Hello readers, this is actually Jospeh's wife, Morgan posting this blog. Joseph sent me this blog via email from his shared work computer and asked me to post it for him. He will not be able to answer any questions posted on here for some time, but if you would like to contact him, please email him at the address he lists within this blog post. Thanks and happy reading.
I have not had regular internet access since I left my hotel room in Tokyo, and unfortunately it will be more than a month before I will have access in my apartment. If it weren’t for my sweet new keitai, I would be isolated.
I had no idea before that Japanese cell phones had their own email addresses, but now I’m using mine constantly to keep in touch with Morgan. If you would like to send me an email, my keitai address is josephgray(at)ezweb(dot)ne(dot)jp. I typed it that way to avoid getting automated spam, but you can figure it out, right? It’s an Urbano Barone from Sony Ericson, which I got for free with a two year contract with AU. Japan has three major carriers—SoftBank, NTT Docomo, and AU. Apparently, SoftBank is cheapest but has the worst service, NTT Docomo is really expensive, and AU is somewhere in between. I went with AU mostly on the recommendation of my supervisor Okada-sensei and another English teacher, Mitoe-sensei. I got Morgan the same phone. Unfortunately, they’re both a somewhat boring black because the other available colors were pink and a dark green. I thought black looked classiest.
Because I can’t post often right now, I will attempt to recap my last few days. In the future, this blog will have tons of pictures, and probably a lot of video links, but right now I can only post from work, so I need to be discreet.
The Flight to Tokyo
Parting with Andy, Brannon, and especially Morgan in Chicago was extremely difficult. I don’t know why I didn’t anticipate how sad I would be to say goodbye to my friends. Of course I knew it was going to be sad, but I guess I just didn’t realize what it would really be like. I cried, quite a bit actually, as I went through the line for customs. To make matters worse, we had planned to have a nice meal together before I had to go, but it turns out that only ticket holders can get to the area of the airport with all the restaurants. We were told that the only place we could all eat together was “a Starbucks with a table.” So, we went to Starbucks with a Table, and Andy treated us to an overpriced meal of prepackaged sandwiches.
I didn’t have to sit next to anyone on the flight, so I had plenty of room. The Group C JETs from Chicago were all seated in a cluster. Someone struck up a conversation with someone else in the cluster, and eventually we were all talking. I had planned to keep myself entertained on the flight with my DS, but actually I ended up chatting with the other JETs, sleeping a little, and just thinking about what I was getting myself into.
Tokyo Orientation
I shared room 1223 of the Keio Plaza Hotel with two other JETs, and chose to sleep on the pull out couch so I could kinda hide out over in the corner of the room. Turns out, that was the place to be, because my bed faced the window, and a beautiful view of the Shinjuku skyline. That first night, once we had our room keys, we were free to do as we pleased. A lot of people went out and got drunk, but I was exhausted from the flight, so I just got my internet fix and hit the hay.
Orientation involved a bunch of speeches, some in Japanese, some teaching demos/activities, an explanation of the clinical definition of culture shock as well as its stages and symptoms, and a reception dinner. For most of the day, we were in a big room at long tables listening to people talk and receiving paperwork. I don’t mean to depreciate any of the speeches or presentations—they were all interesting and helpful—but they aren’t worth going into detail about here. At the end, someone from Hiroshima came to give me some paperwork and discuss my schedule for the trip to Hiroshima prefecture in the morning.
The reception that night was fancier than anything I’m used to, and forced me to mingle and be much more sociable than I usually am. There were no chairs in the room, only tables. Doubtless it was set up this way to force people to move around and talk to one another. It worked, but trying to eat while standing up was complicated and just made things more awkward. I made as much small talk as I could handle, and just when I was thinking about trying to excuse myself somehow, the shindig was called to a close.
My First Day in Fukuyama
The next morning, I had an awkward breakfast with some Australians and a Singaporean, and then hurried back up to my hotel room to make sure my stuff was ready for the trip. The trip to Hiroshima was pretty rough, actually. I still had one of my big suitcases with me, plus my backpack and carry-on. Dragging that stuff all over the place in the sweltering heat and smothering humidity was the absolute pits. Once I was finally on the bullet train though, things weren’t so bad. The shinkansen is roomy and comfortable, so the other two Hiroshima JETs and I spent the trip talking to each other about our placements and whatnot. The lady I sat by had seemed way more capable, experienced, accomplished, and confident than me the night before, but the closer we got to our stop, the more nervous she got until eventually she started getting sick. For some reason, I really wasn’t all that stressed out at that point. I figured I’d meet up with my supervisor at the station, and she would just take me from there, which is pretty much what happened.
Okada-sensei and Mitoe-sensei took me to my new apartment, which is actually a pretty decent place, to drop off my luggage, and then we headed to city hall to get my alien registration card. After that, we went to AU to set me up with a cell phone plan, and boy, let me tell you, signing up for a cell phone plan in Japan is like some major diplomacy. It took probably two or three hours, seriously. I’m beginning to find out now, that this is a common thing in Japan. Everything has to be thoroughly negotiated, and discussed with people higher up the chain. It’s a delicate process, I guess. I know it’s their job to help gaijin like me get settled in, but I really did feel bad for them spending so much time with me at AU. After we finally got out of there, they took me out for okonomiyaki, Hiroshima’s famous specialty. It lives up to the hype.
With everything taken care of for the day, I was finally dropped off at my apartment and left alone. I had really been looking forward to this alone time, as my stamina was really wearing down from socializing so much. I figured I needed some time alone to recharge. Once I was alone for a while though, the homesickness and culture shock hit. As I unpacked my luggage and made myself at home, I found some little notes Morgan had hidden in my suitcases. As soon as I read that first note, I lost it. I just started weeping. Not only did I feel lonely, I felt isolated, and even panicked. I taped Morgan’s notes up next to my makeshift bed (a couch folded down with futons and comforters stacked on top) and read them a few more times, and eventually started to feel better.
Fukuyama, Day Two
The next day, I met my neighbor Diane. Mitoe-sensei had called her the day before and told her to meet up with me and show me around a little. Diane was supposed to come over at around 10:00 AM or so, but she didn’t show and I was getting pretty lonely and antsy, so I went and knocked on her door. She let me in and introduced herself. She’s a fourth year JET from Canada. Our other neighbors, also new, came over around the same time to use Diane’s internet connection. They’re a couple, also from Canada, who have a baby girl. The wife is a new JET, and her husband is staying home and watching their daughter. I was happy to be around other fluent English speakers for a bit… until they all switched over to French. When the neighbors were through talking to their parents on Skype and holding their baby up to the computer, I got my chance to check in on Facebook and let everyone know that I was still alive. Afterwards, Diane and I rode our bikes to Fukuyama Station. The purpose of that excursion was to show me around Fukuyama, but my sense of direction is worthless or absent altogether, so I didn’t get much from it.
Mitoe-sensei and Okada-sensei met me at the station and drove me to sign up for internet service at an electronics store. This ended up taking as long as the cell phone procedure, but we left defeated and internetless. Apparently, I need my alien registration card first, and the paper from city hall that says I’m a registered alien isn’t good enough. My card won’t come for about two weeks. Okada-sensei went to another electronics store to see if they would give me internet, and it seems like they will. Okada-sensei and Mitoe-sensei are going to help me sign up for that service online today at work. It’s ADSL, which is apparently pretty fast. I could have tried to get fiber optic service, which is the fastest, but I doubt my apartment is set up for it, and it takes a long time for them to even check.
After the electronics stores, I was taken back to the station to get on my bike and ride it back home… alone. This turned out to be a disaster. I rode all over the place, thinking I was passing the right landmarks along the way. I knew I had either seen them on my bike ride to the station with Diane, or maybe while I was riding in Mitoe-sensei’s car. Hours passed, and I was exhausted. I eventually gave up and called Diane for some directions. Apparently I was ten kilometers away from my apartment. The rest of that night, I peddled and peddled all over Fukuyama, stopping here and there to call Diane for directions. I had to ride my bike on busy highways and bridges, and I was scared shitless. I ended up dodging a truck and scraping my foot pretty bad. I shredded one of my purple Vans, and hurt my foot. I finally made it home after calling Diane about a hundred times, and spending a ton of yen on Poccari Sweat at vending machines along the way to stay hydrated.
Fukuyama, Day Three
The next morning, yesterday, I set out to practice the trip to Daimon High School so I wouldn’t be late for work on Monday. Somehow, that went perfectly. I went down the hill from my apartment to the bus stop, caught the bus, got off at Fukuyama Station, rode the train from there to Daimon Station, and walked up the hill to the high school. It’s a hell of a trip, and the heat is brutal. By the time I reached the school, I was soaked in sweat. I felt pretty good about making it there without much trouble though, especially after what had happened before. The walk to the school from Daimon Station is so scenic and quaint that despite the sweltering heat I started feeling a whole lot better about being here.
This morning, I got to work on time without much trouble, but because I had to wear dress clothes and carry my backpack as well as a big bag of gifts for the teachers, I arrived at Daimon drenched. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that in the future. I guess I won’t normally be carrying so much, and I should probably carry a little hand towel to wipe my face like most Japanese people seem to.
When I came in, I was asked to introduce myself to the staff during the morning announcements. I gave just a brief introduction, and everyone seemed pretty nice. I told them I was happy to be here, and looking forward to working with them, and they seemed to understand. Everyone already knows my name around here, but learning theirs is pretty tough. I’m familiar with a handful of common Japanese names, but memorizing everyone’s name right away is going to be tough. Luckily, the principal is just called Kocho-sensei and the vice principal is referred to as Kyoto-sensei—principal and vice principal in Japanese.
After the announcements, I was taken into Kocho-sensei’s office where I gave omiyage to him and Kyoto-sensei. An English teacher helped me explain the gifts—apple butter and beef jerky. The rest of our conversation was mostly just me awkwardly trying to explain where exactly Indiana is as the English teacher translated for me.
So, here I sit, at my desk, left to my own devices in the English office. Apparently, I’m not supposed to do my big self-intro presentation until this afternoon, so I basically just chill out in here until then. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of this—just sitting at my desk—during my time here. I actually don’t mind that at all though. It’s really neat having my very own desk, and I have plenty of time to plan lessons and probably even discretely use the internet. Speaking of which, I don’t have the SSID for the wireless network, and I don’t know where to find an Ethernet cable to plug in. I guess Mitoe-sensei and Okada-sensei are teaching classes, and I’m still too shy to bother anyone else about getting me hooked up, so for now, I’ll just wait. Update! Mitoe-sensei tells me that I can’t hook up my laptop. I have to use the shared teacher laptop. The problem there is that since USB drives are forbidden, I can’t get this Word file onto that computer to post. Ugh!
