day2 @ orientation
....i failed at keeping an offline account of yesterday. so now i'm sure i'm going to leave some things out. @-@; so much info and crap has been stuffed into my head over the past two days.
yesterday (mon) was the start of our two day orientation. they served a continental style breakfast that was good in some areas, disgusting in others (is it common in japan for mayo to be put in scrambled eggs? o_O;;) and then had a big, fancy opening ceremony for all of the 1,000+ new JETs in Group B. we were split up into groups according to the prefecture we'll be going to, so we got to meet other new people from our pref for the first time. Group B's Kochi-ken JETs = 21. w00t! GO KOCHI.
after the orientation there were various activities such as lectures, workshops, an "information fair" etc... they served a lunch that wasn't half bad and then it was back to workshops and such. today was pretty much the same thing except more workshops/presentations. last night there was a "welcome reception" in the form of a fancy, big dinner banquet with lots of different foods ranging from ziti to fish to asian salads to fancily cut mini sandwiches. towards the end a Kochi PA (prefectural advisor) brought over a flushed, very talkative man that turned out to be one of my new bosses. ._.' obviously he was a bit buzzed (there was beer all over the place) and he came up to us (me and another Kochi ALT) and started talking and talking in japanese, not even asking if we knew it first. :'x but we both could follow what he was saying, we just couldn't respond that well... >.>; but he was understanding, thankfully... when he asked me if i wanted beer and i said i dont drink, he was like "oh, you poor thing i feel sorry for you. i love to drink! people in kochi drink a lot!" it was here that i realized yet again how screwed i'll soon be. :'x
after the reception was "prefectural night out" where prefectures went out in groups for a night on the town. Kochi went to this bar/restraunt place and had a nomihoudai... "nomihoudai" is an all you can drink party for a low price. in addition to the probably 50+ beer mugs and glasses that our table went through that night, there was also all you can eat food. and when i say "all you can eat" i don't mean they gave us a bunch of food and then kept replacing the plates as needed. they just kept bringing more food and more food and more food regardless of the room on the table or how much we had eaten. we even had to set plates on top of mugs! omg-- the food that was wasted! we had just eaten! THINK OF THE STARVING CHILDREN IN OTHER COUNTRIES !!!1!1 ;-; and no, i didn't get drunk with the rest. the only thing i tried was something called a "Kiwi Sour" that barely had any alcohol in it. i didnt even drink half though.
i took some pix, but i can't upload them because my USB cord is in my luggage which is being sent ahead of me for the trip to Kochi tomorrow morning. :[
speaking of tomorrow, there was a prefectural meeting today and they gave out some reading material about Kochi and maps that i want to read up on before tomorrow.... we leave for the airport @ 9:15 tomorrow morning and it's a 1hr 45min flight to Kochi. as soon as we get off the plane, we'll be met by our supervisors who will wisk us off immediately to start our new jobs... ._.' aka, it's not "oh, you must be tired and jet lagged. let's take you to your new home and let you get a little rest." it'll be more like "welcome to Kochi!! you're going to be taken to meet a million important people before the sunsets, so i hope you can introduce yourself in japanese 50x straight! wanna see your office and meet your co workers?! what's that? oh, you'll see your apartment tonight, no worries! make sure you're at the office on time tomorrow." :[
however, there is a saying amongst all JETs. ESID. "every situation is different." JETs will chant this till their tongues rot because it's true. not all JETs will be flown to their new homes. not all JETs will have to go to work straight off the plane. not all JETs will get X, Y and/or Z. Kochi sounds like a great place, but I'm a little stressed out now lol...... the coordinator of the JET Programme in Kochi today stressed the need to speak japanese... so guess what i'll be doing on the 2hr bus ride to the airport and on the 2hr flight. nervous. ._.' my japanese really is shit.... uni classroom japanese... sucks in the real world for anything but the basic stuff. :/
changing the subject randomly: Natural Lawson, a conbini (convenience store) is AWESOME. i have seen the light! in Japan you could live out of a conbini, and live GOOD. they have everything, even steaming hot real meals that taste really good. i got a chicken pasta dinner called ぺぺロチーノout of the refrigerated section and they microwaved it when i bought it and it tasted good enough to have come from a western kitchen. needless to say i was happy. :p but obviously i'm also a japan noob, marveling in my lj about such a seemingly small and stupid thing. so i'll shut up.
since i'm flying to Kochi in the morning and i dont know exactly when i'll be getting Yahoo! BB (dsl) setup in my apartment, i dont know when i'll update next. but i'm sure i'll have a hellava lot to say. and show. ^^'
yesterday (mon) was the start of our two day orientation. they served a continental style breakfast that was good in some areas, disgusting in others (is it common in japan for mayo to be put in scrambled eggs? o_O;;) and then had a big, fancy opening ceremony for all of the 1,000+ new JETs in Group B. we were split up into groups according to the prefecture we'll be going to, so we got to meet other new people from our pref for the first time. Group B's Kochi-ken JETs = 21. w00t! GO KOCHI.
after the orientation there were various activities such as lectures, workshops, an "information fair" etc... they served a lunch that wasn't half bad and then it was back to workshops and such. today was pretty much the same thing except more workshops/presentations. last night there was a "welcome reception" in the form of a fancy, big dinner banquet with lots of different foods ranging from ziti to fish to asian salads to fancily cut mini sandwiches. towards the end a Kochi PA (prefectural advisor) brought over a flushed, very talkative man that turned out to be one of my new bosses. ._.' obviously he was a bit buzzed (there was beer all over the place) and he came up to us (me and another Kochi ALT) and started talking and talking in japanese, not even asking if we knew it first. :'x but we both could follow what he was saying, we just couldn't respond that well... >.>; but he was understanding, thankfully... when he asked me if i wanted beer and i said i dont drink, he was like "oh, you poor thing i feel sorry for you. i love to drink! people in kochi drink a lot!" it was here that i realized yet again how screwed i'll soon be. :'x
after the reception was "prefectural night out" where prefectures went out in groups for a night on the town. Kochi went to this bar/restraunt place and had a nomihoudai... "nomihoudai" is an all you can drink party for a low price. in addition to the probably 50+ beer mugs and glasses that our table went through that night, there was also all you can eat food. and when i say "all you can eat" i don't mean they gave us a bunch of food and then kept replacing the plates as needed. they just kept bringing more food and more food and more food regardless of the room on the table or how much we had eaten. we even had to set plates on top of mugs! omg-- the food that was wasted! we had just eaten! THINK OF THE STARVING CHILDREN IN OTHER COUNTRIES !!!1!1 ;-; and no, i didn't get drunk with the rest. the only thing i tried was something called a "Kiwi Sour" that barely had any alcohol in it. i didnt even drink half though.
i took some pix, but i can't upload them because my USB cord is in my luggage which is being sent ahead of me for the trip to Kochi tomorrow morning. :[
speaking of tomorrow, there was a prefectural meeting today and they gave out some reading material about Kochi and maps that i want to read up on before tomorrow.... we leave for the airport @ 9:15 tomorrow morning and it's a 1hr 45min flight to Kochi. as soon as we get off the plane, we'll be met by our supervisors who will wisk us off immediately to start our new jobs... ._.' aka, it's not "oh, you must be tired and jet lagged. let's take you to your new home and let you get a little rest." it'll be more like "welcome to Kochi!! you're going to be taken to meet a million important people before the sunsets, so i hope you can introduce yourself in japanese 50x straight! wanna see your office and meet your co workers?! what's that? oh, you'll see your apartment tonight, no worries! make sure you're at the office on time tomorrow." :[
however, there is a saying amongst all JETs. ESID. "every situation is different." JETs will chant this till their tongues rot because it's true. not all JETs will be flown to their new homes. not all JETs will have to go to work straight off the plane. not all JETs will get X, Y and/or Z. Kochi sounds like a great place, but I'm a little stressed out now lol...... the coordinator of the JET Programme in Kochi today stressed the need to speak japanese... so guess what i'll be doing on the 2hr bus ride to the airport and on the 2hr flight. nervous. ._.' my japanese really is shit.... uni classroom japanese... sucks in the real world for anything but the basic stuff. :/
changing the subject randomly: Natural Lawson, a conbini (convenience store) is AWESOME. i have seen the light! in Japan you could live out of a conbini, and live GOOD. they have everything, even steaming hot real meals that taste really good. i got a chicken pasta dinner called ぺぺロチーノout of the refrigerated section and they microwaved it when i bought it and it tasted good enough to have come from a western kitchen. needless to say i was happy. :p but obviously i'm also a japan noob, marveling in my lj about such a seemingly small and stupid thing. so i'll shut up.
since i'm flying to Kochi in the morning and i dont know exactly when i'll be getting Yahoo! BB (dsl) setup in my apartment, i dont know when i'll update next. but i'm sure i'll have a hellava lot to say. and show. ^^'