The city of Fukutsu in the prefecture ["state" - kinda/sorta] of Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu, in the nation of Japan.
Nice place.
So... we wrapped up the day and a half or so of orientation in Tokyo, which was, for the most part, innocuous and harmless. Though the one presentation I went to by Richard Graham from www.GenkiEnglish.com was really quite good. He was one of those guys whose cheerfulness and enthusiasm seems entirely too high level, but honestly, you've got to admire anybody who is that damn excited about what he does. The enthusiasm was a bit contagious and he made some great points.
So flying down to Fukuoka from Tokyo, starting to get the butterflies in the stomach as you're about to meet your new "boss" and the folks you'll be working with for at least the next year or so... Wearing a full on suit, despite the heat, having had "first impressions" drummed into us at the orientation, not to mention into me personally by my lovely better half. But it was good. Waiting for me as I exited luggage, holding a big sign with my name on it, were my supervisor [Morita-san], another board of education teacher [Nagashima-san] and the two other ALT's who work for the Fukutsu Board of Education [Kathy and Malik].
It's all a bit of a whirlwind after that... the 25m ride up to Fukutsu, going to the BOE and meeting the #2 there, as the actual head was on vacation in Hawaii... struggling through bits of English, introducing me around and then of course, out for the welcoming dinner and drinks, finally, dropping me off, exhausted, back at my brand new apt...
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