My first few days in Nagayo Nyu Town(Suburb of Nagasaki)

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, I had to get myself re-established and there were a few days I was busy. The cherry trees (sakura ki) are starting to come into full bloom. I've been getting to try many different Japanese dishes, my most favorite foods are Ramen and sashimi(raw fish). The fish is very fresh here in Nagayo and it tastes delicious with soy sauce. Tomorrow I go to register for my Alien Registration Card, which basically allows me to become a temporary citizen of Japan(more or less). After that I'm taking a bus and tram to downtown Nagasaki to meet up with the other students for a cherry blossom viewing party. It will be my first time in downtown Nagasaki and it should be a lot of fun. They have a really good bakery on my way to the bus stop for school, and it's all pretty cheap. One thing I have noticed is I've cut my sugar/carbohydrate intake in Japan by like 60% or so. Chalk it up to the protein, whoo! We'll see what this holds for me when I return to America.
A word of warning to everyone, I will be staying with a second host family from April 1st to April 6th while my host mother Kiyoko takes her grandson Nozomi on a small vacation. The school year just ended for him today. While I'm with my second host family, I'm not sure if I'll be able to easily access the internet, so if you don't see an update here, that's why. It should be fun as I will get to explore more of the city this way. Hopefully while I'm in downtown Nagasaki tomorrow, I can get the rest of my money changed to Japanese yen and then I'll be able to do some shopping( The stores here are amazing) Until then, Ja ne mina san! (If you see differently colored text, click on it as it's a link to a photo.)

Finally in Japan!

Well, I'm finally in Japan. Sorry it took me about a day to set up my blog. My first full day in Japan was awesome, walked around a lot, did a little shopping(Only found stuff for my fiance....sorry Nick :P) We went to a few shrines and temples today in the Fukuoka region around our hotel, they also had this amazing department store better than the Mall of America and about 1/16th the size, but its really hard to find stuff in there, haha.
While we were walking to another shopping center north of the department store,after we visited our first shrine, we found a kimono store on the second floor of a building, we were extremely fortunate. The clerk there spoke a good amount of english and was very nice to us, she gave Sharon this magazine with all sorts of beautiful kimono in there, I was actually jealous. I was directed to the Komon in the store, which is known to be a common kimono and is very beautiful. I decided to buy one for my fiance and some hairpins to go with it. After purchasing the kimono, the clerk said we were all allowed to have a pair of tabi(split-toe socks). Granted they are for women because they are much to small for me, I'll give them to MaryJo.

The shopping center we went to after the kimono store was just a beautiful work of art. The architecture was amazing and they had a canal running through it. I took quite a few pictures and they even had water jets in the canal that shot water up like a firework display. We had lunch there in our first ramen shop. The ordering had us a little confused at first because we ordered our ramen outside the shop almost like a soda machine. Once we selected what we wanted to eat, a little ticket was printed out, we were then directed inside to sit at a counter, where we waited a few short minutes for our ramen. Once it was served, pictures were taken and noodles were devoured. It was sooooo good! I love ramen.

After the department center,we visited a bhuddist temple right in the middle of the city and walked around. The temple itself was very ominous and ancient, but extremely cool. Since more of our group arrived, we're going to go out and do some karaoke, whoo!Take care everyone :D