Japan(?)

Ok, so I've had the internet for a little over a week but I have still been slacking off with the blogs? Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you!

There have been two things sucking up all my time for about the last week and a half: Yamanashi orientation and SETY. Each of these events lasted for multiple days and both were held everyday in Kofu, the capital of Yamanashi prefecture.

Kofu is about an hour and a half drive away from Fujiyoshida if the traffic is light. It takes even longer if you go by train or bus (thankfully we had rides to and from Kofu every night). These conferences all start at 8:00 in the morning and go to 4:30. That means I had to wake up extremely early and I would always get home late. I spent the few hours of free time I had just eating and hanging out (I just got in to watching the office, that show is great). I just haven't had the energy to sit down and do any lengthy writing (it was even a pain to write this one, I just got back from a huge 2-day camping party and in about an hour I have to plan for a big elementary school meetings tomorrow morning).

There also hasn't really been anything to report, especially not about Japan. I've spent a copious amounts of time hanging out with groups of foreigners rather than the first week in Yamanashi when I was left out in the middle of nowhere to my own devices. Lately I've felt that I'm in a part of America with a high population of Japanese people rather than being in Japan itself. There's a group of second and third year people that seem to want it this way called YETI. Basically they just plan things that all the foreign people in the area can get together and do to make Japan feel as American (or British/Canadian) as they can. They even plan all the big drinking parties at foreigner bars throughout Tokyo. While they're mostly nice people, I can't help but think that they lost sight of why they came to Japan in the first place. Thankfully I'm finished with all these stupid conferences in Kofu and I can get back to settling in here in Fujiyoshida. I have a couple of scattered meetings this week but for the most part I have a lot of time off until school starts next Monday.

Hopefully I'll have some better stories to tell soon. I had a lot of things in my head to write about for the first couple of weeks but I didn't get the chance to jot them down. Maybe they'll come back to me.