So it has been 2 weeks since I`ve been in Japan and I have been keeping a daily journal with LOTS of detail...so needless to say this will be loooong. I will try to precis each day since my arrival to the best of my ability. Enjoy! (Keep in mind, that I am 13 hours ahead of you)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The flight was great, it wasn`t as long as I thought it would be and they fed us like there was no tomorrow! Every time I turned around food or drink was coming and to my surprise the food was decent. We landed at Narita airport at EXACTLY 3:20pm(2:20am Tuesday) as scheduled, by 3:40pm in line for immigration and at 4:20pm had our bags, cleared customs and were greeted by a bunch of volunteers in turquoise JET(Japanese exchange teaching programme) tshirts. On the bus at 5pm headed for Keio plaza hotel (2 hour ride) where we were greeted by more volunteers who led us to a room to get name tags, info bags and room keys. Our bags were brought to us and we headed to our rooms. I roomed with Leanne (Missisauga) and Alex(andra)(New Brunswick). We showered, dressed and headed out to roam Tokyo in search of food. Found a cute little sushi bar in this area that looked like Manhattan. This place was neat, 2 sushi `chefs` in the middle making random rolls, and putting them on a conveyor belt so you could pick up whatever u felt like eating. Two rolls on each plate, plates were certain colours for each type of roll so they knew how to calculate your bill at the end. I spent the equivalent of $5. We then walked around the pachinko arcades, headed back to the hotel where all rooms had internet access. Chatted briefly, updated my antivirus, put on my pjs and was in bed by 10:30pm(9:30am EST). I was busted tired from a long, eventful day
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Woke up at 4:25am(3:25pm EST) to have a bathroom break and took forever to fall asleep. Woke up again at 7:30am, stayed awake and sat in front of the mirror to twist my hair. You should have seen my hair! Got a wake up call at 8am and the other girls got up, we got ready and went for breakfast 10 mins. b4 it was over and stayed 15mins after it was over lol. Breakfast was buffet-style: scalloped potatoes, veggies, scrambled eggs that were mush as hell!, pork bacon and sausage which I didn`t touch...wouldn`t have even if I ate pork, cereal(rice crispies, cocoa puffs, frosted flakes, corn flakes), yogurt, fresh fruit, toast buns etc. After eating, went back up to our room to get ready for a day of long, boring and somewhat informative workshops. The highlight for me was the bowing lesson(see video below). Lunch was 12:30-1:30 and consisted of curry veg., sticky rice, veg. soup and some tasty rolls. Afternoon was more workshops, with the last one being a prefecture mtg. where we were told we had to pack our bags and take them to the lobby by 5:30pm...it was 5:10pm when we found this out. In the room it was a mad dash, felt like I was in amazing race. In the evening they had a dinner banquet for us with government officials present. Dinner buffet: fried rice, noodles, 2 types of chicken, sticky rice, shrimp and veggies, fried shrimp, some dumpling like shumai, bean sprouts, veggies, sushi bar, tempura bar and free drinks. Japan is a real drinking society. They had at least 5 diff. litre bottles of beer at each table designated for each prefecture group. I had a glass of OJ. After the dinner banquet the chair of the Jets of African decent (JETS AD) was going to take all of us out...all 4 of us, but decided since there were only 4 of `us` that she would invite everyone and their momma...I wasn`t feeling that vibe so I stayed in. My roomies went to roam the city again, I chatted with an hp assistant to fix my keyboard layout and was in bed by 10:30ish.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Woke up at 3:30am(2:30pm) for a bathroom break, I swear my bladder is confused lol. Got a wake up call at 6:45am, got ready, packed, checked email, brief chat and headed downstairs to check out then eat breakfast. Ate as much as I could in preparation for the long day ahead. Met our prefecture group in the lobby at 8:40am then walked from the hotel to Shinjuku train stn. Bought tix for 13, 760￥, took the local train to Tokyo station. What I heard and imagined about packed trains, I experienced. At one point I was butt to butt with this older man, then I felt a woman`s pubic bone on my butt, then I felt a next man`s knee was between my legs which I wasn`t having so I squirmed free. At Tokyo st. we waited transferred to the Shinkansen(bullet train) at 10:36am after an hour wait. Took it to shin-Kobe stn. where each of our supervisors met us, my supervisor`s name is Rokudai-sensei. We all parted ways, I bought another shinky(shinkansen) ticket to Aioi City for 2, 960￥. The ride was about 20 minutes. I bought a bento box with Unago(something like eel), fish and rice. It tasted good! On the train Rokudai and I chatted, he taught me some Japanese phrases and I helped him with some English. We cracked jokes, he`s pretty funny I can tell I`ll like him. Got to Aioi, walked to his car then went to the BOE(board of education) to meet his staff. I used the little Japanese I learned and they were very surprised and impressed...a jovial bunch! I met Rokudai`s boss(Itawaki-sensei), we chatted, I went back down to finish my refreshments. We headed to my apartment and 2 of his staff(Sakane & Miyamoto) came to show me how to use the appliances....no, I`m not dotish, everything is written in Japanese. Then then showed me how to unlock my bike outside..the locks are nifty I`ll have to take a pic. My supervisor then took me to next door to meet my building owner who works right next door, he is a dentist. We parted ways, I went up to my apartment and started unpacking to the point of dripping sweat and exhaustion while listening to `The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill`.
I was getting really tired, but there was nothing in the fridge and Rokudai-sensei arranged to pick me up at 1pm to go grocery shopping the next day. I left the apt. at 7:40pm(6:40pm EST) to ride to the 7-eleven that is ironically the same distance away as the 7-eleven from my house in Toronto. I bought some OJ, ice cream, kit kat, a bottle of water and a shrimp salad. I then went to a nearby fruit stand and bought some grapes on the way home. Showered, ate some ice cream, put in Aladdin while lying on the futon and fell asleep.
VIEW PICTURES HERE
Shinkansen 1
Shinkansen 2
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The flight was great, it wasn`t as long as I thought it would be and they fed us like there was no tomorrow! Every time I turned around food or drink was coming and to my surprise the food was decent. We landed at Narita airport at EXACTLY 3:20pm(2:20am Tuesday) as scheduled, by 3:40pm in line for immigration and at 4:20pm had our bags, cleared customs and were greeted by a bunch of volunteers in turquoise JET(Japanese exchange teaching programme) tshirts. On the bus at 5pm headed for Keio plaza hotel (2 hour ride) where we were greeted by more volunteers who led us to a room to get name tags, info bags and room keys. Our bags were brought to us and we headed to our rooms. I roomed with Leanne (Missisauga) and Alex(andra)(New Brunswick). We showered, dressed and headed out to roam Tokyo in search of food. Found a cute little sushi bar in this area that looked like Manhattan. This place was neat, 2 sushi `chefs` in the middle making random rolls, and putting them on a conveyor belt so you could pick up whatever u felt like eating. Two rolls on each plate, plates were certain colours for each type of roll so they knew how to calculate your bill at the end. I spent the equivalent of $5. We then walked around the pachinko arcades, headed back to the hotel where all rooms had internet access. Chatted briefly, updated my antivirus, put on my pjs and was in bed by 10:30pm(9:30am EST). I was busted tired from a long, eventful day
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Woke up at 4:25am(3:25pm EST) to have a bathroom break and took forever to fall asleep. Woke up again at 7:30am, stayed awake and sat in front of the mirror to twist my hair. You should have seen my hair! Got a wake up call at 8am and the other girls got up, we got ready and went for breakfast 10 mins. b4 it was over and stayed 15mins after it was over lol. Breakfast was buffet-style: scalloped potatoes, veggies, scrambled eggs that were mush as hell!, pork bacon and sausage which I didn`t touch...wouldn`t have even if I ate pork, cereal(rice crispies, cocoa puffs, frosted flakes, corn flakes), yogurt, fresh fruit, toast buns etc. After eating, went back up to our room to get ready for a day of long, boring and somewhat informative workshops. The highlight for me was the bowing lesson(see video below). Lunch was 12:30-1:30 and consisted of curry veg., sticky rice, veg. soup and some tasty rolls. Afternoon was more workshops, with the last one being a prefecture mtg. where we were told we had to pack our bags and take them to the lobby by 5:30pm...it was 5:10pm when we found this out. In the room it was a mad dash, felt like I was in amazing race. In the evening they had a dinner banquet for us with government officials present. Dinner buffet: fried rice, noodles, 2 types of chicken, sticky rice, shrimp and veggies, fried shrimp, some dumpling like shumai, bean sprouts, veggies, sushi bar, tempura bar and free drinks. Japan is a real drinking society. They had at least 5 diff. litre bottles of beer at each table designated for each prefecture group. I had a glass of OJ. After the dinner banquet the chair of the Jets of African decent (JETS AD) was going to take all of us out...all 4 of us, but decided since there were only 4 of `us` that she would invite everyone and their momma...I wasn`t feeling that vibe so I stayed in. My roomies went to roam the city again, I chatted with an hp assistant to fix my keyboard layout and was in bed by 10:30ish.
Friday, August 24, 2007 Woke up at 3:30am(2:30pm) for a bathroom break, I swear my bladder is confused lol. Got a wake up call at 6:45am, got ready, packed, checked email, brief chat and headed downstairs to check out then eat breakfast. Ate as much as I could in preparation for the long day ahead. Met our prefecture group in the lobby at 8:40am then walked from the hotel to Shinjuku train stn. Bought tix for 13, 760￥, took the local train to Tokyo station. What I heard and imagined about packed trains, I experienced. At one point I was butt to butt with this older man, then I felt a woman`s pubic bone on my butt, then I felt a next man`s knee was between my legs which I wasn`t having so I squirmed free. At Tokyo st. we waited transferred to the Shinkansen(bullet train) at 10:36am after an hour wait. Took it to shin-Kobe stn. where each of our supervisors met us, my supervisor`s name is Rokudai-sensei. We all parted ways, I bought another shinky(shinkansen) ticket to Aioi City for 2, 960￥. The ride was about 20 minutes. I bought a bento box with Unago(something like eel), fish and rice. It tasted good! On the train Rokudai and I chatted, he taught me some Japanese phrases and I helped him with some English. We cracked jokes, he`s pretty funny I can tell I`ll like him. Got to Aioi, walked to his car then went to the BOE(board of education) to meet his staff. I used the little Japanese I learned and they were very surprised and impressed...a jovial bunch! I met Rokudai`s boss(Itawaki-sensei), we chatted, I went back down to finish my refreshments. We headed to my apartment and 2 of his staff(Sakane & Miyamoto) came to show me how to use the appliances....no, I`m not dotish, everything is written in Japanese. Then then showed me how to unlock my bike outside..the locks are nifty I`ll have to take a pic. My supervisor then took me to next door to meet my building owner who works right next door, he is a dentist. We parted ways, I went up to my apartment and started unpacking to the point of dripping sweat and exhaustion while listening to `The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill`.
I was getting really tired, but there was nothing in the fridge and Rokudai-sensei arranged to pick me up at 1pm to go grocery shopping the next day. I left the apt. at 7:40pm(6:40pm EST) to ride to the 7-eleven that is ironically the same distance away as the 7-eleven from my house in Toronto. I bought some OJ, ice cream, kit kat, a bottle of water and a shrimp salad. I then went to a nearby fruit stand and bought some grapes on the way home. Showered, ate some ice cream, put in Aladdin while lying on the futon and fell asleep.
VIEW PICTURES HERE
Shinkansen 1
Shinkansen 2
1 comment:
Now THAT is detail! Thanks Amanda! I'm glad that everything is going so well. It almost makes me want to go to Japan...almost...lol
Post a Comment