First Entry

Blog Entry 1

Sorry this is extremely overdue. It’ll be a long entry, so bear with me as I explain everything that has been going on. There will be tons of photos, so hopefully that will hold your attention. First after my recital I got to relax for a day on the beach, then the rest of the days were filled with errands and packing. On Friday, July 30^th, there was an orientation and reception at the Honolulu Consulate. They gave us brief travel information and we got to meet and chat with the Hawaii JETs, alumni, interviewers, and other important people.

Of course, I’m not very good at packing and was working on it till almost 12am. For international flights it was advised to be at the airport three hours ahead, so I had to leave my house at around 6:30am. The flight was fine and we arrived in Narita (the international airport about an hour away from Tokyo) in the early afternoon. After we went through immigrations/customs and got our bags, there were tons of TOA (Tokyo Orientation Assistant) JETs leading us where to go and what to do. From the airport we sent off one of our big luggage to our CO (Contracting Organization).

Then we took a bus to the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku (kind of a business hotel district area in Tokyo). I thought it was very organized and we went straight through getting our room keys and a bag of stuff with information and whatnot. We had the afternoon and evening free, so I had dinner with a bunch of the Hawaii JETs at this small Omurice place. After we walked around Shinjuku area for a little bit and took purikura (those print stickers). There were about 800 new JETs in this second orientation plus tons of CLAIR (these are the 3 ministries that are in charge of the JET Programme) staff. The JET Programme has been going on since 1987, and orientation has always been at the Keio Plaza. It’s pretty amazing.

I was a little jetlagged and woke up at 4 in the morning. I went to the hotel’s gym before breakfast. It wasn’t no Pearl City 24Hr Fitness, but it was better than nothing. I’m really missing going to the gym…..

After breakfast started the many workshops. There was a formal opening ceremony (there are supposed to be tons of ceremonies in Japan), which was pretty stiff and formal. So…like a good newbie, I went to all the workshops that were scheduled…..many didn’t go to the workshops even though they are supposed to be mandatory. There were some good information given, but lots were repetitive and redundant. So my jetlag, not getting any sleep because my roommate snored really loud, going to all those workshops and not being feed very much made be a very unhappy camper. One cool thing was I got to meet the US Ambassador to Japan.

For some reason, in Japan it feels like I process food really fast. I’m pretty much hungry every 2-3 hours no matter how much I eat. I’ve talked with a few people about this and there are some reasons: 1) portions are smaller, 2) products are fresher, so they process faster, 3) drinking lots of green tea speeds up your metabolism, 4) it’s really hot!

I was in Tokyo till Wednesday August 3^rd, and then we departed to our areas. 21 new Mie JETs lead by 2 PAs (prefectural advisors) and the Prefectural Supervisor made it from Shinjuku station (ONE OF THE BUSIEST STATION IN THE WORLD) to Tokyo Station. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Nagoya, then another local train to our areas. My supervisor and another lady from the Matsusaka BOE meet me at the platform. First I met a ton of people at the BOE and did my aisatsu (formal greetings). I signed my contract and apartment contract (they had an inkan (name stamp) ready for me), registered for my foreigner card, then they took me to get stuff for the apartment and showed me a little around the area. The next day we set up my bank account and I got a cell phone too. There are 4 other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) with Matsusaka BOE, but I’ve only meet 3 of them. 2 of them are a married couple from Australia and have been in Japan for about 15yrs…, another was a Canadian JET a while ago but was contracted directly through the BOE. He has a wife and kids here too. So, I feel sort of out of placed because they are way older than me and all married.

Right now the schools are out for summer break and don’t start till September, so I’ve been going to workshops and presentations so far. The sempai (not 1^st year) JETs took us to Nagoya to get our reentry permits in our passports so we can go in and out of the country on the same visa. There was also a Welcome Beach Party that I went to. The beach was pretty nice. There were lots of surfers at that beach even though the waves were pretty flat. On another note, Japan is sooo hot! I’m dripping with sweat all the time. Hand towels and fans are a must. This is nothing compared to Hawaii! It was around 36 degrees the past couple days (90something F).

The second week I had a Prefectural JET Orientation in Tsu (the capital of Mie Prefecture, 20mins away from Matsusaka, about 4 stops away). The sempai JETs did presentations on team teaching, living stuff and a big earthquake preparedness presentation. Our area is due for another big earthquake sometime soon, but Japan has earthquakes all the time, so it’s important to be prepared. We got to ride an earthquake simulator machine too. It was set at shindo 7 (the Japanese scale, so around 6+ magnitude on the US scale). It was pretty terrifying. Oh and on the topic of earthquakes, there were a few tremors while I was in Tokyo that I could feel. It was a weird sensation.

This is actually a video blog from another JET in my prefecture, but I'm in the back left on the earthquake machine. Can't really see me though

For a while I was wondering where the other JETs in Matsusaka were. They live super far from me so that’s why it feels like I’m all on my own. But I meet up with them this past Sunday and went to this really small obon-type festival. It was a bit different. They had these dances that are taught only in this village, and only a group of them do the dances. It was pretty neat. At first we were at the wrong place, but we made it to some other village’s festival. But Chelsa’s Supervisor found us and brought us to the right festival. It was a small festival, but they had kakigori (shaved ice), ika (squid), and the game where you catch gold fish with a small rice paper scoop thing. It was really hard for me, but I caught 3 fishes. 2 of them are still alive, but they hate me. I bought a plastic fish tank and everything, but every time I walk by they freak out and jump a little. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep them alive longer. I named them Ichiro (the orange one), and Jiro (the white one).

I also had summer vacation days to take, and I was encouraged to take them when everyone else took theirs so this week I was off from Tuesday-Thursday. I was able to go to a big fireworks festival in Kumano (熊野大花火大会). Kumano was so far…it took me almost 3 hours to get there. It is a small town, but it holds this huge fireworks festival that is supposed to be the one of the largest firework festivals in a rural area. It was pretty neat because they are shooting the fireworks off the water instead of on land. The boats drop the fireworks and speed away from them. Firework festivals in Japan are so cool. The ones I saw in Hakodate was almost as good as this one. It had a different feel, but this one was so packed. They had to add extra trains so people can get in and out of the town. Usually no one comes to this town. I stayed the night at one of the JETs that live in Kumano. I took the cheapest train local train, but it did take a very long time to get to the destination. Even from 3hrs away the train was packed.

Other impressions and thoughts: My Japanese has gotten a bit rusty and I’m not that comfortable speaking, but I generally understand what’s going on and being said. There is only 1 person at the BOE that can really speak English and she translates for me when I can’t understand, but usually they speak Japanese to me. I kind of expected this. Hopefully my Japanese will get a lot better too.

One thing that was kind of scary at first was riding my bicycle around. My route to work is on a busy road and there isn’t really a sidewalk to ride on so I’m riding in this super small bike lane that’s not even a bike lane. Also I almost nearly died a few times as I rode into cars because I didn’t look right first. In the US we drive on the right side, so cars will hit you from the left side first. I’m starting to get used to riding on the left side of the road and always look right first when I turn. Another thing that is kind of different that is taking some getting used to is the trash and recycling. You have to sort all sorts of trash. There is burnable and not burnable, then in the not burnable, you have to sort the different plastic (bento plastic, plastic wrappings, etc.), paper (milk cartons). Even plastic bottles, you have to take the plastic off the bottle, rinse it out and take the cap off, those are burnable, but the bottle needs to be recycled. Yeah, sorting the trash is kind of stressful.

My apartment is great. I don’t really have any complaints. I’ve heard some horror stories from other JETs already (one guy doesn’t have a flush toilet, some have nothing in the apartment, it was super dirty and there are crazy bugs). In Japan its called 2LDK (1 bedroom, 1 6 tatami mat sized room, and a joint living dining and kitchen. I have a balcony too with my washing machine. Haven’t meet my neighbors yet but I’ll get around to it. The city is an ok size. The population is about 160,000 but it spans kind of a large area. I think it’s a little smaller than Hakodate. Still haven’t explored everywhere yet. But I rode my bike about 15mins one way and reached a rice field. Rode the other way about 20mins and reached another rice field, if this gives any idea to the size. I’m not totally in the inaka (rural countryside), but it’s not urban either.

I feel like I’m adjusting quickly. Been here for a little over 2 and a half weeks already. This is my 5^th time to Japan, so I’m not too shocked about language or differences in culture. I’m excited for next week when I get to go to some of the schools and start working with the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English).

If you want to send me any letters or what not here is my address:

Urban Heights 2-209
Kamada-cho 699
Matsusaka-shi, Mie-Ken
515-0005
JAPAN

Or you can email patrice.k.lee@gmail.com or set up a time to skype. patricedpu

Sore Ja, my next entry will be shorter and sooner.