[samurai007]

Yeah, get a bike rather than walking. 4 days a month I taught at a technical school 1 train stop away, and I'd often bike to it if I could leave early enough because it was a nice ride right along the river.

You might want to take some small gifts from home with you to Japan. Nothing really fancy or expensive, food usually works best. I live in an area with lots of almond orchards, so I took lots of different flavored almonds that were grown and packaged locally. Give these as thank you gifts to the school principal, your landlord, and other people who go out of their way to help you when you arrive. It will be much appreciated.