Back and forth~

By the time I was about to write about the rest of my Korean trip, I had to get ready to go home and then prepare to return to this side of the world to Japan. So my summer before arriving in Japan has been mostly been work and preparing to move out of Victoria and move overseas to Japan.

Now that I have been in Japan, I feel like it's a sin for not having written anything.

Arrived in Tokyo on August 3rd. We arrived an hour earlier than scheduled but that doesn't change anything because when you land in an international airport between noon and maybe 4 or 5ish, it's going to be super busy. Although as a JET participant, we were pushed earlier in the immigration line, we still had to wait for an hour or two through immigration and then pick up our baggage. 

What's amazing in the JET Programme is that there's always someone there to guide you every step of the way until you reach your contracting organization. That is before the airport and after the airport. Once we reached the arrival, there were people with blue shirts everywhere guiding us to the bus that would take us to our hotels. I thought we would have to go to a kiosk to send our luggage, but considering there are hundreds of JET participants arriving at the airport, there was a separate section before we got on the bus to hand to a different JET staff to send our luggage to our contract organizations. 

The hotel we stayed at for our three day orientation was really pretty. It was downtown Shinjuku area.  As soon as we arrived, it really felt like that was our first day of work even if we just got off the plane. Someone explained our schedule for the next three days and the things we had to do etc. That was when I realized how many people were there and from how many countries. I was part of group B but apparently there was Group A and another group is coming soon. For my group, it felt like most of the participants were from America. The other countries represented was Canada, New Zealand and UK were the big groups. There were people from France, Indonesia, Germany, Argentina, Mongolia, Latvia and many more that I did not meet. When I say that there were a lot of people, I mean a lot. It was amazing how they could arrange everyone so well. 

Too bad I did not have my phone as I could not take any pictures. Pictures would have been the best way to show you the scale of how many people were there, how big the hotel was and how official everything was. On the second day of Orientation, the Canadian Embassy held a reception for the Canadian JETs. I didn't really think much of it, but it was a good thing I went and it was a sad thing that I did not have my camera with me. The view from the top of the embassy overlooking downtown Tokyo was absolutely beautiful. The Embassy is in Akasaka. The view of the Canadian flag with the backdrop of Tokyo tower and all the Tokyo skyscrapers is absolutely beautiful. 

It was at the reception I was aware of how much the embassy does to promote Canada and as noted during orientation, most of the staff present were former JET participants. Thus making me a little relieved at the future possibilities of what to do after JET. At the embassy we had our "last sip of Canadian beer" (aka sleemans) and dominos pizza. 

Official Kimino-town's mascot: Kimichon

The next day we were shipped off to our designated locations. For me it was Wakayama and we took a plane from Haneda to Kansai Airport. This time I landed in Terminal 1, which had so much more things to do. Terminal 2 really had nothing. Terminal 1 was filled with foods and shopping and many more. When we arrived our respective supervisors met us at the airport. In my town, there is another ALT, so in total it was the three of us went out for lunch before our supervisor drove us to meet people at the Board of Education. Afterwards we dropped our stuff at the apartments I will be living at from now on. I have to say I was really surprised to see how spacious it is. I was really expecting a tiny apartment but it's really wide. 1LDK I think~ Pictures below.

bedroom

living room

kitchen

Up to today, our supervisor has picked us up to get things taken care of like getting a bank account set up, a Japanese stamp (inkan), registering at city hall, and of course getting our meals and getting stuff to be comfortable at the apartment. All that worry to set things up on my own was for nothing.

Today because of the typhoon warning, we were advised to stay inside the apartment. However, even without the advisory I would've stayed inside because as soon as we arrived, I did not have time to clean my apartment and it was only today I could get things in order. It was also today that I could finally post pictures of my apartment after I cleaned it hahaha. 

Wakayama prefecture as a whole is beautiful. It's both coastal and mountainous. I'm in the mountain area so I see green everywhere. It feels like BC except I am much much much closer to the mountains as Japan. I think on Monday, our supervisor is finally taking us to practice driving. yes. Japan drives on the other side of the road. Furthermore, the roads are much more narrower. 

I have to commute to work, so this is really important for me to be comfortable in Japan. Although I was worried about having to drive, I think I will be ok now that my supervisor is really making us practice before we get our cars. 

Although today I mostly ate rice, tomorrow I will properly cook a meal. 

I wish I could write day to day blogs but I think it will most likely end up as weekly summaries.