I arrived in Japan, where I will be living for a year for the very first time. Since I was a teenager, it has been a dream of mine to live in Japan once for a year, and now I am finally doing it.
We landed at Narita airport on Air Canada. We met up with the other JETs coming in from other countries and waited while some had their luggage shipped to their new homes.
Then, we all headed outside toward our chartered bus. The humidity and heat hit us like a wall. I described it as though we were walking through a microwave. After standing in line, sweating for about half an hour, we boarded our bus and settled in for a long two hour drive to Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. Air conditioned comfort!
We spent three nights at Keio Plaza Hotel. Each of us was assigned a roommate from our area.
On the first night, we had free time, so we rested for a while in our rooms, then a group of us headed out to search for dinner. We settled on a nearby Sukiya, and I had a mini gyudon for 180 yen.
The next two days were packed with workshop after workshop. Looking back on it now, it was such a brief moment, but at the time, it felt as though we had been there for a week.
On the third day, we had our last breakfast together, then dispersed to our new contracting organizations. Some were taking airplanes to Okinawa or Hokkaido, other took the Shinkansen to Kyoto or Nara, while our small group of four Tokyo JETs headed across the street to meet our new supervisors.
After meeting the principal of my school and sitting through an orientation session, we got into his car and drove to my new school in Suginami, Tokyo.
Elle's Room 