Welcome to Hiroshima

We are here in Kure City, Hiroshima. The flight went well and there were no delays. Once we got here we were whisked away by our schools supervisors. My supervisor took me to my high school - Miahara. Scott's supervisor took him to his high school -Hiro. Our high schools are rivals! Then we got settled into our apartment. It has three rooms; a kitchen, living room area, and bedroom. It is so small, but cozy. We are in the center of town and can walk everywhere. And we do A LOT of walking. I have to walk 15 minutes, take a short bus ride, and then walk up a hill, and the English office is on the fourth floor! Then I get home and our apartment is on the fourth floor! My feet had so many blisters after the first day. We have been going to our schools everyday. Teachers are required to be there from 8:15 to 4:00 everyday, even in the summer. I have been meeting the teachers and becoming acquainted with my school. I have gone out to lunch and dinner with some other teachers. I am also going to a staff party on Sunday. After school Scott and I walk around Kure. The first night we kept trying to go into the local restaurants for dinner, but none of the menus were in English and worse yet they were written in Japanese characters. We were really intimidated so we ended up at McDonalds and by chance saw another JET who lives in Kure! Since then the JET, Travis, and Scott and I have been hanging out. My predecessor, Kim, is a girl our age from Canada and she hung out with us last night. We went to our first Karaoke club! It was very interesting...but we didn't sing any songs. Anyway, that is a lot of information. We are just trying to get settled in. Hopefully we will get to see some fireworks tonight since today is Kure Firework Festival. We will keep you informed, we now have internet in our apartment, so we can write often and receive e-mails! Love you all, Vicky and Scott

Last night in Tokyo

Today was our last day in Tokyo. We had more workshops. We both went to workshops on beginning Japanese etiquette and language. Then we went to our Hiroshima prefecture meeting, where we learned a little more about what we will be doing once we get there. We leave for Hiroshima tomorrow morning at about 9:30. Once we arrive in Hiroshima we will be greeted by our supervisors and taken to our schools for a visit. We have been given SO much information! We had some free time tonight to let it all sink in a bit. It still feels like we're on vacation. Scott also has a massage chair in his room, which he has been using to make people feel jealous! Tonight we went to Subway to eat (really cultural, huh?) and it took us about 45 minutes to find it even though it was 3 blocks away. We are quickly learning how essential language is! We are also experiencing our first typhoon. It is very windy and there is a lot of rain. We are hoping this won't affect our flights tomorrow. People have said that it will move up north through out the night. Anyway, that is it for now. We look forward to writing again once we are in Hiroshima and set up our internet!

We're Here!

We made it here to Tokyo! Our flights went well, we were delayed on both, but made it here with all of our luggage. Today we have been attending orientation speeches and workshops. Vicky went to workshops on making the most of your yen and teaching secondary students and Scott went to workshops on traveling in Japan and food and cooking. Tonight we are going out with the other people from our prefecture. Tomorrow we have more presentations and workshops. Then Wednesday morning we fly to Hiroshima and meet with people from our schools. Other than that, not much for now, we saw a little of Tokyo last night, it is a whole new and different place for us that we'll share through pictures as soon as we can. Love you all!!
scott and vicky

About to Leave

We are about to leave for Japan. In six days on July 23rd we fly to Minneapolis and then on to Toyko where we will be for three days. After three days of orientation we will then finally make it to our new home of Kure City, Japan. We are a bit nervous, but very excited. We hope this website will make it easier for all of you to share in our journey with us. Love you all!