The apartment setup is coming along fine. This has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I've never really lived on my own until now and so I've never been responsible for furnishing and decorating my own residence before. As a single guy I have no prior experience in making sure things match or look nice, and so I'm learning on the fly here. I'm still working on getting some things set up and so once things look a little better here in the apartment I'll post some pictures of what the inside looks like.
I like the city I'm living in. It has a small city feel to it, even though it has over 500,000 people. The people here are a little more laid back than the people you might find in a city like Tokyo.
I'm learning to drive here in Japan. That has been an adventure in and of itself. I'm hoping to take my first driving test sometime in the next couple of weeks to see if I can get my Japanese license. I'm driving on an international license right now. It's been an adjustment learning to drive on the other side of the road and on smaller streets and in smaller lanes than one would find in the states. I've already gotten my first parking ticket here in Japan. I had apparently parked in a no parking spot in front of a house, even though there wasn't a "no parking" sign anywhere to be found, and when I first parked there there was a car immediately parked in front of me and another one parked just a little behind me......but whatever. As you can tell I'm still a little bitter about it....so I'm using this space to vent. The very next day I got stopped by a police officer. He saw that I was a foreigner and just wanted to make sure that I had my license and papers with me. I've never gotten pulled over because of my race before. I've learned an important lesson through these two experiences though. Japanese police have very little actual police work to do. Okay, Okay.....maybe that's not fair. Please forgive me. Obviously, I still need to get out my frustration over all this.
Anyway, all in all it's been great here. I'm in the exact place where God has called me to and I'm amongst a people that God desperately wants to reveal his love to. Please pray that I continue to adjust well to my new home. Pray that I balance my time wisely so that I can devote the proper time necessary to learning the Japanese language as quickly as possible.
Here are some of my first pics of my new city. Enjoy and God Bless!
The view looking southwest out over Utsunomiya from my apartment balcony
The view looking directly north from my apartment
The river that runs through the heart of Utsunomiya
The building with eyeballs right outside of the train station...aka LaLasquare Department Store. Oh, by the way this store has the best theme song it plays on loud speakers as you walk by it outside. I find my myself singing it throughout the day...."La La La Square, La La La Square"---that's pretty much it, but it's to a real catchy tune (you'll have to trust me on this)
Rooftop Gardening
Utsunomiya's not so adventurous Adventure Bridge. This was a major disappointment. I thought it would sway in the air and be kinda dangerous or exciting to cross....but it wasn't. It was actually kind of ghetto. You can tell by the number of other people there that the Japanese probably feel the same way about it. Japan is one of those places that there are people almost everywhere you go. If you happen to go to a place and don't see any Japanese people there you just know something is up.
Awww....Bird Love!!!
