Both of my roommates had to leave much earlier than I so I was woken up quite early. Ended up packing all my things together and promptly forgetting the shampoo and conditioner I bought in the shower. I went down to breakfast in a different room than usual since everything was split up into smaller rooms this morning. I sat with a Nashville friend, and as breakfast went on, we managed to gather a whole table full. It was nice to see them all one last time before we were separated. After breakfast, I took my things downstairs and called my family with the lobby wifi. I wasn’t sure when I would have wifi again.

I met up with the rest of the Gunma group as we awaited our departure time. Once our bus had arrived, I followed the line out into the heat. The cicadas were quite active. I could still load my large bag under the bus, yay! I sat next to K, the other ALT going to my town. I stared out the window for most of the ride despite the haziness. Apparently the humidity here is so strong, it distorts your view. We stopped at a rest stop in Saitama. I bought a milk tea that had Fairy Tail on it, ha. Sadly I then had to carry the empty bottle around with me. Japan has no public trashcans. Your best bet is outside convenience stores or vending machines. You also have to remember to sort your trash. Take the bottle lid off and remove the plastic labeling because those go in a different bin than the bottle itself.

During the drive, all the SHS ALTs practiced our Japanese intro speeches for tomorrow. Ick! We arrived in Maebashi at the Kencho building (the prefectural government office) after about a 2 hour drive. The expressway is not so express-like. There was a lot of traffic and the speed limits are really low. We unloaded all our luggage and locked it up in a room. Then we went across the street to the main building, the tallest building in Maebashi so you can spot it easily. There was an adorable statue of Gunma-chan, our prefectural mascot, outside. It won first place in the mascot competition this past year. It’s a gender-less, 7 year old pony. On the basement floor of the kencho was a Gunma-chan shop. You could buy so many things with Gunma-chan on them.

We went to have lunch in the cafeteria there. Very overwhelming. Everything in Japanese only. I couldn’t even do the point and say kudasai (please) trick, because there were different stations that served many different things. Lots of side dishes as well. I wanted to have udon, but then I was asked questions in Japanese and wham the language barrier really hit me for the first time. I tried to express myself, but I had to ask the other ALTs around me to find one who spoke Japanese. Frustrating for the servers as well as me, I’m sure. I managed to get my food and an eggplant tempura. Check out was interesting, because they weigh your tray and that determines the cost. Free water and tea, yay, like every restaurant I have been to in Japan.

After lunch we had a bit of free time, so I wandered around with two other JETs. We stopped by a restroom where two toilets were bidets as per usual, but the other two stalls had the squat toilets! Last time I saw those was in France at a rest station. I’ll stick with the toilets, thanks. We went to the top floor to get a view of Maebashi. Very impressive. Japanese cities are quite large and clustered. Maebashi has a population of 2 million people, I think. The neighboring city, Takasaki, is actually larger at 3 million. We also stopped on another floor that had a diorama of Gunma. You could see where the cities were located and how relatively tall the mountains were. Luckily I had memorized my city’s kanji so I could identify where it was.

We went back to the building across the street for our ceremony. Suit jackets back on and the sweating begins. Air con is almost non-existent. The temperature indoors is usually around 30 C. We all sat in our chairs, suffocating, as a bunch of Gunma officials were introduced. My name was actually the first to be called, ha. I walked up to the front with my squeaky shoes (too much sweat!) and shook hands and bowed to my JTE, Iowa-sensei, from my school. We went through all thirty of the new JETs in this manner. As soon as it was over, jackets came off. I grabbed my luggage and headed with Iowa-sensei to his car, saying goodbye to some of my new friends along the way.

The car garage was an automatic one! The attendants had to call your car and it would be delivered from the depths of the garage. It was crazy. I’ve only seen one of these once before in Europe. Soon we were off in his Prius. It took about an hour to drive to Tomioka. We made some good polite conversation. I’m never much of a talker especially in cars, but hopefully I made a decent first impression. He drove me to my school first. The building is a decent size for a high school. The hallways are all outside with sliding doors leading to classrooms. The building looks relatively new, especially compared with some of ones I’ve seen.

I was given some indoor guest slippers that I promptly slid around in because I was wearing pantyhose and my feet were too big for them. Iowa-sensei introduced me to the office workers first, and then we went upstairs to the teacher’s room where I gave my brief self intro. Fooled them into thinking that I spoke Japanese, hehe. Then we went next door to Kocho-sensei’s office, the principal. He used to be an English teacher for 20 years so he speaks really well. We sat down on his sofa and chairs, and I was served green tea! Very strong and delicious. We talked a lot about Sabrina the movie, Audrey Hepburn, and Sabrina pants. And had a long discussion with Iowa-sensei about how to spell my last name in katakana with a non-negative sound.

He took me on a tour of the building. We popped into the room where several third years were studying even during the middle of summer break. Then he showed me the gym where students were doing their club sport. Clubs are very important and students practice every day even on weekends and vacation. We also stopped by the library where they had a small collection of English books. The art room had these huge sculptures. I hope I can join the art club. That at least requires no Japanese skill. He talked to me about the students and how well behaved this school was, about the handball team that went to Nationals last year. They even have one student who will be in the U-18 Japan team and is going to India.

After we returned to his office, Iowa-sensei met us there and took me downstairs to collect my heavy, huge suitcases. The zipper was broken off on one of the outer pockets, but otherwise they seemed in okay shape. I was glad they had already arrived, because I had heard that it could take longer and I didn’t have any extra clothes packed in my carry on. We then drove to my house where I unloaded myself. Iowa-sensei helped in lugging the suitcases along. I took off my shoes in the genkan as is only proper (especially since sensei was there watching!).

The apartment is quite nice! I have lots of space, a hallway, bedroom, bathroom, toilet, kitchen/dining room, and a living room that has a sliding door. Also a patio! All wood floors too. Much easier to clean than tatami. The air con unit is in the living room so that’ll probably become my bedroom, ha.

We then went on a drive. He drove me back and forth between school and my home so I would know the way for tomorrow. He pointed out the police station, a drug store, the post office, and drove by my closest grocery store. He then dropped me off at home and said that he was leaving on a trip, but K-sensei would take me around to places tomorrow and drive me to Maebashi with K (the other Tomioka SHS ALT) for the appointment ceremony.

First things, first, air con on! My pred had left an old futon out for me. I had no sheets though. I found the blanket for the kotatsu that had a lined side that felt less furry and hot. I draped that over the mattress and used another blanket as a pillow. She had also left a reading type pillow, a black cat, so I used that as well. I explored the house briefly, mostly checking all the cabinets in the kitchen and fridge to see what my pred had left behind. I ate a lychee flavored ice cream and unpacked my laptop. I managed to find a free 15 min wifi trial, thank goodness, and sent a message to my family to let them know I had arrived.

Then the tears came. Honestly, I was rather tired, felt a bit sick, and was massively overwhelmed by all the information that had been thrust my direction all day. Cue the panic, could I do this? In a place so far away and different, knowing no one nearby at all? After all trying to get food for lunch was such a disaster, did I have the skills to continue? So I had just finished my good cry when the doorbell rang. Oh no! Who would come back now? I tried to compose myself but I knew it was hopeless. Upon opening my door, who was it but my principal. *face palm* He said he had come by to ensure I was okay and had everything I needed, before he left on his vacation. He then promptly remarked on my teary face. I told him it was just a bit of homesickness and that I was fine, but he insisted on giving me his number at school and private one, as well as Ichigo-sensei, my supervisor. So kind, yet also a bit awkward to show your red-eyed face to your boss on the first day you met him.

After he left, I used a prepackaged container of rice and a can of tuna to “make” dinner. I didn’t feel like leaving the apartment or going to the convenience store around the corner. I ate two bites before I got really nauseous and decided it’d be a good idea to stop eating before I threw up. I think the water finally got to me. There’s always that adjustment period when you switch your usual habits. I laid down and ended up chewing a lot of tums as I tried not to vomit. At some point I must have drifted off to sleep.

Stuffed myself at breakfast this time as yesterday I got hungry so early! The yogurt with strawberry jam was super delish. I ate with some new folks from Boston and New Zealand this time. The day continued with many more workshops. This time, lunch was curry. This was a sweet version of what I had in the city the other day. I can definitely say I prefer the spicy over the sweet! At the end of the day, we finally had a prefecture meeting to get some more information. I was anxious about all the emails they had kept sending me and wanted some clarity. Apparently, at this stage they wanted us to drop off our big bags to get loaded on the bus that evening! A lot of us couldn’t do it. If I had known, I would have taken a smaller backpack as well for this part. My laptop, toiletries and clothes wouldn’t just fit in my purse. Gunma folks were told it was okay. We would have 30 people on the bus so they were trying to save space.

Our bus would leave at 9 am the next morning and drive us all to the capital city, Maebashi. I also learned that for us Senior High School ALTs we could practice our introduction speech on the bus, whew. That has to be completely in Japanese, eek! With zero Japanese knowledge, I definitely wanted to write that down. That evening I went to a US embassy meeting held at the hotel. Three people from the embassy attended including one guy who used for be a JET before joining the state department. He was interesting to listen to. Started pondering future career tracks again, ha.

Afterward, I met up with a large chunk of the Nashville group, thirteen of us, to go search for some dinner. One thing I had quickly realized from my first excursion out, Japanese restaurants are small! We’d never all fit. But we headed off into Shinjuku anyway. As we stood in the middle of street discussing our options, a Japanese man stopped to ask if he could help us in English. Bam, my first experience with the extreme kindness of these people. He then told his wife to come on, turned around and went back the direction he came from with our whole gang trailing him. He led us to a nice restaurant, but they could only seat six of us. Our group divided in two with one cell phone carrier in each group.

Night view of Tokyo

Our smaller group of seven went back around the corner to a gyudon (beef bowl) shop. We sent B inside to ask if there was enough space as he had a good chunk more Japanese ability and confidence. We managed to all fit upstairs after some customers left, taking up all the spaces, but four where a French family sat. It was rather nice to be able to eavesdrop and understand a conversation ha. L2 helped me order and understand what everything was, basically pointing and saying please. The food was yummy and cheap again, $4. Afterward, we walked back through Shinjuku, stopping at an arcade. I found a gatsupon (turn the handle and get a surprise) that had Natsume-sensei! What cost me $8-10 at conventions was $2 in Japan. Sigh, shipping mark ups. The inside of the arcade was filled with different types from of games from the claw machines featuring super cute stuffed animals and anime figurines. There was also some type of music note game, and tapping game where two pros hit so quickly their arms were a blur. They were even wearing gloves! I also watching a guy play a taiko game where he brought in his own drumsticks. He was getting perfect scores as well, such talent.

Then we stopped at 7-11 for some drinks and ice cream and wandered back towards the hotel. I really wanted to go up in the Tokyo government building that lay across the street from our hotel. We ambled around a bit, ended up going in a circle to find the tucked away entrance. The building had a very impressive plaza. We went through a small security check and rode the elevator up to about the 40^th floor. There was a souvenir shop and a restaurant, as well as an almost 360 glass window view. You could see all the sparkling lights of Tokyo. It’s so huge! We ended up outside the hotel convenience store after that. This was our last night together so we chatted a bit before I gave my goodbye hugs.

I didn’t have to worry about waking up on time. I woke up once in the night to pee, but otherwise slept fantastically till 6 am. I ate breakfast with one of my roommates that awoke at the same time. Our stomachs were growling. Jet lag wreaking havoc on appetite. It was very busy, apparently all the JETs woke up early with jet lag. The display of food was fantastic. Buffet style breakfast with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, potatoes, yogurt, cereal, salad, various fruit, breads and jam, and juices.

The day began with several speeches by important ministries in the Japanese government dealing with education. Our host was a German CIR! Then a long day of workshops punctuated by a pasta lunch commenced. I managed to find Nashville people around everywhere. For a small consulate, we sure were magnetically attracted. Also met plenty of new people from other consulates around the world (Canada, UK, and New Zealand). Dinner was served in a prefecture groups. We had a kanpai, but the only thing to toast with was beer, yuck. Had to take a tiny sip. Another amazing spread. Beautiful little cakes. I actually started with dessert, plus the lines were shorter! I met another ALT going to my city, K! He’s teaching at the all-boys school and I have the all-girls. I had made plans for after dinner, but instead I just went back to my room to sleep. Around 4 pm, the jet lag really started making itself known. I collapsed into bed at about 9 pm.

Hotel room view

We arrived! Japan! Ahhhhh! I was pretty hopped up and excited at this point but also still super tired.
It was something like 3 am at home. I plastered my special JET identifying sticker on my shirt and we joined the mass exodus of JETs from the plane and wham the heat hit us. The air conditioning barely made a dent. I stopped to help some people fill out their customs forms correctly (those who didn’t read the instructions…) as I was one of the few with a pen. We joined our special JET immigration line. No problems for me, had my fingerprints stored, photo taken, and they printed my residence card and attached some paperwork to the visa in my passport. I headed off to baggage claim where they had already pulled off our luggage. Stuck with a fellow Nashville JET and we watched each other’s suitcases while I made a bathroom break and switched to shorts. No more jeans from the plane for me. We ended up joining a couple other straggler JETs from Nashville and went to pass through customs. Quite easy. They ask if I had a yakken shomei or anything to declare, and then waved me on through. On the other side there were many green-shirted JET people guiding the way. We stopped to buy some drinks at a small store as the heat was really intense. We joined a huge winding line of JETs from all over the world waiting for the bus to the Keio Plaza Hotel. The line started inside the airport, and slowly winded outside, down an escalator, across some sidewalks, and into a parking lot.

Waiting outside was bad. I had my heavy pack on me and the heat felt like it was dragging me down. The humidity! It was insane. I finally made it to the luggage drop off point, and gave away my two large suitcases to be shipped to my school. My backpack went under the bus. Another couple Nashville JETs were also on the same bus. They passed out water, but as I was sitting in the back, the bottle ended up empty before it got to us. It was about a two hour bus trip from the airport to the hotel. We drove past Tokyo Disney which was awesome! The huge Disney castle, and amazing hotel could be seen from the interstate.  Also got to see the Tokyo Sky Tree; it was actually less large than what I was expecting haha.

First impressions: so hot and humid! The cars are a lot larger than what I was expecting too. A lot of box shaped cars and vans. 

By the time I arrived at the hotel in Shinjuku, it was about four and a half hours after our plane had landed. Bell boys unloaded our luggage from the bus and we had to follow more staff to a separate room for a brief hotel orientation and then to tables were we could pick up a bag full of information, name tags, and our room keys! The hotel had wifi in the lobby and rooms, whee~ I kept in touch via our Nashville group on Line and made some plans for dinner. I was sharing my room with two other girls from Nashville and was the last to arrive. One girl was on a pull out sofa, but we all fit. The view was amazing! You could see really far into Tokyo. Our group met for dinner and we headed out into the wilderness of Shinjuku.

We stopped by a 7-Eleven where I withdrew more cash, partly to test my card. No problems, thank goodness. We ended up in a little restaurant where you placed your order on an automat that even had English as an option. You even paid on it. I ended up with some cheap curry that came with miso soup for about $3. Free water, yes! We sat down on our little stools and the waiters came by to collect the sheets of paper from the machine. Food was served quickly and I hungrily devoured it. Quite a large portion too. I managed with chopsticks, nothing too complicated. Learned my first rule about eating soup. No using a spoon, just drink it from the bowl.

After dinner, we decided to walk the streets a bit and just absorb the atmosphere. We even stopped by another convenience store, Lawson. They’re everywhere! I also saw so many drink vending machines, they are literally on every corner. We decided to turn back, everyone was rather tired. Perfectly timed too, as it started to rain. Upon my return to the hotel, I crashed. A proper bedtime of about 10 pm.

We had two shuttles picking us up in the morning to drive us the short mile over to the airport. I drove with L’s dad again so I didn’t have to worry about leaving on their schedule. We were one of the first group there so I quickly popped into the check in kiosk line before things got too crazy. Delta was quite efficient in herding us around. I tested my luggage before getting into line. My bags were at 49 and 50 pounds! Damn, I’m an excellent packer. Sadly I had to leave two pairs of shoes behind, my Sperrys and my tennis shoes as well as several bits of clothing.

Check in went swiftly and I headed off with a fellow JET to kill almost three hours at our gate. I wanted to grab some breakfast and lunch items (a bagel and a banana). We only had a 45 min layover in Detroit during lunchtime so I didn’t want to be left hungry. Due to reduced space on the full flight, they were asking those with large carry-ons to gate check their baggage at no additional cost. I jumped at the chance because my pack was heavy and I really only need the things in my purse. The Dramamine knocked me out as usual so I managed to get about an hour of sleep on the short flight. Trying to gather up all the sleep I could!

In Detroit, our travel agent that had flown with us, led the way to the next gate. It was a long walk. We met up with the Detroit JETs there. Our gigantic, double decker airbus awaited us. We actually did have time to grab some McD’s from across the gate, but I just stood around with my fellow JETs and ate my bagel. Eventually we were all crammed into the plane. It was decently nice with individual usb chargers, a large selection of entertainment (all the Marvel movies but cap 2!) and wifi if you wanted to pay for it. The flight left after noon. We had to park on the side on the runway for some reason according to air traffic control although the runway was clear. We actually got much more food than I was expecting. Something at 2 pm? Only choice beef or chicken though. Should have registered as vegetarian. Then a bag with breakfast, Japan time? And then one more meal that felt more like breakfast (egg or chicken).

I was sitting next to one of my consulate JETs who woke me up every time for food. I wanted to sleep the first five or six hours of the flight to get on Japan time. It worked although it was more dozing and not very restful as per usual with planes. With the rest of my time I re-watched Iron Man 2 and Avengers 2, getting my Natasha fix, ha.

At some point we crossed the International Date Line and jumped into the future!