Tokyo, Noto and The Two Japans

東京オリエンテーション（Tokyo Orientation)

Hello everyone! It’s been one week since my departure from America and a lot has happened since then. I guess I will begin with my departure from Chicago (which oddly enough seems like several months ago). After bidding farewell to my dad, with whom I drove to Chicago with, at the Holiday Inn Express near O’Hare, I began my life as JET. The Chicago orientation was pretty simple, just a few addresses by former JETs and Japanese officials on the importance of the program and the challenges we will face being a new culture, etc. After the orientation stuff was over, a few former Gusties (4 of us are in JET this year!) and I went to a nearby bar to have a few beers and watch the bizarre opening of the London Olympics and I daresay that the opening was very hilarious without any sound or context as to what was going on.

Anyway, the next day the real journey began when we got up bright and early to catch our plane to Tokyo! Then, after a grueling, leg-cramping, jet lag inducing 13-hour flight, we finally touched down in Narita airport, which is about 2 hours away by bus from Tokyo. The first thing I really noticed about Tokyo during the bus ride over is how truly massive a city it is both in scale and people-wise. At one point, the entire highway we were traveling on was surrounded by apartment buildings as far as the eye could see! After finally arriving at the Keio Plaza hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo and having a satisfying bowl of udon noodles at a nearby restaurant, I promptly collapsed in my room around 9pm Tokyo time.

Enjoying the udon

Unfortunately, due to both being incredibly busy with orientation stuff and being incredibly jet lagged, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of exploring in Tokyo. However, I did get a chance one afternoon to take a stroll around Shinjuku and take in the megalopolis that is Tokyo. The city is certainly a bustling concrete jungle filled to the brim with crowds (certainly not a place for the claustrophobic). Indeed, reflecting back on it now living in rural Japan it really is striking how stark the difference is between Tokyo and my current living situation. Tokyo orientation itself consisted of many, many speeches by Japanese government officials, teachers, and current and former JETs. Most of the speeches were actually quite well done and interesting to hear (although it did get a tad bit repetitive towards the end). The rest of the orientation consisted of meeting with other new JETs placed in the Ishikawa prefecture (21 in all) and meeting new JETs going to Noto (6 in all).

Shinjuku

Japanese govt. official addressing the new JETs

It can get a bit crowded in Tokyo

Part 2 能登　(Noto)

The next day, (Wednesday August 1) I was off to a very different part of Japan compared to Tokyo, my new home of Noto! Having lived in Minnesota for pretty much my whole life, I inevitably must make comparisons between my two homes. In contrast to flat, lake-plentiful Minnesota, the landscape in Noto is very mountainous (which will make for some challenging drives come winter) and is surrounded by the ocean. One similarity between Noto and Minnesota is the stifling heat and humidity. Truly, it is almost like I never left Minnesota behind in regards to the weather as I have been perpetually sweating since I arrived. On the plus side, currently the ocean is ridiculously warm and really nice to swim in as I learned last weekend when a few JETs and I went to the beach, but more on that later.

There is, however, one more negative consequence to the abundant heat and humidity that surrounds me right now, which would be bugs, bugs, bugs. Walking outside, one is almost deafened by the huge quantity of cicadas chirping away all day. Spiders are on almost every house, as are a bunch of other random bugs I have never seen or heard of before. Thankfully, however, I have yet to run into two of the most notorious bugs in rural Japan…The first is the fearsome looking mukade, a giant, poisonous centipede that likes moist, dark places (apartments).

Fear incarnate

Although the mukade is poisonous, it thankfully won’t kill or incapacitate if it bites you, which leads me to the other notorious bug, the Osuzumebachi (in Japanese, giant sparrow bee, giant asian hornet in English). These suckers are particularly nasty, one sting from them is enough to hospitalize a full grown adult and it gets even better…Apparently when of them feels threatened or is attacking, it releases a pheromone, which calls all of its friends over to come join in the attack.

BEWARE!

Needless to say, if I come across one of these spawns of Satan, I will be booking it faster than a Japanese businessman running away from Godzilla.

Bugs of death and heat aside, I really do enjoy Noto a lot. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous! In comparison to Tokyo and Osaka there is green pretty much everywhere I look and all of the houses are built in a more traditional style. Furthermore, the seafood is sublime and really cheap. Plus, I have to rely on all Japanese as virtually no one here speaks English (which is what I wanted).

The village where my apartment is called Ukawa

Anyway, more about my personal experience as JET. To start off, here is a list of things that are exceedingly challenging and tiresome to do while jet lagged:

1.    Start a new job and meet your supervisor, boss, and co-workers all right in a row
2.    Meet the mayor of the new city you are moving to
3.    Have said meeting recorded for the local news
4.    Set up a bank account
5.    Set up internet
6.    Set up a phone plan
7.    Do all of the above in Japanese

Surprise! This is pretty much how my first day in Noto went down. The most interesting part was indeed visiting the mayor. First of all, I had no idea that I would be doing this until my supervisor casually mentioned it about 20 minutes before I would go and meet him. I was also casually told that the whole affair would be recorded for the local news, as a new JET coming to town is evidently a big deal. Thus, my nervous, exhausted self would have to do a brief self-introduction, in Japanese, and sit around and have a short chat. Another thing I was made aware of during my meeting with the mayor was how formal and serious an affair it was going to be. Indeed, there was a whole ritual for this sort of thing, which involved each person in the meeting having an assigned seat, an assigned number of bows to give and an assigned speech and formally giving me my work contract. Thus, I was a bundle of tired nerves when I gave my Japanese self-introduction and lets just say I have desire to ever, ever see that recording.

Meeting the mayor

Despite this road bump, the night definitely ended on a good note. After all of these exhausting procedures had been done, my supervisor treated my fellow Noto JET, Jillian, and me to a delicious okinomiyaki restaurant. Okinomiyaki is kind of like a Japanese pancake with eggs, meat, batter, veggies and whatever else you want in there, although usually topped with a sauce and mayonnaise.

The next few days have been mostly getting acclimated to my surroundings as school in Japan is out during August and therefore I really don’t have to much to do at the moment. Some of the cool sights I’ve seen in the Noto have been Mitsukejima (often called Battleship Island so named for its ship-like appearance). Another highlight was Senmaida, a bunch of scenic rice paddies by the ocean. Another great experience was going to my first beach in Japan. As I said before, the pool-temperature water was completely awesome to swim in. I was definitely a bit of a celebrity at the beach…one particularly vociferous group of Japanese thought it best to get my attention by both calling out “David” and by shouting out random English words.

Mitsukejima

Senmaida Rice Paddies

All in all, its been a very hectic first week filled with many challenges but also very many rewarding experiences and I continue to look forward to my time here.