The Castle and The Water Festival

Saturday, Aug. 6

Woke up slightly hung over today. Nothing a little cup-a-noodle couldn’t fix though. I got dressed and as it was past noon I knocked on Tricia's door to see what she was up to and how she was feeling. She was in fine form, studying no less, and so we decided to hop on our bikes and see a bit more of Shimabara before we had to meet Kayoko at Shimabara castle at three. We wandered around the ‘arcade’ (a large street with tons of shops), drank from the natural spring water that can be found all around the town, saw the carp stream and went to some more of the big stores. We dropped the groceries back at our places and made it to Shimabara castle just in time. Kayoko met us and gave us an amazing 2 hour tour. She really knows her shit. Basically, a lot of the local history is related to Christianity in Japan and while I found it rather interesting, I won’t go into too many details as I know most of you would be bored to tears. If you really want to know more about it you can always email me, but I won’t hold my breath. In any case, the views from the top were gorgeous. Afterwards, we went for a quick snack at a local coffee shop and then headed to the Mizu Mitsuri (I think that’s what its called…basically its supposed to mean the water festival) which was being set up on Old Samurai Road. Well as far as quaint local festivals go, this one kicked ass! They had beautiful candles and lanterns set up against the backdrop of old samurai houses and cobblestone, with a stream running through. There were also people in costume and you could just wander around, gather free stuff and enjoy the light displays. The best part though was the noodle catching. Let me explain what this is. Basically, they have a long open slide made of bamboo and they fit it with a hose so there is a stream running down it (i.e. a water slide type set up). Then they hand out cups with sauce and chopsticks to everyone there and people line up all along the bamboo slide. One person then starts pouring cooked Somen noodles down the slide and everyone tries to catch them with chopsticks and put them in their own cups with sauce. It may not be the most sanitary thing, but holy crap is it fun! The noodles ain’t bad either. We ran into quite a few people at the festival as well and I was also introduced to yet another Japanese teacher, Fumi, who I think will give me Japanese lessons and is quite eager to teach me more about Japanese history (yep, I’m a geek, I know). At this point though, it was around 10pm and I was quite exhausted. Trisha and I said our goodbye’s and headed back to our apartments where we experimented a bit more with Japanese alcohol and showed each other pictures of our friends back home, thus managing to depress ourselves a bit. We agreed that it’s lucky that we live next to each other though, as that is certainly not true of any other JETs that we know of. Laying on my futon later, I went over the day and all the awesome things I’d done and I fell asleep with a feeling of satisfaction.

Sunday, August 7th

Today was pretty laid back. I went to the Hyaku-en (100 yen, or $1) store and bought some wrapping paper for my omiyage (presents for the teachers). I also wrote some journal entries and read a bit. In the evening Trisha and I made our way to the waterfront to see the ocean. There are sadly no beaches in Shimabara, but there is a nice little port and a lighthouse. On our way back we stopped and bought some American movies with Japanese subtitles and went back home to watch them on Trisha’s multiregional DVD player. I went to sleep pretty early as I wanted to be in fine form for the Iaido lesson I’m getting tomorrow. I can’t wait!

Shin's Bar Neon

Shin's -- the hottest little Bar this side of Kyushu! The cool, groovin' cat at the bar moving in high speed is Shin himself. If he were single, he'd be in trouble, let me tell ya.

Shimasho (my school)

Here are some pics of my school.....pretty nice eh? Hardwood floors and palm trees baby, yeah. The top pic is not the greatest quality but it shows me and Vuzi with the Japanese English teachers at our first Enkai.

Just call me Uma

Today was my first actual day at school. I came in with my little bicycle and greeted the scattered groups of students at Shimasho (they don’t have classes right now but apparently like to come to school just for the hell of it….yeah, wow….see people, that’s what happens when pot is illegal – too much ambition). The best thing by far about the students though is that they are like real life anime characters! The ones in my school just happen to wear the little sailor outfits like on Sailor Moon and all the girls are adorable and super giggly. They all call me Rana-sensei and say hello to me about ten times a day in those cute little Japanese accents. Seriously, sometimes I feel like I’m on drugs or something….I mean when a group of them surrounds me it's like I stepped through a Japanime portal. Weird.
They also can’t stop staring at my boobs. Yep, today I had a bit of a low cut shirt and when I came close to one of the girls her eyes went wide as she stared at my chest and I thought she was gonna pass out. She said something in Japanese to her friends and then they all stared in wonder at my boobs, a few of them giggling and whispering. Yeah, I guess I gotta wear some less low cut shirts, but since there are no classes right now my supervisors told me I could dress down….and well you all know what my informal wear is like. Whatever. I don’t care if I’m known as the gaijin slut with ginormous breasts…at least I’m leaving a mark in the world.
Since there are no classes now, Vuzi and I have pretty much nothing to do at the school but are still required to be there. Occasionally one of the other teachers will tell us about something or another that we need to do but that usually only takes a few minutes. To help pass the time today I tried to study some Japanese from my books and occasionally shouted a phrase I learned at the Japanese secretary that sits across from me (her name is Matsumae-san and she’s super nice, even though she doesn’t speak a word of English). If she looked at me in puzzlement I knew I got it wrong….but when she smiled and answered I figured I had gotten my point across. The only trouble with that is that when she answers back the conversation pretty much stops right there, and I’m left shrugging my shoulders apologetically at her. She doesn’t seem to mind though, but for all I know she could be thinking “if you keep bothering me with your half assed Japanese you dumbass gaijin, I am going to poison your green tea and then watch with much enjoyment as you writhe in agony on the floor” as she sits there smiling pleasantly and bowing her head at me. Well I gotta learn Japanese somehow….and I just won’t accept any green tea from her as a precaution. After a few hours of this I got bored though. Vuzi seemed to be falling asleep as well so I chatted him up a bit. Well all I got was a lesson on South African history and culture and the importance of international relations, blah, blah. Then he spent an hour trying to convince me that South Africa is the best country in the world and that I should move there. I quickly went back to shouting Japanese at the secretary.
Just then a teacher I had not yet met came in wearing an iaido/jodo (sword and staff based martial arts for the non martial artists out there) uniform. He walked up to Vuzi and said something in Japanese and motioned for him to follow. Vuzi quickly explained that he had started Kendo lessons a few days ago. That sounded so much better than sitting in the office, so I turned to my supervisor and asked for her to translate to the weapons sensei that I wanted to watch. He nodded in response and I followed him and Vuzi upstairs. I introduced myself to him in Japanese and found out that his name was Miyazaki-sensei. The conversation stopped there as of course he did not speak English and my Japanese is still at the introductions only stage. In the upstairs gym (which is sweltering, due to no air con and the bloody heat and humidity of Kyushu province) we changed into our gym clothes and were given shinai (Kendo sticks) as Miyazaki-sensei seemed insistent I should participate rather than watch. We were then given a half hour lesson by some of the students (who’s English skills seemed only to cover “left”, “right” and “good”). Miyazaki-sensei also came over a few times and gave us some very serious and detailed pointers on Kendo in very beautiful and incomprehensible Japanese. I smiled and nodded a lot even though I had no idea what the hell he was saying. I had tried at first to show that I didn’t understand a single thing he said but eventually just gave up and listened respectfully. Luckily, the students demonstrated for us what he was talking about so we got the general gist of it. Soon however, the Kendo stopped and the students all went and got their katanas (Japanese swords) as Vuzi and I watched from the sidelines. After watching a few drills (with real katanas of course) I was hooked. I wanted to learn Iaido. I mean you have to picture this—here I am in Japan, in a huge hot gym with large windows overlooking a Zen garden, and these handsome and elegant kids are performing the most graceful moves with their Japanese swords as the sun shines over the mountain in the distance, glinting gently off their swords. Yeah. How could I not be hypnotized by that crap?? I mean it was actually a moving experience for me. Ok, ok, I know, cheesy. But really, it was quite amazing. After, we continued our Kendo lesson but it just didn’t feel the same. When I came back down to the teacher’s lounge and Inoue-sensei asked how the Kendo had been, I told her it was fun but that I wanted to do Iaido. She said she would ask Miyazaki-sensei if it was possible. Later when he came in, sure enough she asked something in Japanese and they both looked over at me. I got up and walked over to them. Miyazaki-sensei (who by the way is a very serious and stern type guy – looks like a samurai) looked at me grimly. As I asked again if I could do iaido instead of Kendo he seemed as if he wouldn’t let me. It looked like he thought I couldn’t handle it or something but I told him I was really interested. He paused a minute more as if appraising me, and then went to his desk and dug through some papers. He turned to me and gave me a diagram of a man sheathing and unsheathing a katana and then wordlessly left the room. I asked Inoue-sensei if she thought that meant he would teach me Iaido and she said she wasn’t sure. That maybe I would like to do Jodo (staff based martial art) instead. I shrugged and figured that jodo or Kendo weren’t bad and since Miyazaki-sensei is a 7th Dan in Kendo maybe that really would be best. It was now lunch time and Inoue-sensei took me and Vuzi along with Matsumae-san (who Inoue-sensei said had taken a liking to me….I guess she liked my half-assed Japanese after all) and we went to a curry restaurant! Yep, there is Indian food here. Actually there is pretty much everything here but I love my Indian food, and while this was a slightly Japanized version it was still really awesome. Afterwards, we returned to the school and I tried to use the shared computer to send out a few emails but felt guilty as the other teachers busily worked away. I can’t wait till I have the net at home! As the day was dragging on and I had now looked through most of the books that were left behind on my desk I was starting to get bored again. Suddenly, Tadakuma-sensei (the really nice younger, female English teacher) appeared and told me that Miyazaki-sensei had said I could come to the gym now and watch him practice iaido. I got up all excited and practically bounced along side her as we made our way back to the gym. By the time we got to the gym though I managed to contain my excitement and we entered somberly and quietly through the doors. The students had gone for the day and Miyazaki-sensei was by himself doing iaido forms. He was amazing. So focused. Each motion perfect. We sat quietly by and watched for half an hour or so. At the end of it, I asked Tadakuma-sensei to translate for me and tell him that he was great and that iaido is beautiful, and how Japan is beautiful, etc, etc (I was basically sucking up quite heavily, while trying to be all Japanese about it….I bowed a lot again, you can’t go wrong with bowing.). He then actually smiled at me and said something more in Japanese. Before Tadakuma-sensei could translate, Miyazaki-sensei had walked to the wall and grabbed a katana. He gave it to me in a bit of a ceremonial way (side note, they give everything here ceremonially…they give you change at supermarkets with both hands as they bow towards you) and I tried to accept it in somewhat the same way. Tadakuma-sensei translated that he said he would teach me. I tried hard to be all serious but inside I was beaming. He showed me how to sheathe and unsheathe the sword (in itself a difficult task) and then said to come to the gym on Monday at 9 am. I promised I would. We exchanged a few more bits of conversation via Tadakuma-sensei (he asked if I had done martial arts and I said I had a Shodan in Shotokan karate and had also practiced some Gojo-ryu) and during the course of this, he said that if I trained hard I could test for my Shodan in April! I was skeptical that I could get a black belt in under a year but he seemed quite adamant about this. I dunno if that’s actually possible, but how cool would that be? I left the gym feeling great and Tadakuma-sensei kept telling me I was so brave for wanting to do something like that (she had flinched heavily when during the demo Miyazaki-sensei had stopped his sword inches from my shoulder…I made a point of not reacting though a tiny bead of sweat formed on my forehead shortly afterwards). I told her I thought it was too cool to pass up. She still seemed impressed. In any case, the school day was done and it was now time to go home.
Back in my apartment I found out Tricia had come back home and as we were both hungry we decided to head out for some food and then to a bar that comes highly recommended by the other JETs in the area – Shin’s Bar Neon. We ended up eating in an adorable little coffee shop and just happened to run into Vuzi and Kayoko (a Japanese lady we had met on Wednesday night, and who is actually a preschool teacher). We asked them to join us at Shin’s and they agreed. Vuzi also went to get another South African JET and brought him back to the Bar. Shin’s is the cutest place I’ve been to so far in Japan! It’s tiny but has great atmosphere and awesome cocktails. Shin, the owner, is an awesome guy who speaks decent enough English for our purposes and likes all different kinds of music. He played 60’s rock, reggae, lounge, etc that night so I was in hippy heaven. The best part of the night though was meeting a Buddhist monk at the bar!! Lol, I dunno if some of you remember one of my goals while in Japan….hehe. I almost spat out my drink when he told me what he did for a living. He definitely did not look like any monk I’ve ever seen. He’d also had a few drinks when we started talking (yes, I’ve gotten into the habit of chatting up random Japanese people) and he was dressed in safari shorts and a really stylish, fitted t-shirt. When he asked me if I was a JET ALT I answered yes, and so decided to ask him what he did. When he said he was a monk I thought I had misunderstood as his English is not the best, but no, Shin confirmed it – Matsumoto is a monk. A big, happy, drunken Monk. He eventually joined the rest of our group for drinks and so basically I got wasted with a Buddhist monk. Did I mention that I love this country? I mean seriously, where else is it acceptable for even members of the clergy to get wasted?? I also chatted up Kayoko a little bit more and she ended up inviting me to her school for Japanese drumming classes. She also promised to take Trisha and I for a tour of Shimabara castle the next day, as she is a bit of a connoisseur of local history. Eventually the monk and Kayoko left, and us four JETs came back to Trisha’s apartment for more booze. Around 4 am I stumbled across the hall to my apartment and passed out thinking that coming here was one of the best decisions I had ever made. Although, I’m not sure my liver would agree……

Shimabara

Ok guys! Some pics of Shimmy -- including my apartment and Shimabara castle.

Day 4 – off to Nagasaki

I woke up feeling still as if I had not slept at all. I managed to get dressed, eat breakfast and then all the JETs going to Nagasaki prefecture assembled in the lobby. We were carted off to Haneda airport and put on a domestic flight to Nagasaki. In just under 2 hours we landed in Nagasaki City in beautiful Kyushu province. However, as we claimed our bags and got ready to exit the airport where we would all be split up and taken to the city that we were going to live in for the next year, the reality off it all finally hit me. I was going to be living and working by myself, in a small town where I did not know the language and where few people would know English. And I was going to be doing this for a year. That’s a long time and I suddenly felt very far from home. I looked at Nicole and could see she was having the same thought. “Holy shit”, I said to her. She nodded and said “Yeah, it just hit me too. Remind me – why are we doing this??”. The one person who I had met and really got along with was going to a little island several hours away and I was going to my own small town. Realizing the danger of this kind of thinking though, I pulled myself together. This had been my choice. No one forced me to come here. I had said I wanted a challenge and I was now actually going to get one. It was time to step up. Nicole and I said our good byes and promised to stay in touch, and then we parted ways.
At the exit, there were a dozen Japanese people with signs waiting for us JET ALTs. Soon a tiny Japanese woman came up to me and pointed (we were wearing name tags). “Rana?” she asked. I nodded and she smiled at me and introduced herself as Inoue-sensei – one of my supervisors. She helped me get my stuff to her car and soon we were off to Shimabara. As I looked around at the ocean and mountains all the apprehension I had melted away. This was truly one of the most beautiful places I had been to so far. It was, however, even more hot and humid than Tokyo had been (I mean I love the heat but this was insane). Happily, Inoue-sensei’s car had air con so we cruised through the country side in style. Inoue-sensei, I soon discovered is a super nice and quite funny little lady. I would describe her best as ‘feisty’. She was asking me all kinds of questions and telling me about the school I was going to work in, Shimabara Commercial High School (everyone calls Shimasho, which translates as ‘lets go!’). Strangely enough I didn’t really have too many questions for her though. My main concerns were about the bugs. At the Tokyo orientation I had discovered, much to my dismay, that Kyushu is known for all sorts of giant bugs. Most notably a huge poisonous millipede (about 20 cm long, which is found in houses and if killed by being stepped on will release a smell that attracts more of its kind so you have to catch it with tongs and take it outside and burn it. It’s also poisonous and if it stings you you need medical attention.). There are also spiders the size of tarantulas. When I had heard that I started to freak out a little. I am quite arachnophobic. However, Inoue-sensei advised me with a chuckle that those are very rare in Shimabara and so not to worry. She said they were much more common in rural towns and old houses, and on the little islands (poor Nicole). I was dammed relieved to hear that. Everything else I knew I could handle. As we approached the town (about an hour and a half from Nagasaki) I realized that in many ways Nagasaki prefecture reminded me of Croatia. The mountains, the ocean and even the style of houses were very similar to the Croatian coastline. That juts made me love the place even more. Interrupting my reverie, Inoue-sensei informed me that we had to go to the school first (the teachers work even during summer holidays) as I had to get my other bag and would be introduced to all the teachers. Luckily I was still in business attire, even though I was sweating like a dog in Chinatown. After the intro, she said that she would take me shopping for whatever I needed to start me off in the apartment (it was fully furnished but she said I would need a new futon and sheets to sleep on courtesy of the school, and also that I might want to get some groceries and things like toilet paper). Then she asked me if I liked drinking. I was a bit surprised at the question and was considering how to answer when she said “I love to drink. I want a cold beer right now”. I chuckled and agreed with her as I leaned back in the car seat with a smile. A nation of alcoholics. I had finally come home.

Shimabara

We eventually entered the city of Shimabara and drove towards Shimasho. Shimasho is actually a gorgeous school with hardwood floors and a beautiful garden in the center. I was introduced to all the English teachers as well as the other ALT at my school (a kinda funny South African guy named Vuzi). The teachers all seemed really interested in me and were in general really nice. Inoue-sensei then took me to meet Kocho-Sensei (which means principal…I forgot his name, but everyone just calls him Kocho-Sensei anyway). He doesn’t speak English and he’s a very formal and serious type guy (I tried my best to seem respectful and just kept bowing at him….in retrospect, I think I might have left him under the impression that I am slightly retarded, but at least he doesn’t think I’m rude). After talking about Canada, my job at the school and swimming for a half hour with Inoue-sensei translating, Kocho-Sensei finally allowed us to leave (I managed to sneak in one more bow at the door). I then collected my other bag that had been shipped directly to the school and went with Inoue-sensei to my new apartment. I didn’t know what to expect but I found out soon that I was quite lucky. The apartment is a large bachelor (bigger than my annex apartment) and is fairly new and very clean and bright. It also has a great view from both the east facing window (the ocean) and the balcony (huge mountain). We left my things at the apartment and got back into the car for some shopping. As we drove around Shimabara I felt more and more happy. It’s a really great place. On one side is a large mountain and behind that a large volcano (mount Unzen) where there are tons of hot springs that you can bathe in. On the other side is an ocean bay which has ferries to the other side of the bay. The city itself is smallish but has everything. We first went to Nafco (basically Canadian tire type store) and then to a supermarket called Erena. In total, there are 3 large supermarkets in the city. There is a Macdonald’s, several bars and local restaurants, foreign food places, pharmacies, movie rental places, etc. Basically all the amenities a person could want. There is also a historic castle called Shimabara Castle, and it’s actually just next to my school. After shopping, Inoue-sensei dropped me off at my place and asked me to change and shower (in fact she kept mentioning me showering, so I was starting to get a complex that I smelled) and said that she would be back in a half an hour to pick me up for my first Enkai. Enkai’s are basically work parties that take place at a bar or restaurant and where everyone drinks and bonds. I changed into some more summer like clothes after asking her if that was appropriate and soon enough she returned with the car and drove us to a restaurant near the school. All the English teachers and the other ALT were there. In all there were 8 of us and when we were seated with drinks in hand, we started the self introductions going around the table. The first person to introduce themselves was a retired teacher whose name I forget as I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. Followed by Uchida-sensei (head of the English department, and a serious man), Tadakuma-sensei (a young female teacher who is super nice), Taniguchi-sensei (my other supervisor, who ironically for an English teacher seems to neither speak nor understand English), Nagaii-sensei (a tiny and very eccentric little man, who gets drunk off one drink and likes to make a fool out of himself….but he’s also quite over the top even when sober). Inoue-sensei reintroduced herself as well, and then both Vuzi and I had to do intro speeches. I kept mine fairly short but wanted to convey that I was happy to be here and was looking forward to working with everyone. I did my best to seem friendly and excited. Vuzi talked for half an hour about national relations and the cultural heritage of south Africa (he has a masters in culture and heritage) and I think it was mainly lost on our hosts and on me as well for that matter. As the speeches concluded I found I was starving but it seemed we could not order ourselves, but rather were going to have a several course dinner from a set menu. All of it traditional Japanese fare. I pretty much had to eat everything so as not to seem rude, but given that I had eaten raw horsemeat it did not seem so daunting – that is, until the first course was served. Those of you who know me know I don’t like fish in general, and even the thought of raw fish is enough to make me gag. Well, the first course was sashimi (3 different types of raw fish, but not on rice like back home, rather totally by themselves) and what looked like grilled eel. I stared at it in dismay but figuring it wouldn’t kill me, so I put as much wasabi and soya sauce on the fish as was possible and shoved it in to my mouth. Well I can’t say that I loved it, but it was actually ok. The fish here is so fresh that it doesn’t really have that fishy taste or smell that I hate so much. It was actually pretty tasteless. The tuna was probably the best and I managed to finish all of it. The other types I tried but didn’t like as much. The grilled eel was also ok as well when I put some radish on it. This was followed by crab, raw shrimp, miso soup, weird tofu stuff and some tempura (I was thrilled to see the tempura). I felt pretty good at that point at having tried pretty much everything that I had been so afraid to eat. Not even the last course fazed me....which, in case you were wondering, was actually an egg pudding with fish, shrimp and octopus in it (yep a pudding with seafood). I ate it as best as I could and kept chasing it with gulps of beer. Of course alongside the food we were drinking lots of Japanese beer as well as shochu (a Japanese liquor that’s somewhere in between vodka and sake and mixes well with water so is quite low cal…hehe, my new vodka and soda as it were). After the enkai we said good bye to the other teachers, and Inoue-sensei and Tadakuma-sensei took me and Vuzi to meet one of the other ALT’s that was soon going back to America but had worked in Shimasho for two years. We went to a Hawaiian themed bar (Shimabara is very quiet but has lots of cute little bars) and met Natalie and another Japanese teacher named Kayoko. We ended up having a great time, but eventually the jet lag caught up with me and I found myself struggling to stay awake. Tadakuma-sensei offered to take me home and so I said my good byes to everyone else and went off for my first night’s sleep in Shimabara. I must say I slept rather well. I felt totally at peace and able to handle whatever came my way…of course, it could have just been the beer.

Some pics of Tokyo

Sorry people...having some trouble using the software 'Hello' from school....so I'm posting some pics of Tokyo Orientation without captions....hope y'all can figure out what is what....

Some helpful hints....the pics that are blurriest are the ones where I am most drunk (i.e. take a look at the pic from the back of the taxi to get an idea of what i mean).

Finally here (or rather....finally have some net access after a month...)

August 4, 2005

So I’m in Japan. Huh. Somehow, when I was going through the whole process of applying, then preparing to come here with the JET program I don’t think the reality of me actually having to live and work in Japan for a whole year by myself really registered. Well its definitely registered now that I am sitting alone in my apartment and am painfully aware of being completely unable to operate the laundry machine, kettle or AC (most of which are run by overly complicated remote controls covered in even more complicated kanji). Nonetheless, here I am. There is no turning back now! It’s been only four days, but my mind has already been raped by a vast array of foreign and exotic experiences. However, despite a severe lack of sleep I feel acutely awake. It makes me think of one of my favourite book/movie quotes (from Dune by Frank Herbert): “Without change, there is something inside us that sleeps and seldom awakens – the sleeper must awaken”. And so I guess I have come to Japan to wake something inside of me that has become dormant. Exactly what that is, I don’t know, but perhaps it will begin to show itself as I write of my experiences in this web-journal. Dum dum DUM!

TOKYO – Day 1

Well, after a 14 hour flight, approximately 125 of us Toronto JETs landed in Narita airport. After collecting our bags and stepping into the oppressively hot and humid Japanese air, we were told we had to sit through 2 more hours on a bus to get to Tokyo. I was already too hot and tired to really care at that point and would probably have willingly stepped into a slaughterhouse had I been led to it by JET personnel, so I made no complaints. I had by now already met a handful of other JETs and had basically had the same fake, boring and pointless conversation with about a half dozen other people (“Yeah its so exciting, I can’t believe we’re in Japan.”, “I really wanted to do something challenging with my life”, “I really like to travel, and I wasn’t ready to go back to school/work”, etc.). Luckily after the plane ride I had found my friend from Japanese class, Nicole, who is a somewhat sarcastic, laid back, and funny-in-a-deadpan kind-of-way chick, so I was temporarily relieved of all the smiling and nodding. As we stared out of the bus window though, I felt a strange sensation….I didn’t feel as if I was actually in Japan. Maybe it was the jet lag, or the heat, or both but there was an air of surrealism to it all. My reality check was to come much later. Strangely though, even as we entered Tokyo (which, by the way, is mostly a rather ugly city with very coldly gray, stark, 60s-70s type modern architecture) it still felt like I had just wandered into one of many ugly and semi-deserted American cities (downtown Buffalo comes to mind – yeesh). Eventually, however, we entered the busy and colourful Shinjuku district of Tokyo and arrived at our four star hotel, the Keio Plaza. As it was evening and we had no seminars to attend, we were told we could do whatever we wanted, but to keep in mind that we had to wake up around 7am the next day so to make sure to be in bed at an early hour (especially considering most of us had not slept on the plane and so were already seriously sleep deprived). Well, tired as I was, there was no way in hell I was going to sleep through most of my first night in Japan so Nicole and I dragged my newly found roommate, Silvia (also a Toronto JET going to Nagasaki Prefecture), to find dinner in Shinjuku district. As a bit of a background, Tokyo is divided into several districts, one of which is Shinjuku. Shinjuku is one of the most lively districts and has a ton of restaurants, karaoke bars, shopping centers, pachinko arcades (which are basically really loud and bright, and are filled with people of all ages playing a gambling type game – the rules of which completely eluded me but involve cartoon like animals and lots of little silver balls), and above all lots and lots and lots of bright, flashing, neon signs. The amount of neon signs is actually quite insane, especially when you consider that Shinjuku district alone is about 3 times bigger than downtown Toronto and every inch of it is covered with flashing lights. I mean it must take a hell of a lot of electricity to power that ‘cause everywhere you look something large and bright is flashing at you. If you are epileptic, a word of advice – DO NOT GO TO SHINJUKU. In any case, as the three of us wandered around in search of a menu we could understand I became aware of two things – firstly, Tokyo is actually a very short city (contrary to what I had expected, there are very few high-rises, presumably because of the earthquakes) and second I still felt like I was not in Japan. My companions agreed -- it simply felt like a very large Chinatown. We didn’t dwell on that too much though, as we were now becoming increasingly hungry and had still not found a decipherable menu. Somehow, at that point we stumbled into a smallish alley (still brightly lit, mind you – if there had been a dumpster even it would have doubtless sported a neon sign) and here we found a cheap but clean looking little restaurant that seemed to be a sort of fast food place (Japanese-style of course). We could still not understand anything (except, happily, the prices) but what are mere language barriers in the face of a force like hunger. So basically we stood off to one side and watched what everyone else was doing and then just copied them. I quickly grabbed a tray and an Asahi beer and then proceeded to pile on some Tempura on to a little plate. I didn’t know what was what but at that point I didn’t really care (although I almost cried tears of happiness when I discovered shortly afterwards that I had managed to select chicken and vegetables) and then we came to the second part of the restaurant where you had to pick from a selection of noodle bowls and they made it right in front of you. The greatest part about this was that there were pictures! I just pointed to noodles with green, yellow and white masses (looking like onions, eggs, and radish respectively) and a minute later had a hot bowl of noodles. We paid at the front and the total for me was 700 Yen, (about $7.00!), which was awesome, especially considering I had bought a beer as well. You cannot find a meal like that for $7.00 in Toronto. The food was great and Nicole, Silvia and I all wallowed in self satisfaction at having been able to find a good cheap meal in Tokyo without understanding the language at all. Feeling giddy from our success (or maybe from lack of sleep and the quick downing of a large beer) we wandered around Shinjuku for quite a while just soaking it all in. There was a lot of stuff to see, and of course ‘cause I could see over all the tiny people on the street I had a great view. Eventually though, the sensory overstimulation and physical exhaustion combined forces and we stumbled like zombies back to our air conditioned hotel rooms.

Day 2

I woke up at 7 am feeling as if I had still not slept at all. The Jet lag confused my body and resulted in me waking up constantly through out the night, despite my severe exhaustion. I decided to make my way downstairs for breakfast, and was joined by Silvia who had also not slept much. The breakfast was a buffet style affair with a large choice of food and was really one of the best things about the Tokyo JET orientation (since the rest of it consisted mainly of boring diplomatic speeches). We soon found Nicole at a table with two American JETs (husband and wife) who were going to Fukuoka (which is close to Nagasaki). We chatted them up, and I was quickly in full bullshit mode, debating politics and social issues with the American guy and vigourously tooting the Canadian horn at him. As I expressed my opinion about Canada being the truly free country and not the states (using the examples of gay marriage and rampant pot-smoking) I felt my chest swell with pride at being Canadian and silently thanked my parents for choosing to immigrate to Canada and not the States. At first the American guy seemed pretty intelligent and educated and he agreed with me that America was now in a sorry state. Soon however, it was revealed that he was actually a full out racist and blamed the state America was in partly on the black people living there. As he started on a rant against black people in the States I actually couldn’t believe the crap that was coming out of his mouth (He said at one point that blacks in America whine too much and if they don’t like their situation they should just go back to Africa! – he actually said that. I mean for god’s sake how ignorant do you have to be to say something like that?). Nicole and Silvia stared at the guy in shock, and his wife, looking uncomfortable tried to get him to shut up, but the guy just kept going. Given that I can’t stand discrimination or prejudice I argued with him at first, but it was pointless so I just ended up leaving the table and walked away pissed off. I can’t believe there are still people like that in the world, let alone on a program like JET. Ah well, luckily he seemed to be a minority (the rest of the Americans I met were actually really awesome and were just as disgusted as I was when I told them what the other guy had been saying.).
Following breakfast we headed off to the main hall for the opening ceremonies. This basically consisted of several high level Japanese officials giving long, boring speeches (and they kept saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. Actually it was really funny, because that saying came up in almost every speech I heard from a Japanese person). I have to admit the opening ceremony was kinda cool though. All 3,000 of us JETs that had arrived in group B (Group A had come the week before) were in professional attire, sitting in the highly ornate main hall, and staring at the main stage which looked like something out of a UN meeting. I felt like a foreign official or ambassador, much more so than an English teacher. The novelty did soon wear off though, and after a few hours I found myself struggling to stay awake again. The rest of the day went on like that. Going from meeting to meeting and then attending seminars that we could choose from a list based on what interested us (i.e. driving in Japan, women in Japan, Japanese etiquette, etc.). That night, there was a large reception as well but most of the Toronto JETs skipped out on it as it just so happened that we were lucky enough to get a tour of Tokyo nightlife from some Japanese people that had lived in Toronto on exchange but had returned to Japan (these were Japanese people that had loved Toronto but had had to return to Japan, so they made a club where they get together to practice their English and exchange memories of Toronto. They also try to get people from Toronto to visit them as much as possible.). Our Japanese leader was an awesome guy named Daisuke and he took us to a ton of awesome places mainly around Shinjuku. We went for dinner in this tiny place where I had to (painfully) sit on the floor for three hours. At this point I had my bravery tested in a variety of ways. First off, every few minutes you could see a large cockroach climbing up one of the restaurant walls. And when I say large, I mean HUGE. Daisuke said not to worry – that this was apparently common in cheap places like this and that it was still safe to eat the food. I would have still been a little apprehensive at eating the food at that point no matter what the food actually was, but on top of that they decided to get some of the more interesting Japanese delicacies. These included some strange vegetables with a very strong taste, octopus tentacles with mayonnaise, and my personal favourite, raw horsemeat. Yep. RAW HORSEMEAT. The Japanese people chuckled as more than a few of the Canadian faces turned green when they were told what it was. Most people refused to eat it, but when it was passed to me and Daisuke said “Its ok, you don’t have to try it. We know foreigners probably can’t handle it”, I frickin’ grabbed a piece of pony and tried not to think about how cute horsies were as I stuffed it into my mouth. Surprisingly enough – it tasted all right! I mean I wouldn’t go out and stock my fridge with it, but it sorta tasted like salami and was surprisingly tender. The fact that I had had several beers at that point didn’t hurt my appreciation though. The Japanese people seemed pleased I had tried their weird food stuff and they started talking to me more and ordered more beer (actually they have a cool custom here….you aren’t supposed to pour yourself alcohol but rather pour it for others and they do it for you when they notice that your glass is getting empty. Also, they will keep refilling it and ordering more booze unless you leave your glass full.). At this point I started chatting with a really awesome Japanese chick named Miki Tanaka who, as it turns out, had done her Masters in Social Work (a program I’m very interested in) at U of T!. There aren’t a lot of social workers or psychologists in Japan (Japanese people don’t acknowledge mental problems usually) so she was quite an interesting person to talk to. Having finished dinner though, Daisuke decided it was time for us to continue the tour. We went to several places and Miki took a lot of pleasure in pointing out to me all the different sex shops in the red light district (I guess its obvious I’m a slutty pervert no matter what country I’m in or I just attract the other perverts of the world to me. Mah.). In the sex district, there are a shitload of huge parlours where you can choose a woman or a man from a picture on the wall. Miki said that usually the women who go to the ladies clubs and pay for men don’t typically sleep with them but just want someone to pay attention to them and pay a crap load of money for it (I was a little skeptical – I mean who pays thousands of dollars to just have someone talk to them? Well sure you can start with the talking, but at least get the happy ending for god’s sake. Hmm…I see my purpose here slowly unfolding….). This area also has something called ‘love hotels’. Basically (I quickly ran inside one and then ran out) you pay either for the hour or for the night and you get to use a room with all sorts of accessories ready for you. You can meet someone there very anonymously and the whole thing has a very clandestine feel. Funny enough, it’s actually pretty cheap to pay for a room for the night (around $70) so in an ironic twist, if you need a place to stay in Tokyo and don’t have much money I suggest a love hotel. I personally don’t mind sleeping in a room with whips on the wall, so I totally plan to do that next time I’m in Tokyo.
It was now getting a bit late and we were all tired from walking and were quite unpleasantly starting to sober up so Daisuke suggested we go to a karaoke bar with ‘nomi hodai’, which means ‘all you can drink’. You basically pay an hourly rate to use the room and you can drink all the alcohol you want from a set menu. The drinks were pretty watered down but we managed to drink enough to make up for that. At this point several people had gone back to the hotel so there was a much smaller group of us. Pretty soon it became clear to Nicole and me that most of the Torontonian JETs had never had alcohol/fun/friends in their lives. After about two watered down drinks, they were all grinding with each other and singing really bad karaoke at the top of their lungs. Realizing we had to be a lot more drunk to be able to handle the suddenly high level of nerdiness that was permeating the room, Nicole and I started stealing and finishing off other people’s drinks (as the booze was not coming fast enough for us). Every time someone got up they lost their drink to our klepto hands. By the end of the night there were more than twenty glasses in our corner of the room and we were laughing our assess off making fun of the other people in the room. Nicole even made fun of one of the guys to his face, but he luckily didn’t hear her and thought we were flirting with him (which resulted in him gyrating his hips in our direction – causing more fits of laughter on our end). By 4am we were nicely toasted and wandered out of the karaoke bar and into a sushi place that serves sushi on a conveyer belt. Nicole was falling off her chair at that point though and said she was going back to the hotel. I was too drunk to stop her. I found out the next day that she had gotten lost and wandered Shinjuku drunk and alone for a few hours before finally getting directions back to the hotel. I ended up taking a cab back to the hotel myself – which was a good thing as it turns out. I was completely surprised when the cabbie took off in the opposite direction to where I had thought the hotel was (my sense of direction is generally really good, but as I had discovered in England there are occasional glitches when I’m sleep deprived and jet lagged.).

Day 3

The next morning Nicole and I sat through most of the seminars trying very hard not to laugh our assess off out loud as we were giddy from lack of sleep. One of the Japanese teachers was giving a seminar on team teaching and was using Japanese school kids to help with the demo. At one point he asked on of the boys whether he likes to watch sports or play them himself and he answered that he liked “playing with himself”. There were tears in both mine and Nicole’s eyes as we struggled not to laugh out loud. We had had only 2 hours sleep that night and were a bit hung-over so the only way we could stay awake in the seminars was to pass back and forth little notes making fun of the people around us and then trying hard not to laugh about it out loud. Near the end of the day we were given instructions for the following day, during which we would travel to Nagasaki. So far we had been having a good time in Tokyo, and it still felt like we were on vacation. Some people seemed to be taking everything very seriously but not the two of us. That night, I managed to use the internet for a few hours, but exhaustion finally over took me and I stumbled back to my room and passed out for my first full nights sleep in 3 days.