Ooooita

I arrived in Oita on August 9th.  I walked off of the plane terrified but excited to see where I'd be living for the next year.

I was welcomed by my predecessor Julie, also from Calif, and a few of my new co-workers.  They had a sign with my name on it and everything!  haha  We hopped in a van and stopped at a nearby place for some lunch.  Things were a little awkward (bc I was not ready to use Japanese) but having Julie there made things a little better.  She only had a little Japanese under her belt before coming to Japan, but she seemed to have learned a lot in the year she lived here.

"Tonight is special Tsukumi all fish dinner"

Anywho, things got more interesting when Nakamura-san (my new supervisor) asked me what foods i didn't eat.  Of course i truthfully said, "seafood"....and he burst into laughter and told me that my Welcome dinner that night was a special Tsukumi all fish dinner.  I felt terrible!  Mainly because they probably thought I would loooove all of the fresh fish their town had to offer...and I was going to painfully choke down as much as I could.

I emailed folks with the full story...if you missed it, I'll dig it out and pass it along

In short, I HATE SEAFOOD but I love Tsukumi