Adapting to Japan...
This has been a very busy few days guys, I'll try to sum it up as best I can but this going to be a looong post and while I have tons of pictures, I can't post them until I get internet at my apartment in a couple weeks :P
7/25/03:
The flight to Chicago was largely uneventful, I think I'm almost getting good at this whole flying thing. Unlike last time, I didn't wander around half of O'Hare airport looking for the mysterious "door 3" where the hotel shuttles pick up. The nice lady informed me on the payphone that they picked up at "door 1" and lo and behold, I was able to find it (only a short ways from door 3) with no problem. Well...except for the fact that carrying an 18-pound shoulder bag (with laptop and other essential travel items), a 40-pound carry-on and 70-pound giant check bag is a hassle and a half, and I must extend my profound thanks to the couple nice gentlemen who helped me drag my luggage all over O'Hare. I really need to work on my upper body strength; I had to get another guy on the plane to put my carry-on up in the overhead bin for me and then get it down once we landed. How embarrasing -_-;; (cute guy though...)
Waiting for the shuttle to arrive, I had a close encounter of the fanboy kind. Out of the door walks a guy with a Transformers club shirt and a Transformers t-shirt. I complimented him on his shirts (because what child of the 80's *didn't* love that show?) and asked if he was going to WizardWorld comic con or something like that. "No," he replied with a happy grin, "I'm here for the Transformers convention." Yes, you read that right. Apparently they have cons just for this show. Another guy standing there (hereafter known as Fanboy 2) then chose to reveal that he too was going to the con. I asked how many people attended every year. "3,000!" Fanboy 1 proclaimed proudly. Dear God, save the souls of fanboys everywhere. I wonder what they do at this convention. I mean, I've been to Marcon in Columbus several times, but that's a Sci-Fi/Fantasy con. You know, dragons, goth, Star Trek, Star Wars, anime, that sort of thing. Lots of stuff to see and do. I guess these guys just talk robot tech for a weekend? Or maybe they argue the ins and outs of Megatron and his relationship with Optimus Prime. I have to admit though, I did attend a Gargoyles convention once, even though it completely sucked and was the most boring convention I have *ever* been to. And they do have cons just for Harry Potter, but when you think about it you have five whole books to discuss, with future plotlines, literary critiscm and the like. What on earth could you say about Transformers? Oh well, I hope those guys had fun anyway.
The Pre-Departure Orientation for JET was boooooring. It was all info we'd already been presented with. They had couple of Japanese people stand up and talk to us in painfully halting English about information printed in the packets we'd already been given. I wish for once at conferences like this that they would realize we all have college degrees, we can all read, and that it's really annoying to read us what's printed in front of our faces. That sort of thing is guaranteed to send me into a mindless doodling session, so I drew crashing waves and some chibi Kenshins all over my information paper. I can't wait to get to Japan and get some nice art supplies (in that respect, Japan is my sort of country!). On the plus side, the people here are really nice, and my roomate for the hotel is the same girl I met and chatted with at my interview way back in January. Cool coincidence I think :)
The reception following the orientation, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable. All the Saga people (there are five of us leaving from Chicago) were seated together along with my roomate and some other people from southern Japan. One of the Japanese people sat at our table too, he taught English to students in Japan for 17 years and right now is teaching in a Chicago school for Japanese children. You'd think with all that experience he'd speak English really well, but actually he doesn't -_-;; He was very quiet, and mostly only perked up when I got into a conversation with the girl next to me about okinomiyaki and other fun Japanese foods. The catering was nice and I got to know my fellow Saga-goers. Much fun was had by all ^_^
Tomorrow sounds like absolute hell, the checklist for getting your luggage where it needs to go and clearing customs is a mile long. Not to mention the 14-hour plane ride. My flight leaves at 12:10 am and lands the following day at about 3pm (the 27th by their reckoning). Apparently you lose a day going to Japan. Weird. After that is two days of Tokyo orientation (along the same lines as the stuff I've already sat through twice now) and then I'll finally make my way to Saga. Here's to dotting i's and crossing t's....
July 28, 2003
The plane *was* hell. No human being should have to sit in a little chair for that long. Ugh :P When we arrived at the airport we stood in various immigration and custom lines for nearly an hour. They had a virtual army of current JETs in red shirts to greet us and help us get around, which was really nice. I snapped a few pictures of Japanese cars, which are boxy and short compared to ours. I'm intrigued by their license plates...why do they all have a different Hiragana character on the corner of them? Weird.
Narita it turns out is two hours from Tokyo, and by the time we finally arrived at the hotel my body was telling me it was 4am, not 6 in the evening. By the time I finally made it down to dinner at 7 I'd been up for over 24 hours and I was feeling it. When you're sitting in a chair and the room seems to be swaying around you, you know you're in trouble. I didn't even care that I had to fork over 3500 yen (about 30 bucks) for a buffet dinner. I didn't have enough energy to leave the hotel. My new roomate is another girl going to Saga, which is kind of nice. Apparently Saga-ken is the first group to depart on Wednsday morning...we will be having room service breakfast at 5am. Ick :P
First day of orientation was...interesting. There was some useful information, and more mindless repetition of what's in the handbook. They showed us a video of an ALT's typical day at school which, while informative, carried a very distinct Japanese edge of cheese to it and probably wasn't intended to be as funny as it ultimately turned out to be. All in all a very, very long day since I woke up at 3am (stupid jet lag) and again at 6, well before our alarm (orientations didn't start until 10:30)
For a while before the orientations (I'm in the Hilton Tokyo and the sessions are at another hotel so I had to go find it) I explored a park across the street and was surprised to find what appeared to be a sort of shanty town for the homeless all around the place. They've constructed tents of blue plastic, complete with places to hang laundry, and in the mornings they gather in a big group to be talked at by some guy, which I don't quite understand. Maybe they try to organize them, or even find them work? I have no idea. Just goes to show that every large city has the same problems, no matter what country you're in.
After orientations the people from each prefecture got together and went out, the current Saga ALTs took us to a cool theme restaurant called Heaven and Hell. We were seated in Hell. The colors were all a creepy red and black, and an iron tunnel ran through the center of the restaurant that was made to look like ribs. The food was really good, but what really made this place was the women's bathroom. One of the stalls has a giant sculpted face in it of this guy with lips pursed in a kiss. While you're sitting there he slides forward across the stall singing this weird yodeling song and comes so close you have to stick your legs on either side of him...uh you get the idea. Very inappropriate, but we found it hysterical (must of been the lack of sleep...yeah that's it) and I think we really terrified the poor Japanese women who were in the bathroom with us.
Just on a random note, before we went to dinner I went back to the hotel room and watched some TV (which has some *very* strange stuff on it in this country) and a new episode of Detective Conan was on! I was so happy to see it, even though it was in Japanese and I had no idea what was going on. Maybe by the end of the year I will :)
July 30, 2003
I'm finally in my apartment! More on that in a minute. Second day of orientation was much the same as the first, more sessions on living in Japan, Japanese etiquette, etc., and finally our prefecture meeting. Our supervisors, both of whom are really cool people, took us out to a Japanese restaurant and I had melon soda (Sold under the Calpice brand name in Japan...it's nickname among the JETs is "cow piss" because of the name) for the first time. Really yummy ^_^
We had to get up at 4:30 this morning, at 5 a really nice room service breakfast magically appeared (this hotel is awesome!) and then we were bussed off to another airport outside Tokyo and flown to Saga (about a 90 minute plane ride). They drove us to the Kencho (the Saga City offices) and there we had a meeting where we were all introduced, then taken into the director's office (which he shares with about 30 other people). We all had to introduce ourselves in Japanese one at a time. I think mine went okay, but I feel really helpless with the language right now. I think I'm already in culture shock and I only just got here. I don't know how anything in my apartment works yet, everything is in kanji, and while my predecessor left intructions I'm so tired as I write this I can hardly think straight. Tomorrow at 9 I have to go to the offices, where we will all sit...and do nothing. No work to do yet. But there will be internet, so I can at least check mail and post this entry. I'm finally in Japan, and I have a *lot* to learn. Random note of the hour: tatami mats are cool-looking, and comfy to walk on, but they smell a bit weird. Like having dried hay in your room.
The gas guy showed up at 4pm so I could get hot water. Here I had my first real language barrier experience; the guy I think knows only how to say "you sign" and to count to ten. He pointed to a line on his form (completely in kanji of course) and asked me to sign it. Being the stupid person that I am I signed it the way I normally would...in cursive. The poor guy blinked at it, and asked me to write it in kana instead. Or, at least he tried to, it was all in Japanese. He kept saying "furigana" which are the little characters written above kanji in kids' books, so I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do. Finally out of desperation I wrote my first name in katakana and pronounced it for him, though now that I think about it I probably wrote it wrong. I couldn't remember how to write my last name, so I just did that in roman letters, which fortunately most Japanese can read just fine. That seemed to finally satisfy him. At the Kencho we all got "inkan", which are seals used as signatures in Asia. It's basically your first name in katakana, and since it's handmade it it really does work as well as a signature. I tried to ask him if I could sign with that, but he didn't understand me. He then scooted around the apartment checking the various places you need hot water heaters (the kitchen and the bath room among them...not to be confused with the toilet room, which is separate) and demonstrated how to get hot water for the shower. Thank goodness for gestures and signs!
He finally went away and for a general lack of anything else to do, I went to the 24-hour supermarket across the street. That was...interesting. Can't read a darn thing in the entire store, which makes it a bit difficult to find what you need. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it eventually. I had to then go to the post office to pick up one of the boxes I sent to myself, and again was up against people who didn't speak a word of English. I knew enough in Japanese to say that I didn't speak Japanese (Nihongo wa hanasemasen) and the woman's shoulders kind of sagged a bit as if to say "oh great, another foreigner". But eventually, I did get the box. The other JETs in the complex held a pot luck dinner for the new people, which was really nice, and a few of us will be biking to Kencho together in the morning. Good thing, because I have no idea how to get there from here -_-;;
The apartment's pretty nice overall, the previous occupants have left lots of furniture and supplies (the bed is really comfy), but I can't figure out how to work the phone (the intructions they left seem to be for another model and none of the kanji-covered buttons match their descriptions) and the shower *really* sucks. The tub is a Japanese furo, which is very deep (about four feet) and square. To get hot water you have to turn on the gas, hold down a knob and crank it to light the flame. When the hot water comes out it's way too hot, so you have to back the gas off a little bit. Unfortunately I did it too much and I lost the heat completely, but I was already in there and dripping wet, so I didn't want to try and relight it. So I had a cold shower for the first time in my life. It actually wasn't as awful as I thought it would be, but I'll have to try not to mess that up again, especially when winter rolls around. On the plus side, I did figure out how to get my air conditioner turned on and they left good instructions for the washing machine (they put post-it notes on three buttons and told me the order to push them; wish I had that for the phone) so I was able to do my laundry. Thank goodness for small accomplishments.
More coming soon!
7/25/03:
The flight to Chicago was largely uneventful, I think I'm almost getting good at this whole flying thing. Unlike last time, I didn't wander around half of O'Hare airport looking for the mysterious "door 3" where the hotel shuttles pick up. The nice lady informed me on the payphone that they picked up at "door 1" and lo and behold, I was able to find it (only a short ways from door 3) with no problem. Well...except for the fact that carrying an 18-pound shoulder bag (with laptop and other essential travel items), a 40-pound carry-on and 70-pound giant check bag is a hassle and a half, and I must extend my profound thanks to the couple nice gentlemen who helped me drag my luggage all over O'Hare. I really need to work on my upper body strength; I had to get another guy on the plane to put my carry-on up in the overhead bin for me and then get it down once we landed. How embarrasing -_-;; (cute guy though...)
Waiting for the shuttle to arrive, I had a close encounter of the fanboy kind. Out of the door walks a guy with a Transformers club shirt and a Transformers t-shirt. I complimented him on his shirts (because what child of the 80's *didn't* love that show?) and asked if he was going to WizardWorld comic con or something like that. "No," he replied with a happy grin, "I'm here for the Transformers convention." Yes, you read that right. Apparently they have cons just for this show. Another guy standing there (hereafter known as Fanboy 2) then chose to reveal that he too was going to the con. I asked how many people attended every year. "3,000!" Fanboy 1 proclaimed proudly. Dear God, save the souls of fanboys everywhere. I wonder what they do at this convention. I mean, I've been to Marcon in Columbus several times, but that's a Sci-Fi/Fantasy con. You know, dragons, goth, Star Trek, Star Wars, anime, that sort of thing. Lots of stuff to see and do. I guess these guys just talk robot tech for a weekend? Or maybe they argue the ins and outs of Megatron and his relationship with Optimus Prime. I have to admit though, I did attend a Gargoyles convention once, even though it completely sucked and was the most boring convention I have *ever* been to. And they do have cons just for Harry Potter, but when you think about it you have five whole books to discuss, with future plotlines, literary critiscm and the like. What on earth could you say about Transformers? Oh well, I hope those guys had fun anyway.
The Pre-Departure Orientation for JET was boooooring. It was all info we'd already been presented with. They had couple of Japanese people stand up and talk to us in painfully halting English about information printed in the packets we'd already been given. I wish for once at conferences like this that they would realize we all have college degrees, we can all read, and that it's really annoying to read us what's printed in front of our faces. That sort of thing is guaranteed to send me into a mindless doodling session, so I drew crashing waves and some chibi Kenshins all over my information paper. I can't wait to get to Japan and get some nice art supplies (in that respect, Japan is my sort of country!). On the plus side, the people here are really nice, and my roomate for the hotel is the same girl I met and chatted with at my interview way back in January. Cool coincidence I think :)
The reception following the orientation, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable. All the Saga people (there are five of us leaving from Chicago) were seated together along with my roomate and some other people from southern Japan. One of the Japanese people sat at our table too, he taught English to students in Japan for 17 years and right now is teaching in a Chicago school for Japanese children. You'd think with all that experience he'd speak English really well, but actually he doesn't -_-;; He was very quiet, and mostly only perked up when I got into a conversation with the girl next to me about okinomiyaki and other fun Japanese foods. The catering was nice and I got to know my fellow Saga-goers. Much fun was had by all ^_^
Tomorrow sounds like absolute hell, the checklist for getting your luggage where it needs to go and clearing customs is a mile long. Not to mention the 14-hour plane ride. My flight leaves at 12:10 am and lands the following day at about 3pm (the 27th by their reckoning). Apparently you lose a day going to Japan. Weird. After that is two days of Tokyo orientation (along the same lines as the stuff I've already sat through twice now) and then I'll finally make my way to Saga. Here's to dotting i's and crossing t's....
July 28, 2003
The plane *was* hell. No human being should have to sit in a little chair for that long. Ugh :P When we arrived at the airport we stood in various immigration and custom lines for nearly an hour. They had a virtual army of current JETs in red shirts to greet us and help us get around, which was really nice. I snapped a few pictures of Japanese cars, which are boxy and short compared to ours. I'm intrigued by their license plates...why do they all have a different Hiragana character on the corner of them? Weird.
Narita it turns out is two hours from Tokyo, and by the time we finally arrived at the hotel my body was telling me it was 4am, not 6 in the evening. By the time I finally made it down to dinner at 7 I'd been up for over 24 hours and I was feeling it. When you're sitting in a chair and the room seems to be swaying around you, you know you're in trouble. I didn't even care that I had to fork over 3500 yen (about 30 bucks) for a buffet dinner. I didn't have enough energy to leave the hotel. My new roomate is another girl going to Saga, which is kind of nice. Apparently Saga-ken is the first group to depart on Wednsday morning...we will be having room service breakfast at 5am. Ick :P
First day of orientation was...interesting. There was some useful information, and more mindless repetition of what's in the handbook. They showed us a video of an ALT's typical day at school which, while informative, carried a very distinct Japanese edge of cheese to it and probably wasn't intended to be as funny as it ultimately turned out to be. All in all a very, very long day since I woke up at 3am (stupid jet lag) and again at 6, well before our alarm (orientations didn't start until 10:30)
For a while before the orientations (I'm in the Hilton Tokyo and the sessions are at another hotel so I had to go find it) I explored a park across the street and was surprised to find what appeared to be a sort of shanty town for the homeless all around the place. They've constructed tents of blue plastic, complete with places to hang laundry, and in the mornings they gather in a big group to be talked at by some guy, which I don't quite understand. Maybe they try to organize them, or even find them work? I have no idea. Just goes to show that every large city has the same problems, no matter what country you're in.
After orientations the people from each prefecture got together and went out, the current Saga ALTs took us to a cool theme restaurant called Heaven and Hell. We were seated in Hell. The colors were all a creepy red and black, and an iron tunnel ran through the center of the restaurant that was made to look like ribs. The food was really good, but what really made this place was the women's bathroom. One of the stalls has a giant sculpted face in it of this guy with lips pursed in a kiss. While you're sitting there he slides forward across the stall singing this weird yodeling song and comes so close you have to stick your legs on either side of him...uh you get the idea. Very inappropriate, but we found it hysterical (must of been the lack of sleep...yeah that's it) and I think we really terrified the poor Japanese women who were in the bathroom with us.
Just on a random note, before we went to dinner I went back to the hotel room and watched some TV (which has some *very* strange stuff on it in this country) and a new episode of Detective Conan was on! I was so happy to see it, even though it was in Japanese and I had no idea what was going on. Maybe by the end of the year I will :)
July 30, 2003
I'm finally in my apartment! More on that in a minute. Second day of orientation was much the same as the first, more sessions on living in Japan, Japanese etiquette, etc., and finally our prefecture meeting. Our supervisors, both of whom are really cool people, took us out to a Japanese restaurant and I had melon soda (Sold under the Calpice brand name in Japan...it's nickname among the JETs is "cow piss" because of the name) for the first time. Really yummy ^_^
We had to get up at 4:30 this morning, at 5 a really nice room service breakfast magically appeared (this hotel is awesome!) and then we were bussed off to another airport outside Tokyo and flown to Saga (about a 90 minute plane ride). They drove us to the Kencho (the Saga City offices) and there we had a meeting where we were all introduced, then taken into the director's office (which he shares with about 30 other people). We all had to introduce ourselves in Japanese one at a time. I think mine went okay, but I feel really helpless with the language right now. I think I'm already in culture shock and I only just got here. I don't know how anything in my apartment works yet, everything is in kanji, and while my predecessor left intructions I'm so tired as I write this I can hardly think straight. Tomorrow at 9 I have to go to the offices, where we will all sit...and do nothing. No work to do yet. But there will be internet, so I can at least check mail and post this entry. I'm finally in Japan, and I have a *lot* to learn. Random note of the hour: tatami mats are cool-looking, and comfy to walk on, but they smell a bit weird. Like having dried hay in your room.
The gas guy showed up at 4pm so I could get hot water. Here I had my first real language barrier experience; the guy I think knows only how to say "you sign" and to count to ten. He pointed to a line on his form (completely in kanji of course) and asked me to sign it. Being the stupid person that I am I signed it the way I normally would...in cursive. The poor guy blinked at it, and asked me to write it in kana instead. Or, at least he tried to, it was all in Japanese. He kept saying "furigana" which are the little characters written above kanji in kids' books, so I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do. Finally out of desperation I wrote my first name in katakana and pronounced it for him, though now that I think about it I probably wrote it wrong. I couldn't remember how to write my last name, so I just did that in roman letters, which fortunately most Japanese can read just fine. That seemed to finally satisfy him. At the Kencho we all got "inkan", which are seals used as signatures in Asia. It's basically your first name in katakana, and since it's handmade it it really does work as well as a signature. I tried to ask him if I could sign with that, but he didn't understand me. He then scooted around the apartment checking the various places you need hot water heaters (the kitchen and the bath room among them...not to be confused with the toilet room, which is separate) and demonstrated how to get hot water for the shower. Thank goodness for gestures and signs!
He finally went away and for a general lack of anything else to do, I went to the 24-hour supermarket across the street. That was...interesting. Can't read a darn thing in the entire store, which makes it a bit difficult to find what you need. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it eventually. I had to then go to the post office to pick up one of the boxes I sent to myself, and again was up against people who didn't speak a word of English. I knew enough in Japanese to say that I didn't speak Japanese (Nihongo wa hanasemasen) and the woman's shoulders kind of sagged a bit as if to say "oh great, another foreigner". But eventually, I did get the box. The other JETs in the complex held a pot luck dinner for the new people, which was really nice, and a few of us will be biking to Kencho together in the morning. Good thing, because I have no idea how to get there from here -_-;;
The apartment's pretty nice overall, the previous occupants have left lots of furniture and supplies (the bed is really comfy), but I can't figure out how to work the phone (the intructions they left seem to be for another model and none of the kanji-covered buttons match their descriptions) and the shower *really* sucks. The tub is a Japanese furo, which is very deep (about four feet) and square. To get hot water you have to turn on the gas, hold down a knob and crank it to light the flame. When the hot water comes out it's way too hot, so you have to back the gas off a little bit. Unfortunately I did it too much and I lost the heat completely, but I was already in there and dripping wet, so I didn't want to try and relight it. So I had a cold shower for the first time in my life. It actually wasn't as awful as I thought it would be, but I'll have to try not to mess that up again, especially when winter rolls around. On the plus side, I did figure out how to get my air conditioner turned on and they left good instructions for the washing machine (they put post-it notes on three buttons and told me the order to push them; wish I had that for the phone) so I was able to do my laundry. Thank goodness for small accomplishments.
More coming soon!