JAPANEXILE

Welcome to Japan!?I’m going to call this my first official post in Japan. I don’t think that rant about the journey should really count. So as my first post in Japan a suitably impressive introduction was necessary. Unfortunately I immediately was set upon by writers block so decided just to write whatever came to me straight away.

This post will pick up straight after the previous one, with the JPK standing outside Narita Airport waiting for the the 10.50am limousine bus to take us into central Tokyo to meet Yuki-san. We had been instructed to call Yuki and tell her what time the bus was leaving the airport so she could meet us on time. First challenge then was to figure out how to use a phone, not as simple as you might think, none of us could remember the Japan calling code, so couldn’t use my mobile. Pay phone was the only option, took us a good 20minutes of trying until we realised we had to put a ‘0′ in front of the number before calling. Wish someone had told us that.

We caught the limousine bus without issue. The bus comes along a highway from the East of Tokyo, giving you quite a good view of the city and harbour as it does, passing by Disney Land, and going over Rainbow bridge before reaching its destination. Yuki-san met us at the Hotel and told me to my great disappointment we weren’t staying there, so then we quickly went to get our bags off of the porter and had very obediently taken them up to reception. Before going to the Hotel we were taken to lunch in Carrot Tower. It was on this journey I was further cursing Air France, as wearing thick black jeans whilst carrying to heavy bags was not nice in 30C heat. A lot of the Japanese on the train have clothes specifically to wipe the sweat off their brows, decided at that point I needed to get one. Carrot Tower is a large orange (surprise) building in central Tokyo, with a restaurant on the top floor. We gave the honour of ordering to Yuki, mainly because we couldn’t read anything on the menu. Lunch was great, trying so many new foods was a lot of fun, Yuki definitely enjoyed watching us! We were joined later in the meal by Satomi-chan and Jack-chan, who as far as I am aware help Yuki out at work for one reason or another. I don’t really know. (note: Jack obviously isn’t his real name, we called him this later in the day just to simplify things, he seemed to like it) Things were a bit difficult at first, Yuki left us, Satomi and Jack knew very little English, us very little Japanese. Slowly but surely though we all got a bit more confident and struggled through a conversation.

Satomi and Jack took us over to the Hotel after lunch, and after a quick hours sleep and much needed shower we were off to Shibuya! Shibuya is famous for having the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. And it truly is an impressive sight to behold, moment the little blue man shows thousands off people move off! Its quite daunting in all honesty, quite disorientating, I was very glad to have a few Japanese guides with us. First stop was purica. Purica is something you can’t help but think, “this is so Japanese” But without a doubt its one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in a long time, you all cram into a large photo booth, choose a silly colourful sparkly background, then make equally silly faces and poses together. After that you go behind a big curtain and mess with the photos, put cartoon ice creams on peoples heads, make their eyes really big, that sort of thing. At the end you can have the photos emailed to your phone (I’ll do a separate post on Japanese phones later) and print out the photos to take with you. I finally have a reason to own a wallet with compartments for pictures. After this we wondered around for a bit taking in the sights and sounds of Shibuya before heading to dinner. A well hidden place on the 5th floor of a large building.

Yuki and Mai-chan joined us for dinner later on, and ordered an onslaught of food for us all to try. So throwing our idea of having a light dinner out the window we indulged. Think the strangest thing I ate had to the fried Chicken elbows. I mean, seriously, who thinks to fry the elbow (just the elbow mind you) of a chicken and eat it? Wasn’t bad either, bit crunchy/chewy. Put me off a bit when they told me what it was tho. Didn’t particularly enjoy the okonomeyaki either, basically its a Japanese omelette, complete with squid and dried fish flakes as a topping. Yummy. Craig and myself then went to find an internet cafe. Cafe is most certainly the wrong word for them. Hundreds of computers, each in their own private booth, complete with leather comfy chair, headphones, joystick, intercom to call for drinks. Was awesome! Unfortunately I didn’t really achieve much, the keyboard was set to Japanese which made writing rather difficult! All for part one. Check back soon! Click here for a link to the photo album for the day.

So I’ll be leaving at 08:45 on September 7th, arriving Tokyo 06:55 September 8th.

I need to give a quick introduction to our desk officer Amy Lee. Amy went to Sri Lanka with Project Trust, before spending a year in Japan with the JET program. She has been a great source of information for all of us Japan volunteers answering all our questions whilst we were on training. Whilst we are away it is Amy who looks after any serious matters.

So after that introduction an actual update. Received an email detailing what to do on arrival in Tokyo. Seems we are getting a 4 day stay over in Tokyo for an induction course on arrival, which is exactly what I was hoping for. We’ll be staying in the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, which according to its website, has great panoramic views of Tokyo…from the bathroom window, so I’m guessing the view from the balcony is going to be the backside of the neighboring bulding.

Packing has so far not happened, went and and bought a suitcase at least. Haven’t got much to fill it with, yet at the same time too much. Its really difficult trying to pack clothes for a year into 20Kg, especially when you have to pack for both hot and cold climates, as well all the electronics I of course have to bring with me.

I’ve been reading up extensively on my Japanese history, well 19th and 20th century stuff anyway, before that in all honesty doesn’t seem necessary for my to have much knowledge of. What I really should be doing is some Japanese language practice, despite my best intentions of doing 30mins a day every day of August not much has happened.

I’m guessing my next update will be when I’m over in Japan, where I imagine I’ll have enormous amounts to say!