My morning walk

Morning view of my new Grade 1K classroom.



Morning view of Mt Fuji.










Just in case I get thirsty on the way to work.



The busy street just outside the Star Hotel, Yokohama

School

To everyone at YIS thanks for an awesome first day.
Everyone I meet was helpful and supportive. The students were great.
Thanks to Liz and Connie - you made the day so much fun.

Yokohama

Off to school to meet and greet staff. Great day getting all the official school stuff done or at least started. Dan was fantastic taking me here and there, showing me where to sign on the dotted line!!!
Got my apartment sorted. It's so bare!!!!
The day was crazy in the end and time went so quickly.
The picture below of the menu is like all the signs here - all in Japanese!!!!

Monday - arrival in Japan

Well I did arrive safely in Japan, tired but safe. Cleared all the procedures to enter the country and onto the bus to Yokohama (3500 Y) with my luggage all efficiently labelled and checked in. The trip in was a little worrisome - it all looked like a concrete jungle!
After about one and a half hours of travel we reached YCAT (Yokohama City Airport Terminal - or something like that - really it's the bus depot). Retrieve my luggage and off to the taxi rank. This was a wonderful experience - the taxi driver in his white gloves and white cap was so polite, the inside of his taxi was spotless with little white frilly covers on the seats. Arrived at the Star Hotel and get checked in. Taxi 1450 Y

On the local bus (210 Yen) and off to see Sonya. A delightful afternoon chatting and catching up as we walked and explored the immediate area. As night fell it got dark very early and much colder. Thanks Sonya for making me feel so welcome.

The night in the sky or not.....

Oh yes I flew from Sydney to KL on my way to Japan. By time my teaching contracts were signed it was almost impossible to find me a seat and certainly not a direct flight. So here I am in KL with my connecting flight delayed - thrilled to be connected wireless courtesy of KLIA - it's 1.30am Sydney time 4th Jan.

All part of the adventure of travel!!!

There was no sleep

3rd Jan 2010 - Alex went to work at 10pm and my last night in Australia was very restless. Finally sleeping at 5.30am when Alex came home.
We had a lovely big breakfast and got ourselves to the airport with time to spare!!
Thank goodness for online check in - no long queues for us and I was even under my baggage allowance.



Saying farewell to Alex was much, much harder than I thought it was going to be. Whatever lead me to the decision to take the position in Japan was lost in the blur of tears.
Thank you Alex for loving me enough to let me go on this journey.

Sydney airport exchange rate 71.34 Yen to the dollar.
Sydney - KL (Malaysia) 6814km, flight time about 8 hours, landed after midnight Sydney time, 9:10pm local time

The last sunset

Today was spent catching up with friends and saying farewells. Over the last 2 months I have been lucky enough to zip around the countryside seeing lots of friends and family. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take pics of everyone so here's just a few....