The Landing!

     Konichiwa from Japan!  It’s amazing to be here and it seems so surreal.  It hasn’t even hit me yet that I’m in Japan for the long haul.  I’ll bypass the flight and all things associated – I’m sure everyone has experiences of terrible food, terrible seats, and bumpy rides.  After landing, however, it was great.  The other teachers on the flight with me met up with our fellows in the airport and waited for our trainers to arrive to escort us to our training facility.  We wasted time playing an epic and highly dangerous game of spoons with 3D cat cards!  Great way to get to know your fellows.

     Finally our escort arrived and we made our long and uneventful way to our facility and set up camp.  It was so great exploring the city that night and eating our first Japanese meal of rice with thin strips of beef and a sweet sauce.  The only downfall is, unlike Chinese food bowls, Japanese bowls don’t come with sautéed greens.  Proooobabaly not a big deal for some people but I like my greens, people, and damnit I need them! :)

     Jet lag is a bitch and even after 3 days it hasn’t abated.  Sore muscles, upset stomach, obvious sleep disruption is common I’m sure but still not easy to accept.  But knowing I’m not the only one suffering is a little comfort – sorry to my fellows :) Another pain in the ass is the heat!  The dorms have a/c but they don’t kick in fully at night and we’ve only got these super-thick down-filled comforters.  So it’s a delicate balance between throwing off the covers in the middle of the night after waking up drenched in sweat and huddling under the covers to get warm.  It definitely keeps you on your toes!  Japan is really hot and even more humid and it takes some getting used to.

     The dorms are not bad and not as small as you’d think.  There’s also a common room where we can all chill and cook and play drinking – so multifunctional :)  We’ve been stealing internet from the international centre down the street as our company decided internet was unimportant in our dorms and there has been some serious withdrawal!

     The group is awesome and everybody has something good to add to the group.  There’s quite a bit of proficiency in the Japanese language so that helps when we all go out and can’t communicate with the locals.  Makes me feel a little inadequate but I’m here to learn and in a year I’ll be on my way to speaking with the locals!  Everyone is fun and ready to get out and see our area.  We’ve already had a day and half of great exploration of a feudal town, Shinto shrine, karaoke, and buying lots of yummy food…but that’s for another post – coming soon! (That will be in a new blog entitled Home in Japan! - check it out!)