Conveyor-belt sushi and Karaoke!

So the Godfather (aka Chibara-kuchou) invited Anne and me to have “real” Japanese sushi after Anne said she didn’t mind a chain-restaurant known as 'Kappazushi' (which sells low-priced sushi apparently).  He said that while we were at it we should do karaoke too.  So one Friday night after work we met at the community center to go out.  At first Chibara-kuchou said that he and four of his buddies would be going but in the end only one crony could make it.  As we were about to leave, Chibara-kuchou’s grandson started making a fuss since he wanted to go too!  Eventually we decided to take two cars so that Chibara-kuchou’s family could come to dinner as well.  It turns out that it wasn’t just a sushi restaurant, it was kaitenzushi, conveyor-belt sushi!  The conveyor belt was to the left of our table and anytime we saw something that we wanted to try we would take the plate.

The kaitenzushi restaurant

Each sushi type had a different colored plate so that once a person has finished eating the waiter can know the value of the sushi.  This sushi also wasn’t maki-sushi (the kind where the fish and vegetables are rolled in rice and seaweed) this was real sushi where the slice of meat sits on top of a small ball of rice.  It was reallllllly good.  I had tuna, salmon, crab and mayonnaise, tuna and mayonnaise, salmon eggs, and sea urchin (I think I’ll add the last two to my list of “crazy things that I’ve eaten”).  One of the sushi chefs was working right near our table and he was amazed that some foreigners were eating raw fish.  He was even more amazed when Anne said that she loved salmon eggs (which some Japanese people don’t even like) and so he gave us free samples.  I was sure to eat slowly because I wasn't sure how all the raw fish would affect my stomach but I actually felt completely fine afterwards.

Next Chibara-kuchou, one of his cronies (the designated driver), Anne, and I went to a karaoke place.  Karaoke is extremely popular in Japan, when you go you get a whole room to yourself with a flatscreen TV, a sweet stereo system, a couch, and thousands of songs to choose from (including English ones luckily).  Chibara-kuchou and his friend said they weren’t into singing and wanted to just eat snacks and listen to us instead.  Anne is good at singing and knew how to work the karaoke controls so she went first.  I couldn’t for the life of me think of a song that I wanted to sing since a) I’m horrible at remembering song and artists' names b) I’m not very good at singing c) I was put on the spot and had kind of a brain-freeze... so I asked Anne to pick a few songs which we sang together.  I sang one song by myself when Anne went to the bathroom though, 'Sekai no Yakusoku' (World's Promise), the slow Japanese one which plays at the end of the animated movie 'Howl’s Moving Castle'.  Chibara-kuchou took a few pictures of us with his cell phone while we were singing (probably so he could brag to his cronies about going to karaoke with us later on). 

After our hour of singing was up we headed back toward home.  We stopped briefly twice; once when Chibara-kuchou showed us a pachinko parlor (Japanese style gambling), and once when there was a mandatory breathalyzer test being performed by police on every car going on our road (drinking and driving laws are very strict in Japan).  But anyway, I can’t wait to try karaoke again!  The karaoke machines in Japan are so high-tech they can make anyone sound good!

A k-car and Bunkasai Preparations

The weekend of October 15th, Anne and I rather unexpectedly got a car!  Apparently Suzuki-san was getting sick of driving us around because he got in contact with an agency which was set up to make donating specific things to the tsunami-affected area easier.  Through this agency he asked if there were any cheap cars available and was put in contact with a couple from the city of Nagoya.  This particular couple had a spare car which had belonged to the husband’s father until he passed away last year.  Suzuki-san told the couple about Anne and me and they decided to give us the car for free!  So that Saturday the couple arrived in Minamisanriku after driving the car a good 850 km (about 525 miles) with the intention of taking the shinkansen (bullet train) back on Sunday.  We met the couple briefly on Saturday afternoon to thank them for the car.  Both the husband and wife spoke good English and so they were able to explain all the features of the car to us.  The car is... kind of old (old enough to have a cassette player but not old enough to have roll-down windows).  The car was well-cared for and was apparently kept in a garage most of the time (a rare occurrence in Japan where there are few garages).  Having an older car in Japan can be a hassle though.  Every two years we must have an official inspection which costs around $2000 just because the car is over four years old.  If the car fails the inspection then we will have to pay for repairs too.  Luckily the official inspection isn’t due until the end of August.  Our car is also... not really a car.  It is too small and doesn’t have enough horsepower or weight for international standards so it's in a different class of vehicle known as a k-car.  In Japan k-cars are required to have yellow license plates to differentiate them from regular cars which have white license plates.  My mom asked me if the car was just a "glorified golf-cart" but I can assure you that it’s more comfortable and powerful than that (getting up hills may take a while though).

So, Anne and I drove the k-car back to the apartment but then we weren’t allowed to use it after that since we didn’t have car insurance yet.  The license plates were also removed so that they could be returned to the dealership and exchanged for Miyagi prefecture ones.  After that we’ll be able to use it on weekends but we don’t have permission to use it to drive to school since we’re foreigners and we might get in a car crash... I mean... we need to check to make sure there are parking spots available at the schools (basically Suzuki-san said something like that).  Other JETs use cars to drive to school though so I think that if we don’t crash the car over the weekends for a few weeks in a row then we’ll be able to get permission to use it after that.  I'll post a picture of the car soon but it seems like every time I think of it the sun has already gone down (I think it seriously went down at 5 PM today, actually I just looked it up and it set at 4:52... <O_O>).

Anyway, this past week at school I had another small speech in front of Hayai Elementary.  Luckily there aren’t very many students so it wasn’t as intimidating as it had been at Hashi JHS.  Other random events have been going on at my schools as well.  Hashi is preparing for its yearly bunkasai (Cultural Festival) which will take place on Sunday, and Michiue and Hayai both had some kind of performance festivals as well.  At Hayai I watched some fourth graders practicing for a yosakoi performance and some third graders preparing for a play (they were so cute!).  At Hashi a class of 7th graders asked me if I would be Alice from “Alice in Wonderland” for their performance.  Hopefully they were kidding since I haven’t heard anything about it since then and I’m not even sure if it’s a skit or what.  While preparing for the bunkasai, the middle school students have been having fewer classes during the day and using the rest of the time to prepare their various skits, presentations and performances.  Meanwhile I’ve been trying to learn all the students’ names which is no small task since there are quite a few of them and I don’t see them all consistently.  I’ll keep working on it though!

The Godfather of Minamisanriku

So the good news is that Anne’s alien registration card finally came!  But when we tried to go to the cell phone store to get her cell put in her name (it’s currently under our supervisor’s name) the cell company said that it would be impossible to change... kind of weird if you ask me since she pays the bill.  But she was able to change her internet router info so that she can pay for it automatically via her bank account.  I’m kind of happy now that I’m waiting to get a cell until after I get my alien registration card so it can all be in my name from the start.

Anyway, after I’d been in the neighborhood for a few weeks Anne came back one night to tell me that she’d been talking with Chibara-kuchou, the neighborhood chief.  Basically he’s a retired, older guy in charge of the community center building and who has a lot of connections.  The way Anne described him almost reminded me of a very tame mafia or something since Chibara-kuchou has a bunch of cronies and some of them call themselves brothers even though I'm pretty sure they’re not related.  When outside aid comes in to help the victims of the tsunami oftentimes the items will end up being distributed by Chibara-kuchou.  Anne told me that when she first arrived and was trying to figure out which days to put out the trash she ended up in front of the community center where Chibara-kuchou and his gang were grilling up some fish underneath a temporary pavilion.  They told Anne what she needed to know and gave her some milk and rice that had been donated to the area.  Anyway, apparently Chibara-kuchou was annoyed that Anne hadn’t been by the grilling-tent recently and that she hadn’t introduced me to the gang.

So... one Thursday after work Anne and I walked down to the community center and ate some barbecue.  Upon meeting Chibara-kuchou I decided that he kind of reminded me of the Godfather (hopefully without the shooting and horse heads...).  Basically it’s in your best interest to stay on his good side and then you’ll get things in return.  After eating some grilled fish(?) with Chibara-kuchou and a few of his buddies we decided to call it an evening (though it was only about 7).  On our way back to our apartment we were walking in the same direction as Chibara-kuchou when he asked us what we were eating for dinner.  Anne and I told him we weren’t really sure (we were planning to heat up some leftovers) and he told us to come to his place to see if his wife (whom he affectionately called “the old woman”) had made anything.  Chibara-kuchou’s wife is a full-time housewife (the “ideal” woman by Japanese standards) and has been for going on 40 years now so of course dinner was ready when we arrived.  So, though I felt a bit embarrassed about intruding upon the wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, we were invited for some homemade dinner!  Chibara-kuchou’s wife taught us about some Japanese table manners while the daughter-in-law tried to encourage her five year-old son to sing us the ABCs (unsuccessfully).  It was a fun evening.

On October 9th Anne and I took the bus into Sendai to see Erin again (this time as part of a yosakoi festival).  Yosakoi is energetic dancing with colorful costumes and props that is really fun to watch.  Erin and a few other JETs from the Kami area of Iwate joined a local women’s yosakoi team last year and apparently have a good time with it (plus it’s good exercise).

Here’s a different yosakoi team during their performance.

While in Sendai Anne and I also got to do some much-needed shopping and I discovered that there’s a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store at the train station (so exciting!).  I’ll have to go back there again next time...

Finally doing my job!

So, we’ve finally come to Wednesday, October 5th (this is how behind I am... but don’t worry I’ll catch up with all the main points this week!).  My first three days of school were at Hashi junior high (my main school)!  It was really awesome to meet the students and teachers and everyone made me feel welcome, so I felt very grateful.  It was finally decided that I’d get a ride to school most days with Miyu-sensei, the Japanese teacher at the middle school, since she lives in my neighborhood.  I’ll admit I was worried at first because I wondered if we’d be able to communicate at all, but as it turns out Miyu-sensei remembers a surprising number of English words from her school days.  So we end up doing hand motions plus some random words to get our ideas across (it’s actually kind of fun).  So as I said my main school is Hashi JHS, but I also have three elementary schools that I visit two days a week: Michiue, Hayai, and Shiroharu.  Michiue and Hayai are in the same building and are located next to Hashi JHS; I switch off between one or the other each Tuesday.  I’m supposed to go to Shiroharu every Monday but due to some holidays and other events my first day of class there won’t be until Halloween. 

At Hashi junior high I had to introduce myself in English and Japanese in front of all the students and teachers during an assembly... I'll admit it was a bit stressful.  It’s probably good that I wanted to keep my English phrases simple though because that meant that I kept my Japanese simple too!  I basically said, “Good morning!  My name is ___.  I come from Massachusetts in America.  I came to Japan last week.  Let’s learn English together!  My Japanese isn’t very good but it’s nice to meet you!”.

For my first classes at each school I did a self-intro including telling them about my home state, hobbies, favorite things, birthday, family members, and anything else I could think of...  Next the students would ask me questions, some that come to mind are: How tall are you?! (5’7” = 170 cm, taller than most Japanese women), Who’s your favorite actor? (I said Hugh Laurie), What’s your blood type? (I tested before I came to Japan since I knew it was a common conversation topic, type O), What’s your favorite anime? (some students got SUPER excited when I said it was Fullmetal Alchemist, luckily I knew the title in Japanese too: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, one student gave me a poster of the anime that he had in his bag).  In the elementary schools I brought in a stuffed animal to pass around too (a penguin my sister gave me), and some pictures of me from when I was their age.  The elementary schools are pretty high tech so I was able to show some pictures on their TV via the computer as well.  All in all it was fun!

At Hashi I met the three English teachers whom I will be working with: Hisaki-sensei (who has been there the longest), Tamaru-sensei (recently certified as an English teacher), and Takato-sensei (another assistant English teacher).  Usually it's Takato-sensei who tells me where I should be going each day and answers any questions that I have.  I’m very lucky though that the teachers are so nice and willing to include me in class (I’ve heard a few horror stories about ALTs who are basically ignored by the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English).  Once I’m more used to being in class and interacting with the students (and the teachers get to know me better) I think they would be willing to listen to my ideas about activities and games we could do in class.  I also passed out the gifts from the US that I brought with me (jam, candles, pictures, candy) and the teachers at the various schools really appreciated it.  I’ve received some candy and treats in return since then!

And now for a random food item I tried and really liked (possibly because no one told me what it was beforehand): gyutan (cow tongue) a local Miyagi specialty that tastes kind of like roast beef.  I recommend it!

Call me “Warm Bandage”: Master of the Red Tape!

One of the first work-related things I did was go across the road from the Board of Education to apply for an alien registration card (I said I came from Vulcan... jk).  This process wasn’t hard to do since my supervisor was there to tell me where to sign and whatnot (thank you Suzuki-san!).  I was told to expect the official card to arrive in a few weeks and was given a receipt saying that I had applied for it (by law I have to apply within the first three months of my residency).  I did some other paperwork as well including applying for pension, health insurance, and signing up for a Japanese-by-mail language course run by JET (the first textbook will arrive in November!).  So, a lot of red tape...

On a more-interesting note, I was given my very own personal seal/stamp (known as a hanko) that can be used in place of a signature and is often required on Japanese documents.  In my case the hanko has Chinese characters (kanji) with the same sounds as my first name but the kanji themselves have their own meanings as well so my hanko can be translated as “warm bandage”.  It’s kind of a strange-sounding name I suppose but I’m hoping that I can live up to it and help people recover... haha.  I think the people at the Board of Education are hoping for this as well because there are many other kanji that could have been used for my name but they took the time to choose some less-common ones with that specific meaning.

The next day Suzuki-san and I drove to the bank in the early afternoon and while we were there the bank hours ended (they close at 3 PM, which is slightly more ridiculous than in the US banks closing at 4).  Instead of throwing us out the bank employees merely locked the front door to signify that they weren’t accepting anyone else and began to close down their stations; they still dealt with Suzuki-san and me normally.  Metal window shades automatically covered all the windows and doors (which was a little scary) but when Suzuki-san saw that I was nervous about it he pointed out the side door which was still uncovered.  I gave the bank 1000 yen to start my account (which is equivalent to about $14 with the weak dollar right now).  Then we waited about half an hour for my account to be activated but they were able to do it that very day!  I got a bank book and was told that my bank card would arrive within a few days.  I got to use my hanko when signing up for the account and I also signed my name using katakana (a style of Japanese writing used for foreign words, it reminds me of using italics when using a foreign word in English).

Once I get my alien registration card I will be able to deal with even more red tape!   < 9_9 > ... haha.  I’ll have to get a Japanese cell phone and an internet router.  Japan is known for its high speed internet but since much of the landline network in my area was damaged during the tsunami most people use small, portable internet routers which convert cell phone signals into wireless internet (pretty cool, right?).  I’ll have to buy one at a cell phone store and pay a monthly fee but it’s convenient that I’ll be able to bring the internet to school with me if I want to! 

Yabusame and the Golden Temple

So, I survived my first few days in Japan and successfully reached my first weekend!  Anne had already planned a trip for us to visit some of the other JETs around the area and to go and see a yabusame competition in Iwate prefecture.  Yabusame combines horseback riding and archery with competitors attempting to hit three targets in a time limit of just 13 seconds.  But the first thing we did over the weekend was go shopping in the "nearby" city of Tome.  Since we don't have a car yet Anne has been relying on Suzuki-san to bring her to Tome to get essential things… like food.  She said that she thought it was starting to wear down on him though because he kept asking her if any of her friends could drive instead.  But, on the night we had dinner with Suzuki-san and Kachou, Anne asked Suzuki-san if driving to Tome on Saturday morning would be alright (when Kachou was right in front of them so basically Suzuki-san couldn't refuse).  Though in Japan people rarely ever outright refuse anything... so there can be a lot of beating around the bush.

Later on Saturday night Natalie, one of the JETs from Kesennuma, came to pick us up in her little car and we drove to her apartment which was about an hour and a half away.  We planned to sleep over at Natalie's place so I brought along my futon and pajamas.  Seeing another apartment made me appreciate how spacious mine is; Natalie's kitchen is only really large enough for one person to stand in and her living room also serves as her bedroom.  Though Natalie's apartment does have other things like a couch and desk which she inherited from her predecessor.  In the morning I saw what else the apartment has: a view.

The view from Natalie's place

Natalie made Anne and me some amazing Swedish pancakes with real maple syrup (Natalie is from Canada so she was really happy when she discovered that one of the international food stores in Sendai had Canadian maple syrup).  Around noon we headed into the city of Kesennuma to meet up with another JET, Drew (who was nice and can read kanji really well so getting to the yabusame competition was a bit easier).  I left my futon at Drew's apartment so that there would be more space in Natalie's car and then the four of us headed out.  The drive to Iwate prefecture was really pretty with golden rice paddies, a few villages and towns, and mountains always in the background.  It probably took about two hours to get to the general location of the competition but we got a bit lost as well.  Poor Natalie was getting very hungry by the end of the drive and so I gave her some peanut butter crackers from my bag (thank you Grammy!).  We caught the end of the yabusame competition but were too late to see Erin perform (Erin is a 5th year JET from Iwate, she became interested in yabusame since she already knew how to ride a horse).  Erin and Anne actually went to the same college in the US (small world, right?).  So we got to see some team yabusame runs where three competitors gallop past (and try to hit) the targets all in a row!  We also got to sample some of the delicious festival food from the various food stands.

Here are some of the yabusame competitors in traditional clothes

On the way back to Kesennuma we stopped by a World Heritage Site - Chusonji temple in the town of Hiraizumi.  It was almost closing time so we had to rush a bit but we saw the golden hall (built in the 12th century!) which is basically a gold covered, hand crafted, mother-of-pearl inlaid mausoleum.  It was really amazing and incredibly detailed, but we weren't allowed to take pictures since it is inside a Buddhist temple.  All I can say is… you have to see it with your own eyes!

Here's a view from outside of the temple, at this time of the year the rice fields turn golden so it's know as the "golden time"

So, it was a fun and productive weekend!

Meetings and Greetings

After finally arriving in Minamisanriku I met my roommate, Anne, and my supervisor from the Board of Education, Suzuki-san.  I was feeling pretty worn out at that point (and a bit shell shocked from the sight of the town) so I'm not sure if I said very many coherent things to them on the way to the apartment.  Suzuki-san said that he'd pick us up again in a few hours to go out to dinner with him and his supervisor.  I just wanted to rest for a while but I figured that it really would be best to try to stay in the time zone and stay awake until at least 8 PM.  In the meantime Anne showed me around my new home.  It's very spacious by Japanese standards but it is kind of an old building.  The refrigerator, TV, washing machine, microwave oven, and rice cooker are all new though and were donated by the Japanese Red Cross.  Some things I noticed right away were the huge closets, tatami reed mats which cover some of the floors and are very nice to walk on, futons instead of beds, heated kotatsu tables (amazing invention!), and that the heated water system is kind of complicated (I'll explain this in another post).

Suzuki-san and Kachou (the section chief of the Board of Education) arrived around 6 PM.  We headed back toward the fancy hotel I had passed earlier known as the Hotel Kanyo.  Since the tsunami hit it has pretty much the only restaurant in town.  The food was probably very good but according to my stomach it was 5 or 6 in the morning and I couldn't eat very much (darn jet-lag!).

 

Here's the ramen that I tried- real ramen, not from a cup!

Anne did most of the talking on our end and translated for me a bit though I could actually follow the conversation fairly well.  Luckily the dinner was over quickly and so I pretty much just unfolded my futon and fell asleep right away.

Friday the 30th was dedicated to filling out paperwork and visiting the schools where I would be working to briefly introduce myself to the staff (these kinds of greetings are known as aisatsu).  I also met with the principals/vice-principals over hot tea along with Suzuki-san and Kachou so that they could meet me and decide how I was going to get to school everyday.  Basically Anne and I don't have a car and can't legally get one until one of us has her alien registration card.  I filled out a form to get one but it probably won't arrive until next week.  Anne wanted to fill out a form but was unable to her first month and a half in Japan since the temporary government office didn't have the paperwork (all of their copies had been washed away in the tsunami).  So Kachou had to ask the principals whether it would be possible for another teacher or staff member to pick me up and drive me to school since it's definitely too far to walk.  I couldn't really understand most of what was said during all the conversations but I could tell that no one wanted to suggest a person right away.  Everyone took turns saying, "Hmmmm.... what should we do?" with many long intakes of breath as though proposing an idea might be painful.  Finally a few names were mentioned and the meeting ended though I had the feeling that it still wasn't 100% decided.  I guess this is what group decision-making in Japan is all about... haha.

I met a funny teacher at one of the elementary schools when I was introducing myself (named Shuu-sensei).  He spoke English pretty well and was able to get me to understand his Japanese too.  He asked me how old I was and I told him, "Twenty-three," then he said, "Me too!".  I couldn't help gaping at his response since he has graying hair and wrinkles and definitely doesn't look like a twenty-something year old.  He said that he had been kidding but he thought that my reaction was hilarious.

Entering Minamisanriku...

Well it's been more than a few days since my last post and part of the reason was that I was busy (especially over the weekend) but another part part of me just didn't want to write because I knew it would be depressing…  But enough is enough!

I knew beforehand that the main part of Minamisanriku town had been destroyed in the tsunami but the knowledge didn't prepare me for what I saw… 

The bus had been heading through a narrow valley road for several minutes before we found ourselves on an open plain with steep hills like walls on both sides.  Pine trees were growing very close together on the hills and that added to the walled-in effect even more.  All of a sudden the bus descended a few more feet down a hill and I saw that the front rows of trees on both sides were brown and dead.  A shiver ran down my spine as I realized that we had reached the tsunami zone.  The reason the trees were so visible was because the houses and other buildings were gone.  It probably wasn't so empty right after the tsunami but since then much of the rubble and debris has been taken away, leaving empty space.  I could still see the foundations where buildings had been.  Closer to the shore there was more rubble and garbage though much of it had been separated into piles.  I saw a pile of rubble about 10 feet tall with a pile of crushed cars next to it about the same height.  There were also piles of wires and metal.  Some areas still had unorganized debris.  I saw the remains of buildings on the ground with a few pieces of twisted metal sticking out, glowing in the sunlight.  I saw a car tire caught on a vertical piece of wood and wondered if a person had placed it like that as a grave marker or if the water had randomly placed it there.  I saw a small row boat sitting on a house's foundation and later I saw a car in almost perfect condition perched on top of a three story building.  The train tracks which had been visible to my left through most of the bus ride were suddenly twisted and cut off near the tree line, about 50 feet later they started up again and headed into a tunnel through a hill, I wondered if they would reappear on the other side.

 The tire on the piece of wood.

Abruptly the bus left the first area as the road curved north to hug the coastline.  We headed to higher ground and passed by many houses that were perfectly fine (it was a little disturbing how normal everything was).  There was a fancy hotel on the peak overlooking the ocean, I found out later that it had been used as an evacuation center and that mostly volunteers stay there now.  I saw the train tracks again to the right of the bus, they were on a raised railroad bridge about 20 feet off the ground and still intact (from what I could tell); it must have been a very scenic coastal ride in the past.

The bus headed down the hill and into what was once Minamisanriku center; it was pretty much a huge field of rubble with a few cleared roads here and there.  Before I came I would have expected that most of the cleanup would have been done at this point (but I suppose if one has literally thousands of pounds worth of rubble it will take a long time to clear).  I was slightly horrified to see that the road we were on seemed a bit flooded but the bus carefully went through the large puddles of water and headed for the only building in the area that had more or less survived the tsunami, the hospital.  Yesterday I asked if the hospital was still being used but I was told that the sea water had gone up to the fourth floor and the building is no longer stable.

One of the piles of burnable debris near the edge of town.

Apparently the reason that the road was flooded is that after the Great East Japan Earthquake and following tsunami the coastline dropped 1 meter in height and now during high tide the seawater often encroaches on the remaining roads.  You might ask yourself why the people in the area would want to rebuild in the first place with all the trouble they have gone through.  But this town has been here for generations and even though there are risks to living here I believe that one cannot give up one's home just because there are risks.  Any location in this world has associated risks after all!  You might ask yourself why I decided to accept my position at Minamisanriku too.  Well, while teaching a foreign language is a great challenge and a worthy task in its own right I also believe that helping a community and helping my fellow humans in their time of need is also very important.  I also know that I would have regretted not going just because of the location.

Anyway, this picture was actually taken in Kesennuma to the north of Minamisanriku and it's of a house that withstood the tsunami but was recently torn down for structural reasons (which is why the wood looks so fresh).  I couldn't help feeling sad about the forgotten stuffed animal though.

Don't worry, I'm alive!

I finally got access to the internet though it can be a bit unreliable at times.  I've arrived in the town where I'll be staying for the next 10 months!  For this post I'll just tell you about how the journey was and for the next post I'll tell you my first impressions of the town.

So, I was scheduled to fly to JFK and then go on to Narita but my flight to New York was so delayed due to maintenance that I was put on a flight to Detroit instead.  Getting on my flight to Tokyo was easy and the flight was good with only minor turbulence.  During the 13 hour flight I watched some of my favorite anime, Fullmetal Alchemist, on my laptop.  After watching an episode I noticed the young woman to my right seemed to be watching out of the corner of her eye so I asked her if she liked the show.  As it turned out she also liked it so I put the video to full-screen mode and let her watch too (yay for anime-camaraderie!).

Once I got to Narita I was informed that my checked bags had gone to New York instead (not really surprising) and so I gave them my Japanese address so that they could be shipped to me later.  My roommate (Anne) had suggested that I pack a week's worth of clothes in my carry-on anyway so I wasn't very worried.  I've got to hand it to the people at JET though, they are very organized.  With their help the other late-arriving JETs and I made it to the hotel with no problems.

I took some pictures of the hotel which I found to be amusing:

The room came with complementary yukata (pajamas) and slippers

The toilet came with several functions including a water spray and a seat warmer

 The bedside table had a copy of both the New Testament (which I was surprised to see) 

and The Teaching of Buddha

 

I took two trains the morning of the 29th: the first to Tokyo station and the second was the shinkansen up to Sendai.  The train rides were very pleasant and I had my first Japanese-only conversation when I asked the snack-selling lady for some orange juice.  Tokyo was as big as I had heard because it is so sprawling; many of the houses and apartment buildings are small though so I imagine that if one is down in the city it actually wouldn't feel so large.  Along the way I saw my first Japanese McDonald's, a bicycle parking lot, and Japanese-style graveyards (where there are family gravestones but where no one is actually buried since most people are cremated).  At one point on the shinkansen there was an announcement that the train would be split in two with one section headed north and the other west (that's time-efficient Japan for you!).

 The outskirts of Tokyo (sorry the pictures are skewed it's probably because the bullet train is so fast!)

 Finally out of the city!  Notice the mountains in the background

 Just outside of Sendai

In Sendai I met one of the JETs in charge of the area and he gave me a very brief orientation and lots of packets with information about Miyagi prefecture.  While there I tried to eat lunch but my stomach was still convinced that it was midnight and I didn't feel very hungry (darn jet-lag!).  While in the city I noticed several people wearing socks with sandals, a fashion which I always hoped would catch on in the US (but so far no such luck)!

From Sendai I took the bus to my town but I'll tell you all about that in my next post.