Mr. Independent!

Now I can officially say I have my own apartment!!! This will be the first time in my adult life that I will living alone if I don't count China.

On Monday I was able to meet all the other teachers in the area. They all seem nice and easy to get a long with. In the meeting we mainly discussed what is going to happen at Summer School and also if we have any problems with teaching in general.

After we finished the meeting the majority of us went back to Kumamoto City and hung out at an Izakaya. Like always I didn't drink any alcohol and just ate instead but the other teachers seemed to be enjoying themselves. Once we had finished in there we went to do some Purikura which was pretty weird. That was the first time I had ever done anything like that before!

Later we went to another bar which one of the teachers named Becky suggested. We didn't stay in there for too long due to some of the teachers feeling a bit tired. I was happy to do what ever the other guys were doing because I wasn't too familiar with the area any ways.

The next day I met up with one of the teachers named Sarah who was going to help me with applying for my Alien Registration Card aka Gaijin Card at the local City Hall and also setting up a Bank account. Everything was pretty straight forward with applying for my ARC and Bank account. But at the City Hall I was given a little booklet which would allow me to have free entry to many attractions/sights in Kumamoto for just applying for my ARC.

We also tried to enquire about getting a phone. After realising there is not enough time to decide to go somewhere for Golden Week I thought I might as well spend that money on an iPhone 4. So Sarah and I went to the SoftBank shop and enquired about the phone and they told me I would have to buy the phone outright because I only have a one year visa and so can not pay monthly. In total the phone would cost about 46,080yen (£336) and then I would have to pay the monthly bill. The deal they were telling me seemed like it was fairly good.

I then went with Sarah to the 7Eleven to withdraw some money but for some reason it was rejected. I later found out from my bank that my limit is £300 per day with my current card and I was trying to withdraw 50,000yen (£364) and this is why it was rejected. So I will probably end up waiting until Friday to buy the phone because right now I need this money to buy some items for my new apartment.

Oh yesterday I had my first day officially teaching. I think it went pretty well apart from getting really confused when I needed to get a bus to my school and also getting the taxi back home (it was expensive) because it was after the last bus! But apart from that it was pretty good and the students were good students as well.

I just realised I haven't actually said anything about the apartment. Well I am living in a LeoPalace21 apartment so I already have a TV and pretty fast internet (23.26Mbps download & 21.68Mbps upload) which is all included in my monthly rent. Overall it's quite nice and looks like one of the newer ones I had seen on youtube. I will probably do a 'My Apartment' video at some point but not sure when. Maybe once I make it a bit more homely. It seems like I am the only one out of the trainees to have an electric toilet which is pretty sweet! I think I will go out in a bit to pick up some stuff for this place because its pretty empty not even any toilet paper! I also need to find a way to stick things to my walls without damaging them. I have a Jamaican flag I want to put up as well as some other things.

It seems like Kumamoto City may not be such a bad place to live after all!