First week back in Japan!

Today is Friday July 30, 2010 (yeah I know I'm posting it Sat. morning). I will begin my blog and cover what has happened since my arrival in Japan five days ago. I won’t get internet in my apartment for awhile (though there is an unencrypted signal that I may be able to use from time to time) and there is no wireless at work either but because I have so much free time and no internet I will probably be taking really good and detailed notes for my blog…hopefully I won’t bore you when it all finally goes up!

Here I am, back in the land of the rising sun. We arrived Sun. the 25^th (mom’s birthday!) and had a free night before Tokyo Orientation started bright and early the next morning. My friends from Wake, Jenni, Jeannie, Diane, and I took advantage of us all being in Japan together for the first time ever to go get kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi). For those of you who have never been it’s a lot of fun. The different sushi is put on a plate and set on a conveyor belt. You grab whichever plates you want and depending on the color of the plate is how much it costs. You have to be careful you don’t grab one of the pricey ones!

Orientation itself seemed pretty useful but that might have just been my jet-lagged brain’s wishful thinking. Surprisingly many of the speakers were actually interesting enough to hold our attention and try to prepare us for what we would be experiencing. However, as they are so fond of reminding us ESID-every situation is different. Therefore, much of the information had to be just a broad overview of what we might experience.

The girls and I made sure to enjoy our time together and we went out each night. We went to Shibuya (not far from where our hotel was in Shinjuku) in our evening free time and sang karaoke and ate sukiyaki. It was sad saying goodbye Tues. night but I think we were all pretty excited (and nervous of course) to start our next adventure and see what the heck we would actually be dealing with!

Wednesday everyone left with their prefectural groups. Luckily the Toyama group had one of the later departures since we were flying from Tokyo to Toyama and that just required a one hour bus ride and a one hour plane flight. In Toyama airport the 15 of us headed to Toyama prefecture were picked up by our different people. Some people had signs and students waiting others had a more quiet reception. Alex (the other new Himi ALT or Assistant Language Teacher) and I fortunately had a big sign and John, an ALT who was on his 5^th year, and Araya-sensei, our supervisor, waiting for us. We then drove the rest of the way out of the “big city” to our town of Himi. The population is 55,000 but it’s very spread out so it doesn’t seem even that big. It’s hard to describe exactly what Himi is like but so far the best I can come up with is that is like what a small town in NC Piedmont area would be like if you smushed the mountains and coast way up close towards you. Himi is right on the ocean (Sea of Japan side) but there are mountains everywhere too. Everything is gorgeous!

On our arrival day we went and started our registration for our gaikokujin touroku shoumeisho, the alien registration card fondly known as the gaijin card that you must get if you will be in Japan for more than 90 days. It also lets you do things like get a cell phone and keeps you from having to carry your passport everywhere. After starting that process and picking up our luggage and bikes, John took us out for dinner. Another ALT on his second year in Himi named Cody joined us. We went to a local izakaya (bar) and John treated us newbies to dinner. We also found out that two more new JETs will be coming to Himi next week including a CIR (Coordination of International Relations) named Joe and another ALT named Katie.

We went back to our apartment building which is rumored to be the tallest building in Himi…it’s a whopping 9 floors. I’m on the 6^th floor and I have hardly unpacked because I’m still trying to adjust to jet lag. My apartment is pretty small but I think it will be good enough for me. It has two rooms and a bathroom and a bathtub/shower. In Japan the toilet is typically in a separate room from where you bathe. The first room has some closets, a refrigerator, a stove, and a microwave/convection oven. The other room has a bed (though not quite like an American style bed), a TV, some more closets, an AC, and a small table with cushions to sit on. The best part is the view of the sea! I even have a little balcony with a chair :D

Jenna (my predecessor) and her husband left a lot of things so it is going to take a very long time to go through her stuff while simultaneously trying to put my stuff up. I wish I could be doing that right now rather than sitting around doing nothing in the board of education office. Sitting around from 8:30-4 doing nothing is what I will probably be doing a lot of the first month while the students are still out of school.

That is a bit of an exaggeration there will be some things to do. For example, on Thursday we got a tour of town and set up our bank accounts (which took 3 trips to the bank and one trip to city hall). We also went to the grocery store and bought some supplies. My goal was to purchase at least one thing I had to cook, not just microwave. I figured I would start small so along with my ready made meals I bought pancake mix and the eggs and oil and milk but I forgot to get anything to put on them! I will probably pick up some local honey because syrup in Japan is supposed to be really expensive. Also, on Monday Alex and I will go to get an hour long driving lesson. It will cost some but I am glad for it because I am so nervous about these narrow roads and adjusting to driving on the opposite side of the road.

After work on Thursday and a nice nap Cody met Alex and I to go to Takaoka for a meeting of the Takaoka region (one of Toyama’s four regions) JETs. It was our first venture onto the Himi-sen (Himi train line). It’s an old train but it is nice to ride right next to the coast-very scenic. We are at the very end of the line and to get anywhere we have to take it all the way to the other end into Takaoka (which take a little bit more than half an hour) but from there we could get a train to pretty much anywhere we want. Once there we met back up with some of the other new arrivals we had met during orientation and we also met some old veterans who took us to another izakaya. Unfortunately the last train left for Himi around 10:40pm so we were among the first people to have to leave.

We had a really good time hanging out with everyone and trading first day stories. Hearing about some other people’s situations makes me so glad for both Alex and John because they have helped with the transition. John came to Japan with no Japanese knowledge but is now fluent so he knows the ropes of Himi and has been infinitely helpful already. Alex is also very good at Japanese and he can commiserate with me on being the newbie in town. It’s also really nice that we all live in the same apartment building because I know someone I can ask questions to is right downstairs.

Today Alex got to go to one of his schools to help with a speech competition but I am sitting in the office with John and two younger Japanese ladies (I think a little bit older than me) who are also teaching assistants being paid to sit here until we have something to do. I will try to take advantage of the time. There are some Japanese studies books left in my apartment and I will continue to write down all my adventures in the pre-blog word document. Also I can work on my self-introduction lesson and even read some books for fun!

My next update should be much more interesting (and a lot shorter) because this weekend is the Himi-matsuri (Himi festival) and there will be lots of fun and fireworks. One of the Japanese girls has offered to try and help me with my yukata (traditional summer wear) and some of the people we met last night might try to come. It sounds like a lot of fun for all of us!

Jeannie, Jenni, and Diane doing a crepe kanpai in Shibuya.

First engrish of the trip. I wonder if I would like bunanas better than bananas?

Look at the eager people waiting to greet us at the airport!

Here is the sign made for me and Alex. They also had a little welcome bag with snacks, a much appreciated water bottle, and tons of useful information.


I am already in love with the fresh fish in Himi. I think I'm ruined on sushi from anywhere else already.


Speaking of Himi's delicious fish. This is buri, the yellowtail that Himi is famous for. It's technically not in season right now but it was still sooooooooo good!!!!<-- look at how many os and !s I had to use to emphasize this :)

The Takaoka region group at an izakaya. I sort of failed to get most people in this picture...which is ok because I don't know most people's names yet.

What my apartment looks like so far. You can see my yukata hanging up in preparation for the festival this weekend. All things considered it's coming along pretty nicely but I really want to get some stuff to make it feel more like my own place.


The view from my apartment. Hello Sea of Japan! I'm only about a block away from the water.


Also taken from my apartment. Here you can sort of see what I meant about having both ocean and mountains right in one place.


And to finish off this extra long post is a zoomed in version of the last picture.