Arrival

I made it to Tokyo! The flight was pretty long, as I was prepared for. Austin (the go to guy for the Chicago Consulate) saw us off with “gambatte! (good luck) Enjoy your 14 hours of Catwoman!” There were actually a few different movies playing on our personalized screens, and I ended up watching the second Bourne movie twice. I probably would have slept more, but I didn’t realize that our headrests could bend out until 30 min. before we began our descent. The airline food included 2 small pieces of sushi which tasted like airline sushi probably would taste if I had any kind of a palette for sushi.

The Keio Hotel where we’re staying for orientation is very nice. The transitions between the airport to bus to Hotel to paper pick up to room went well smoothly despite taking 4 hours. Several groups of ALTs and CIRs from all over the globe landed at the same time so there were really long lines. I have already met people from all over the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and England. There are also a few fluent in Japanese French here who don’t speak any English!

Last night I checked out the hospitality room set up for the JETs. There is an ironing room which I used this morning. (I had no idea what the hell I was doing – just kind of rubbed the iron around until my suit was sort of smooth.) They also had a few computers set up where we could go on the internet or make a free international skype call. I called my parents at 6:30am Central Standard Time. It was 8:30pm the same day here. It is quite weird to think that sitting here right now typing this it is 9:30am Monday while it is Sunday evening in Minnesota. The sun is obviously up, but it is cloudy and humid – at least it’s not 95 like the forecast predicted a few days ago.

Also last night I tagged along with some people who had been to Japan before to a kaiten zushi or rotating sushi bar. We sat around this little track that rotated little dishes of sushi. Each plate was color coded based on the price of the item. I ended up taking 4 blue plates which each cost 140 yen. At 120 yen to the dollar, it was still under 5 bucks. I really had no idea what I was doing, but the girl next to me taught me to say “sumimasen, shake onegaishimasu” which means, “excuse me, salmon please.” I also asked for some wasabi which literally kicked my butt and started making me cry. I brought nasal decongestant with me to Japan, but I think I’ll just buy a thing of wasabi instead.

Despite all the pages and pages of information we have received over the past 8 months, there are still so many things I cannot be prepared for. One point of interest was receiving all coins as change after paying with a 1000 yen bill (just under $10). Apparently a $10 bill is the smallest paper money used here. I am going to have to purchase a little purse! Or lady’s wallet…