(no subject)

ただいま！I arrived in Japan yesterday! It's so great to be back here! I couldn't stop smiling, not quite believing that I was back.

Yesterday seemed like the longest day ever though by the time we spent two hours waiting to get on the plane, 14 hours on the plane, an hour getting through Narita airport, and another hour on the bus to the hotel. We finally made it to the Keio Plaza Tokyo Hotel in Shinjuku around 7 PM. It was then up to us to get our own dinner. A large group of Chicago JETs decided to go get food together. After a fruitless search for a specific restaurant that led us in and out of Kabukicho, a fact that I realized far too late after our group leader had already knowingly led us into the middle of Kabukicho (what is essentially the red light district of Shinjuku), a smaller group of us broke off to go get some ramen (outside of Kabukicho) instead. That was much better. It was so nice to eat real ramen again! I then went back to the hotel and went to bed because I was exhausted.

I went to bed around 11 PM and woke up at 4 AM to a slight earthquake, a signifier that I was indeed in Japan. I couldn't really get back to sleep afterwords because of my screwy internal clock (though one of my hotel roommates was snoring and that would have made it hard to go back to sleep anyways). Today was another long day. We had the JET opening ceremony and a bunch of panels all day long. One nice thing about today was that I got to see Kirsten, Eddie, and Victor from IES because they're here for JET, too! It was good to catch up with them, especially Kirsten. I was feeling horribly hungry and jetlagged by the middle of the afternoon though. We had to wait to go off on our own until we ended the night with a dinner/welcome reception though. It was a nice chance to talk with some more of the other awesome and diverse people who're doing JET (Ex. I met a couple from South Africa today, a guy from Australia, some Jamaicans, and another guy who formerly worked for NASA). By the end of the reception I couldn't quite bring myself to go to bed because I just kept thinking about how I was back in Japan and had free time that I shouldn't waste. I ended up joining a group of people for karaoke. I only stayed for about an hour because I was getting too tired. I also realized that I tend to have more fun when I go to karaoke with people that I know well, too. We did sing a pretty intense version of "Bad Romance", complete with no less than four tambourines, though.

 

So here I am back at the hotel, getting ready for bed. There's more teaching and prefectural workshops tomorrow, so it'll be another long day. We then get to go on to our prefectures on Wednesday, which I am very excited about! I am so ready to stop living out of my carry-on bag. It is a minor inconvenience though and completely worth it to be back in Japan. I can't wait to get the chance to move into my apartment, meet the people I'll be working with, and get the chance to go to my favorite parts of Tokyo!

(no subject)

ただいま！I arrived in Japan yesterday! It's so great to be back here! I couldn't stop smiling, not quite believing that I was back.

Yesterday seemed like the longest day ever though by the time we spent two hours waiting to get on the plane, 14 hours on the plane, an hour getting through Narita airport, and another hour on the bus to the hotel. We finally made it to the Keio Plaza Tokyo Hotel in Shinjuku around 7 PM. It was then up to us to get our own dinner. A large group of Chicago JETs decided to go get food together. After a fruitless search for a specific restaurant that led us in and out of Kabukicho, a fact that I realized far too late after our group leader had already knowingly led us into the middle of Kabukicho (what is essentially the red light district of Shinjuku), a smaller group of us broke off to go get some ramen (outside of Kabukicho) instead. That was much better. It was so nice to eat real ramen again! I then went back to the hotel and went to bed because I was exhausted.

I went to bed around 11 PM and woke up at 4 AM to a slight earthquake, a signifier that I was indeed in Japan. I couldn't really get back to sleep afterwords because of my screwy internal clock (though one of my hotel roommates was snoring and that would have made it hard to go back to sleep anyways). Today was another long day. We had the JET opening ceremony and a bunch of panels all day long. One nice thing about today was that I got to see Kirsten, Eddie, and Victor from IES because they're here for JET, too! It was good to catch up with them, especially Kirsten. I was feeling horribly hungry and jetlagged by the middle of the afternoon though. We had to wait to go off on our own until we ended the night with a dinner/welcome reception though. It was a nice chance to talk with some more of the other awesome and diverse people who're doing JET (Ex. I met a couple from South Africa today, a guy from Australia, some Jamaicans, and another guy who formerly worked for NASA). By the end of the reception I couldn't quite bring myself to go to bed because I just kept thinking about how I was back in Japan and had free time that I shouldn't waste. I ended up joining a group of people for karaoke. I only stayed for about an hour because I was getting too tired. I also realized that I tend to have more fun when I go to karaoke with people that I know well, too. We did sing a pretty intense version of "Bad Romance", complete with no less than four tambourines, though.

 

So here I am back at the hotel, getting ready for bed. There's more teaching and prefectural workshops tomorrow, so it'll be another long day. We then get to go on to our prefectures on Wednesday, which I am very excited about! I am so ready to stop living out of my carry-on bag. It is a minor inconvenience though and completely worth it to be back in Japan. I can't wait to get the chance to move into my apartment, meet the people I'll be working with, and get the chance to go to my favorite parts of Tokyo!