Hey there,

Thought i'd give you a little bit of an update on my life in Japan!
So far i'm finally getting settled in in Nagoya. The apartment is in a very nice location, very residential to the point where locals grow vegetables around us, but this also means that there's not much to find around here in terms of restaurants or even a good supermarket! I've only been here less than a week but i really hope to find one soon. I did find a good plant shop though, and my apartment looks really home-y now with a few plants here and there. The location is good in that within 10 minutes i'm at the station and 10 minutes later i'm in central Nagoya. So i can be in the city if i want or out.

My apartment is also really nice! There's even a washing machine, and a bath tub (though designed for midgets) and i have my bed up in a little loft, which mean that the space downstairs is 'big' and very much like a living room! One or two things more and then this is a nice place to stay for the next 8 months. It's at a reasonable price, though one thing i didn't like was dishing out almost one months rent for various bits and pieces including 'key money' which is basically a present to the landlord. But all in all, can't complain about leopalace yet!

I meet my school today, i hope they're nice! I've been getting some smiles around here (especially when i was carrying the plants back to my place) but a friend of mine located elsewhere hasn't been treated nicely by the japanese at all! And when we went to open bank accounts, we has to write our address out in Kanji and they weren't allowed to do it for us! That was interesting.

I've made a new best friend and it's name is the 100 yen shop! (100 yen = $1 US, 130 = €1) They have this huge one and it has everything you could dream of. i mean EVERYTHING! i kitted out most of my apartment there. bought so much and only spent like 7000 yen. The food shopping is a bit of a different matter, and i think i won't be cooking too much when i could easily get a bowl of ramen for 500 yen or so.

Everything is all falling into place, finally, though there are some issues in the contract with my company that haven't been agreed on yet. I'll keep you posted!