First day of orientation and my host family.

Well today we took the bus from Fukuoka to Nagasaki, so I have arrived at last. This city will be my home for the next 10.5 months. It is really windy right now because of the typhoon, but it's not too bad overall. There hasn't been that much rain. Before I get into the day I had to share this:

Tommy Lee Jones is apparently the mascot for Boss Coffee here in Japan, these vending machines are EVERYWHERE. They offer everything from tea and water to beer and cigarettes. It's kind of funny to me really, I can't go a block without seeing a vending machine.

Anyway, we arrived at the Gaidai (university) today, the place isn't huge, but it is beautiful, I've included some pictures from campus, you can also check out their website here:
http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/english/jasin_top_page/

 Check out that view!

 This is the main building.

 The gym.

 Residential area next to the college.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we are up on a hill, Nagasaki is very much a city with lots of ups and downs, there is a rather larger hill that we have to walk up to get to our house. It will definitely improve my health and stamina within a week.
We went over some basic stuff today, nothing too terribly interesting, to me it was just a way to kill time until I got to meet my host family. Though I did find the library's shelves of books on the Japanese language interesting. Tomorrow however we will be assigned our conversation partners and tested for placement in a Japanese language class.
This brings me to the best part of the adventure so far, my host mother, she has insisted that we refer to her as Okasan (mother, but respectful, not familiar, I would call my own mother Haha by contrast). She doesn't speak much English, which I love, because now I am forced to speak Japanese, something that I have been doing very little of since I got here (believe it or not). Other than a few random phrases and cliches here and there I haven't had to rely on my language skills at all before today, and suddenly my ability to communicate depends on it. The house is also amazing and so beautiful, it is much larger than I thought it would be, my room is easily 13'X10'. I will post pictures when I have more time to take some and when the family is all home. I have met the Father and the daughter briefly. The family owns a restaurant nearby called Suisha (the water cart) which is where we will be eating dinner almost every night. The last few days have been great and all, but today is where the real adventure begins. It is going to be exciting, that is for certain.