Observations and Thoughts from Week 1

I officially survived my first week! There has actually been times I barely notice that I am 18 hours away from home. Occasionally it just seems like Nathan and I moved to a big city where we have yet to meet a lot of people. Of course those times are far less frequent then the times that I snap back to reality and realize I am in a completely different world, and the reason we haven’t met anyone is because no one speaks the same language as us. 

Anyways here are some of thoughts and findings I have gathered from the limited exploring we have done in the past 7 days:

• It is freezing here. No amount of clothes or layers I could have fit in my suit case would have prepared me for how cold it is. 
• The girls here are immune to the cold. I have very rarely seen any girls here wearing jeans or pants. I have seen TONS of leggings and tights and even some bare legs or tall socks (of course they make it look fab). Meanwhile I am wearing 3 pairs of pants and shivering. I need to figure out how they do that. 
• All the girls here have gorgeous hair. Thick. Flowing. Voluminous. Shiny. Its insane! Is it their diet? Will my hair look like that in a few months? (fingers crossed!)
• The food here is going to be a lot harder to adapt to then I expected. After 7 days here I am sick of eating anything that comes from the ocean. And that smell…. 
• Eating healthy and finding fresh natural foods is going to be a challenge also. I know that is shocking since a lot of Japanese food is fresh or raw, but when you cant read any menus or labels, and everything you eat is based of pictures, its a lot less risky to go for something fried then something with eyeballs. 
• There are going to be a lot of challenges I did not anticipate. Some things that never crossed my mind, but we have already encountered include: buying the right size sheets, finding simple spices like salt and pepper, adjusting the temperature in our apartment, operating a washing machine, and ordering pizza. Nightmare. 
• I suck at chopsticks. 
• Thank GOD for technology. I do not know how anyone moved overseas ever without the internet. 
• Nathan is amazing. And a genius. And I do not give him enough credit. I have been pretty scared to go anywhere by myself since I arrived and somehow he has discovered restaurants and what/how to order, found a grocery store, a home goods store, figured out their currency, and miraculously conquered a subway system that is completely in Japanese. I am literally in awe. 
• I need to learn a little more Japanese. Of course I kind of knew that before I got here, but this time I really mean it!