Day 10

I arrived in Japan on Sunday, August 4, 2013. The first thing I remember seeing as our plane prepared to land at Narita Airport was the landscape of Japan from thousands of feet in the air. I was lucky enough to have been seated next to the same girl who I was coincidentally seated next to at my interview for the JET Program, back in late February. She and I giggled about how Japanese the houses looked, the mountains... We were in Japan. The acknowledgment of how surreal it all felt was a recurring topic between us for the entire 12 hour flight. We thought everything would finally “hit us” once we landed but even then, we just couldn’t believe it.

After exiting the plane, our entire JET group was shepherded to a bus that transported us to the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where we would be staying for the next 2 nights and days. This relatively short event felt like it spanned weeks and is largely just a blur to me, like some previous JETs have described. Everything was very fancy and professional. My room was on the 22nd floor!

♡ view from my hotel room ♡

During the orientation, we all socialized, ate, drank, went out on the town. The first night after we got in, I just took a shower and crashed but the second night, Monday night, I went out into the bright lights of Tokyo with some people from my Ehime group. We went to a cafe where I ordered my first meal in Japan! Well, my first thing: “Aisu kokoa” or iced cocoa. What a proud moment that was... The next day was much like the first in that we all sat around for long periods of time in business suits, trying our best to ignore the jet lag and absorb the ample amount of useful information that was constantly being fed to us.

On my last night in Tokyo, a friend of mine and I went out. We walked down a crowded city street just outside of the hotel and I felt the realness of it...

♡ crowded street in Shibuya ♡

“I’m in Japan,” I would think to myself over and over again. I became more in touch with that feeling once I ventured out of the hotel because during orientation, it didn’t really feel like I was in Japan. With all of those hundreds of English-speaking people around me, I was still in a bubble. Anyway, my friend and I went into a McDonald’s where I was excited to try the teriyaki burger that my Japanese teacher at university said was always her favorite thing to order there. We also split a melon soda float which is new and heavily advertised all over Japan right now!

♡ teriyaki burger and melon soda float ♡

Needless to say, it was a delicious experience~ That night we also wandered around Uniclo and made our way into an arcade!

♡ crane game in a Japanese arcade ♡

Luckily, my friend knows some Japanese so she arranged for us to dress up in costumes and try my very first purikura! For those who don’t know, purikura is basically a photo booth but it’s commonly used by girls because the camera slightly distorts your face to make it “cuter” and then you are able to decorate it with all sorts of backgrounds, stickers, etc. It was really fun designing them by the way! We couldn’t understand a lot of the kanji on the buttons but we managed to each come away with a very adorable, personalized photo strip to capture the memory of dressing up like a schoolgirl and policewoman.

♡ Latashia's & my purikura ♡

It was a really interesting, fun, and (still) surreal little adventure.

The following day was Wednesday which meant that it was time for all of us Group B JETs to separate into groups and be shuttled to our respective areas. Another bus and short plane ride later, my group landed in Matsuyama, the capital city of Ehime prefecture. The Japan heat-humidity combo that stunted us in Tokyo seemed to have reached new heights in our southern, coastal region. After collecting our luggage at the airport, our group dispersed once again and only me and the other Yawatahama ALT were left. She and I ventured out into the crowded terminal, searching for signs that read our names. When we finally did come upon these signs (which were very cute and thoughtfully made), they accompanied 3 friendly faces--a 5th-year ALT in our city, our supervisor & our coordinator. Finally united, we headed off to Yawatahama City, Ehime.

The very first thing we did when we got to our city was have lunch. The 5 of us ended up in what felt like an extremely traditional Japanese restaurant. We took our shoes off, sat on pillows, and ate some food that I’d never tried before. First, everyone had some type of cold noodle that you dip in a sauce. It had been a while since I’d used chopsticks! Unfortunately, my stomach was in so many nervous knots that I just couldn’t bring myself to finish the noodles. That’s probably one of my biggest regrets so far... In Japan, you are expected to eat every single thing on the plate as to not be wasteful or disrespectful to the person who made it. Japan is very much an efficient, resourceful and respectful society so this makes sense. Also, first impressions are extremely important here. It still bothers me, a week later, that I didn’t finish those noodles. But, as the Japanese saying goes, “shouganai.” This phrase roughly translated to “it can’t be helped” or “there’s nothing you can do about it.” It was a learning experience though and now I make sure to eat every. Single. Thing. No matter what. Anyway, then we had okonomiyaki which is like a savory pancake? Maybe you can google it. It was pretty good and they actually grilled it on our table for us! I made sure to finish that one.

After that, we ran a couple of errands and met some people around town before being led to our apartments.

♡ my town ♡

Once I got to my place, I was instantly in love. I’ll have to do a room tour for you guys sometime!! We climbed up to the top (3rd) floor of my apartment complex to a cute teal-colored door. This marked the first thing I loved about my apartment! Then I walked in and it’s HUGE (for Japan, lol). Imagine a spacious, spotlessly clean, adorably decorated, 3-bedroom apartment with hardwood floors and tons of huge windows (which consequently means tons of natural light all over the place *swoon*). 2 of the 3 bedrooms are furnished as such but one of them is used for storage. The 2 bedrooms have traditional tatami mat flooring and most of the entrances to the rooms are marked with traditional sliding doors, too! One of the gigantic windows in the living room is actually 2 sliding glass doors that lead out to a narrow, semi-wraparound balcony. The storage room also has the 2 big sliding glass doors that lead out to a smaller balcony. The best thing though is what I mentioned in a previous post: the air conditioners. Most people in Japan don’t have these (although the Japanese summer heat literally feels like an oven??) so I’m truly, truly lucky to have 3 air con units--one in the living room + one in each bedroom.

So, I have my bedroom with the bigger bed, closet, and windows than the guest bedroom... But that guest bedroom has the kotatsu (a heated table), which I will probably rearrange in winter. Then I have the spare room which is really nice and has clothing racks, extra bedding, ironing board with iron, a couch, beanbag, a vacuum and space heater. The living room is simply amazing and includes a cute gray couch as well as a small TV with stand, small wooden table with 2 chairs, plus a bookcase with a toaster oven, microwave, and lots of study materials that my lovely predecessor left me. I have a narrow but fully-functioning kitchen off of the living room that has a refrigerator with freezer, sink, stove and storage that is stocked with a lot of dishes and utensils. There’s also a nice pantry room that has more goodies like a rice cooker, blender, trashcan and cleaning supplies. Just after my entryway, I have a big comfy red chair that I tend to sit in while I change shoes. Then there’s what I call my “shower room” which is one room that includes my sink with a mirror, loads of storage cabinets, a separate shower & bathtub room within that, and my washing machine. My toilet is in a small room all by itself! That about covers it for my apartment but you’d really have to *see* it to understand just how perfect it is. I haven’t even mentioned the views from all of my numerous windows...

♡ view from one of my windows ♡

Mountains, mountains, mountains. Mountain after mountain, covered in lush green foliage. In the foreground, it’s a sea of traditional Japanese roofs which make for a very intriguing view. Another bonus is that there’s a vending machine, small park, and row of sunflowers just outside of my apartment.

♡ sunflowers I can see from my window ♡

Seeing that little area always cheers me up for some reason.

The next activity I remember doing was going to a nice izakaya (Japanese bar) with the other 2 ALTs and our coordinator. That was really fun and I got to discover my favorite alcoholic drink yet--”umeshu” or plum sake. Whew, I could drown in that stuff. We sat in a secluded room for just us 4 and got to know each other better which felt comforting, heartwarming, and overall... right. I believe it was the next day, Thursday, that we went to set up our cell phones. I went with a new iPhone 5 from AU which I am insanely excited about!! Eh, then, let's see... my memory is horrible and so much has been going on that I have trouble remember the sequence of all of the events that took place last Thursday and Friday. Basically, our coordinator has been playing the role of mama cat to the other new ALT and me. I even told her “we’re like your kittens,” because she has been showing us how to set up bank accounts, travel, shop, everything. Those 2 days were filled with just that--setting up the technical things. We made sure that all of our appliances, utilities and bicycles were good and we went to banks, the post office, city hall, stuff like that.


We also met our co-workers at our Board of Education and they all seem like very pleasant people! In Japan, when you meet a person or group of people that you are going to be spending a considerable amount of time with, you give them a gift and it’s called “omiyage.” It’s usually something small and just symbolizes that you hope they will treat you well. I gave out dum dum suckers! Along with the business end of things, we also did some casual shopping as we were shown the local supermarkets, pharmacies, dollar stores, restaurants, and home goods stores. I was also given my “inkan,” which I’m super excited about! In Japan, each person has an “inkan” (personal seal/stamp) with his/her name on it that is used in place of signatures. So I have a little circular stamp with “Heirii” on it and I get to stamp it everywhere on all kinds of things which is pretty neat. On Friday, I rode my bike to the work for the first time. It’s a short ride, but really scenic and cool! On the way, I cross over this bridge and I always slow down so I can look at the variety enormous fish in the river below me. That’s my favorite part of the ride, for sure. I believe it was also Friday that our coordinator took the other ALT and I to visit a few of our schools! That was really nice. We got to meet our fellow teachers as well as some of our future students. They all love trying out their English on us. One little boy looked at me and said “This is a pen!” Of course, he wasn’t holding a pen... It’s just that this is the first English sentence that Japanese kids learn. The cuteness was overwhelming.

On Saturday, to kick off the weekend, our coordinator invited us to go shopping and swimming in the next town over, Ozu. Of course, we obliged! Coincidentally, I knew one of the new ALTs in Ozu so I arranged for her to come with us. Our coordinator drove us to Ozu where we met the other new JET and set off! Shopping was first on the to-do list but of course we needed to eat before that. We tried an American-style restaurant called “Roy’s” and it looked pretty legitimate! Lots of vintage, American-style decor. Even so, I was reminded that we were in Japan when the shrimp I ordered arrived with its face still attached, lol. After lunch, we went to a discount clothing store where I got some nice work shirts and I also got those long, slouchy socks that I’ve been wanting forever! And they were dirt cheap hehe!! Then, we drove a little farther to Iyo City where there is a big mall called Emmifull. We window-shopped a lot but after jut going to the nice discount store, we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay the high prices before our first payday. Oh and we ran into some Matsuyama JETs at the mall! That was pretty cool. After that, we dropped the Ozu JET off because she had other plans and then stopped by another American-style restaurant. There, our coordinator casually mentioned that a few of her friends would accompany us swimming. Slowly but surely, we began to realize that it was pretty much a double date set-up haha! But it was fun. They showed up and were really cool and could speak English really well. We didn’t end up swimming because it got too late but yea! They would be fun to hangout with again, so we made 3 new friends. Sunday was actually the first day that I didn’t have any plans. Since I arrived in Tokyo, I had pretty much every second of every day mapped out for me. I used Sunday to finally unpack everything, clean, and go for a walk around my town. It was very nice and relaxing~

Come Monday, the other new ALT and I had to be at our Prefectural Orientation back in Matsuyama. I had to take a bus to a train to a tram to get to the venue and stay at a nearby hotel that night.

♡ the envelope I was given with my train tickets to Matsuyama ♡

It was really great to see our Ehime group again and hear about all of their towns. We also got to know our Prefectural Advisors, who gave us so much amazingly useful information. We all did an all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet where I coincidentally met another ALT in Yawatahama! He’s Jamaican which I found to be so intriguing!! He and I talked a lot and I look forward to hanging out with him again because he seems like a really interesting guy. After the buffet, some people went to a bar and I went along. I quickly realized that I was far too behind on drinking and so I wasn’t really enjoying the crowded, dim, bar scene as much as everyone else. I think I expected it to be more like the izakaya that I had gone to a few days prior but it was pretty much just like a tiny American bar... Complete with the section of creepy guys who pull on my shirt and repeatedly ask for my phone number, ugh. So then I crashed in the smallest hotel room I’ve ever seen (that I found to be pretty charming) and the next day it was more orientation. I don’t think we can be oriented enough, ha! A really cool thing that happened was the first panel on the 2nd day (Tuesday) was replaced by a "naginata" demonstration which consisted of Japanese high school girls that were half dancing and half fighting... And they all had these huge sticks. So sugoi!! When they asked for volunteers to try, I went right up. And I’d definitely like to do it again... because, who wouldn’t like to be able to strategically beat someone with a stick?! Plus, I kind of just want to do anything and everything in Japan. One of the last panels at Ehime Orientation was about taking language courses in Matsuyama. As the representative spoke about this, she mentioned that she had recently taken a trip to Sri Lanka where she picked up some souvenirs. At the end of her presentation, she asked us some questions. I answered one of them right and she rewarded me with a souvenir from Sri Lanka!! It’s the recipe and ingredients to make Dal Curry and a little hand-woven brown mouse with lots of colorful, detailed stitching on its clothes. I was so surprised to receive this gift and instantly wanted to treasure it! Now the mouse is sitting on the desk just inside my door, so I see it all the time and it makes me smile.

Okay so after orientation was over, we had to catch the tram back to the train. As soon as we got back into our town, our coordinator was waiting for us! We immediately went to a local fireworks festival. This was my very first festival in Japan so I was extremely excited. I finally got to re-try “takoyaki” (balls of octopus meat)!!! I didn’t like it the last time I tried it because the cook used frozen octopus but in this case, I could see the fresh tentacles right in the front of the booth. It was pretty amazing but I burned my mouth because I ate it too quickly. We also got to see some kids do choreographed hip hop dancing which was so amusing! It seemed so Western. Omg, and there was a pig rodeo. A pig rodeo, yes. Random people at the festival were riding this giant pink squealing pig in a ring to see how long they could hold on!! It was absolutely hilarious, wow. And the pig really reminded me of in Spirited Away when Chihiro’s parents turn into pigs... It looked exactly like those pigs. Oh, and we ran into the Kyoto-sensei (Vice Principal) from one of the schools that I visited on Friday! He stuck around with us which was really nice. We got to meet his only daughter and her husband. Then, it was time for “hanabi.” Hanabi means firework but directly translates to “fire flower,” which I think is beautiful. I just love the Japanese language~ But yea! The fireworks were hands down the best I’ve ever seen. Huge, huuuge colorful bursts of light into the night sky over the festival... It was a great feeling. I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to fireworks before because when they would burst, I could feel the wind from it! It was really a magical experience.

That brings me to today, Wednesday. Today marks being in Yawatahama for 1 week, so I forced myself to do a blog despite how exhausted I am. This morning, I put on my nicest black business dress, my gold coin necklace with the panda on one side and temple on the other, and my suit jacket and set off for the BOE on my bike. I was dressed so nicely because today, I met the mayor of Yawatahama City as well as the Head of the City Council. Thanks to my mom, I was actually able to present the mayor with a real Key to the City from my hometown of Memphis. This was my omiyage to him.

♡ me and the mayor of Yawatahama City ♡

He, very thoughtfully, gave me an official Yawatahama logo’d pink polo shirt. Now I can match some of the people in the BOE! There was a really funny/memorable moment where the mayor actually asked me what my favorite anime is. I said Yu Yu Hakusho and the newspaper photographers looked at each other, smiled and gasped... ahah! My omiyage to the Head of the City Council was actually another key to another city, thanks to my grandma on my mom’s side. I presented to him the Key to the City of Bolivar, TN, which is my mom’s hometown. The key is made of Tennessee Pewter which I thought was a nice touch. He also gave us shirts, in fact it’s another pink Yawatahama logo shirt but this one isn’t collared and includes our town mascot, Hamapon, on the back! Pretty cool. After that, we went back to the BOE and reviewed a few more things about our apartments and schools. For lunch, we tried a new place near work and while we were there, I was approached by an older woman. She welcomed me to the town and encouraged me to come to her calligraphy class that she teaches! She gave me a sample of the calligraphy and I just felt so special.

♡ my lunch and a sample of local calligraphy ♡

I really do want to go to that class, especially now.

After work, I went home to change and then we went back out again to go to another local festival! We actually walked to the festival from my apartment so it was very nearby! It’s a festival to show respect for the dead and it included a lot of traditional dancing. There was also a lot of amazing food! First, we each got some noodles. Then when we walked over to buy drinks, we were offered free cotton candy by some guys who were making it for the festival! We accepted and then they invited us to try and make some ourselves, so we did! So, I made cotton candy tonight. It was fun and we each ended up with cotton candy in both hands which left the men at the stand confused as to how they could give us even more. I gave one of mine away to a little Japanese girl who was hesitantly staring at it and then got a cup of apple juice. On our way to sit down, I was approached by a Japanese woman who spoke very good English! She joined our group and we talked with her a lot throughout the festival. The citizens of my town are so giving. After being given tons of free cotton candy, we were also given a lot of french fries and snow-cones and then we were even given some frozen french fries to make ourselves!

But yea, it turns out that the woman we met lives really nearby too and would like for us to come have coffee at her house this Friday! So that’s the plan after work. We couldn’t plan to do it tomorrow because we had already accepted the mayor’s invitation to go to another firework festival!! Sooo yea, my week is booked solid yet again and my weekend probably will be too because I already have plans to go back to Ozu for a concert. I really reeeaally need sleep and it’s now past midnight in Japan. I need to take a shower and sleep before I have to get up and go to work early tomorrow again. As far as how I'm feeling about all of this, the answer is: great. Amazing even. I believe I'm in what the JET community calls Stage 1 or "the honeymoon phase." I feel really comfortable, excited, relaxed and happy. I love Japan. So, thank you so much for reading!! If you have any requests about what you are curious about, please leave a comment. Any general feedback is also appreciated! Until next time~