Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Hello from Kyoto city where the humidity reaches 89% at night! (Can -your- city do that? I thought not.)

A friend congratulated me last night on living my dream of visiting Japan. First of all, I want to thank everyone who has been wishing me well- you guys are great! ^^ Secondly, it's hard to tell if I'm living my dream just yet because I'm so busy just tending to my basic needs. Living in a foreign country is a funny thing- even the most basic of things becomes incredibly baffling! For example, I spent a couple hours yesterday trying to figure out how my washing machine works. Later I took about an hour to shop for a simple grocery shopping list because little to nothing at my local grocery store is in English. Thankfully with each challenge comes a victory of some kind- now I have clean underwear -and- I managed to buy everything on my list at the grocery store (although I might have gotten two containers of salt instead of salt and sugar, I'll find out soon enough!)

At any rate, I'm still living day-to-day and my mood is bouncing around from hour to hour as I acclimate. I spoke with a few other JETs about this at dinner a couple nights ago, and this seems to be a common feeling. One of them likened the experience to a scene from Disney's “Tangled” where Rapunzel has just left her tower for the first time. As you may recall it is a series of split screens where she is alternately cartwheeling joyfully and positively catatonic with sorrow. Before you folks back home feel sorry for me, don't worry. It's just as funny to watch myself do this as it was watching Rapunzel. I've also been making an effort to find out what activities cheer me up and found that shopping and eating out with friends are high up on the list. Yes, even in a foreign country the best way to feel better is to spend money! ^^;

In closing, I'm making some great memories here in Japan and here are some photos of my new apartment:

The last two photos were taken from my balcony. I'm on the third floor and as you can see I live in a really beautiful area. The hills off in the distance are especially cool- Kyoto is in a valley just like my home town!

Much affection,

-Andrew