So it has been 1 week since I left Canada and so far this experience has lived up to all my expectations. To begin, I think it is important to recap the last 7 days of this “work” (I think I’d call it vacation) experience.
The flight to Tokyo was probably one of the worst parts so far. A full 13 hours later we landed in Tokyo, only to be met with another 1.5 hour bus ride from Narita airport to downtown Tokyo. Who builds an airport that far outside a city!? C’mon now! The plane ride was made bearable with a fancy new plane that had its very own seat back entertainment! We had choices like Rome (the tv show), Desperate Housewives, and everyone’s favorite “Le Job” (the French version of the office!). Besides that we had a number of movies and full cds at our disposal. The flight crew was also really good, to the point of giving us 2 free bottles of sake (which me and Emerald downed one afternoon before heading to a conference) and a bunch of gin and whiskey shots. I guess we were the wildest things on the plane… or the flight crew had crushes on us… My guess is the second ;).
Arriving in Tokyo was something I had never imagined could happen. Tokyo is one HUGE sprawling metropolis that goes for as far as the eye can see. Literally, you cannot see anything beyond the city from downtown. It baffles my mind how anyone would want to live in something like that…. The conference was the same old shit that we had already gone over a number of times through the Toronto orientation and farewell reception which was really awesome since we were able to skip the sessions and instead explore Tokyo. Me and Emerald (who is possibly the greatest and most hilarious world traveler I have ever met) jumped on the “JR Line” and headed from Shinjuku (a business district) to Shibuya (a crazy place near Harajuku with the wildest fashions you may ever see!). This was a cool experience since I got to see the famous intersection that is the classic view of Tokyo… people going every which direction they can! It was intense. But ya, Tokyo is definitely one crazy place… So many people, huge buildings and population as far as the eye can see.
Partying in Tokyo is equally as intense as the city itself. The first night we didn’t really know what to do, and were so jet lagged that we went to a restaurant, ate chicken’s ass and then went to bed. The following night was nowhere near as tame as the first, however. It was “prefecture night” (prefecture = province) and we went out with the people who live in the same area as us. We went to something called an izikaya, which is basically a flat fee rate for 1-2-3 hours of unlimited drinking and eating. This is probably the greatest thing about Japan LOL! They literally just keep bringing whatever you want – whiskey, gin, sake, beer… it was nonstop! So we got sloppy here first and then decided to head over to a karaoke bar, which in Japan are, again, unlimited drinking for a certain time. In all I spent about 4500 yen (45$) that night and was downright shit faced. After the karaoke a bunch of the Fukushima people went to a hostess bar which is essentially a place where you pay to have a girl serve you drinks and talk to you for the night. I made the good decision of not going and instead went back to the Keio Plaza Hotel and decided to go online. BAD DECISION! Lol, the internet room is a public space and I ended up passing out on a keyboard! Hhahaha, I still have no idea how I made it up to my room, but all in all it was a good night. As a side note, one of the other guys ended up going to the hostess bar, and on the way home jumped out of the taxi, wandered off, got lost AND PASSED OUT ON THE STREET! Haha he woke up to the sound of people walking over him on their way to work in the morning! We all nursed some pretty major hangovers the next day, so I missed going to Harajuku with a bunch of peeps. Oh well, the night was good! The third night Amy, Christian, Suzanne, Daryl and myself went to a small bar called Tokyo Loose where we ran into the most ridiculous old Japanese guy who was tearing up the dance floor (a la old woman from Studio 54 movie). It was a good place and I had fun, but I really wanted to be on my top game for Weds since we were going to be meeting our supervisors after a 5 hour journey from Tokyo-Fukushima.
On Wednesday we were up bright and early to get onto the bus. It was an awesome bus ride. I sat with a Scot, an Aussie, a Kiwi, 4 Brits, and 2 Americans. It was a good chance to get to know people better and talk about our countries, expectations and significant cultural differences (I.e. MEDICARE!!! Poor poor poor Americans…). It was also a good chance to see Japanese landscape. It was amazing to me that as we drove from Tokyo north; there was virtually no where without development. When they say this country is populated, they are NOT lying! Houses, factories, farms, they’re everywhere! We made a couple stops along the way and I felt bad for this one girl, Casey, who was SERIOUSLY hung over… like hands shaking, green in the face hungover! Lol, it was probably the worst one I have ever seen! The drive ended in Fukushima Prefecture’s largest city, Koriyama. We got off the buses and were herded into a room where our supervisors were sitting. My supe, Mr. Igarwashi noticed me as soon as I entered the room and was waving frantically! Haha, it was a great introduction to Bandai Machi and my board of education.
The ceremony was completely ridiculous. They went through everyone, said their prefecture, and then instructed us to go sit with our new bosses. They then announced it was “chatting time” and we were supposed to talk with our supes. This would’ve been one of the most awkward experiences if you spoke no Japanese, or your supe didn’t speak English! This was my case, but thank god Arthur, my neighbor came along to help translate and tell me a couple more things about BM that I didn’t already know. We then jumped into a van and drove about 45 minutes back to BM. It was a great ride through mountains and past Japan’s third largest lake, Iniwashiro. This area is absolutely phenomenal. The mountains are some of the biggest I have ever seen (being from Ontario, there isn’t a hell of a lot of variety) and I can’t wait to be skiing down them!
Driving into BM was SCAREY. I was thinking the whole time, “uhhhh where is the rest of the town?” Luckily I found the rest and this place actually isn’t that small. It’s about a 10 minute drive from Wakamatsu, which is a city of 250,000. So I’m basically right next to a significant city and all the amenities it offers! BM is awesome. The people are so friendly and the staff at the Board of Education (BOE) is really really nice, even though they probably have no idea what I’m saying! That day I met with the superintendant of the board, and also the MAYOR! That was weird, since he just kinda stared at me like I had two heads… Oh well, at least I got to meet him, and he has been a driving force in bringing people and English to this area.
This morning I was up at 6 AM (AGAIN!!!) so figured I would get my day started early. I unpacked some more, tidied up a bit and made some eggs for breakfast. Then I walked over to the post office to mail some postcards, only to hear it doesn’t open until 9 AM. Looking confused outside, I just stood there looking through my handy dictionary when a woman came running over to make sure I was ok. She was from the kindergarten and then invited me in for “morning tea”. I said sure and went into the kindergarten to be greeted by 3 more woman who prepared tea for me! It was great to sit down with some people and try to communicate through broken English/Japanese, and language convertors! Haha, it was pretty funny but we got our points across. They even ended up giving me their lunches to take home and eat today!!! Japanese hospitality is INCREDIBLE!
My house is phenomenal. I have an entrance way, 2 huge storage rooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet room, laundry room, shower room and bedroom! It’s HUGE! I’m gonna attach a video of it, so check it out! PS – If you wanna visit, I have a ton of room!! Haha.
I guess that’s enough for now. I’ll keep you posted of the ups and downs of Japan on here, so check back often. Tyler
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