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.