Kumamoto Orientation

Sorry it's been a little while since my last post, but I've been gone since last Wednesday and since a picture is worth a thousand words, I decided to post pictures onto facebook first!

So on Wednesday, I had my first experience riding the train into Kumamoto City (basically the capital of the prefecture.) I had to transfer to the local tram upon arriving in the city, which surprisingly had little to no English, but all in all I figured it out (my hand gestures are getting quite good) and I made it to my hotel. After settling in, I met up with my long lost friends from Tokyo orientation. It was so great to see everyone and meet the new Kumamoto JETs that had arrived in Japan a week earlier. The orientation consisted of a tour of Kumamoto castle, breakout sessions, Japanese classes, and a sampling of one of Kumamoto's delicacies, Basashi, or raw horse. I had told myself I would at least try pretty much everything here so I took my sample and it was pretty good! I definitely gave my friend Toshi a slap when he looked at me after having his and said 'mmm Seabiscuit' but what can you do.

The first night of the orientation many of the recontracting JETs from around the prefecture came in town for a Beer Garden which the turned into a pub crawl which then turned into dancing. I had no idea how large a role drinking has in Japanese culture, which I'll explain more of after my welcome party on Thursday night. Everyone here works so hard, so drinking is their time to let loose and do they ever! Japan has zero tolerance for drinking and driving though. Literally I could be arrested and deported for getting caught driving after one beer, so they offer a service called Daiko. Daiko is when you call a taxi and two drivers show up in one car - one will drive the taxi and the other will drive you and your car home. The price is surprisingly comperable and can sometimes even be cheaper.

After the orientation ended, I spent the rest of the weekend with my friend Erin who lives in Uki City, about 3 train stops south of Kumamoto city. Overall it was a great weekend, full of sightseeing, kareoke and a restaurant called Joyfull (yes - two L's) which is basically Japanese Denny's. The highlight was Sunday evening when we all drove up to Yamaga for their festival. The women of Yamaga all wear special yukatas and dance in unison with lanterns on their heads. It is really a beautiful sight, especially as the sun is setting, and I was able to take a lot of pictures! Festival season has so far been a blast, and I'm going to try to make it to one this weekend.

On a random note, an interesting thing I've found so far in Japan is that there isn't really the concept of saving things for later. This weekend I had quite an American moment when at the convenient store they had a huge jug of water for about $1 and a normal sized bottle for the same price. I couldn't believe it and of course I bought the larger. Even more interesting though was when I saw a woman buy a different SMALLER bottle for MORE money than the other two! She just didn't want that much water. But still? Couldn't she just put it in the fridge and drink it tomorrow?

Anyway, after the weekend I headed back to Aso to start another week of work! I've been trying to communicate more with the people at the BOE and now they come over and try to practice their English with me or see what new Japanese words I am trying to study. I also got my car insurance so I've been driving to work as well. I'm getting pretty good with the other side of the road thing, but I still have to think a good deal about what I'm doing. The big news of today is that I finally got my keitai! (cell phone) I'm going to start to read the instruction manual tonight because it can do some pretty crazy things, but for now I know that it has a GPS, I can watch TV on it, it has a English-Japanese dictionary including a feature where I can say a word in English or Japanese and it will translate it, full internet, a high res camera, and oh yeah, it's waterproof too!

After work I went next door to meet my neighbors and bring them a gift. It is customary in Japan to bring over a household item when you move to a new area opposed to them bringing something to you. With my minimal Japanese and their minimal English, we tried to communicate unsuccessfully, but I know that the father is a masseuse and they have two adorable little girls and a puppy. They appreciated the gesture and hopefully as my Japanese gets better I'll get to know them better!

I then tested out my skills with the laundry machine, doing my first couple of loads on my own. I also tried to decode the rice cooker when it came time for dinner. Luckily I was successful with both! It's amazing how such a small thing can feel like such an accomplishment when you have no clue what's going on! Well that's all for now. Next week I start going to my junior high rather than the BEO so exciting times ahead!