I write this post as I am sitting watching a Japanese baseball game between the Tigers and Yokohama. I am sitting in a room at Nakamoto-san’s house. I’ll tell you more about this situation a little later.
I have now been in the Japan for about 4 days and it has been a whirlwind to say the least. It all started on the Friday before I was to depart to Japan. The Chicago Consulate put on a pre-departure orientation meant to ease the start of the JET’s (JET’s is used to refer to a participant in the JET program) journey to Japan. Before this orientation I had decided that in order to make my transition into Japan’s time zone easier, I would stay up all night so that I would be so tired upon boarding the airplane I would sleep most of the plane ride. It wasn’t too difficult to stay up and as soon as I found my seat on the plane, I passed out. I think I slept for about 5 hours which put me at about 6 or 7 AM Tokyo time. I tried not to sleep anymore after that but I think I took a small nap. The flight took 14 hours and we arrived in Tokyo at 4 PM. I was looking forward to this day for a long time and I was relieved to have finally arrived in Japan. The JET program really takes care of all the participants. Upon arrival in Tokyo, the process to get to the hotel where the two day orientation would take place was relatively easy. There were about 800 JET’s arriving which makes logistics to get the participants and their luggage to the hotel a nightmare. But it went pretty smoothly. The bus ride to the hotel was very surreal. As I looked around the bus, I was surrounded by English speaking soon-to-be teachers from all around the world. But we were all out of our element because as I looked out of the bus windows, the only thing anyone could see were buildings, and signs with Japanese on them. Of course some signs had English on them but most of the time the translation was slightly off. The bus ride took about one and a half hours and it was all still in Tokyo. The size of Tokyo is mind blowing. Mass of humanity is what came to my mind every time I looked out the window. When we arrived at the hotel I was even more excited because Dana was there to meet me. It was as if a little piece of home was with me in Japan as memories flooded my mind about my time at Valparaiso. Matt was also with me throughout this trip which made me feel more at ease.
My first night in Tokyo was a lot of fun. Dana, Matt and I all went out to explore the Shinjuku part of Tokyo. As we were heading to the post office so that Matt could exchange some money we ran into two guys from Ireland who were also doing the JET program. They just asked us if we were with JET and what we were up to. We said we were looking for a place to eat and they decided to join us. We walked a few blocks and decided to enter this restaurant which looked like it would have decent food. I later learned that we went into an izakaya which is a place where people can eat small dishes and also have a few drinks. I really enjoyed this place and although I didn’t know how to order anything, Dana did and she made sure we were well taken care of.
Orientation the next day was rough. I didn’t have much Jet lag which made things a little bit easier, but I did have trouble focusing on the various workshops because I was anxious to get to my real home in Japan. In addition, I was easily irritated by the amount of stupid questions people kept asking and the amount of repetition I kept hearing. I swear they told us about 100 times that Japan has a zero tolerance policy for driving while intoxicated. The content of the workshops wasn’t very interesting either. I don’t think there was a single workshop that gave me any relevant information as to being in the classroom. I guess it will have to be trial by error until I get the hang of things. On the final day of orientation I was glad that everything was done but I was sad to leave Dana behind. I think Tokyo orientation would have been a lot less tolerable were it not for Dana.
On July 28th, every JET participant was shipped off to their respective prefectures and eventually to their respective homes. I was with the Wakayama group which had a total of 5 people. We met early in the morning and headed to the airport where we would take a plane to Kansai airport in Osaka. When we arrived at the airport I was met by three people, Steven and two others from the board of education. I had been in contact with Steven because he was assigned the task of communicating with the new ALT’s so it was nice to finally meet him. They told me we would take about an hour drive to Tanabe where I would be met by the man in charge of me in Hongu, where I will be living. The drive went by pretty fast but I soon realized how inaka I was really getting. Inaka is what the Japanese call the country side or the very rural parts of Japan. Tanabe, which is the city that hired me, is a little better because it had a “mall” and a movie theatre. But Hongu is a different story that I will get into a little bit later.
At the Tanabe board of education office I met a lot of people whose names I cannot remember. I know I met a man who is pretty high up but I don’t know what position he has exactly. However I was excited I met an ALT named Carolina who is part Dominican and part Spanish. Although Tanabe is a long drive from Hongu, I am sure that I will have to make some trips to get out of the Inaka once in a while. While I was in the office, a man whose name or position I also can’t recall asked me if I wanted some bread that these two ladies were selling door to door. I looked at the selection and after about 1 minute where I couldn’t make up my mind, the man just started placing different things in a bag. He bought me two pudding cups and an assortment of bread. One piece of bread had peanut butter in it which I enjoyed immensely the next morning. After this I filled some paper work and my “supervisor” arrived. Something you should know about my supervisor is that he doesn’t speak English. And I don’t speak Japanese. Exciting, I know.
After everything was done, I took all of my luggage, loaded it in his tiny car and off we went to Hongu, which is like an hour and a half drive from Tanabe. This is about the time where I began to question my decision. As we kept driving, silently, more and more mountains appeared and less and less people we saw. When we finally arrived to Hongu, I really can’t put into words the things that were going through my head. Hongu honestly reminds me of a small rancho in Mexico. The roads are small and the people limited. I didn’t get to see much of the town because it was late in the evening but I could tell that it probably didn’t have a Starbucks, or a McDonalds, or anything that reminded me of home. Nakamoto-san took me to his house because my predecessor wasn’t moving out until the 30th which meant that I didn’t have any where to stay.
Before coming to Japan I knew that I was going to be staying with Nakamoto-san and to tell you the truth I was really nervous. I would be staying in an actual Japanese home. What was I supposed to expect? I mean I knew some things about Japanese society but I was still scared that I would do something terribly offensive because I didn’t know the proper way of doing it. Well the fact that Nakamoto-san didn’t speak English made everything even harder. When I arrived, I met his mother who got on her knees and bowed to me. This made me feel very uncomfortable and I motioned for her to stand up. She didn’t. It blew my mind that she did this because I thought that in Japanese society older people were respected more. I felt that I should be the one bowing lower to her instead of the opposite. She showed me to my room and turned on the air conditioner. The next few minutes felt like a game of charades as Nakamoto-san tried to explain to me something about him leaving, my changing out of my dress clothes, and then something about eating. I did as he said, changed and headed to the kitchen. His mother had put out some tomato and some lettuce next to some food that I had bought on the drive from Tanabe.
After eating they motioned that I should sleep so I went into my room and watched tv, read and started to write this post. While I was alone in my room, I couldn’t help but think about my decision to come to Japan. Did I make the right choice? Will this experience hurt or benefit me? Of course the town of Hongu wasn’t what I expected but I had signed the contract and I am locked in for a year at minimum. Maybe things will change?
The next day I got up early and got my things and got ready to shower. They hadn’t explained how to use the shower so I took a shower with cold water because I couldn’t really figure it out. Oh well. Live and learn. After I showered, Nakamoto-san’s mother had breakfast prepared for me which was an omelet and some tomatoes. She also offered me some dried fish which I kindly declined. Then I went to my room, dressed for the day and as I looked out my window, Nakamoto-san was already in the car waiting for me. The first day in the office was crazy. Marnie came in and we sat through a 2 minute meeting where everyone in the office said what they were going to do that day. Marnie and I would visit the schools and she would introduce me to the town. Marnie walked to the house, picked up the car and came back to pick me up. When the car pulled up, I immediately fell in love with it! It’s a tiny Toyota Starlet. It’s conveniently called Starlet because I am a star of course. Visiting six schools was pretty tiring. I had to introduce myself to 6 different sets of teachers! I had practiced my introduction the day before when I first met the people in Tanabe so I had it pretty locked down. I started with “Hajimemashite” which means “How do you do?” and then I told them my name, followed with “it’s an honor to meet you!” After all the bowing, it was awkward because I didn’t know anything else to say! Marnie and I would just stand and wait for them to ask something like “Where is he from?” or “How old is he?” Usually after the initial question things got a little more relaxed. At some schools I met students who were there for summer sports and it was fun to see the kinds of kids I will be teaching. They all knew how to introduce themselves which was really nice to hear. Of all the English teachers I met during my visits to the schools, only 2 spoke English. 2 out of 6! This sure makes for an interesting school year!
Marnie also showed me my future house which I was very excited to see. She hadn’t moved out yet so the place was still a mess but I still got a sense of what the place looked like. I immediately started to think about how I would decorate the house to fit my style. The only downside to the house is its restroom. Honest to god it’s an indoor porta-potty. There’s no flush apparatus, all you do is sit, do your business and that’s it. Apparently they come empty it out every couple of weeks. Yeah, just imagine the smell. I try and hold it in as much as possible and use the bathroom at work. Oh well.
The second full day in Hongu was pretty busy. Nakamoto-san drove me to Shingu so I could buy a bed. I didn’t actually buy a bed but I did buy a futon. Most Japanese people don’t sleep on beds, they sleep on futons which is probably why my futon was so expensive! I think I paid close to $200 for my futon, some bedding, a pillow and an iron at Justco. I could have bought a futon at home for less! While we were in Shingu, we stopped so I could exchange some money and also inquired about getting me a cell phone. The man at the phone place said I needed my Alien Registration card which I won’t have for at least 2 weeks so I wasn’t able to get one right away. In the mean time maybe I can jailbreak my iphone so I can connect that? Upon returning from Shingu, I applied for my alien registration card, opened up a bank account, and moved into my new house. Nakamoto-san and another guy from the office helped me take out some of the trash that was still in the apartment and then I set up my new “bed.” At 4:30 PM I was officially off the clock and I went home to unpack.
I think this was the day I called my mom at like 4 am US time and broke down. I was alone in my new place for the very first time. No one spoke any English and there were no JET’s nearby. I felt alone and isolated. I thought to myself that I can’t break my contract because I would disappoint a lot of people. Everyone kept saying how proud they were of me and here I was ready to quit! I finally reassured myself that things would get better. This was only the first few days and it would take some time before I would make friends and get used to being in a different country living alone. This was a Friday and I had two days of being alone. I put on Glee and I forgot about my worries.
The next day, Saturday, I decided to go out and explore my new town. I figured it would take me 20 minutes because the town is so small. I went out and walked along the main street. I went into a few shops and I introduced myself to some shop owners. One lady even gave me a post card as a present! I then went to the Kumano Hongu Taisha which is part of the World Heritage site in Hongu. I had to go up a lot of steps to get to the site which was pretty cool. Along the stairs there were fountains to purify one’s self before going into the temple area. I have pictures on my facebook site so go check them out! I also visited the World Heritage center which is where I met the first person who spoke English! His name is Yasoi and he is part of the staff at the center. He told me a little about the area and said I should do the walking pilgrim tour. This was more like a hike that took about 2-3 hours. I told him I would do it on Sunday but then I thought that I might want to space out my activities because there is so little to do in Hongu. Then I went to the “Walmart” of Hongu which is really a step lower than a Walgreens. I bought some air freshener, a laundry basket and some bug spray for the bathroom.
That was about all I did on Saturday. Eventful ,huh? Oh, I also cooked for the first time. I made Japanese rice and some ground beef. I didn’t really know what I was doing so I just added some spices Marnie left behind. I think I added taco seasoning and parsley? Haha, in any case it tasted good and I was pretty proud of myself.
On Sunday I didn’t really do much. I watched a lot of shows on the internet and sat around the house. At around 12 I went on my first drive in my new car. I went to the store and up a mountain. It wasn’t too exciting. At around 4 I went for a walk and bought some ice cream. I was hoping that there would be people out but the only people who were out were shop owners getting ready to close for the day. To tell you the truth, I was actually excited to go to work just so I can be around people even if I can’t understand them.
Of course it was still early and most of the shops weren’t open yet but some did start to open. We looked around, did some shopping and then met up with another JET, carter. He had stayed the night before and spoke great Japanese so it was a relief that someone could help us if we needed help. As lunch time approached we began to look for a place to eat. We came across this pizza place that looked decent. I know what you are thinking, pizza in Japan? Turns out it was an all you can eat for 1,000 yen and all you can drink for an additional 500 yen so it was a really good deal! I had pizza, potato salad, curry and rice..oh and beer! Haha. It wasn’t too bad for the price we paid! After lunch we met up with another Jet, Joel, who is also from Hawaii! 
After I showered I went into the hot tub for what seemed a life time but in reality it was only about 5 minutes. I thought to myself this is enough, I am clean enough. Haha. So I get out, dry myself and head upstairs to change. That was my first onsen experience. I had read some stories of onsens and I am glad that I don’t stand out as much as a white guy would so I didn’t get a lot of awkward stares but still it was weird. Lol. 
