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