Monday, August 10, 2009

First Impressions

Update: I fixed the broken link with photos below.

1. Customs and immigration was ridiculously quick - we were out of the airport within 15 minutes with all of our luggage (Lemleys 1 - Japan 1)
2. Our apartment is cute, but small (-er than I had anticipated). It's perfect for Max.
3. Sleeping on a two inch roll away futon is surprisingly comfortable (or are we totally exhausted?)
4. It's more difficult moving with a toddler.
5. It's great that our friends are here.
6. Many electronics - we need help using everything from the toilet, to the shower, to the oven, to... well, everything.
7. I like the smell of our tatami room, John thinks it smells like fish.
8. It's hot and muggy.
9. Lack of sleep makes it hard to function and be polite in another culture. Luckily, a bow of the head will do until I can say more than "Konnichiwa" and "Domo arrigato"
10. I don't remember in Peru, thinking I don't have any idea what this is. We unpacked our "gift bags" from the Canadian Academy PTA, and I had a pile of things I had no clue what they were. There is quite a bit of English here, but most products/appliance don't have those labels.

Sorry this is a bit lame. I think I had some other "first impressions" last night when we arrived, but I have already forgot them with my jet-lagged brain. It's 1:15 and I am up and wide awake. Tomorrow we have to report to school at 8:00 am for some meetings... not excited about that, but we do have to work in order to live in these amazing places.

Here are a few photos of our first day here. Don't worry, I'm not going to create photo galleries for each week here, I'm just trying to take a few photos of our surroundings this week, although they aren't fantastic.

3 comments:

Celia said...

Nice to have you here! Anytime you need to borrow some dish soap with a stick of butter on the bottle, just knock!

Unknown said...

Glad to see you made it. Can't wait to hear more about it when you are all settled.

Elle said...

Hey Julie! Great pictures and funny stories! Thanks for sharing. Good luck with everything, you guys are doing awesome!! :) Elle