Shinjuku!!

OK, not really so exciting as to warrant the double exclamation marks, especially in light of my asthma problems, but I didn’t let something as simple as a cold keep me down.

We arrived at the Keio Plaza Hotel, and were escorted by JET staffers to pick up our keys, orientation packages, and luggage. Inside our orientation packages were a variety of books and papers, all pertaining to JET life and the up and coming year. The room keys were electronic RF cards, and I kept mine in my wallet and just held up my wallet to the lock to gain room access. Neato.

I hauled all my bags up to my room on the 21st floor and was the first to arrive. I immediately took the bed closest to the window. Stupid, because I didn’t realize said bed was actually a fold-out couch. Oh well. My roomies ended up being people from Toronto, so that was a really nice touch. No having to make convo with a bunch of rowdy ass Americans.

My first order of business was a shower, and then me and one of my roomies went out for dinner. Our first dining experience in Japan? Royal Host. It’s a family restaurant kinda deal, but with it being in the heart of the Shinjuku hotel district, I guess they’re used to foreigners. After that, despite our tiredness, we decided to explore. Man what a good idea. For the first time since leaving Canada, I felt that I had arrived in a foreign country. Shinjuku at night is pretty cool, and we didn’t even manage to get to the really downtown portion of it. I think though we were in the night-life area, so we walked around generally making asses of ourselves as we gawked at things and spoke overly loud English for the benefit of the passers by. At one point, we were approached by a club greeter, asking if we were looking for a good time at the bar, probably complete with hookers. I brushed him off with a “naw I’m cool man.” The look on his face was priceless.

Before long however, exhaustion set in, and we decided (after a brief bout of being lost) to head back. We had, after all a full day tomorrow.

The next day was all conferences and seminars. Like a good little JET, I attended most of mine, with the brief excursions to the walk-in clinic and pharmacy to get my meds. The meds completely fucked me up, possibly because I hadn’t eaten all that much, but more probably because I was already jet lagged. So despite my ardent desires to go out and get fucked up that night, I ended up collapsing in my bed and sleeping most of the night. The only really exciting thing that happened was my trip to Yodobashi Camera, the electronics superstore, to buy my Canon Wordtank V35 Electronic Dictionary.

Next morning, yep more seminars. In the afternoon, we had our Prefectural meetings, a messy and disorganized affair where we learned of our flight plans, and the fact that virtually all of us were going to have to repack our stuff to get it under the 25 kg domestic flight checked + carry-on luggage limit. As panic and pandemonium set in, we were all wondering just what the fuck was going on. Thankfully, there was already a delivery service being set up for us, courtesy of the Keio Plaza Hotel and Kuroneko Yamato Delivery, so it was a simple thing to go and get a shipping box, toss in the stuff they gave you from the various seminars, plus some stinky worn clothes, tape it up and ship that shit. It cost me about ¥1700 (about $17 CND) to send my stuff, and even though they ended up not charging us for extra weight at the airport, I was glad not to have to carry an extra 15 kgs of crap with me.

The next day was an early morning, once again. We were supposed to assemble at 8:40 AM, but two people were late and got a pretty serious dressing down from the head of the Fukuoka BoE JET Programme Office that, I heard, almost left them in tears. Rough business in a country that values punctuality.

From there, a short jaunt to Haneda Airport. My companions were a couple of other kool kats I had met, all of course headed to Fukuoka. Michelle from Toronto, headed to Iizuka, Ben from West Virginia headed to either Oomuta or Kurume (I don’t remember), and Kousaku, a Nisei from Cali with a fairly similar story to my own, headed for Fukuoka City (the lucky bastard).

The flight, a JAL 777, was such a welcome relief from the crap that was NWA, and was brief. As we tracked the flight’s progress on our individual television screens, as we neared Fukuoka, as I we touched down, I was getting more and more nervous.

What was to await me here? How would I get along with my new teachers? Collecting my luggage, I walked out only to be greeted by a sea of placard holding people. My new life as an ALT had truly begun…