Kochi: day 1
first night in Kochi, in my new apartment! it's been along day, but thankfully no where near as bad as i had been dreading. to recap:
got up this morning (? wow, it feels like it was yesterday, not today...) super stressed about coming to kochi and meeting a million scary people. checked out of the hotel, met up with the rest of the Kochi peeps and got on a charter bus to Haneda Airport. Haneda's nice btw, but Japan has really laxed domestic security compared to the US. didnt even have to show any form of id the entire way. o_O; anyway, flew via ANA to Kochi Ryoma Airport, which is a domestic-only airport in Nankoku (a town just outside of Kochi-shi). ANA has officially earned my money on future flights. that flight and plane was GREAT. much much better than any US domestic flight i've been on, and i've been on many. a must amend my last entry and note that it takes only a little over an hour to get from Tokyo to Kochi via plane.
got off the plane, got our luggage and there were lots of people, some with cute signs with peoples names on it :3, outside waiting to great us all. it was a lot kewler and nicer than i had originally expected, being greeted like that and i'm sure we all appreciated it a lot. met the supervisor of Kochi-shi ALTs, Tanaka-san who's very very nice and not strict at all, which pwns so SO much. her english is also pretty good and she tried so hard to use it all the time around us. it was sweet. with her were a few other current Kochi-shi ALTs and we all jumped into vans and went to lunch at a nice little restraunt not far from the airport. twaz a nice way to start things off i think.
after lunch, Tanaka-san and Matt (4th year ALT) took me and another new ALT, Janice, too our apartments which are in the same building. she's on the 2nd floor and i'm on the 3rd almost directly above each other. pwnage. we checked out our new homes, dropped off our crap and then was taken to a store to stock up on necessary jump-start stuff.....
.....i'm realizing how little time i have and how tired i am right now. i have a LOT to blurb about regarding the apartment and it's location and Janice, but i'm going to have to skip all that and save it for a seperate entry tomorrow or something. ._.; so umm... yeah
moving on! we got stuff, brought it back and then was given explainations on how to ride the city train and get to the Board of Education Office, where we'll have to be promptly by 10am tomorrow. Tanaka-san and Matt were REALLY helpful.
thank tomato-kami for them.
after this, we were left to unpack are stuff for an hour or two, then we had to catch the train to the city center to meet up with a bunch of other ALTs for dinner. there were about.... 9 of us in total there? but there are 11 Kochi-shi BOE ALTs in total. we walked through the HUGE shopping arcade and saw lots of people practicing for a traditional city festival, which starts tomorrow night i believe. it's called Yosakoi and it's a big big thing in Kochi. it was really kewl to see the rehersials. :3 going to see the actual thing tomorrow/this weekend.
ANNNYyyway, we went by a big food court in the shopping arcade that was PACKED, so we had to leave and go somewhere else, but the food there smelled and looked GREAT at all of the stalls, so i'm definitly going back. :x we eneded up going to an Indian restraunt in the arcade called.... Ma... something..... first time i've ever had Indian food. it was good. :) me and Janice got lost on our way back and wandered up and down the main straight for a while finding our way back in the dark. :'x friggin' train stopped running just as we realized we were lost. >:'[ but, of course, we found our way back, thus how i'm able to be typing about it.
i would type so much more about today, but i have to be up EARLY and i am TIRED. tired tired. so i need to go to bed. i hope sleeping on this futon is as comfy as it is sitting on it.
tomorrow = a busy day with ppl to meet and stuff to do. i feel like shit for coming without omiyage. ._.'
got up this morning (? wow, it feels like it was yesterday, not today...) super stressed about coming to kochi and meeting a million scary people. checked out of the hotel, met up with the rest of the Kochi peeps and got on a charter bus to Haneda Airport. Haneda's nice btw, but Japan has really laxed domestic security compared to the US. didnt even have to show any form of id the entire way. o_O; anyway, flew via ANA to Kochi Ryoma Airport, which is a domestic-only airport in Nankoku (a town just outside of Kochi-shi). ANA has officially earned my money on future flights. that flight and plane was GREAT. much much better than any US domestic flight i've been on, and i've been on many. a must amend my last entry and note that it takes only a little over an hour to get from Tokyo to Kochi via plane.
got off the plane, got our luggage and there were lots of people, some with cute signs with peoples names on it :3, outside waiting to great us all. it was a lot kewler and nicer than i had originally expected, being greeted like that and i'm sure we all appreciated it a lot. met the supervisor of Kochi-shi ALTs, Tanaka-san who's very very nice and not strict at all, which pwns so SO much. her english is also pretty good and she tried so hard to use it all the time around us. it was sweet. with her were a few other current Kochi-shi ALTs and we all jumped into vans and went to lunch at a nice little restraunt not far from the airport. twaz a nice way to start things off i think.
after lunch, Tanaka-san and Matt (4th year ALT) took me and another new ALT, Janice, too our apartments which are in the same building. she's on the 2nd floor and i'm on the 3rd almost directly above each other. pwnage. we checked out our new homes, dropped off our crap and then was taken to a store to stock up on necessary jump-start stuff.....
.....i'm realizing how little time i have and how tired i am right now. i have a LOT to blurb about regarding the apartment and it's location and Janice, but i'm going to have to skip all that and save it for a seperate entry tomorrow or something. ._.; so umm... yeah
moving on! we got stuff, brought it back and then was given explainations on how to ride the city train and get to the Board of Education Office, where we'll have to be promptly by 10am tomorrow. Tanaka-san and Matt were REALLY helpful.
thank tomato-kami for them.
after this, we were left to unpack are stuff for an hour or two, then we had to catch the train to the city center to meet up with a bunch of other ALTs for dinner. there were about.... 9 of us in total there? but there are 11 Kochi-shi BOE ALTs in total. we walked through the HUGE shopping arcade and saw lots of people practicing for a traditional city festival, which starts tomorrow night i believe. it's called Yosakoi and it's a big big thing in Kochi. it was really kewl to see the rehersials. :3 going to see the actual thing tomorrow/this weekend.
ANNNYyyway, we went by a big food court in the shopping arcade that was PACKED, so we had to leave and go somewhere else, but the food there smelled and looked GREAT at all of the stalls, so i'm definitly going back. :x we eneded up going to an Indian restraunt in the arcade called.... Ma... something..... first time i've ever had Indian food. it was good. :) me and Janice got lost on our way back and wandered up and down the main straight for a while finding our way back in the dark. :'x friggin' train stopped running just as we realized we were lost. >:'[ but, of course, we found our way back, thus how i'm able to be typing about it.
i would type so much more about today, but i have to be up EARLY and i am TIRED. tired tired. so i need to go to bed. i hope sleeping on this futon is as comfy as it is sitting on it.
tomorrow = a busy day with ppl to meet and stuff to do. i feel like shit for coming without omiyage. ._.'