Calimochos* live on, even in Hachioji-Shi! Fueled by a 500 Yen (dats lie $4.60, so booya) bottle of Spanish wine and a sale on Diet Coke, my British flatmate Michelle and I took to learning some Japanese last night. We're getting there, maybe. Ha ha. I know one character in katakana (one of Japan's three alphabets), the character that represents the sound "bu." Knowing this character really does nothing for one's ability to communicate, but someday I imagine it will truly come in handy.

Some actually useful Japanese is this post's title sentence, which means, "where the poo is the internet cafe, you crazies?" One can substitute any location for "internet cafe" and essentially find it by asking a friendly looking local.

[A note about friendly looking locals: they really are friendly, and will take you anywhere you need to go within reason. They will guide you down multiple blocks to get you to the post office, and then will give you explicit lower-level-primate-like and therefore language-transcendent directions for the silliest request.]

Anyway, aside from simply experiencing Japan in all its confusion inducing ways, I am also "making a living" of sorts here. I trained this week in Tachikawa for three days, and am now ready for a Nova-filled day of seven lessons starting TOMORROW! Over the past three days I taught at least 8 or 9 classes and learned teaching strategies and corporate policy and etc. along the way. I really enjoy the teaching so far -- the students here are generally really eager and fun and appreciative, which is reflective of Japanese culture, I believe, and quite refreshing. So, yay for getting payed to speak English. And then yay for spending all my wages on apples.

My home school is in Kichijoji, which is approx. a 40 minute train ride from Takao. Factor in walking from my apt. and to the school, and my commute is going to be about 70-80 minutes each way. Yikes. I plan on reading a lot on the train -- I've already finished two lengthy books and, mind you, have only been here a week.

Anyway, time to rest up for the fun and games of tomorrow. I was supposed to get a mobile telly today, but did laundry instead. Thus, tomorrow I will be asking one friendly local, "O Vodafone, wa doku desu ka?" and then experiencing my first full day of teaching. Another day, another dollar, I suppose.

*Not only do they live on, but they make Me, Myself and Irene seem like the funniest movie EVER. Maybe it is!?