Pre-Shikoku shenanigans

Hello ol' chaps,

It is taking way too long to get Internet at my apartment — something about needing to wait for an available port — so I'm updating from work (the students are on summer break until September, so there's pretty much nothing to do at the office until then).

Since a lot has happened since my last update, I'm going to split it into two posts — orientation and my first week in Aki.

Pre-Departure Orientation

On Friday, July 24, I flew to Chicago for Pre-Departure Orientation. Need a good laugh? Picture this: me, struggling with three suitcases, chasing down three wrong shuttles, and getting lectured by the driver of the third wrong shuttle in a thick Russian accent before I found the right shuttle. (A random guy did offer to help me with my suitcases, but as far as I could tell he didn't work for the airport, and I had just watched "Taken" not too long ago, so I politely declined. He might just be a nice guy, or he might be a creeper. The world will never know.) I got to the hotel several hours early, and we couldn't check into our rooms until after 2 p.m. (which was the same time orientation started), so I just chilled in the lobby until then.

Orientation consisted of some opening speeches, getting our flight information (along with our passports and visas), a Q&A, and an exercise where we had to draw the letter "W" on a Post-It. The W is supposed to represent the highs and lows of culture shock. We discussed where we were on the W with the people sitting near us. At that point, I was in the middle of the W — sad about leaving the people I love, but excited about going.

It was really interesting to meet so many new people who were all in the same situation. Everyone was leaving home for a new life — it's kind of how I felt starting college.

After orientation, there was a dinner where we sat by prefecture. Since there were only a couple us from Kochi, they grouped us with JETs from the other three prefectures on Shikoku island.

After dinner, I went up to my hotel room. My roommate Dawn invited me to a bar with some other people, but I decided to spend my last night in America relaxing in my PJs and making goodbye phone calls.

The next morning, I headed for O'Hare with the Japan Airlines group (they split us into two flights, Japan Airlines and American Airlines). Miraculously, my suitcases were under the weight limit, and before long we were on the plane that would take us to our new lives.


The flight was dreadfully long. I was sitting next to Elena, one of the girls I had compared Ws with at orientation the day before. It turns out we had both requested vegetarian meals :) I chatted with her, read my Kindle, watched one of the in-flight movies ("17 Again"... don't judge me), and slept on and off, and 12 or so hours later, we had landed in Tokyo, where it was Sunday.


東京: Day 1

I turned on my phone excitedly to call my parents and boyfriend and let them know that we had landed safely, but to my dismay... no reception! (Although I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, as I barely get cell phone reception in my own house. Hats off to you, T-Mobile.) Since Narita airport is outside the city, I figured reception would pick up once we got into Tokyo.


Nope. (However, I have since discovered the beauty of Skype.)

Upon our arrival at the Keio Plaza Hotel...






...we were given a gigantic stack of books and papers containing orientation info and the key cards to our hotel rooms. We were also informed that there was a room with computers, irons and ironing boards we could use. I wasted no time dashing to the computer room so I could email my parents and Garrett to let them know I was there. Then realizing they might not check their email right away since they were expecting a phone call, I updated my Twitter, knowing it would send Garrett a text to his cell and he would check his email and hopefully tell my mom to do the same. Ah, technology. (Padre, are you still with me?)

My 28th-floor hotel room and the view from it:





(Me and my awesome roomie Melissa!)





Since orientation activities didn't begin until the next day, I decided to have dinner with Rachel, a hilarious girl I sat next to on the bus from Narita to the hotel (and whose only Japanese speaking ability is the sentence "the boy ate the apple," which she learned from Rosetta Stone). We were joined by Melissa and Rachel's friend Lee. We wandered around Shinjuku (the area of Tokyo where the hotel is) for a while...




(Vending machines are EVERYWHERE in Japan. Even in little, rural Aki, there's one on just about every corner.)


...before we finally settled on a soba/udon place to have dinner.


(From left to right: me, Melissa, Lee and Rachel.)

I crashed sometime after 9 that night and woke up around 3:45 a.m.

東京: Day 2

By 4:30, I realized I wasn't going back to sleep. I went down to the computer room, where there were at least five other people chatting, checking their email and ironing their clothes. I overheard a lot of talk later that day about people who woke up at random hours of the night. I personally envied the non-jetlagged Australians, whose time difference was only an hour. By the time I got back to the room at 5:30, Melissa was already up and dressed — we had slept with the curtains open, and it turns out the sun rises RIDICULOUSLY early in Japan.

We went down to breakfast at 7, then went out to find an electronics store so Melissa could get a grounded adapter for her laptop. Some sights along the way:






We found the store, but it wasn't open, so we went to 7-11 to see what random Japanese snacks we could find.



(Japan has all kinds of crazy KitKat flavors — including mango!)


(Perilla-flavored Pepsi. Yeah...)

Then there was orientation itself. It was just a really cool experience to be around people from so many different countries — Ireland, Jamaica, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Australia — and to hear all the different accents!


There were opening speeches, lunch, a series of truly lame workshops that several people skipped out on to sleep (which I really wish I had done as well), and dinner.

And after dinner, I had The Moment. I'd been on a plane for several hours, out and about in Tokyo, but it still hadn't clicked that I was actually in Japan until this moment. I was walking through the hotel lobby when a little Japanese kid, who couldn't have been more than eight years old, accidentally bumped into me — and started apologizing and bowing repeatedly. I was completely taken aback, and then it hit me: "OMG. I'm really in Japan."

Later night, Louis (one of the Kochi PAs, or Prefectural Advisers) got the Shikoku JETs together for a night of karaoke!




¥2100 for karaoke and all-you-can-drink. 'Nuff said.

P.S. ¥100 is about a dollar, and this is what yen looks like:


Some bright Tokyo lights we passed on the walk (stumble for most) back to the hotel:





東京: Day 3

Another day of incredibly lame workshops — all except for one:


The only useful workshop in the bunch taught us how to approach teaching an elementary school class and how to work with their regular homeroom teacher. And we even learned a few games :)


Another bonus: the workshop was on the 43rd floor of the hotel. Check out this view!





Later that afternoon was the Kochi prefectural meeting, where we met our other PAs. They warned us that we may not have Internet at our apartments for a while (which is so far proving to be true, unfortunately) and told us about our flight information for the next day.

東京: Day 4

Melissa's prefecture left early that morning, so after breakfast we said our goodbyes (though we're keeping in touch via Facebook and, soon, hopefully Skype) Then I met the other Kochi JETs...


...and we boarded a bus to Haneda airport.

Sayonara, Tokyo.





Coming up: Aki!

Peace,
B