First impressions.

My time is short and the keyboard is difficult to work with.

Everything went smoothly (other than some turbulence on the plane). No issues at customs, and we got to the training center quickly and easily.

So far I almost feel like I am in New York. Lots of buildings and advertisements and lots of people hurrying to their destinations. We ate dinner at a little restaurant. I had the beef bowl and it was delicious after a long day of sitting on a plane and eating bland airplane food. The beef was flavored well and there were just a few onions to add some more flavor and texture. The rice was good; the accompanying soup was decent but a little too sour for my tastes. I suppose that's a taste I'll learn to enjoy!

 We also wandered around a Japanese supermarket to admire the food. Since my training partners have all lived here in the past, they knew what they were looking at and found some familiar items. I just looked at it all (with no English writing on most items) and nodded my head and smiled. We'll probably all go back again soon to pick up food to cook back at the training center, so I can find some items to test! I'm already surprised at how inexpensive the food is here. My dinner bowl was ￥340 and most of the prepared food items at the store were about ￥400.

Now I am trying to type quickly on a Japanese keyboard that is just awkward enough to cause minor problems as I type. Things like random Japanese characters showing up when I miss the little spacebar and instead turn on the Japanese characters. Like so:
sdfうf笛ウイwhうwrhw希恵rふいおうぇいおうえｗｈるいうぇｋｊぅしｄｖｈｌｓぢうｈふぉわういえ. Plus, a few of the keys are rearranged slightly. The letters are where they belong, but other keys are moved and I think a few keys were added. Such as the key that gives me the yen symbol.

If you're wondering, I'm in an internet cafe. These places stay open 24 hours usually and I get my own little room for whatever private naughty things I want to look at, or in a bind a quiet place to sleep for the night. They seem to have free WiFi so if the Starbucks just down the way doesn't work out, I can always pop over here for some quick posting!

So there you go! I have a whole post on my iPod for you tomorrow about my flight, and I should bring you my first full Japanese day's observations after the day is done (perhaps another 24 hours).

I'm excited and happy! I am about ready to go to bed, though. It is 9:40PM local time. Training starts at 10:30 and I'm done by 3. Have a great day! (良い一日を.) (Yoi ichinichi o.)