Dear [insert name here],

Having recovered from the 6 hour delay on top of the planned 4 hour transfer time, I am now safely installed in Japan and loving every minute of it!

Yesterday (Tuesday) the temperature hit 37 degrees which is unusual even for Japanese Summers (or, as translated by a little electronic widget some of the students have: “a freak of nature”). Not that we particularly noticed it: thank goodness for air conditioning!

Yesterday these translating oofer-doofers were pretty much essential for getting through a lesson. Perhaps though, I didn’t really want to know that I was drinking “lactic acid bacteria drink”. Today though we’ve done pretty well through body language and people are getting more confident at speaking English with us. Slowly, slowly my Japanese vocabulary is expanding too…

On Monday we had our introductory tour of the Joshibi Sagamihara campus. Wow! We were all completely blown away by the facilities, the quality of work; and how welcome we’ve been made to feel.

Both the Sculpture and Fashion departments held a welcome party for Lydia-san, Chrissy-san and myself. It wasn’t long before Lydia-san and I turned to look out over the distant mountains and pledged to emigrate! [Mum, sorry you had to find out this way ;) ]

Love,
Nikki