Details: The last month has been a blur to say the least. I finally have a spare second to post so I figure I better update on the past before I get earnestly into the year. So, here it goes, as promised.
Starting off, I left the US of A on July 23rd (?) and flew over to Japan direct to Narita Tokyo on Singapore Airlines. There were like 150 other West coast jets all on my flight (we took over the entire back of the plane, nuts!) so I had plenty of people to talk to and lots to talk about. I ended up sitting next to two older guys (one was married!) who had both lived in Japan before as study abroaders. I found this to pretty much be one of the biggest trends with people here, they had all been before and loved it! That was good news. By the way, if you have never flown Singapore airlines... Try it! It was ridiculously plush and there was even free drink service and movies!
Even better news, ll of my gear fit snuggly in my bags (even your purple suitcase Claire!) So I was set up and ready to go as soon as we touched down. The service was UNBELIEVABLE. There had to have been about 50-100 current Jet's, coordinators, volunteers, etc at the airport literally making a human chain ushering us from place to place. Talk about hand holding! I found that this kind of "star treatment" was going to be par for the course for the rest of the month. They literally grabbed our bags and immediately put them either in a van bound for our prefectures (County/state) or loaded them in the bus FOR US. It was nuts.
So, ~15 hours later, I've gone from Los Angeles to the HEART of downtown Tokyo. I didn't sleep on the plane so obviously I accepted an offer from other JETs to explore around Tokyo that night. =) The city is immense and I immediately realized how "not in Kansas" I was.
They drove on the left here
Bikes Everywhere!!!
NOOOOooooo English (even in Tokyo and especially in the signage)
Clean as a whistle
Pretty much the polar opposite of LA. For the next three days we spent in our super nice hotel (Intercontinental... wooo) listening to a deluge of information, speeches, ceremonies and meet and greets. I gotta say it was a little bit much but still feeling like the lone non Japanese speaker/lover/cultural buff, I thought it would be in my best interest to be interested. The results were decent (mostly meeting people as that has been my saving grace while over here)
To make a long story short they attempted to teach me to adapt to a completely different culture, Teach me to teach, teach me about where I live, meet the ambassador of the United States to Japan, gracefully listen to speeches, and then get the hell out in 3 days. It was a whirlwind. I'll skip any more details on Tokyo seeing as though I've already mostly forgot it!
I went Karaoke twice, Experienced a nomihodai (all you can drink) / tabehodai (all you can eat), experienced Brian (the Prefectural adviser who was awesome for the three days I knew him... then he went home...), and met and went out with my fellow Shiga JET's (there are 15 of us new guys this year, about 8 of which were at my orientation).
Then they took me home. We rode the Shinkansen (high speed rail!). Here's the only picture I could find of it online in which it wasn't taken at a crazy angle to make it look super fast and crazy!.
And no, we didn't pass by Mt. Fuji. It WAS damn fast though. We got a bunch of queer looks on the train as we were loud as hell (10 Gaijen "foreigners") including a guy from Atlanta who has the LOUDEST VOICE I've EVER heard. Brandon. What a guy.
So we get to Shiga prefecture in the main southern city of Otsu in order to meet the board of education, have a ceremony (they LOVE these in Japan) and introduce ourselves. I had practiced my basic Japanese and was confident that I'd have no trouble with a simple introduction. It was only
Nice to meet you all
my name is Dane
I'm from California, Los Angeles
I live in Nagahama
Please take care of me
Thanks
Easy right? I FAILED big time. Like literally the laughing stock of the prefecture. Good things first impressions are everything. Oh well. It was time to go to my apartment.
This is Otsu:
My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) drove me with my Kyoto Sensei (Vice Principal) to my apartment. After about 5 circles of the block, we found my house. They showed me how to turn on the gas, the AC, and made sure everything worked and then... they were gone. For the first time in my life... I was living completely alone. Scary thought! That night I got a call on my house phone (yeah I had one of those... thank god but also what is this, 1990?) from the girl who lived in my apartment last year. She was offering to take me on a 30 minute bike ride around my part of Nagahama. Thank the good lord too otherwise I don't think I ever would have left my house!
Michelle, what a bad ass! Showed me EVERYTHING I needed for the week. Then she and her (Japanese.. I know clutch right?) boyfriend set up my internet! I was one of the first JET' to hav internet thanks to her! She also promised that that weekend since she was renting a car, I could ride along and pick up any BIG stuff I needed for the house. Literally a life saver.
Here's what my bike looks like. It's literally exactly like the top left one except rusted, squeaky, loud, and awesome.
So I had time to ride round and check my city out. Below is pretty much what all of eastern Nagahama looks like. I don't remember but you may be able to see my middle school! Higashi Chuugakko. East middle school. Inspired name huh? 東中学校 (That's "East" "Middle" "School" "exam?" for those of you who can't read pictures yet!
And that's where I leave you. Once again in media res. My city is beautiful and you've now seen my house from the video. So stay tuned next week when I describe some of my more colorful experience in my first couple weeks. Almost getting beaten up?! Run in's with Train conductors?!
Visiting Osaka's Lesser know underbelly with Erik Luebs.
You'll just have to stay tuned and find out! I gotta get finished before "The Boss" Bruce Springsteen finishes "Born to run" otherwise this won't be a clever ending!
Sayounara !
No comments:
Post a Comment