Night Life Tokyo

TUESDAY, JULY 27

I woke up earlier the following morning, around 6 or 6:30. As my mother would later say when I chatted with her about my JET lag, “So, you're now on a NORMAL person's schedule” as a backhand criticism of my sleep schedule these past few weeks which had me waking up at the perfectly respectable hour of 11.

Breakfast did not include french fries.

We had more official speeches and general formalities. The mutterings and boredom of the surrounding JETs was more pronounced. Many had even skipped and those who were here were much less formally dressed. I was one of the few JET girls in a suit. One or two, I was flabbergasted to see, were in bright sundresses, which I wouldn't qualify as formal business attire. Whatever lifts your bags. I found out later that the Irish JETs went out clubbing. Bars don't close here, so some didn't get back until 8 or 9am. Obviously, many of them missed the morning activities.

In the afternoon we broke off into groups by what level (elementary, junior high, or high school) we would teach, then divided in half, alphabetically by prefecture name. Japan... always organized. Here, we got basics on teaching and lessons, although it wasn't terribly solid, it was more solid than anything we'd to this point heard. I had begun a list of possible lesson ideas (holidays, green Bay Packers, etc.) and added to it a lot from this.

Finally, there was a meeting with my prefecture, where they told us all where everyone else was going (by putting a picture of us on a map, a picture, I might add, that was a photocopy of one of the particularly ugly passport photos I'd sent in during the past two months. I look like I have a black eye, although it's more purple. My mother, upon seeing it scolded me for wearing too much make-up, upon which I pointed out that it was the printing that was off, as I certainly don't have green highlights in my hair. We learned that we'd need to meet in the lobby the following morning at 7:10, and the bus would leave at 7:30. We were also told to bring out luggage downstairs, minus anything we'd need for the night or tomorrow morning. The luggage would be locked up and loaded in the morning, but, as we were told, the Japanese didn't trust us to load our own luggage in an efficient manner.

I finally had the chance to ask something that had been confusing me. We were traveling to Otsu on Wednesday, but Shiga survival orientation (in Otsu, I'd thought) wasn't until Friday. And we had just been told that we would be driving with our supervisors (who were picking us up in Otsu) to our homes that night. I thought it made no sense that we'd travel (some much farther than me) to our homes that night, then have one day off before traveling BACK to Otsu. Obviously there must have been a mistake. I raised my hand and asked the question. The person next to me, in a huff pointed to my schedule in front of me and said that survival orientation would be in our home towns. I was most happy when not a second later, the answer came back that we would, indeed, travel back to Otsu.

I went to two more classes in the afternoon, one on independent Japanese study (where I was, again, told to do the CLAIR course for JETs (which is free) and not to buy an electronic dictionary in Japan as they are all tailored for Japanese speakers. The best course was the last one, a beginner's guide to Japanese etiquette that was a short, sweet rundown of basic etiquette. It was taught by two current JETs, one a half-Japanese girl, and the other an American guy who had recently married a Japanese woman and “lived every day under the iron claw of his mother-in-law.”

I learned how to accept a business card (in Japan, a HUGE deal!) The business card is an extension of yourself. If you are presented with one, you bow and take it with TWO hands and (pretend to) read it, before carefully slipping it into your breast pocket (or some other honorable place, NEVER your back pocket.) You will NEVER write on a business card given to you, as it's disrespectful. Many Japanese keep whole books of business cards. You NEVER throw them out.

Basic etiquette of an onsen (hot spring) was also discussed as well as omiage, gifts given to your hosts or people who help you out. Oh! And eating, too, such has never sticking your chopsticks straight up and down in a bowl of rice (reminiscent of leaving rice offerings in a funeral), never pass food chopstick to chopstick (reminiscent of passing cremains at a funeral), but instead place it first on a small plate. We were also told not to close things with our feet, which will be very hard for me, as I use my feet to open and close doors, pick up clothes and generally do anything I can do if it saves me from leaning over.

The American Embassy representatives cut off the meeting early, as they wanted to set up. Thanks for being friendly, guys. Conveniently, I was planning to go, so I stuck around. Essentially, it was Welcome to Japan and I hope to never see you again, because if I did, you would be in jail or dead. We learned about the services the embassy provides, theoretically, although I can't really recall ever hearing any. We learned that the number of Japanese students studying abroad in the United States has gone down and that we should all get at least five students to boost the numbers. Optimistic thinking. During the question and answer session, the main part of it was spent answering questions about entering the foreign service and the exams.

If I've learned anything for this experience it's that once a JET, you never, ever leave Japan, but stay around in some capacity, e.g. private teacher, CLAIR, US Embassy, etc. I've also learned that many people are already preparing for post-JET and see JET as a stepping stone to these big careers. I hadn't realized that what I'd applied to almost on a whim was seen by many (ambitious and pretentious) JETs as their way into a lucrative job. I hope to follow this lucky path, but actually plan to enjoy being a JET first.

I also noted that most JETs were dissatisfied with orientation. They found the speeches boring (but those, I believe are necessary ceremony) and the classes to be unhelpful. I agree, most things were not concrete, but ESID, and it's hard to speak in definites. Finally, from running orientations as a Peer Adviser in college, I can say that they had spent a ridiculous amount of time organizing this. People were all over to direct us. We had constant strings of papers to turn in one place, to get bus tickets, stickers to identify ourselves so we didn't get lost, buses arranged, and baggage shipping organized by a mere tag strapped to our luggage. It was incredibly well organized for an operation of its size. I'd like to see the people complaining try to do half as well.

I spent over an hour re-packing my luggage to fit all the books I'd bought. Most of my roommates did, too. One went out to try to get her nails done (something that is often frowned upon for teachers, since students aren't allowed to have fancy nails, or jewelry, or anything very distinguishing.) so I accepted the offer from the other roommate to go wander around Tokyo. While I was nervous about getting lost, she was full of confidence. We did have to be back in time for her JET Christian group meeting.

We were in bigger streets than I'd seen the night before. Once, we stopped by a big LOVE statue (the letters stacked on top of each other) and got our pictures taken. I got asked by a young Japanese couple to take their picture together with it, and they returned the favor for us.

We checked out the station and surrounding areas (including passing some expensive shops like Cartier) but didn't go in anywhere. One shop was selling an imitation of the “Now accepting applications for a Japanese girlfriend” t-shirt that Think Geek has. I considered it for Lonn. We also passed a pet shop with the most adorable kittens tumbling over each other. That's cruel and unfair marketing tactics.

Upon getting back, I washed up, and got ready for bed, not keen on another early morning.