Woohoo! I have gas (and sushi in my belly).

Got up and welcomed the man from the gas company. Yeah, I can take a hot shower. Trust me, people think cold showers are a good idea in the summer but when it is this hot the cold feels like you are hugging an iceberg naked, brrrr. So, he did all this crazy shit with my gas hookup and my supervisor came in time to talk to him and all that jazz…cause I sure as hell would not have understood much. I did understand what to do if something were to shut off or reset itself. Simple instructions in Japanese…totally got that down, lol.

Next order of business was a bank account for which Tom and I felt like schmucks sitting there waiting for everything to just happen. We sure as hell had no clue what was going on half the time and felt really badly that we couldn’t do any of the paperwork ourselves. Yet, Nagaoka-san brought with him a housewife who could speak English well. She was translating for us what I could not understand, which was a big help when it came to some of the more difficult things. She was so nice and fun to talk to. She took time out of here day to come spend it helping us get bank accounts and cell phones. I mean that is just so nice! Nagaoka-san was also a huge help in setting up our automatic bill payments. He was even nice enough to explain everything that was going to be withdrawn and ask us if it was all right. Sure as hell did not want to know what our other option was, so I was like yep that’s super each time he asked.

This was also the day that we went to see Tom’s jr. high school that he will be teaching at. I, of course, went along for the experience and it was good because I then was a bit more mentally prepared to meet my kocho-sensei (principal) and go through all of the formalities involved.

That evening Tom and I went to Kappa Sushi, which is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Let me tell you, these things are great!!! Great selection of things, you can try many kinds, and well it is easy…you just pluck it off the line and chow down. They even have corn and mayonnaise sushi. I know, sounded gross to me at first, but as soon as you try it you realize that it is amazing, well, if you like corn that is.

The rice paddy outside my house.

I share the building on the right with 2 others.

This is the street behind my house. (My windows are 1st on left)

Road going in other direction.

Onward! To Nagano we go!

Today is the day! We took a bus from Tokyo to Nagano, where people separated and went off to their own local areas. It was nice being able to talk to some of the people on the bus and get their back-stories. I was happy to find that most of the people in our group are really down to earth people who are skewed to the liberal side, something that I am quite happy about. I feel like I will be able to make some friends with the people immediately in my area. There is one person who I think I will not get along with because that person is a bit on the immature side. I will try to give that person the benefit of the doubt for the time being and avoid too many confrontations until maybe that person gets better adjusted, etc. We had lunch at a nice rest area near Lake Suwa, which is in Nagano-ken (fyi- ken is the suffix used to mean prefecture). I had tempura udon, which is a soup with udon noodles and tempura in it. It was delicious to say the least. Maybe a bit too hot of a day for soup but it really hit the spot.

Arriving at the point where we were to be picked up, I gathered my things and went to meet my supervisor. Other people were much more nervous than me and I think that this helped me to be less nervous as I tried to assure them it was going to be fine. There to greet me and Tom, the other new JET under the Saku jurisdiction, was Nagaoka-san (my supervisor and a clerk at the Board of Education), Oi-san (another clerk at the Board), Toeda-sensei (the head English teacher at Usuda Jr. H.S., my school), and Erika (a current JET in Saku and block leader for the area). It was really nice to have met them all in one shot, especially for me because I got to meet a teacher that I will be working with at my school. The ride to Saku was long and well consisted a lot of Erika talking to us about the area. There did not seem to be much time for me to talk to the others as she dominated the floor…err rather, the van. Arriving in Saku, we went immediately to the city office and board of education. There, we waited and then met the head of the board of education, who welcomed us to the city. After signing our contracts and making everything official, they presented us with our inkan (our signature stamp), and an official certificate that states we are government employees of the city. It was an interesting little ceremony and Tom and I were both nervous about introducing ourselves and not looking like fools. We did fine and moved on to signing up to be aliens. That’s right in 2 weeks, when my card arrives, I will be a bona fide alien. Ask yourself how many of those you know, lol.

Next, we went to the grocery store. It was littered with things I had not seen before. Grapes were weird looking, grabbed those to try. Produce looked fantastic but it should because the prices were outrageous for some things. Mushrooms, however, super cheap. Berç and I were looking at getting enoki mushrooms to eat in the US and they were several dollars for a small bunch of them. Here, they are $1.00 for a huge amount. J

It was not until the second aisle that it hit me. It was at this moment that I was like “Holy shit…I am in Japan.”  Strange, you would think it would have hit me sooner but everything else just seemed like something that could happen in America (minus the everyone looking and speaking Japanese, lol). But, now, I am standing in front of a display of food, everything written in kanji (Chinese characters) and well, nothing here was familiar to me in the least. Grabbed a few things that I thought I might need and headed for the cash register. Got rid of some of the coinage that I had in my pocket that had been weighing me down (they have $5 coins here! Imagine carrying everything up to a $5 bill in change, needless to say I kept forgetting to use it and would just break a $10 or $100 bill, haha, silly American I am). They then took Tom and myself home, where I got a first good look at my place. I was so happy. The location is not on a main road yet not in the boonies. It is sandwiched between two other apartments, our building being laid out horizontally rather than vertically. And everyone living nearby is a teacher at one of the local schools. My apartment has a decent-sized kitchen (compared to others’), a living space that doubles as a dining area, a really nice sized tatami bedroom with plenty of closet space (tatami is the type of flooring used, it is traditional Japanese style, Google it if you want), and a small bathroom with shower/tub/sink/washing machine/toilet. It really is a hybrid between Japanese style and a more modern type of house. I even have a small back portion of grass/dirt that I am thinking of using to grow a garden of some sort. This excites me. Outside of my house are the Usuda Sr. H.S. and a rice paddy. Yep, I have a freaking rice paddy practically outside my front door. Doesn’t get much cooler than that. All for just over $100/month, I’ll take it! Unpacking was a no go as I had to get up early the next day. Instead, Erika picked up Tom and me and we went out to eat at a restaurant where you touched a video screen and placed your order and the food magically appeared some time later. Did not really like it as I really like some interaction between the waiter and the customer. Got home and went right to bed.

Leaving Tokyo

"What the hell is a powertard brake and what is it doing on our bus?!"

Nagano is so pretty.

Yep, wanted to know where you could get God's hair, where else but Japan.

Going Loco for Mexican

Day 3 already seemed more routine to me. I knew my way around the hotel better. (Didn’t wait for an elevator that only stopped on select floors, one of which was not mine.) Got some good information about team-teaching and living in Japan, all of which was prefaced and concluded with something to the effect of “everywhere is different and each school varies, so all of this stuff we are going to tell you/told you, you might as well just toss it out the window, hold on for your dear life, and pretend you know what is going on until you actually figure out what the hell is going on. And even then, once you think you know, it is probably not the case and in actuality you are still doing things messed up.” If that isn’t comforting to think about, lol.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and it was finally time for going out. I went out on an organized trip with my prefecture. The CIRs for our prefecture, Ben (Australian) and Brian (Irish), suggested this Mexican place on the top of a roof in the middle of Tokyo. Sounded like a good time and due to the weather it turned into an AMAZING time. We got there and it was something like $30 for all you can eat/drink. This was exciting because there was a lot to be eaten. The food, having been cooked by Japanese hands, was not too bad. (I, of course, am spoiled by Bethlehem having had some of the best Mexican foods I’ve ever had.) This was also my introduction to something called Melon Soda. Yep, it is exactly what it sounds like. Due to the Japanese fascination for melons around here, they have a melon-flavored soda that tastes freaking amazing. The catch…it is bright neon green. Think Mt. Dew on steroids but much more green. So, there I am tray of food in one hand, mug full of what looks like antifreeze and I get to our tables, where I find a tiny spot left open. Elbows smashing against my neighbors, I chow down, looking up casually to see neon signs probably telling me to buy tampons or something. My guess was as good as the next person’s. Meanwhile, it is looking stormy and sure enough within 15 minutes, it was raining…no, no…pouring. People fled the restaurant. With a “we paid for this, we aren’t leaving just yet” attitude, we all flocked to the two pavilions, one housing the alcohol, the other with the food. I made it to the one with alcohol, where we were literally on top of one another as the rain came down outside and consequently because of the slope of the roof, made its way into our shelter, creating a nice little splash pool for us to wade in.

Now, as the rain did not seem to be letting up anytime soon and there was now a nice level of alcohol in most people’s systems, the idea to compete with the 4 Japanese guys sharing the shelter with us became a reality. A relay race was set up around the tables of the restaurant requiring people to stop and drink a beer before returning. I will not go into more detail, just be aware that insanity ensued. The Japanese guys ended up beating us, 2-1 and in our struggle to not be defeated, we challenged them to arm wrestling, where our strongest guys (obviously not me, lol) were all disgraced by the home team. Thus, as a last resort, we resorted to thumb wars, which in the end was deemed our strong point. Yeah for the foreigners!!! I felt bad for the people who were with the food, as I don’t see how anyone could have had more fun than us just then.

Walked home in squishy shoes with everyone else staggering in their own wet foot apparel. Got to my room and was hair drying my shoes when I passed out from exhaustion. Japan can really take a lot out of someone, hehe.

Orientation Oriensmation

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. 

To the land of the rising sun

So the plane ride into Tokyo was really not that bad. The whole time was spent just trying to figure out if I wanted to sleep or not. I officially give up on ever trying to sleep on a plane ever again. Talked to two of the girls and fellow JETs who were sitting next to me. Had a really neat conversation about research and doing women’s studies. Seems that people everywhere are amazed that a guy can be so interested in such topics.

After I got off the plane about a million current JETs were there to help us organize everything we needed and get us onto a bus to our hotel. The air in Tokyo was stifling to say the least. I don’t think I have ever felt so much humidity in the air in all my life. Luckily the bus was air-conditioned. When we entered the city of Tokyo, I was amazed at how green it was and clean compared to other cities I had been in. It really stood out among the rest. A girl named Shannon sat next to me and we really hit it off. She is going to be living in Shiga-ken, a prefecture a bit southwest of mine. I really am hoping that I will get a chance to go and see her and vice versa. She was really open to talking about pretty much anything and this made it a very comfortable situation for me. We ended up going out into the city together the first night in Tokyo. Decided to eat at this tiny little place underground…yes…apparently Tokyo has multiple levels of shops/businesses/restaurants all underground. It looks like you are going down to a subway but instead there is an entire shopping center. It was so bizarre. The area that my hotel was in is called Shinju-ku and was full of small streets with bright lights, electronic stores, conbinis, and other stores. It really was a sight to see. Really hard to describe.

View from my hotel window

Shinju-ku, Tokyo