Our first blog from Fukuoka!!

Matt and I arrived on Monday night and it has been a whirlwind of activities getting "set-up". Somehow we've managed to eat almost every meal, register at the post office, get a back account, file for our alien registration cards, get a cell phone and sleep! Ok, the real truth - the ladies at the school have managed most of this for us but we've been right next to them the whole time!

Our first morning here, before I even stepped foot out of our room, I started to cry. I wasn't exactly sure what was outside nor was I sure if I was ready for it. Actually, I wasn't even sure why I was crying since nothing truly had even happened (maybe moving to the other side of the world had something to do with it...) but really, I felt a little too far away from the rest of my family. Of course, Matt being the person that he is, gave me a giant hug and told me it was ok to cry. So, I did. Then I wiped my tears away and we headed out the door. A sigh of relief - our new city is pretty cool. We found a bakery right around the corner and were able to buy food and 2 cups of coffee on the first day! Hurray! The rest of our day consisted of visiting our new apartment (love it!), seeing Matt's school, eating an incredible lunch full of noodles and getting a tour of our city.

Thursday involved many errands and at night Kumi, from Matt's school, took us to see downtown Fukuoka. We went to Tenji (I think that's how you spell it) which is a section of Fukuoka known for their shopping (YES!) and night life. It reminded me of NYC - lots of lights and lots of stores. The place was incredible - I could spend A LOT of time there. After Kumi took us around, she pointed out the bus we needed to take back to the hotel and Matt and I were on our way...alone. Luckily, we made it back safely. ;)

Today, after a quick Skype call to Boston (finally!), Matt and I decided to venture out and try our first traditional Japanese style breakfast. It consisted of tea, white rice, roasted eggplant, spinach, tofu, miso soup, some type of green concoction and wet or dry smoked fish. Matt tried the wet smoked and I tried the dry smoked. Here's how it went: honest truth, these words came out of my mouth "Oh god, there's an eyeball. I'm just going to cover that up." Then, I proceeded to pick out a ba-zillion tiny bones (with chopsticks, I might add) and ate my breakfast. Not too bad - except now all I smell is smoked fish!

Oh, and have I told you how hot it is here? It's hot - I mean REALLY hot! The humidity is killer and my hair is ridiculously curly.

Talk soon.