Late Post: Tokyo Orientation and first day in Hokkaido

Hey all! This is a late post about the Tokyo JET orientations in the Keio Shinjuku Hotel in Shinjuku, but it was so crazy busy and hectic during those days it was difficult to go online to post or update much. Oh the hotel is where they filmed Lost in Translation! And for those of us who got lost in Shinjuku all the time last year on EAP, it's right across from the government buildings if you remember them. lol So the orientation was on July 27-29th and we arrived in Japan on the 26th. So we had a night to just chill, although it wasn't too much chilling because everyone was dead tired from the plane flight. Oh, btw, I will never take American Airlines again. Service was terrible and you had to pay for the alcohol!! Emily, Jennifer, and I went to eat Indian food. My roommate is a wonderful gal, Shana, who is from Rancho Cucamonga. I actually briefly talked to her online via the LA JET forum without knowing who she was or seeing her face, and then unknowingly met her as I was getting off the plane, and then finding out she was my roommate, to then find out that she was the girl who had texted me to ask if I wanted to meet up at Victoria Gardens to meet other people around San Bernardino area, which I didn't end up going. Small world. Actually majority of JET is really small world. Everyone knew everyone else somehow and some small way unconciously and it was the orientations that made everyone realize that. Wierd but very cool!

Anyways, in Tokyo on the 27th-29th I met up with majority of the Irvine crew: Collin, Chingyi, Jonathon, Greg, Patrick, Jamie and met a whole bunch more great people: Dustin, Shana, Emily, Jennifer, Shay, Aaron (whose super tall by the way), Erika, Miki. There were a crap load of JETs there! About 830-something. And 50 of them were going to Hokkaido which is the largest group of JETs. The first day there was the opening ceremony and then after that a bunch of workshops. Everyday starts at 7:30am with breakfast and goes until 5pm. It's tiring, but in a wierd masochistic way, kinda fun. The first night was the welcome reception and it was a standing enkai (meet and greet). I really was hoping that we would be able to sit because my feet were killing me, but, alas, it was not to be. Miki and I decided to leave after an hour and a half. Then at 8:30 was the Hokkaido enkai. Luckily that was much more relaxed. 47 of us went to an izakaya with our Prefectural Advisor. It was nomihoudai....Yeah...So I ended up chugging because the boys decided that I needed to do it before I left...I was getting pretty tired so Collin and I walked on back home.

The next day was more orientation and workshops. I decided to skip the last few workshops and head on out to Harajuku with a couple of the girls and Kenny. We walked around for a long time and my feet were basically dying because I was still in my business gear. We then headed back to the hotel for our prefectural meetings. After that I had to go pack my bags and stuff and get ready for tomorrow. For domestic flights the weight limit is 15kg which is just terrible. There's too much stuff that we get from the orientations that will fit under that weight limit along with our personal belongings. Terrible! >.<

So I had 5 kg worth of crap that I was unable to fit into my bag. Thankfully Collin was super nice and put it all in his bag. Seriously thanks!

7:30pm all of us met up for our last dinner and hang out together. We first went to Yodobashi Camera for some stuff and then decided to head over to Shibuya for dinner. Majority of them have never been to Shibuya so it was a cool trip for them. I decided to take them to Lock-Up which is the dungeon/jail themed izakaya. They loved it! We played the russian roulette game with the takoyaki, cream puffs, croquettes, and soba. Poor Aaron got the bad ones four times. But it was funny. =P We were all pretty much tired after that so we headed back home. Everyone else went up to their rooms except for Greg, Chingyi, Collin, and I. Collin met his predecessor. So they talked for a long time. The rest of us just sat on the steps and chilled and commented on our new lifestyle with rare use of normal English...It was a little sad that we were all leaving each other as we were all super good friends by the end. About midnight we headed back to our rooms to rest for the night as the next day was the day that we left for our different prefectures. ;_;

July 29th was our last breakfast together. It was a little depressing mixed with anxiousness and excitement. Everyone said their last goodbyes and hugs all around. Then each of us headed to our own prefecture. All of us going to Hokkaido, which there was 50 of us, all headed to Haneda airport to board our flight to Japan. Continuation of this will be in the next post. Pictures will be on Picasa web albums which is associated with this blog I believe. If not just look for them on facebook as they will be posted on facebook as well. Kay continuation of this in a little bit.