Where to start....

Saturday, it was so strange to make my journey to the airport in DC after all the preperations and good byes, the time had finally come to go to japan. the trip was fine, we were late leaving Minnesota due to some electrical problems which made our flight the last JET group to arrive in Tokyo at 11pm on Sunday night. Basically just crashed once we got to the hotel.

Monday the first day of Tokyo orientation. There were over 1,000 JETs at the orientation from all over the world. We started the day all in one banquet room, with lots of formal introduction ceremonies (these are a very big deal in Japan). Then there were workshops in the afternoon, where we could learn about different aspects of living in Japan, how to make adjustments, travel cheap....nothing too exciting. Then that night we headed out with other new JETs from my prefecture, Ibaraki, and met up with a few current JETs in the area it was nice to get to know people I will be with for the next of the year.

Tuesday, more workshops. These were aimed more at teaching at our individual levels, I will be teaching at 2 Junior High Schools (Itako 2nd and Hinode). They went through what a typical class would be like, and how to work in a team teaching scenario. Helpful information for the most part. Tuesday night I did a little exploring with my roommate Christina, from LA. A little introduction to Tokyo, and the first time I really had to use any Japanese! I hope that it is going to start coming back to me soon!! haha

Wednesday, finally time to make the venture to where I would actually be living in Ibaraki!! All the Ibaraki JETs (only 9 of us) took a bus to the Mito (capital of Ibaraki) Board of Education where we got a tour and had a formal induction ceremony and met our individual city supervisors. My supervisor is Yamada-san, an incredibly nice man, but he speaks very little English, which makes things challenging at times, but quite fun too.

After the ceremony we met John, my fellow JET in Itako, who is from the UK and Signey, who I am replacing. We then went to the Itako Board of Education, to meet the staff and superintendent. Lots of akward lots in translation conversations, and tea drinking. But somewhere in the conversation the superintendent asked if we knew what 'hotaru' (fireflies) are? And he decided that he wanted to take Sid, John and I to view them later that night, so plans were made.

Next it was off to the City offices to file forms for my 'inko' (personal stamp, that I use as a signature), and my alien registration card. While were there, I had to meet the mayor of Itako, and all the people in his office. More tea drinking and akward lost in translation conversations.

Finally to my new apartment to unload my luggage (which is still not unpacked). Its a cute little apartment, traditional Japanese style, quite small but perfectly fine for one person. There are a few strange things such as everything is gas powered, including the water heater. The only real problem is how hot it is, there is only one small AC in the bedroom. After seeing the apartment it was off to the grocery store to get a few items. Back to rest for an hour or so before a strange night began to unfold...

We met the John, Sid and I met the Superintendent at the community center at 8pm to go view the fireflies, when we show up, the sub-mayor is there and another random fellow. We all get into 2 cars and proceed to make many twsts and turns onto narrow rides directly next to rice patties. We get lost eventually and the superintendent calls someone to guide us to where ever it is that we are going, so we shuffle about into different cars. And after about 20 minutes of looking for a particular spot we get out of the cars and see fireflies all about in the rice patties. It was really pretty, and was quite hillarious to see all of these important men in Itako laughing and chasing fireflies all about. An image I will never forget!

We get into the cars to leave thinking that we are going home but instead we are taken to the supreinendents house for "coffee" . We are sitting in the living room when his wife brings out plate, after plate of food. We are there for a few hours having 'conversations' with these men. Finally, just when I think I am going to pass out at the house from exhustion, we get to go home. I don't think I have slept that well in a long time! It was a crazy first day in Itako, but bears well for all that is to come!

Thursday, I got to sleep in a bit, then headed to town next to mine to see the beach and watch the surfers. It was nice and relaxing. Its nice to live so close to the water again, but it is not quite as beautiful as Guam's beaches (there are few places that can compare!).

Later that night we went to dinner with 6 people from the BoE. Traditional style, sitting on tatami mats and cooking at our tabel, in a small room with no airconditioning! Atsui desu ne!! This was a little intorduction into the famous enkais (drinking parties) here in Japan. Must explain a few Japanese traditions at these enkais. You are not allowed to pour your own beer, others keep your glass filled at all times. They are very attentive to this too! But luckily I was on the end and was overlooked, so I did not drink too much, like a few of my coworkers and supervisors, haha. But it was nice because they started to use a bit more of their english, they were not as embarassed to make mistakes. I hear that this is common, and enkais are when you will really get a chance to meet your coworkers. Following dinner it was decided that I needed to go to karaoke! This was quite interesting. There was no way of getting out of singing! They choose a few songs for me, sid and john to sing. Including Whitney Houston, what a bad idea. We decided to mix it up a bit and do a few songs they could sing along to including YMCA, they really enjoyed that! It was a fun night, and I think that I am really lucky, that all of my supervisors are all so nice, they really do take good care of me and the other JETs.

Today, Friday, I finally got to meet a few students and see a little what the classroom setting will be like. There are a group of 20 students that are going to be leaving in a month to do a homestay in Texas and they had practice today. (the students are actually on summer break right now, school starts the first week of September, which means I will have a lot of down time in the next month or so, time to explore!). The students at this practice were lots of fun and quite outgoing, which is very promising! they are however the top students of all of the schools. I look forward to school starting so that I can meet more of them!

wow, i think thats it for now. as you can see its been less than a week, but i feel like its been a month or so. More interesting stories to come soon, I'm sure. And I'll try and get a few photos posted soon as well.