Below are random photos of our life and surroundings in Akita City, Japan. There will be more in the future, but for now, until we get Internet in our home, this is the best we can do, posting from the unbelievably sunny main room of aL*Ve, a sort of hybrid between a mall and convention center in the middle of Akita City. It has wireless, but you aren't allowed to plug in your computer (which Tricia found out when a police officer told her to unplug from the socket; incidentally, the police here are kind and helpful as opposed to abrasive and intimidating. They don't carry guns, and they don't have much to do. Bike theft seems to be the main crime here, and I suspect most of the thefts are incidental, as nearly all of the bikes (called Mama Cherry) look the same (see pic below)). Life here has been good, and will get much better once Tricia and Jonas arrive. Our city has about 300,000 people, but feels much bigger. The city and people are far less spread out than comparable cities back home, and makes the place feel more vibrant, which I like.
Our supervisors greeted us at the airport with homemade signs welcoming us. The shorter of the two is Jason's supervisor, Naoko (NOW-oh-ko), who has the exact same Subaru as we did back home. We got a chuckle out of this. The other is Yoko, who helped us get our phones and took us all over the city shopping. They both have been very helpful and generous with their time, and made the transition much easier. Notice the baby Jonas in the corner of the sign.
Pictured below is the train/bus station and city center, which looks drabier in this picture than it actually is in real life. Below that is a house across the street from our apartment, and below that is our small but comfortable apartment. The living space here is smaller, but more than enough, as we have two bed rooms, and living room, and a separate kitchen and bath area.
Our local grocery store. A short bike ride further is the much swankier "Gran Mart," which also has a McDonalds. But this place is cheeper and closer.
Fruit is expensive, while fish and most vegetables are cheap. Two small melons cost 1000 yen, or about $9.50.
Also in our neighborhood. Have yet to try the pizza or the ice cream. But seeing as its world famous, it must be great. Apparently, the Japanese love to drizzle mayo all over their pizza. In fact, them seem to love mayo on all their junk-type food, which is a good reason to avoid it.
This giant sign is on our bike route to downtown. To get perspective of how huge it is ("ridiculously large" is how our Japanese teacher put it), look how small the cars below are.
The famous Japanese karaoke bar. We went with a group of people, and I was underwhelmed (Tricia enjoyed it more than I). Instead of it being just a huge bar, each group gets its own personal room, and the whole deal just seemed more performance-oriented than fun-oriented. Still, its popular. This picture was taken on a Wednesday afternoon, and the parking lot was packed.
Kanto Festival. Akita City's big event. Guys hold giant poles affixed with lanterns and parade up and down the street. Unfortunately, it was so dark, we didn't get any good pics of the actual parade. But this is some of the post-parade fun.
A couple more shots of the Tokyo fish market.
A typical row bikes. Tricia and I each have one. They are very useful.
Our local dance/aerobics instructor, who apparently was trained at Universal Studios.
Coolbiz is not as cool as you might think. Its an indicator to all the men that they need to wear short sleeved shirts to endure the heat, but wherever it is they work, the air conditioning, if it exists at all, will not be turned on.
The soccer kids at my base school.
The exterior of my school, which is ancient and hot. Tricia's school (photos to come) is new and modern, and air conditioned throughout.
And finally, a picture of these girls, who have been terrorizing me for the last hour while I've posted this. They like to run up to me and shout something in English, and whenever I respond with some Japanese, like calling them "genki" (energetic), they roll around on the floor and laugh. They've also taken my cell phone, my mp3 player, and keep looking at the computer to see what I'm doing.
