Here at the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki City

Hello everyone. I made it here safely. It was a very long trip -I left on Monday 5/22 - 5 1/2 hours on a very cramped flight from Washington DC to Los Angeles and then another 11 1/2 hours from Los Angeles to Osaka with a 3 hour lay-over in Los Angeles. Once I arrived, on 5/23, I took a 2 1/2 hour bus trip from Osaka to Himeji and stayed the night with my friends Taube and Julian. Then, on Wednesday 5/24 it was a 4 hour train ride to Okazaki City. Orientation at the language school was yesterday, Thursday 5/25 and today was the first day of classes.

Things are OK. I'm staying in a small women's dorm. There are only 11 rooms and not all of them are occupied. I have my own room with a fridge, t.v. and computer access. There are 2 private shower rooms and 3 private toilets that we all share. So far, they have never been occupied when I need them and they are very clean and private so it's OK. We also share the kitchen. So far, I've only met one other English-speaker in the dorm. All of the other women are from Taiwan so, we have to communicate in Japanese - which is good!

I'm posting pictures of my room for you to see. The building has just been renovated so everything is very nice and new. The dorm is a 10 minute walk to the main campus and a 15 minute walk to the grocery/100 yen store. I brought an air mattress with me and it fits quite well on the bed frame that came with the room. It costs 1500 yen (a little less than $15) a week to rent a futon to place on the bed frame - since my air mattress only cost $15 total, I feel like I really got a bargain there (let's just hope it lasts the whole month!)

I'm a bit miffed about my class placement. I'll post more about that when it is resolved. Otherwise, things are fine and I'm ready to study, study , study!

I received my cell phone without any problems. I'll send an e-mail to those who need the number (don't want to post it on this public blog).

That's about it for now!

Please excuse any spelling errors, the spell check doesn't seem to be working.

I'll post more later...