Arrival in Japan

Konnichiwa! I apologize for taking so long to get this blog started. As such, there's a backlog of stuff I want to share so the first few postings may get a bit long. Sorry. Okay, to get started, on Friday, 7/25, my parents drove me to Chicago for an afternoon of orientation before I flew out. That night we were planning on going to downtown to do something fun and touristy. Instead, we spent all evening in the hotel room while I frantically repacked, weighing my suitcases on a scale we picked up from Target that night. Sorry Mom and Dad! The scale stated that my suitcases were way too heavy so I managed to throw out about 20 lbs. worth of stuff. Turns out, the scale lied to me. Now, I need to go shopping for some items I got rid of in a panic. Like my flip flops. Now, you'd think I would have kept those because, really, how much do flip flops weigh? Sigh... The only sandals I have now are my new Chacos which are rubbing my feet and causing some really nice sores. I thought these things were supposed to be super comfy! More lies!

Anyway, on to packing error #2. So, I have just been using my cell phone for a watch and alarm clock for months and months. Of course, although I knew my cell would no longer work here (oh yeah, don't try to call me at my old number - service has been cancelled now) somehow my brain didn't register that I would no longer have a means to tell time. Mom tried to offer me her watch before I left, but I didn't catch on. Luckily, my roomie in Tokyo had an alarm clock that she carried around with her as she was in the same boat. Once I made it to Kanazawa and couldn't rely on her anymore, I bought an alarm clock to carry around too, which helped me catch my bus to school on Friday. Unfortunately, I can't read any of the buttons or directions, so although I managed to set it, I couldn't figure out how to make it stop beeping and had to take out the batteries. Luckily, I got a new cell phone (keitai) yesterday so I'll just use that from now on. As a side note, it took about 3 hours to get the cellphone and that was with someone interpreting. I have to keep chanting "low goals" to myself.

Back to Tokyo... After a 12 hour flight and losing a day, we arrived in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon. Our hotel was super nice, which was good as we spent most of our 2 1/2 or so days in Tokyo listening to speeches and going to workshops in the hotel. We did make it out to explore a bit in the evenings though. Some cool Tokyo sights: the features of the toilet in our hotel room, my first meal which I chose from a display of plastic food and then ordered through what looked like a vending machine, some crazy game parlors that had strange prizes like metabolic guages and food items in the claw machines. (Sara - I wish you would have been there to win me something using your mad claw skills!) On Monday night I went out to dinner with all of the new JETs in the Ishikawa prefecture (a prefecture is kind of like a state and Ishikawa is where Kanazawa is located). Everybody seems really nice and it was a good bonding activity. Plus, it gave us the chance to see more of the city. I totally want to go back to Tokyo soon - there's so much to see there!