iPhones, oysters and the like

The second week brought a little more sleep and a lot more progress. Monday was another frustrating day of being told I still couldn’t purchase two cell phones at the same time, just because I was a foreigner. Corin had his welcome party, called an enkai, that evening and we soothed troubles with good friends and good drinks, plus a big plate of French fries. Tuesday, things looked better. With a fifth trip to the electronics store in mind, I decided to just use my American Visa and switch the billing later. Thanks to Lucy and a shiny little card, I walked out of the store with two new iPhones and a means of connecting to the outside world. My predecessor Lucy was indispensible through all of this, as her Japanese is perfect and mine is nonexistent. As the day closed, we said a sad good bye to Courtney and Joe as they embarked on their next journey back in England (Courtney is moving there after a short visit home to Australia). Wednesday was Lucy’s last day and we finished up all the loose ends I couldn’t have accomplished on my own. The next two days were filled with halting conversations with coworkers and learning how to communicate with only a few key words and lots of sign language. Difficult but not impossible, I’m happy to report. By Friday, we were ready for another weekend to begin. The Port Festival (Minato Matsuri) prompted all of us to Suehiro, Kushiro’s drinking district. The festival was started in 1948 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Kushiro opening its port to shipping. With my handy dandy calculator, I’d say that equals 113 years of Kushiro being a prominent port town. We watched old men and elementary school students pull huge ships down Highway 44 and took part in a two hour all-you-can-drink party with Chris, Shey, Corin and the two new ALTs that arrived last Wednesday, Tim (from New Zealand) and Ron (from Canada).  Saturday morning was marked, once again, by the baseball team being all too enthusiastic to practice on a weekend. The day was spent cleaning and relaxing, as most of our Saturdays seem to be spent thus far. On Sunday we hopped on the #12 bus to Kushiro Station and wandered the festival. We explored the EGG (the Ever Green Garden) and the MOO, Kushiro’s two prominent buildings down by the water. We even got to see synchronized unicycle dancing performed by grade school girls. The things they do for fun here in Kushiro.

Sunday night was definitely the highlight of our weekend, as we were invited to Mr. Sawano’s house for a fresh oyster BBQ. The town that our friend Thomas is working in is famous for their oysters. Akkeshi is about 40 minutes by car from Kushiro and Mr. Sawano drove up on Sunday morning to get a cooler full of the crusty molluscs. We were picked up by Aki and his wife, June, who had just returned from a visit to Kyoto to see her parents and their 21 year old son. June dropped the three of us off and we were ushered into Mr. Sawano’s backyard. There was a cooler of beer, a cooler of oysters, multiple skewers of chicken and pork, plus onions, green peppers, rice balls and little sausages. We ate like kings. I had never had oysters in any form before and although the rare ones are nice, the medium well ones are my all time favorite. They explode open like their harboring mini packs of dynamite and make for an exciting experience when you’re sitting right next to the coals. We chatted well into the night and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Life in Japan is an amazing adventure and I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

In the beginning...

Good evening all of you in the States and good morning to those of us on this side of the world,

It's the start of our third week in Japan and I've finally found the time to take note of the events of the last 14 days. I will chronicle the first week here...

*imagine the picture going all wiggly like in those cheesy movie flashbacks*

We arrived in Tokyo on Sunday, July 24th, after flying for 12 hours on Japan Airlines. It felt like a quick trip and I'm happy to report that I'm fully caught up on the year's chick flicks. We were ushered off the plane by people in bright pink JET t-shirts and onto awaiting buses. 

By the time we got through customs, sorted our luggage, rode the buses and arrived at the hotel, nearly four hours had elapsed from when we disembarked from the plane. We found our rooms, discovered we had the same roommates we had had in Denver and I crashed at 8:30. Corin, Evan (from Kansas and placed in south western Japan) and Thomas (from Boulder and placed about 40 minutes from Kushiro) went to dinner and then also called it a night. We awoke the next day for a breakfast of french fries and hard boiled eggs and prepared for orientation. We had been forewarned that Tokyo orientation was basically a waste of time, particularly for those of us in Hokkaido, but we attended the morning sessions just the same. Our interest had waned by lunch (pasta and marinara sauce on a lazy susan...the boys and I ventured out into the Tokyo heat and found a convenience store with sushi rolls). We may or may not have attended the next day and a half of orientation but I'll leave that for our discerning parents to decide. In the times when we were or were not in orientation, I accidentally ordered enough food for a starving family of four, had some interesting experiences in certain parts of Tokyo and Corin found his dream land in the Happy Potato, a vintage video game store. There was so much more to be had in Tokyo but we just simply ran out of time. By Wednesday morning, however, we were ready to get to our new home!

We left for Hokkaido on a domestic flight headed north, a few hours after we awoke on July 27th . The trip was a short hour and a half and we landed at the airport outside of Sapporo. My supervisor, Aki, and one of Corin's supervisor's, Ms. Hashimoto, were waiting for us at the terminal. We said good bye to Thomas who was headed by car to Akkeshi, grabbed a quick convenience store lunch and found our seats on the train bound for Kushiro. After an hour of talking and sharing pictures of home--the train ride from Sapporo to Kushiro is about 4 hours--I was car (train?) sick like I have never been before. For the next three hours I prayed the train would simply derail so I could get off. When I did happen to open my eyes, the view was incredible. Lush greenery on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. 

We arrived in Kushiro at 6:15 in the evening and I felt compelled to kiss the ground, or throw up on my kyoto-sensai (vice principle) who was part of the welcome party. Luckily, neither happened and we headed to dinner with Aki, my other supervisor, Mr. Sawano, Corin and my predecessor, Lucy. Sushi was on the menu and it was delicious. After a couple hours of conversation, we called it a night and settled into our haphazardly arranged apartment (think two twin beds facing the wrong direction in one room, a disconnected washing machine, three or four different shelving units and piles of boxes...plus three huge suitcases and two very exhausted Americans.

The next few days were spent going into the office and then running around, applying for our foreign identification cards (called geijin cards by most JETs), setting up bank accounts through the post office, attempting what turned into a total of five times to buy cell phones, getting all the rest of the bills figured out and rearranging the apartment to a more manageable design. That Friday night was spent getting to know the other ALTs in the area at Corin's predecessor Courtney and her boyfriend Joe's house. They were headed back to Australia and London, respectively, and needed to care of some remaining bottles (of water, clearly!). We also got to meet Chris (from Minnesota), Corey (from Hawaii) and Shey (from Colorado, but attended UW at the same time as Corin and I. WHAT?!), stage name Marian Spencer (a magician whose Japanese name I can't remember at the moment), and a super sweet JTE from one of Corin's schools. The night was a success. Unfortunately, Meiki has a very dedicated baseball team and we were woken up at 8 a.m. the next day by rowdy chanting and batting practice. The team must be the best in the country because they literally practice ten hours a day, every. single. day. Saturday was grocery shopping and relaxing day while Sunday involved a trip to the 100 Yen shoppe (best place ever!) with Courtney and Joe, plus watching Corin start and finish Harry Potter #7. Our first week in Japan was officially over. And we were exhausted.

The JET Academy Awards.

Well, the results are in and we’re going to 

*drum roll please*

 

KUSHIRO, HOKKAIDO, JAPAN.

And the best part is: we’re together.

Life is so good.