Parked in Nagano

A lot has happened since my last post; I packed up and moved from my temporary home in Okayama on Sunday morning and, after 5 hours spent across two shinkansens (bullet trains), am slowly unpacking in my new home for the next year or more. I spent a majority of my travel time sleeping to make up for all of that foregone the night before in favor of karaoke. It had to happen sometime, when better than my last night with my first friends in this new country?
After arduous negotiations headed by Tim, the only one of us here long enough at this point to undertake such a task, we were booked for 2 hours all-you-can-drink. We started at 3. The room was just big enough for the four of us and our drinks and microphones. There was a phone on the wall to call in drink orders and a large flat panel television on the wall. This, as I understand it, is the norm for such an establishment here. We belted out Pixies, Weezer and other favorite tunes for a couple of hours, and I was sure I was going to be hoarse for days (turned out not to be the case, thankfully). It's definitely a fun way to (sp)end an evening.
Back to the shinkansen. Although I slept for a majority of the ride, I was awake long enough to discover that most of Japan is covered by a lush green blanket with clusters of housing or sprawling cities dotting the countryside. It really is beautiful. All of the cities seem to be situated on the flat ground, although mountains (hills?) abound. Nagano debuts itself around a bend from the top of a ridge that must nearly encircle the city, atop which the tracks run. One gets a sweeping view of the cityscape as the train hooks lazily around it and down the side of the ridge and on in to the city. It looks much bigger than I had been picturing. Coming from a town of 200,000 I was not expecting twice that to be so much bigger, but I'm kind of excited that it appears to be. Santa Rosa gave me much, but in the end it felt too small for my taste. I thought maybe the weather would be different here than Okayama. I was wrong. Well, maybe slightly less humid, but still stiflingly hot. And it seems I'm the only one in the country that sweats, but I do enough of it to make up for the rest.
My predecessor is doing a very good job of getting me acquainted with the city and the job. He is strikingly similar to me, and I'm sorry that he won't be around longer. But I got his old apartment, so I guess I'll settle. I can see the building from work, but not vice-versa. It's about 3 blocks away. It's a very nice new building, the first time I've ever had to buzz my visitors in, replete with a video display on my wall for me to make sure I approve of their behavior before agreeing to have them up. It is small, as I had been warned it would be, but it feels homey. The entryway is a hallway that contains all of the household essentials: washer, fridge, kitchen, bathroom, and bathing room (separate room from toilet). This hallway leads to the room, which has a long closet, a bed, shelves and a desk and a couple of low tables. I have a nice balcony with a good view of the mountains that even came with a snowboard and snowshoes. A string of english teachers for my company have lived here, so each new occupant inherits a bunch of stuff (generally anything former teacher(s) didn't want when they left) with the space. Today I started unpacking/arranging in earnest, and it feels much better already, but there's a long way to go before it's all set. I am getting mini tours of the notable establishments in the area, and have been introduced to the locals. And by locals I mean other foreigners. The grocery store situation here seems much more amicable. I have applied for all of the necessary papers as a foreigner and even gotten a cell phone (which I am reasonably certain is smarter than me).
Today was my first day of work at my branch. My visage only caused one child to burst into inconsolable fits of tears, but it's only my first day. The rest seemed rather taken with me, but it's probably just the beard that seems magical. It's going to be challenging work, but I'm very much looking forward to it. Working with children is at once laborious and refreshing. I'll have to leave it at that, I've got lessons to plan and I've got to be to work promptly at noon tomorrow.