Day 2 began with a bunch of speakers, all pretty decent. Shannon and I decided that the one speaker was gay, although we weren’t sure. A formal ceremony was held and CLAIR and MEXT had representatives there to welcome us to Japan. It was really neat because there were two guys whose sole job was to pull out the chair of the person who was standing and push it back under them when they went to sit back down. Talk about high class.
Sat through a bunch of talks and heard a lot of advice, some I knew already, the rest not very useful. Went to some specialized sessions, including cooking and eating in Japan. That was really helpful. Also attended a session for LGBTQ JETs. Seemed like more of what I really dislike about the gay community, that they are there to just find other people to hook up with or ways to get themselves to the best gay clubs. I asked about being out in the workplace and none of the panel members (there were 7) were out at work. That was NOT reassuring to me who was thinking of being out to my co-workers. I may want to rethink this idea. The aforementioned speaker who Shannon and I thought was gay was at the meeting. He gave some of the best advice and was by far the most mature out of everyone. The people in that session seemed somewhat uninteresting compared to others I had met at the orientation thus far. Doubt I will be making any good friends with any of them. Told Shannon that I saw the speaker at the session and we both applauded each other for having gaydar that was spot on. She mentioned that the guys at the orientation were not good-looking and I agreed with her. Usually out of that many people, there are bound to be a few people who catch your eye. Not the case as far as we could tell. Shannon told me that I was good-looking and in true Japanese fashion, I denied it.
That evening I went out with others from the Nagano prefecture to a Japanese-style Irish pub. Yah, they kind of contradict each other but it didn’t matter because it was a good time. A lot of guys in our prefecture are from the UK and man can they drink. I had my little urn-looking thing of sake and was quite content. I definitely do not want to make drinking with friends my primary social outlet yet; it seems to be something others like to do often.
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