Hello all!

It’s been a while since the first post, and so much has happened. Since I arrived in Japan, I’ve eaten a lot of good food, met a lot of kind people, and spoken a lot of bad (but improving) Japanese. My official blog posts will be on the Obubu website, since I’m lucky enough to be integrating my academic and internship work into shared assignments. This space will be used for casual updates and personal pictures, and I will do my best to link my official blog posts here as well, when they are uploaded.

The first night, I stayed at a hotel at the airport. The hotel room literature is slightly different than in the US:

(The book on the right is Kojiki, or the Records of Ancient Matters, Japan’s oldest historical record. It’s got a lot of Shinto origin myths.)

There was also a pair of warm pajamas, and many fun complimentary toiletry items. I especially enjoyed the packaging from this scrubby towel:

The next morning, after successfully navigating two trains and a bus, this is where I arrived in Wazuka:

It’s a short walk to the Obubu house through a copse of trees, passing the entrance to a local shrine.

And finally, the view from my front door!

Thanks for reading! In my next post, I’ll have some more photos of beautiful Wazuka!