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