Ok...so I'm in Sasebo now - and it is hot as hell! I haven't seen it go under 27 degrees the entire time I've been here - even in the middle of the night or early morning! I'm starting to sort of get used to it...although I have my moments. Thankfully my apartment has air conditioning, but it's crazy expensive to run.

Sasebo is really nice - it's placed in a valley between some big hills, and on the other side of the hills is the Japan Sea. It is also a military town - with both an American and Japanese base. So there is quite a big western influence in the downtown area (especially the Arcade - Japan's longest straight shopping plaza - 1km). We have a Starbucks! (a big plus for me). But because of the navy, foreigners often get a bad reputation because they have been known to steal bikes, purses, and other petty crimes. So that's not really cool. But if you make friends with some of the navy guys, they can escort you on base where they have a Taco Bell, Subway, and an American grocery store! I know quite a few people are aching for peanut butter...I know that I could go for some cheese if I got on base...

So my apartment is pretty small! But it's starting to feel more like home! I've finally taken some pictures of my apartment (had to make sure it was semi-clean first! hahah). So here is some pictures of my living room/kitchen. My bath/shower room is the white-ish door on the right, and the brown door leads to my entrance way and washroom.


Then there are dividers (sliding doors) that can seperate my bedroom from my living room/kitchen. Which come in quite handy when I'm trying to stay cool in my apartment! So this is the bedroom half of my apartment - and there is a doorway leading out to my balcony. I've converted my bed also into my desk...I'm using my desk chair as my fan stand. The other two pictures are the view from my balcony...

There are also quite a few nifty little gadgets in my apartment...My bath/shower room has a fan/heater, so that it becomes my dryer for all my clothes. I just have to turn it on and set the time for it to dry. I have to turn on my hot water, and I can set the temperature I want for baths and showers. And my toilet has a sink built into the top....

Everyone has been really nice and I've had lots of fun since coming here. I came into Sasebo with Kevin, who is from Ohio and he also lives in the apartment above me. We walk to work every morning - the Board of Education is located in the city hall - which is only about a 1o minute walk for us. Brent (from Australia) and James (NYC) are second-year ALTs who have been helping us out and showing us around the city. Here are some pictures I took at work the other day, and also some pictures of our view from the office.

We've been keeping really busy though - we've gone out for lots of good food, went to some of the viewing points at the top of the hills/mountains that surround the city, and went to the 99 islands at sunset, which was really beautiful (kind of like Japan's version of the 1000 islands...which was also featured in the film The Last Samurai for 10 seconds....woo hoo). I forgot my camera that day - but I am definately going to go back and take pictures, so I'll post those once I get those. Sasebo has also had a festival since I've been here - it was the Sasebo Seaside Festival. It was nice, they had bands and such playing, lots of food, and at the end of the festival on the Sunday night they had a huge fireworks display. It was really neat - they went on forever - something like 10,000 fireworks were sent off. The japanese love their fireworks....those little firecrackers and such that you only see in Canada around Canada are absolutely everywhere - which are all geared towards little kids - with Hello Kitty and such on it!

Last night we had our welcoming party for all the JETS in Sasebo and surrounding areas. We went to a tabenomihodai - which is an all you can eat and drink beer garden on the roof of one of the department stores in the arcade. It was lots of fun! It was good to meet some new people in the area. I sampled chu-hi's - which I have no idea what kind of alcohol it is, but you get to choose what flavor you want....and they are quite potent, which I unfortunately learned the hard way. After the tabenomihodai, some people went to kareoke, while I participated in the convenience store pub crawl - where everyone just walked to the stores to get alcohol and sat in the park and chatted. After that, we all made it to Ginza, one of the local clubs. It was filled with Navy guys...and it was so smokey!! Wow - I totally took advantage of the smoke-free places in Ottawa! That is definately something that I miss a lot.

Anyways, I'm off to the beach today! I'll be sure to bring my camera this time! Hope all is well with everyone!