Last week in the UK, first week in Japan
WARNING: This is an EXTREMELY long entry! Haha. Some pics are also included. ^^
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I’m starting this entry at 1.34pm (Japan time) and 5.34am (UK time). At the moment, I am sitting in front of my laptop (I took mine from the UK and YAY it works without any converters and so on because of the whole 100-V-240V thing on the plug) in my living room. I could only start writing this now for two reasons:
1 - I’ve been extremely busy and tired with the move and settling in that I just haven’t had the time.
2 - The new keyboard just arrived today, with me in pyjamas, surprised to hear the doorbell ring because my predecessor told me mail does not arrive on weekends. But why complain? I’m extremely happy! The only thing is it's got Japanese keys on it and so it's not all in the same positions as either the UK or US keyboards that I'm used to. Good thing I've got the positions memorized. Haha.
Additionally, I don’t actually have my internet set up yet because my predecessor cancelled hers and I only got around to calling to connect it on the 31st of July. The information about it should arrive sometime this coming week so I should be able to get connected and get this posted around that time too.
Before I talk about my current state (sweaty, tired but feeling at home), let’s go through my last week in the UK and my first week in Japan. I suppose it’s safe to say I’ve been here a week as I’m counting the day I left for Japan (26th)…
19th of July until the 25th of July, 2008 -
I think I’ve written about this already but as my memory isn’t exactly the best, I’ll summarize this anyway.
I spent that week spending time watching DVDs and playing games with my mom (who took two days off from work to be with me, despite not really being allowed time off). I received my travel insurance through the post (which I actually didn’t need to buy because I got here just fine! But it was a relief to have so I don’t regret getting it!) and I spoke to a few friends from University too. I got my new cell phone/mobile phone in the mail (Nokia 6220 Classic) because my previous phone was so old that it was still 2G and only 3G phones work in Japan. After charging it, we found out that the whole 3G system only works if my SIM card’s 3G too (which it wasn’t) so I had to wait for the new card in the mail. We got it working in the end though. This was the week that I also got all my finances sorted (it was a pain, I tell you!), celebrated my step-dad’s birthday, received a call from my predecessor in Japan (spent 2h11m08s on the phone! Zomg! She’s so nice though!) and went shopping for last minute things, including omiyage (souvenirs for the people I’d be meeting in Japan). Thursday (two days before my flight) was the day I started packing too. I hadn’t unpacked the things I brought to university (there was too much of it and not enough space in the house) so I spent Thursday unpacking, repacking and checking the weight. This took AGES because of the 20kg weight limit. Though, on the plus side, I didn’t leave anything behind that needed to be shipped later on. Mom said I should just go shopping here because it’d be cheaper and it’d be more fun. Haha. I did order my new USB keyboard to be sent to my home in Japan as shipping my keyboard from the UK would be more expensive and troublesome.
26th of July -
On Friday, I got up early to make sure everything was ready without panicking and rushing around. The taxi picked me up at 1.30pm (the taxi service said I would need to leave at that time to get to Heathrow for 4pm) but arrived at 3.20pm. I spent more time with my mom before and after check-in but then had to leave her to go through security to get to the gates (TT^TT). I met up with other JETs though whom I’d met back in the London orientation (made new friends too) and basically sat in Starbucks at the airport til our departure time. We stood out (in fact, every JET stood out) because of our pretty obvious "JET" stickers on our shirts. Hehe.
The whole JET group were seated in a block on the plane so the girl next to me was another ALT in Hiroshima. There was no space underneath the seat in front of me to store my laptop because of how the seats were built (and I was NOT putting it in the overhead compartments) so I asked her if I could switch seats (to the window seat) and luckily she said yes. It was her first ever flight out of Europe and first ever long-haul flight so it was pretty fun. We talked a lot and played some games on the screen, haha. Oh and the ANA magazine had a two page ad for HanaDan Final. Hehe.
July 27 - (gotta learn to write dates the way the Japanese do or I’ll get confused with forms later on)
We arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport at about 3.30pm. When we were told it was hot in Japan, we didn’t really think it would be THAT hot. As soon as we stepped out, we started melting I believe!
Anyway, we had to fill in the necessary forms for customs and for JET. There were a lot of JET helpers showing us the way in their bright yellow/orange JET T-shirts loudly shouting, “Welcome to Japan!” haha. The scariest part at the airport was moving around their airport with our luggage on trolleys on escalators. Yep… our luggage carts… on the escalators. This may not seem that weird to some people, but it was weird to me. @_@ I’ve never had that before. When the JET guide told me to do that at the start, going down, I thought he was joking…. But lo and behold, he wasn’t and it was actually pretty handy (though I was so scared it would fall on me because my things were so heavy!). Going down was just as scary too, thinking that it would squash whoever was in front of me. @_@ At the end, in the parking lot, were some other JETs who directed us to the toilets as it would be the last time we would get to use the bathroom until we get to our hotel and the bus/coach journey was about 3 hours. That was funny because the toilets had special buttons on the side so all of us didn’t know what button to press to flush the toilet. Haha. Aside from those funky special “washing” buttons, there was one that said “flushing sound”. And that was all it did… make flushing sounds. We found that pretty interesting and entertaining. Later we found out that the flush button was actually hidden in the back, behind the toilet seat cover. Not so difficult to find if you really think about it. Haha. Outside, an ALT friend was buying drinks from a machine, not cuz he was thirsty, but because he wanted to just use the machine. Haha. He couldn’t get it out from the bottom after buying it, until he realized you lift it up not push it in. Haha.
We forwarded one piece of luggage to our prefecture as we were only allowed one bag for the Tokyo Orientation (handcarry not included, unless you want to ship that).
The bus/coach ride took us about 2 and a half hours (and passed by Tokyo Disney on the way) to get to our hotel, Keio Plaza Hotel. It was such an AWESOME hotel! I wish I took more pictures of it, but didn’t because people were staring at us enough already and we were there as part of a “business trip”. In other words, we were told that we were basically public servants and should act accordingly because of the slightly higher status we were given. So I restricted picture taking to less open areas than the lobby. Haha.
Hotel room pics:
The view from my hotel room...
Pedestrian shopping area and offices, hehe.
The things in my hotel room...
We only realized we should've worn slippers once we wore our shoes in. The closet was behind the main door so we didn't know. ^^;;
And omg, the funky toilet buttons. Haha.
Oh, and hopefully my roommate doesn't mind me leaving her in this pic. Lol.
The first night we had nothing to do so my friends and I went out in Shinjuku (where the hotel was at). We were surrounded by cell/mobile phone stalls I tell you! Amazing! We first went for food (katsudon for 650Y, SO much cheaper than English food - £3.25 - and we were pretty full… in fact, my friend ate the rest of my food! Haha.), then we went around. We bought drinks from the machine (I wanted the coke can/bottle mix! Haha) and then we found a Haagen-Dazs (ZOOOMG YUM!). We had to get some because they don’t sell Macadamia Nut outside of Asia. Haha. And of course, Green Tea. The guy behind the counter was kinda cute and gave me an extra scoop more than I asked for for free. Haha. We hit the arcades too and 7-11. We got back pretty early (about 11pm) as we had to get up early for breakfast and the start of our Tokyo orientation at about 7am.
The place we ate:
We were first confused about the vending machine bit until we realized we had to buy our food from there. Haha. Then give the ticket we're issued to the cooks.
Around Shinjuku:
Like real tourists, we took a lot of pictures... haha.
July 28 -
Today was the first day that my contract with JET officially started. I had to get up at 6.30am to be ready for 7.30am to meet my friends for breakfast. Unfortunately, jetlag had kicked in and I woke up at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep til 630am. Kept texting my mom about it, haha. So, as expected, it was difficult to wake up and was pretty tired the entire day. Orientation started at 9am and didn’t finish until 6pm.
Welcome Reception:
For the afternoon orientations, we got choose from a list which of them we would attend so I thought the interesting ones were “Getting the most for your yen”, “Travel as a JET”, and “Food, Cooking and Eating”. Breakfast and lunch were included by JET so we stayed in the hotel for those. Dinner that night was also included though as it was the Welcome Reception. The breakfast and dinner were buffet styles but the lunch was already chosen (today’s was soya-beans shaped and coloured to look like meat I believe.
Lunch was always vegetarian/vegan-friendly, but breakfast and dinner were free choice). We didn’t get to have dessert during dinner either because the four cakes had run out by the time we got to it. Haha. I did my ironing (one of my shirts was a pain to iron!) and then called my mom on Skype with AJET for free (for signing up with AJET, haha, but that was free too). There were met to be prefectural nights out that night too, but our prefecture had it the next day so tonight was free for me too. My friends and I hit Shinjuku again (more ice cream and a friend of mine bought a camera) before spending time relaxing on the 43rd floor to admire the Tokyo skyline.
It was so pretty! The things I spent money on today were postcards from the Keio Plaza Hotel store, some teaching books from AJET and a magazine from the Keio Plaza Hotel store (because it was the first magazine that had something about a Japanese group I liked). I slept pretty well that night too.
July 29 -
My roommate came back at around 5am and I didn’t have to open my eyes to know she was pretty drunk. I got up about 6am and my roommate’s alarm started buzzing at 6.30am. She didn’t wake up at all. It kept automatically snoozing until I couldn’t take it anymore and I put it on snooze myself every time it started and I physically tried to wake her up myself. She didn’t budge at ALL. Amazing. By the time I had to leave, I tried waking her up one last time before leaving her a note and then heading downstairs to meet my friends. I guess she had a pretty good night the night before, haha. She told me all about it after and it sounded like a laugh.
Today also had two workshops where you could choose from a list which to attend. The night’s activities included a Reception at the British Embassy and a prefectural night out. We also had to send off our luggage that night to save the hustle and bustle the next morning. So I had no night clothes and ended up sleeping in the hotel yukata instead. Hehe. Packing was a bit worrying because of all the paperwork that I acquired during my stay at the Keio Plaza Hotel that I thought I was over the 20kg limit and there was no weighing scale in the hotel room (didn’t have to panic really because when it was weighed at check-in it was actually only 12.5kg. Haha.
Oh, also, my roommate kindly let me use her computer the three days we were in Tokyo because I still didn’t have my keyboard.
My friends and I didn’t really have time to say our goodbyes that night because of the extremely busy schedule that night and the next morning.
July 30 -
First thing in the morning, after getting ready, was handing in our room keys. We had to check-out ourselves before 8. My roommate didn’t sleep at ALL (she says her jetlags finally kicked in). We had breakfast on the 43rd floor.
Breakfast was good as usual. We had to meet with the prefecture people at 8 and then leave at 8.30 for our flight at 10.50 (on ANA via Haneda Airport). Interesting food today was our sweet potato ice cream at Haneda Airport. Haha. I liked it though, it was pretty good!
Once we landed, we didn’t really get to say our goodbyes and good lucks either as as soon as we disembarked, we went straight to the luggage collection then were met by our respective supervisors. My predecessor was there too and she is extremely nice! Both her and my supervisor were very, very nice. We got into my supervisor’s car and headed to lunch back at our town/city (technically it’s called a city, but size-wise, I’d say town). That was our first order of business. Haha. It was a nice drive! All three of us ate omurice and then dessert. I couldn’t remember what the drink or dessert I had was called… the drink was slightly vinegar-y and the dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice-cream topped with shaved ice and covered in coffee as a syrup.
It was good though! My supervisor also asked me how long I’d be staying and asked if I’d consider staying for three years. Haha. That was cute. Though, I was suddenly surprised by the information that I had to make a speech in front of the ENTIRE school DURING the Opening Ceremony on September the first. I’m SO scared!
Then I was taken to the town hall to register for my Foreigners Registration Card (btw, the work visa looks awesome) and met the soon-to-be-leaving CIR. She’s really nice and super helpful too. I received my hanko (official stamp, used instead of signatures) at that time too. After that, we headed to my school to meet the rest of the staff. (I’ll be constantly repeating myself here but…) They were really nice! After introductions we headed to our landlady’s place and I got all the contracts signed, then we headed to my new home. I was pretty surprised by it! It’s very nice! It’s pretty spacious compared to what I had expected. My predecessor left me a tonne of stuff too! We went grocery shopping (I’m lost when it comes to that, so I hope I’ll get used to it soon, but the 100Y shops are AWESOME!) and I had to buy some other things, a towel included, because I’d left mine back at home, and wrapping paper for the omiyage. Then my supervisor, predecessor and I could finally rest. After my supervisor had gone home, my predecessor informed me about how some things were run and chit-chatted the night away. I also met a few of her friends and some other ALTs that were in my prefecture. My predecessor also had Vonage (something like Skype) so I called my mom at work, which was nice. I’m happy I got to speak to her. Also an old flatmate back at university, who lives in Japan, called me on the home phone! I was pretty surprised but it was good to talk to her. I hadn’t spoken to her on the phone for years! We went to bed at about 1.40am.
July 31 -
I STILL don’t have the internet so am pretty sad that I couldn’t contact a friend of mine who’s birthday was today (yep, same as Harry Potter, haha). I hope she had a good one.
Today though, I intended to get up at 6am to leave the apartment at 8am (I didn’t know how long it would take me as it was my first day) only to apparently have MISSED my alarm. I was sure I set it but I don’t remember turning it off midway through the night @_@. Luckily, my predecessor woke me up and we set off at 8. She showed me the way to school (about a 20 min walk) then at 9.30 three of the school teachers and I brought her to the train station. That was a bit tear-filled.
Straight from the station, my supervisor took me to the bank to get my bank account started. Then… we get my cell/mobile phone! It’s AMAZING I tell you!!! Softbank AQUOS 923SH.
My Old Mobile Phone vs My New Cell Phone
vs
Apparently it’s one of their newest phones and the second most expensive from what they’re selling (my supervisor was amazed because she’s not too interested in keitais (Japanese word for mobile/cell phone. I’ll use that from now on because it’s easier haha). I got a pretty good deal with it too, so I’m happy. I owe my supervisor a lot because we spent HOURS in the shop as it was difficult withOUT my Foreigners Card (and I’m not meant to get it til the week starting August 20th, and that’s ages away!). Things that I’m amazed about with keitais:
1 - You don’t have to charge it when you get it because it’s already charged
2 - You get to choose the last four digits of your number ( I chose the same as my UK keitai but I realized it’s bad in kanji, so I used my mom’s last four numbers instead), then you’re given a list of what the first seven numbers could be. I was so surprised!)
3 - You have to pay for the phone CHARGER. Amazing, isn’t it. Haha. The charger isn’t included with the set!
After all that, I headed back to school and they took my bank details for my salary. Because getting the keitai took so long I didn’t get to see the English club students (I didn’t know they were meeting that day @_@) but am going to see them the following day instead.
I went home at 4.15pm on my own (my supervisor was amazed, haha) and unpacked! I got round to unpacking a lot and putting away my luggage but there are still a number of things I need to put away.
I did meet some students today though so that was nice because they were fun. On the way home from work though, there were two little girls playing and when they saw me they stopped and stared (lol). One cocked her head and asked, “Gaijin? (Foreigner?)” Haha. If I didn’t know any Japanese though, I wonder what I would have thought... but I just replied, “Hai, Igirisu-jin desu. (Yes, I’m British.)” Haha.
Today though, my supervisor told me a lot of interesting things. Aside from class and school related things, she also mentioned that she was so happy when she saw me because I looked “neat” when I got off the plane. She said a lot of ALTs appear in tank tops and that was unprofessional. She also said she’s happy that I talk slowly because they can easily understand me. She also said that I should get used to and ignore the fact that I was being stared at because I’m a foreigner. She said I may hear some name calling but I told her that since I don’t really understand Japanese, it shouldn’t matter. Haha. We’ll see if something like that happens, but as for now everyone’s either not had a second thought about the fact I’m a foreigner or have just said good morning/good afternoon. There is a lot of staring though. I suppose that’s because there aren’t a lot of foreigners in the small town. My supervisor also said that she’s surprised that a lot of people are interested in Japan. I thought that was nice because I was able to explain to her what I liked about it.
August 1 -
My first full day at work. I got up at 6.20am and did my laundry. I finished getting ready pretty early so I relaxed around the house until 7.55am then headed off to school (I didn’t know how long it would take me to walk there). I had to be at school at 8.30am but arrived at 8.10. Too early. I’ll adjust for next time.
Also, yesterday, I had the school lunch, but only that day had it going. It was such good food! In a proper bento set! But I forgot to take my camera with me :( (so as you can assume, I was extremely tired). Today though, one of the other teachers, the head of English, took me to lunch at a place called JinJin where they served curry rice. The food was pretty good and Japanese curry isn’t spicy but sweet. So that was yummy. I’m pretty embarrassed though because he treated me. That was very nice of him.
After that, back at school, I was able to meet the English club students who gave me their introductions and I did mine, then I listened to their first practice with the music club. They’re singing “Amazing Grace”. After that, a teacher gave me the tour of the school grounds. I was pretty happy to see the classrooms. Exactly what I’d expected!
My supervisor also told me that though she was happy that I was dressed properly all the time, she said that like all the other teachers, because it’s the summer, I could be less formal. Haha. She and another teacher also told me that I didn’t have to be so punctual. Though I’m meant to arrive at 8.30, they said I could be there at 9am, and though I’m meant to finish work at 4.15, I could leave at 4. They said that it’s only that way nowadays because it’s the summer. I do feel bad about doing that though. So I’ll continue to get to school at the suggested time, but maybe leave at 4 as they suggested. I didn’t want to at first, but my supervisor said that if the ALT works extremely hard during summer than the other Japanese teachers will notice and will have to work harder. Haha. I get what she means though, but I don’t do much at school. There isn’t much to do yet.
I was so tired that day though that I fell asleep on the floor about 5.30 (not long after I got home) haha, then got up at 6pm, and moved to my room and then slept all the way until 8am the next day. Haha. I sleep on a futon in a tatami room. ^^
Saturday, 02 August 2008 -
Today, like I said, I got up at 8am. I didn’t think I’d be so tired. But it’s my first weekend here. I’m so happy! I tried figuring out the trash/rubbish disposal system… it’s a little confusing because it’s very specific. I’ll learn a little more about that later I guess. I got my keyboard today and I spoke to the soon-to-be-leaving CIR about the trash and other things. I also tried out the TV but then got distracted by the computer. Haha.
…What else… basically anything I haven’t covered yet…
… Oh, there’s an air conditioner! But I’m trying to be good and mindful of the energy use so I don’t use the air conditioner at all. I sit in front of the fan all the time, like now, but switch it off when I think I can happily manage in the heat without it. I remember telling my supervisor and other staff members that and they were surprised. Haha. They say they can’t manage without it. Haha. Normally, I suppose I can’t either. But sometimes it’s pretty breezy, otherwise, sitting in front of a fan is pretty good.
I swear I had more to say (*gasp* I KNOW! Can you believe it??) but I think I’ll leave it at that for now. I’m gonna be adding pictures soon so this will be even LONGER. I know, you’re all scared now aren’t you. Sorry guys.
If you managed to read through some of this, then thanks! And if you read through ALL of this then CONGRATULATIONS!!! And THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I’m sure I either fried your brain or put you to sleep (or both lol). But thanks if you did.
I am extremely sure that there will be no entries as long as this because this includes everything I’ve done in the last 2 weeks (a very BUSY two weeks in fact, as you can tell). Once I get the internet I’ll update daily so that should be better.
Currently, the page count on Word is 7 pages. But I’ll transfer this to Notepad to include the HTML and LJ codes. I really didn’t think I’d write this much. Amazing.
I’m off to take pictures to add now, so I’ll get back to updating this soon. xx
Edit: Added pics... I hope I can get around to updating this soon because I don't think anyone else but me can stand this entry being any longer. Haha.
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I’m starting this entry at 1.34pm (Japan time) and 5.34am (UK time). At the moment, I am sitting in front of my laptop (I took mine from the UK and YAY it works without any converters and so on because of the whole 100-V-240V thing on the plug) in my living room. I could only start writing this now for two reasons:
1 - I’ve been extremely busy and tired with the move and settling in that I just haven’t had the time.
2 - The new keyboard just arrived today, with me in pyjamas, surprised to hear the doorbell ring because my predecessor told me mail does not arrive on weekends. But why complain? I’m extremely happy! The only thing is it's got Japanese keys on it and so it's not all in the same positions as either the UK or US keyboards that I'm used to. Good thing I've got the positions memorized. Haha.
Additionally, I don’t actually have my internet set up yet because my predecessor cancelled hers and I only got around to calling to connect it on the 31st of July. The information about it should arrive sometime this coming week so I should be able to get connected and get this posted around that time too.
Before I talk about my current state (sweaty, tired but feeling at home), let’s go through my last week in the UK and my first week in Japan. I suppose it’s safe to say I’ve been here a week as I’m counting the day I left for Japan (26th)…
19th of July until the 25th of July, 2008 -
I think I’ve written about this already but as my memory isn’t exactly the best, I’ll summarize this anyway.
I spent that week spending time watching DVDs and playing games with my mom (who took two days off from work to be with me, despite not really being allowed time off). I received my travel insurance through the post (which I actually didn’t need to buy because I got here just fine! But it was a relief to have so I don’t regret getting it!) and I spoke to a few friends from University too. I got my new cell phone/mobile phone in the mail (Nokia 6220 Classic) because my previous phone was so old that it was still 2G and only 3G phones work in Japan. After charging it, we found out that the whole 3G system only works if my SIM card’s 3G too (which it wasn’t) so I had to wait for the new card in the mail. We got it working in the end though. This was the week that I also got all my finances sorted (it was a pain, I tell you!), celebrated my step-dad’s birthday, received a call from my predecessor in Japan (spent 2h11m08s on the phone! Zomg! She’s so nice though!) and went shopping for last minute things, including omiyage (souvenirs for the people I’d be meeting in Japan). Thursday (two days before my flight) was the day I started packing too. I hadn’t unpacked the things I brought to university (there was too much of it and not enough space in the house) so I spent Thursday unpacking, repacking and checking the weight. This took AGES because of the 20kg weight limit. Though, on the plus side, I didn’t leave anything behind that needed to be shipped later on. Mom said I should just go shopping here because it’d be cheaper and it’d be more fun. Haha. I did order my new USB keyboard to be sent to my home in Japan as shipping my keyboard from the UK would be more expensive and troublesome.
26th of July -
On Friday, I got up early to make sure everything was ready without panicking and rushing around. The taxi picked me up at 1.30pm (the taxi service said I would need to leave at that time to get to Heathrow for 4pm) but arrived at 3.20pm. I spent more time with my mom before and after check-in but then had to leave her to go through security to get to the gates (TT^TT). I met up with other JETs though whom I’d met back in the London orientation (made new friends too) and basically sat in Starbucks at the airport til our departure time. We stood out (in fact, every JET stood out) because of our pretty obvious "JET" stickers on our shirts. Hehe.
The whole JET group were seated in a block on the plane so the girl next to me was another ALT in Hiroshima. There was no space underneath the seat in front of me to store my laptop because of how the seats were built (and I was NOT putting it in the overhead compartments) so I asked her if I could switch seats (to the window seat) and luckily she said yes. It was her first ever flight out of Europe and first ever long-haul flight so it was pretty fun. We talked a lot and played some games on the screen, haha. Oh and the ANA magazine had a two page ad for HanaDan Final. Hehe.
July 27 - (gotta learn to write dates the way the Japanese do or I’ll get confused with forms later on)
We arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport at about 3.30pm. When we were told it was hot in Japan, we didn’t really think it would be THAT hot. As soon as we stepped out, we started melting I believe!
Anyway, we had to fill in the necessary forms for customs and for JET. There were a lot of JET helpers showing us the way in their bright yellow/orange JET T-shirts loudly shouting, “Welcome to Japan!” haha. The scariest part at the airport was moving around their airport with our luggage on trolleys on escalators. Yep… our luggage carts… on the escalators. This may not seem that weird to some people, but it was weird to me. @_@ I’ve never had that before. When the JET guide told me to do that at the start, going down, I thought he was joking…. But lo and behold, he wasn’t and it was actually pretty handy (though I was so scared it would fall on me because my things were so heavy!). Going down was just as scary too, thinking that it would squash whoever was in front of me. @_@ At the end, in the parking lot, were some other JETs who directed us to the toilets as it would be the last time we would get to use the bathroom until we get to our hotel and the bus/coach journey was about 3 hours. That was funny because the toilets had special buttons on the side so all of us didn’t know what button to press to flush the toilet. Haha. Aside from those funky special “washing” buttons, there was one that said “flushing sound”. And that was all it did… make flushing sounds. We found that pretty interesting and entertaining. Later we found out that the flush button was actually hidden in the back, behind the toilet seat cover. Not so difficult to find if you really think about it. Haha. Outside, an ALT friend was buying drinks from a machine, not cuz he was thirsty, but because he wanted to just use the machine. Haha. He couldn’t get it out from the bottom after buying it, until he realized you lift it up not push it in. Haha.
We forwarded one piece of luggage to our prefecture as we were only allowed one bag for the Tokyo Orientation (handcarry not included, unless you want to ship that).
The bus/coach ride took us about 2 and a half hours (and passed by Tokyo Disney on the way) to get to our hotel, Keio Plaza Hotel. It was such an AWESOME hotel! I wish I took more pictures of it, but didn’t because people were staring at us enough already and we were there as part of a “business trip”. In other words, we were told that we were basically public servants and should act accordingly because of the slightly higher status we were given. So I restricted picture taking to less open areas than the lobby. Haha.
Hotel room pics:
The view from my hotel room...
Pedestrian shopping area and offices, hehe.
The things in my hotel room...
We only realized we should've worn slippers once we wore our shoes in. The closet was behind the main door so we didn't know. ^^;;
And omg, the funky toilet buttons. Haha.
Oh, and hopefully my roommate doesn't mind me leaving her in this pic. Lol.
The first night we had nothing to do so my friends and I went out in Shinjuku (where the hotel was at). We were surrounded by cell/mobile phone stalls I tell you! Amazing! We first went for food (katsudon for 650Y, SO much cheaper than English food - £3.25 - and we were pretty full… in fact, my friend ate the rest of my food! Haha.), then we went around. We bought drinks from the machine (I wanted the coke can/bottle mix! Haha) and then we found a Haagen-Dazs (ZOOOMG YUM!). We had to get some because they don’t sell Macadamia Nut outside of Asia. Haha. And of course, Green Tea. The guy behind the counter was kinda cute and gave me an extra scoop more than I asked for for free. Haha. We hit the arcades too and 7-11. We got back pretty early (about 11pm) as we had to get up early for breakfast and the start of our Tokyo orientation at about 7am.
The place we ate:
We were first confused about the vending machine bit until we realized we had to buy our food from there. Haha. Then give the ticket we're issued to the cooks.
Around Shinjuku:
Like real tourists, we took a lot of pictures... haha.
July 28 -
Today was the first day that my contract with JET officially started. I had to get up at 6.30am to be ready for 7.30am to meet my friends for breakfast. Unfortunately, jetlag had kicked in and I woke up at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep til 630am. Kept texting my mom about it, haha. So, as expected, it was difficult to wake up and was pretty tired the entire day. Orientation started at 9am and didn’t finish until 6pm.
Welcome Reception:
For the afternoon orientations, we got choose from a list which of them we would attend so I thought the interesting ones were “Getting the most for your yen”, “Travel as a JET”, and “Food, Cooking and Eating”. Breakfast and lunch were included by JET so we stayed in the hotel for those. Dinner that night was also included though as it was the Welcome Reception. The breakfast and dinner were buffet styles but the lunch was already chosen (today’s was soya-beans shaped and coloured to look like meat I believe.
Lunch was always vegetarian/vegan-friendly, but breakfast and dinner were free choice). We didn’t get to have dessert during dinner either because the four cakes had run out by the time we got to it. Haha. I did my ironing (one of my shirts was a pain to iron!) and then called my mom on Skype with AJET for free (for signing up with AJET, haha, but that was free too). There were met to be prefectural nights out that night too, but our prefecture had it the next day so tonight was free for me too. My friends and I hit Shinjuku again (more ice cream and a friend of mine bought a camera) before spending time relaxing on the 43rd floor to admire the Tokyo skyline.
It was so pretty! The things I spent money on today were postcards from the Keio Plaza Hotel store, some teaching books from AJET and a magazine from the Keio Plaza Hotel store (because it was the first magazine that had something about a Japanese group I liked). I slept pretty well that night too.
July 29 -
My roommate came back at around 5am and I didn’t have to open my eyes to know she was pretty drunk. I got up about 6am and my roommate’s alarm started buzzing at 6.30am. She didn’t wake up at all. It kept automatically snoozing until I couldn’t take it anymore and I put it on snooze myself every time it started and I physically tried to wake her up myself. She didn’t budge at ALL. Amazing. By the time I had to leave, I tried waking her up one last time before leaving her a note and then heading downstairs to meet my friends. I guess she had a pretty good night the night before, haha. She told me all about it after and it sounded like a laugh.
Today also had two workshops where you could choose from a list which to attend. The night’s activities included a Reception at the British Embassy and a prefectural night out. We also had to send off our luggage that night to save the hustle and bustle the next morning. So I had no night clothes and ended up sleeping in the hotel yukata instead. Hehe. Packing was a bit worrying because of all the paperwork that I acquired during my stay at the Keio Plaza Hotel that I thought I was over the 20kg limit and there was no weighing scale in the hotel room (didn’t have to panic really because when it was weighed at check-in it was actually only 12.5kg. Haha.
Oh, also, my roommate kindly let me use her computer the three days we were in Tokyo because I still didn’t have my keyboard.
My friends and I didn’t really have time to say our goodbyes that night because of the extremely busy schedule that night and the next morning.
July 30 -
First thing in the morning, after getting ready, was handing in our room keys. We had to check-out ourselves before 8. My roommate didn’t sleep at ALL (she says her jetlags finally kicked in). We had breakfast on the 43rd floor.
Breakfast was good as usual. We had to meet with the prefecture people at 8 and then leave at 8.30 for our flight at 10.50 (on ANA via Haneda Airport). Interesting food today was our sweet potato ice cream at Haneda Airport. Haha. I liked it though, it was pretty good!
Once we landed, we didn’t really get to say our goodbyes and good lucks either as as soon as we disembarked, we went straight to the luggage collection then were met by our respective supervisors. My predecessor was there too and she is extremely nice! Both her and my supervisor were very, very nice. We got into my supervisor’s car and headed to lunch back at our town/city (technically it’s called a city, but size-wise, I’d say town). That was our first order of business. Haha. It was a nice drive! All three of us ate omurice and then dessert. I couldn’t remember what the drink or dessert I had was called… the drink was slightly vinegar-y and the dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice-cream topped with shaved ice and covered in coffee as a syrup.
It was good though! My supervisor also asked me how long I’d be staying and asked if I’d consider staying for three years. Haha. That was cute. Though, I was suddenly surprised by the information that I had to make a speech in front of the ENTIRE school DURING the Opening Ceremony on September the first. I’m SO scared!
Then I was taken to the town hall to register for my Foreigners Registration Card (btw, the work visa looks awesome) and met the soon-to-be-leaving CIR. She’s really nice and super helpful too. I received my hanko (official stamp, used instead of signatures) at that time too. After that, we headed to my school to meet the rest of the staff. (I’ll be constantly repeating myself here but…) They were really nice! After introductions we headed to our landlady’s place and I got all the contracts signed, then we headed to my new home. I was pretty surprised by it! It’s very nice! It’s pretty spacious compared to what I had expected. My predecessor left me a tonne of stuff too! We went grocery shopping (I’m lost when it comes to that, so I hope I’ll get used to it soon, but the 100Y shops are AWESOME!) and I had to buy some other things, a towel included, because I’d left mine back at home, and wrapping paper for the omiyage. Then my supervisor, predecessor and I could finally rest. After my supervisor had gone home, my predecessor informed me about how some things were run and chit-chatted the night away. I also met a few of her friends and some other ALTs that were in my prefecture. My predecessor also had Vonage (something like Skype) so I called my mom at work, which was nice. I’m happy I got to speak to her. Also an old flatmate back at university, who lives in Japan, called me on the home phone! I was pretty surprised but it was good to talk to her. I hadn’t spoken to her on the phone for years! We went to bed at about 1.40am.
July 31 -
I STILL don’t have the internet so am pretty sad that I couldn’t contact a friend of mine who’s birthday was today (yep, same as Harry Potter, haha). I hope she had a good one.
Today though, I intended to get up at 6am to leave the apartment at 8am (I didn’t know how long it would take me as it was my first day) only to apparently have MISSED my alarm. I was sure I set it but I don’t remember turning it off midway through the night @_@. Luckily, my predecessor woke me up and we set off at 8. She showed me the way to school (about a 20 min walk) then at 9.30 three of the school teachers and I brought her to the train station. That was a bit tear-filled.
Straight from the station, my supervisor took me to the bank to get my bank account started. Then… we get my cell/mobile phone! It’s AMAZING I tell you!!! Softbank AQUOS 923SH.
My Old Mobile Phone vs My New Cell Phone
vs
Apparently it’s one of their newest phones and the second most expensive from what they’re selling (my supervisor was amazed because she’s not too interested in keitais (Japanese word for mobile/cell phone. I’ll use that from now on because it’s easier haha). I got a pretty good deal with it too, so I’m happy. I owe my supervisor a lot because we spent HOURS in the shop as it was difficult withOUT my Foreigners Card (and I’m not meant to get it til the week starting August 20th, and that’s ages away!). Things that I’m amazed about with keitais:
1 - You don’t have to charge it when you get it because it’s already charged
2 - You get to choose the last four digits of your number ( I chose the same as my UK keitai but I realized it’s bad in kanji, so I used my mom’s last four numbers instead), then you’re given a list of what the first seven numbers could be. I was so surprised!)
3 - You have to pay for the phone CHARGER. Amazing, isn’t it. Haha. The charger isn’t included with the set!
After all that, I headed back to school and they took my bank details for my salary. Because getting the keitai took so long I didn’t get to see the English club students (I didn’t know they were meeting that day @_@) but am going to see them the following day instead.
I went home at 4.15pm on my own (my supervisor was amazed, haha) and unpacked! I got round to unpacking a lot and putting away my luggage but there are still a number of things I need to put away.
I did meet some students today though so that was nice because they were fun. On the way home from work though, there were two little girls playing and when they saw me they stopped and stared (lol). One cocked her head and asked, “Gaijin? (Foreigner?)” Haha. If I didn’t know any Japanese though, I wonder what I would have thought... but I just replied, “Hai, Igirisu-jin desu. (Yes, I’m British.)” Haha.
Today though, my supervisor told me a lot of interesting things. Aside from class and school related things, she also mentioned that she was so happy when she saw me because I looked “neat” when I got off the plane. She said a lot of ALTs appear in tank tops and that was unprofessional. She also said she’s happy that I talk slowly because they can easily understand me. She also said that I should get used to and ignore the fact that I was being stared at because I’m a foreigner. She said I may hear some name calling but I told her that since I don’t really understand Japanese, it shouldn’t matter. Haha. We’ll see if something like that happens, but as for now everyone’s either not had a second thought about the fact I’m a foreigner or have just said good morning/good afternoon. There is a lot of staring though. I suppose that’s because there aren’t a lot of foreigners in the small town. My supervisor also said that she’s surprised that a lot of people are interested in Japan. I thought that was nice because I was able to explain to her what I liked about it.
August 1 -
My first full day at work. I got up at 6.20am and did my laundry. I finished getting ready pretty early so I relaxed around the house until 7.55am then headed off to school (I didn’t know how long it would take me to walk there). I had to be at school at 8.30am but arrived at 8.10. Too early. I’ll adjust for next time.
Also, yesterday, I had the school lunch, but only that day had it going. It was such good food! In a proper bento set! But I forgot to take my camera with me :( (so as you can assume, I was extremely tired). Today though, one of the other teachers, the head of English, took me to lunch at a place called JinJin where they served curry rice. The food was pretty good and Japanese curry isn’t spicy but sweet. So that was yummy. I’m pretty embarrassed though because he treated me. That was very nice of him.
After that, back at school, I was able to meet the English club students who gave me their introductions and I did mine, then I listened to their first practice with the music club. They’re singing “Amazing Grace”. After that, a teacher gave me the tour of the school grounds. I was pretty happy to see the classrooms. Exactly what I’d expected!
My supervisor also told me that though she was happy that I was dressed properly all the time, she said that like all the other teachers, because it’s the summer, I could be less formal. Haha. She and another teacher also told me that I didn’t have to be so punctual. Though I’m meant to arrive at 8.30, they said I could be there at 9am, and though I’m meant to finish work at 4.15, I could leave at 4. They said that it’s only that way nowadays because it’s the summer. I do feel bad about doing that though. So I’ll continue to get to school at the suggested time, but maybe leave at 4 as they suggested. I didn’t want to at first, but my supervisor said that if the ALT works extremely hard during summer than the other Japanese teachers will notice and will have to work harder. Haha. I get what she means though, but I don’t do much at school. There isn’t much to do yet.
I was so tired that day though that I fell asleep on the floor about 5.30 (not long after I got home) haha, then got up at 6pm, and moved to my room and then slept all the way until 8am the next day. Haha. I sleep on a futon in a tatami room. ^^
Saturday, 02 August 2008 -
Today, like I said, I got up at 8am. I didn’t think I’d be so tired. But it’s my first weekend here. I’m so happy! I tried figuring out the trash/rubbish disposal system… it’s a little confusing because it’s very specific. I’ll learn a little more about that later I guess. I got my keyboard today and I spoke to the soon-to-be-leaving CIR about the trash and other things. I also tried out the TV but then got distracted by the computer. Haha.
…What else… basically anything I haven’t covered yet…
… Oh, there’s an air conditioner! But I’m trying to be good and mindful of the energy use so I don’t use the air conditioner at all. I sit in front of the fan all the time, like now, but switch it off when I think I can happily manage in the heat without it. I remember telling my supervisor and other staff members that and they were surprised. Haha. They say they can’t manage without it. Haha. Normally, I suppose I can’t either. But sometimes it’s pretty breezy, otherwise, sitting in front of a fan is pretty good.
I swear I had more to say (*gasp* I KNOW! Can you believe it??) but I think I’ll leave it at that for now. I’m gonna be adding pictures soon so this will be even LONGER. I know, you’re all scared now aren’t you. Sorry guys.
If you managed to read through some of this, then thanks! And if you read through ALL of this then CONGRATULATIONS!!! And THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I’m sure I either fried your brain or put you to sleep (or both lol). But thanks if you did.
I am extremely sure that there will be no entries as long as this because this includes everything I’ve done in the last 2 weeks (a very BUSY two weeks in fact, as you can tell). Once I get the internet I’ll update daily so that should be better.
Currently, the page count on Word is 7 pages. But I’ll transfer this to Notepad to include the HTML and LJ codes. I really didn’t think I’d write this much. Amazing.
I’m off to take pictures to add now, so I’ll get back to updating this soon. xx
Edit: Added pics... I hope I can get around to updating this soon because I don't think anyone else but me can stand this entry being any longer. Haha.