The beginning of the adventure

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog, which I will keep updating for my duration in Japan. So, where have I flown off to, you might be wondering. Well, I am in the city of Hachinohe, in Aomori, Japan. It's a small city of 250,000 people, and I am about 30 seconds away from the bullet-train station (I walk through it to work every day).

So, without further ado, here is what I've been up to since I arrived in Japan on August 3rd:

Upon arriving in Japan, the JET program took us to the Keio Plaza Hotel, a swanky hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. They had a lot of lectures for us to partake of, warning us of culture shock, teaching us how to drive in Japan, and so on. That's sort of boring though. At the end of the first day, I met up with my two Japanese tutors-turned friends, and set out to explore Tokyo.

First of all, Tokyo is HUGE. It's definitely a city that merits more exploration, you could be there two weeks and still not see nearly everything there is to see. We went to a Ramen shop. This isn't your 13 cent college box of Ramen, however. I'm talking about Japanese guys preparing you ramen in their 3 cubic feet of space-restaurant. It tasted wicked good, and there is no way I would have been able to figure out that you had to buy a ticket from a vending machine, and then bring that to the chef, in order to get food. Thank god for Japanese friends.

The next day, we visited Shinjuku district so I could see some girls dressed up as one can only do in Japan.

I couldn't get many good pictures, just keep in mind that this is but the tamest of what I saw.

I also went to a shrine right outside of the train station. It was surreal with all of the fog and rain, I'll be including a link to those pictures when I get them up, so be patient. It was unlike anything I've seen before, even when I traveled and saw temples in Vietnam. The air was deathly still, and there were still people praying at the shrine, it was really cool.

That night we went to Roppongi district and took some beautiful pictures of Tokyo from the top of Mori tower. Again, Tokyo is ridiculously huge, and seeing it from the top of a tower just reinforces that fact. It's also great for bringing up some philosophical questions when you consider the scope of what humans can do and so forth.

Oh, I see you've been ogling the sexy attraction pub. Well, if anime girls on airplanes is your thing, a plane ticket to Japan is only $1500 away.

So, you are probably wondering about what crazy things have happened, here are a few excerpts.

In Tokyo, we went to a purikura.

What is this strange thing? I had no idea, until I was shoved into a claustrophic, white-walled box. Try to put yourself in my place: Suddenly, lights! everywhere! Music blaring from speakers! A green screen drops behind you, almost on your head! There's a countdown timer on one wall with a screen. Your Japanese friends are giggling and speaking unintelligable syllables. You look to your American friend for support, but he's suffering from the same shock you are, his head swiveling from side to side like he's watching speedy gonzalez engaging the roadrunner in ping pong. The counter on the wall is at 5, 4- you try to ask Sakiko and Mari what is happening- 3,2- they make poses in from of the timer and say something overshadowed by the music and the brightening lights, 1- FLASH. A picture of your confused face fills up the screen in front of you, and the timer starts again.

That is purikura. And now I proudly own thumbnail sized pictures of that memory in my wallet.

After Tokyo orientation ended, I flew with the other Aomori prefecture JETs to Aomori city, where I met my supervisor, Sato-sensei, who drove me to my home in Hachinohe. He's a really cool guy, and I'll get a picture of him to put up. He is very lighthearted, and he chuckles a lot. Not to mention, he's been really helpful about telling me what I should be doing in a Japanese office. Oh yeah, and his English is fairly good, which is a really big help. He even took me out for my first official meal in Aomori, McDonalds (woo!).

After my arrival here, it was pretty much setting up my apartment, running from office to office (Japan is a big bureaucracy), and the like. At night, I've been meeting up with JETs in the area to hang out, go to dinner/the beach/fireworks festivals, and generally having a good time. Unfortunately, I have school tomorrow, so I have to keep this first post short, but don't worry, I will update you gracious readers when I am able (ie. tomorrow after school).

I will leave you with the most recent "weird" Japan story. I got my cell phone today (surprisingly, it's not easy setting up something like that when you communicate with charades and drawings). In the bag the salesperson gave me were the usual: cell phone charger, service plan agreement, 6 pack of beer, phone manual- wait, 6 pack of beer?! Oh yes, that kindly woman behind the counter gave me a 6 pack of Asahi, on the house. She didn't card me, didn't even mention it, just handed me my bags and said a few arigato gozaimasu's. And that, ladies and gentlement, is why cell phones are superior in Japan.

Oh, and the toilets have remote controls.