Konnichiwa!

Well, here we are in Tokyo. Mike arrived on July 22 and I followed nearly a week later. We've been set up in a lovely wee apartment in Nihonbashi, it's 1 bedroom with a living/dining area and separate kitchen. After being really worried that the kitchen would consist of a microwave and mini-fridge we were pleasantly surprised to find a 3-burner gas stove top and grill, full sized fridge/freezer, microwave and, of course, a rice cooker. The buttons, naturally, are all in Japanese but we do have a very handy Blue Folder with the necessary instructions in English :)

Despite being happy with the apartment itself, Mike and I are moving on to bigger and better lodgings later this month. The travel time from here to Roppongi-itchome (40 mins, 2 trains) was proving too much for Mike so we requested an apartment closer to Izumi Gardens. Well - WE GOT IT! Our new place will be a whopping 53sqm, 1 bedroom, huge living/dining area and open plan kitchen - with a dishwasher! Bonus! Personally, I am looking forward to the swimming pool and gym. Mike will be less than 5 minutes walk from work and I will be one subway stop away from my own job once I get started on August 21.

We've done a lot of the usual settling in things: wandered around Nihonbashi, mastered the subway (well, we can get from A to B!) and tried sushi from Tsukiji. We visited Higashi Gyoen at the Imperial Palace and enjoyed lying on real grass for the first time in over a year. We've found a supermarket nearby which actually sells a huge variety of western food .. they even have a special Waitrose section just inside the door!

It was kinda weird arriving separately, particularly since Mike was here in March. For me though it's my first time in Japan so I'm spending my days getting used to all these things while Mike deals with settling in at work. I don't start working until August 21 so in the meantime I'm just hanging out, enjoying the sun and reading a lot of books!

My own job is at Hiroo International Kindergarten and I'll be working as a Teaching Assistant. It's much more like "kindergarten" that we're used to from home, particularly compared with kindergarten in Hong Kong. For a start there are two children for every teacher - vs 15:1 at LHK! It's part time so I will have time to do different things in the afternoons (eg Japanese lessons!), which I'm really looking forward to.

My goals for this week are getting my Gaijin card and setting up a bank account. And hopefully getting a new mobile phone too!