Arriving in Nippon

Today, for the first day since my arrival to my apartment 11 days ago, the vacuum cleaner is put away in its proper place. This signals that 80% of my apartment is now usuable, vs. the virtually 0% that was when I moved in. Yay!!

Now I can spend more time on my blog, and properly record the highlights of my time here in Japan. Let me start at the beginning:

I left LAX around 1 PM on July 28th, and arrived in Tokyo at 4 PM on July 29th. The flight was long, had a fairly lame video selection and questionable vegetarian entrees. That's the last time I request a special meal...the regular ones came with better sides (pineapple and strawberries, sushi, brownies) and I can always pick around the parts I don't like. Disembarking from the plane with dozens of other JETs, we were ushered to the immigration line, which snaked back and forth about 8 times before we finally reached the counter. Looks like fun, no?

In my state of grogginess, that's really about all I remember about the airport. We then dropped off our largest luggage to be shipped ahead to our prefectures (mine made it all the way to the Kita-Chikugo Board of Education Office, in Kurume) and climbed on a nice bus for the hour plus ride to our hotel in Tokyo for orientation. The next few days were long, a combination of the jet lag and repetitive workshops and inspirational speeches. The JET Programme, as it is officially spelled, pretty much took over most of the Keio Plaza Hotel, so I hardly felt like I was in a foreign country at all. There were a ton of people to meet, yet who knew if you would actually see any of them again? Oh well. The view from my room on the 24th floor was nice, and it would all be over in a few days.

On August 1st, I boarded the last of the planes (for a good while...I am no rush to fly anywhere any time soon) for Fukuoka, the prefecture I am stationed in. Fukuoka is the name of the prefecture as well and the largest city on Kyushu, the southern most island of Japan. We left the unusually pleasant weather of Tokyo for a good deal more hot and humid, but the sauna of the first day would later be eclipsed during the following week in terms of sweaty miserableness, but I am getting ahead of myself. Everyone was met at the airport by their Supervisors, mine gathered up my co-workers, Dave, Allison and myself to take us out for lunch, to the office to gather up our luggage and finally to our new homes in the jutaku, or Teacher's Apartments. Lunch was good, we tried our hands at making our own sesame sauce to dip our chicken yakitori into; the office was, well an office, we got to know it much better in the next few days. And finally, the jutaku!

Hardly a testiment to the beauty and grace of traditional Japanese architecture, the jutaku is actually a really great idea. It houses just teachers, many of whom, like myself and the other ALTs get a reduced rent because the building is owned by the Board of Education or something like that. How reduced you ask? Very.... I have 3 rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and a washing machine on my patio and I am paying around $160 month, plus utilities. The bulding has 3 staircases with 3 stories each, and two apartments on each story. Mine is the second story in this picture. Inside, the the layout is just like the one below, minus that sink in the bathroom. More pics later when it looks more like home.

While spacious, not all was ideal in my apartment when I arrived; mostly it appeared to not have been cleaned for the past 3 years that it was inhabited by the guy that I am replacing. Hence why the vacuum has not been put away for a week and a half. But it is much better now.

We were left on our own for the night, but our incredibly friendly upstairs neighbors, Johnathan and Kendra (second year ALTs from Montana) invited us all upstairs for dinner---soft tacos! Most the the ingredients came from Costco (there's one outside of Fukuoka, as well as a website that delivers! And to use the website, you don't even have to be a member!) and I was able to contribute some salsa from the gigantic container of Pace Picante sauce that was lovingly (?) left for me, and continues to take up at least a quarter of my tiny fridge.

The next day, August 2nd, was our first official day at the office, although really we ran errands most of the morning. Upon arrival in our professional finest (I wore my suit and felt awkward) we were officially introduced to the Superintendent, a very important man who rarely leaves his private office on the far side of the room. Word on the street is that in Japanese offices, the further from the door you are, the more important you are. Hence, the ALTs occupy the table right inside the door. As it should be for the amount of "work" we are doing in the office these days. Anyway, we were presented to Mr. Important in front of other Mr. Pretty Importants and had to walk forward when our names were called, bow, accept our certificates of employment, bow again and go back and stand in our little line. But the real nerve-wracking part came afterwards when our line (Allison, Wendy and Dave) was taken out to the rest of the office and expected to introduce ourselves. Not a whole lot of prep time. Allison did fine because she came here on an exchange, and I hope I managed not to offend anyone with my crappy pronunciation of Hajimemashite, watashi wa Wendy Phelps desu. Dozo yoroshiko. Not my finest moment I know.

From there, we went to City Hall to get apply for our Alien Registration Card and open a bank account. For all of its technologial advances, Japan is a cash society, and even though a lot of bills are paid directly out of your account, internet banking is a foreign idea to them. ATMs also have hours and will either not dispense money or charge you for visiting them after said hours. Hmmm. We're all eagerly awaiting our first paychecks, and having decent sized bank accounts, having opened our accounts with about 100 yen each (roughly $1).

We had some waiting to do while the Alien Registering people and the bank did the paper work, so we got to go up to the top of City Hall and look at the view. Unfortunately, a typhoon was expected shortly, so the visibility was somewhat limited, but there was a fairly good view to the south. See the large white spire to the left toward the horizon? The jutaku is a little to the left of that. The spire is actually a giant statue known as Narita-san. It is a Buddhist Shrine and one of two points of interest in Kurume, according to Lonely Planet. Have not been yet, but will go soon.

That wraps up the first few days; airplane, Tokyo, airplane, Fukuoka briefly, and Kurume, my new home for the next year at least.