Greetings from Tokyo!

Well I made it safe and sound to Tokyo and now I'm finishing up my first full day in Japan!

I left on August 1st with about half of the Boston area group. I got to the airport at 5am only to find out that our 8am flight was delayed 2 hours - a little frustrating I'm sure you can imagine since I woke up at 3:50am to be there the required 3 hours early! The line, however, was so insanely long at the airport that all of us would've missed our flight to Newark had it not been delayed! BUT to make matters more interesting, our layover time in New Jersey was supposed to be 2 hours, so our flight to Tokyo would be leaving as we were taxiing around in Newark. We were lucky though - after a few frantic phone calls from our travel agents to continental, our international flight waited for us. The other half of the Boston group flying through Chicago was not so lucky. There first flight was delayed 3 hours and they missed their connection, meaning they spent the night in Chicago, got into Narita late this afternoon (missing the first day of orientation) and, to top it all off, they don't have their luggage.

On a more positive note, my flight was actually pretty nice! They had DirectTV, and I had the choice of over 300 movies to watch! They ranged from classics like Casablanca to movies that recently came out, like Monsters vs. Aliens and 17 Again (clearly I watched both of these!) I think I watched about 5 movies total, a couple episodes of The Office and Friends in, and even got some sleep! The food was pretty much disgusting. I ordered vegetarian and got all vegan meals. If you've ever had soy cheese and imitation meat, you know what I'm talking about!

So now for the good stuff - Japan! We arrived at our hotel which is in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, known primarily for partying. It's a really nice hotel and the people here are soooo nice. I'm in a room with two other girls from my flight that will both be teaching in Kyushu, but not in my prefecture. The JET program has really made everything available to us to make our adjustment to Japan easier. They had a hospitality room open 24 hours a day, and provided us with a free phone call! (I called my mom for her birthday) They have information fairs with vendors explaining different travel opportunities, internet/phone information, service trips to local orphanages, places of need, and more. Basically there is a huge support network that comes with being a JET, which is really nice to see first hand upon arrival. I knew it was there, but did not appreciate until I went out to dinner last night and was completely helpless. Then it finally hit me that I was in Japan!

Today had an opening ceremony, some speeches, and a lot of breakout sessions but I was able to meet the new JETs from my prefecture. There's one girl that I get along with really well and I have a good feeling that we'll be good friends through this experience. She knows less Japanese than I do though, so it could be interesting! Oh yes, of all the new JETs I'm the one blonde. I could very well be the only blonde for miles! This evening after our reception, my new friend and another girl I knew beforehand all wandered the streets of Tokyo, getting stopped by old men proud of there English skills that wanted to chat and ask where we were from. The drunk business men stumbling into Kareoke bars were also pretty hilarious. We got a couple stares, but I enjoyed being able to talk pretty much about whatever I wanted knowing that most people had no clue what I'm saying. This became clear at dinner last night when the group of people I was out with starting talking about Japanese love hotels and dating Japanese people to improve their language skills - a very interesting conversation I might add.

Well, I've learned a decent amount through what former JETs have told us, but this post is long enough and it will probably more intresting when I experience things first hand. I'm pretty exhausted from the travel, topped off with me trying to make the most of my time in Tokyo, so I'm off to bed! Sianara!