And so it begins.....

So there I was, talking to an 80 year old Japanesse man who was part of the first Japan expedition to Anartica and all I could understand out of his mouth were two things: 1) From his experience in the Geo-physics profession, I should be prepared for a huge earthquake in the south of Japan (where I will soon reside) in the next year...aparently its about three years over due, and 2) He had to give a lecture to a female penetentiary and something funny happened.....he laughed alot, it was really funny just to watch him talk.

This happened at a pre-departure party for those of us leaving from the states of Texas and New Mexico to teach a little English in Japan for the next year. The gathering, was at the Consualte General of Japan's residence where we had a lot of sushi and wine. This contingent from the states consists of a group of about 65, 2/3 fellows and the rest fellarettes.

Around noon today I realised how excited I actually am about this next venture. Its truely exciting, I'm moving to a small town, Shinji, where I'm one of two people who speak english, to teach Junior High and Elementary school children the beautiful twang of West Texas english. I do not know the language (even a little bit) and I have never been to Japan (which I have found to be irregular in comparison to my peers). But momentarily forgetting those two things items and just listening to the speakers who are folks who participated in this program years before, its impossible not to just smile.

Its crazy who all I met, the Consualte-General of Japan in Houston who told me that it was indeed up to me, Luke Moorhead, to see that the prefecture of Shimane (my equivilent of a county) and Texas were sucsessful in future buisness relations....we were both probably a little tipsy at this point, but I told him that I would do my best not to let him down. I ran into a guy I marched with in the Goin' Band from Raiderland who was there as a JET alum. Besides that, there is a BUNCH of recent college graduates, bright eyed and bushy tailed, who will experience their first "real" job in a foriegn country.

What else can I say...it's damn near midnight (or was when I wrote this the first time), this is my first blog and I figured its as good as a time as ever to share with you all what's going on in my world while try something a little different. Its a little more personal than mass emailings.

More to come...