I presume that you received an initial email that Jim sent out to let folks (some lists) know that we arrived and are A-OK.  However, since then we have had no email connections.  The power at the Education Center has been down for over a week. This is where Jim has been able to connect. I have this new email address; but I am not ready yet to make it public. However, you guys should feel free to use for now.  It is my work account and eventually I will be comfortable with it.

In the mean time, big computer bummer for us!....  My Toshiba laptop is 90% toast!  Yeap, toast toast toast ;-(  that means all of our 15 or so GB of music ;-( .  Luckily, (or hopefully) all of our files, including photos, are backed up on CDs.  But, Jim has been working to try and recover my machine since it bugged out about the third day we got here. We are both really sad but coming to grips with the fact that it is likely gone. The other bummer is that we did not ship our CDs because we had all this music on the computer.....    All in the life of adjusting to a new world, new culture...  and, all and all we can't complain too much.

Everyone is very friendly! We feel welcomed by everyone and very safe. There is not too much happening in this town; barely even restaurants; but it's beautiful and we have lots to learn and things to explore.

We have been house-hunting nearly every day since arrival. It is very weird! The whole town knows we are here and looking. Many people want to rent their house to us because it is good money and a secure income for them. We don't want to displace anyone but our co-workers have convinced us that the people will really be better off with our rent money. It feels like the whole community is competing for our decision on who/which house to rent. Like I said, strange?!...

I will stop the chat for know.  Mainly, I was hoping that you would reply (to this address) and tell me that you received this email. I need to know how this will handle the emails outside of the snv network.  I hope that Jim will be able to connect soon at the Ed Ctr.  If not, we may need to use this email for all correspondence for a while.  We'll see...  more writings, photos, etc. in the future... for now, we are taking-in all that we can, trying to be patient with ourselves and lack of language skills, and "going slow."

We love and miss you,

Fuji and Jim

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