Fri. Aug. 1 – Now in Nihon

It’s about midnight on Friday evening here in the land of the rising sun. I’m sitting in my new apartment (apato!) in Motomiya, a rural “city” in Fukushima prefecture.
I haven’t had the Internet in days, so I’ll be splitting up my stories. I also haven’t had my tall non-fat caramel macchiato since I’ve been here. Tessa and I did stumble upon that familiar coffee spot in Tokyo! Surprisingly, my self-imposed withdrawal from Starbucks hasn’t been too bad….
Let’s start from the beginning
I jetted off to Japan on July 26. My family dropped me off at the airport in Ottawa. That morning, I also had a couple of my aunties give me a call to bid me adieu; I was definitely a stage-five crier. The flight to Toronto was pretty smooth – V. and I split a copy of the Globe and Mail. But our connecting Tokyo-bound flight felt kind of ridiculous. Pearson Airport was blanketed under a “red alert,” meaning the surrounding area had rolling thunderstorms or something to that effect. So, our plane couldn’t quite touch the sky on time. It took two hours until the surrounding skies cleared, and we finally left the tarmac.
The rest of the Ottawa and Montreal JETs sat in the middle cabin, while I hung out in the back. I had inadvertently chosen a seat away from the peeps, in an effort to greedily get an aisle seat.
It wasn’t so bad, though! On my right, I struck up a conversation with a twenty-something Japanese girl. She has been living in Toronto for the past four years, working as a Japanese teacher. She welcomed my pleas to practice some Japanese, and she answered my countless questions about her country.
There were also those newly minted television screens on the back of each seat. I watched awesome shows and movies, such as “The Flight of the Conchords” and “Horton Hears a Who!” in between naps and less-than-delicious airplane food.
I was also entertained by a large group of Canadian high school student-athletes, all sporting red t-shirts and khaki pants. I overheard they were heading to Japan as part of an exchange to play basketball. These kids were strutting up and down the aisles. One dude was embarrassed after his teammate held up his plush white teddy bear for the whole cabin to see.
Taking in Tokyo… I mean, Narita
I was first struck by the humidity when we landed in Japan. JETs wearing bright yellow shirts dotted the Narita airport, and greeted us after we got all sweaty while pushing our heavy carts to the buses waiting for us outside.
The escalators are interesting at Narita, because they “safely” let you and your heavy luggage go up and down. I feared for my life as I wheeled my cart filled with: a 70-pound suitcase, a mid-sized suitcase reaching 50 pounds, my large backpack and my smaller carry-on luggage. Oh, and I should also mention that my Kanye glasses are currently in Canada! I had to quickly repack at the check-in counter in Ottawa, and broke my favourite fugly glasses in the process! But I heard there are tons of pairs in Japan. You can also cop a pair in the By Ward market, if you miss going out with me in Ottawa.
The bus ride to Tokyo was a blur. Surprisingly, L. was the awesome Tokyo Orientation Assistant (TOA) who was my bus guide. She’s one of Tyler’s friends, so it was pretty cool to see her.
The first wave of new JETs descended upon the ballin’ Keio Plaza Hotel, located in the Shinjuku district. I remember feeling pretty parched, sticky and L. accidentally spilling water on my favourite pair of Lulus, ha ha. In the lobby, I also ran into N. and V. – two of my sempai!
After quickly dropping off our luggage, I grabbed some dinner with a handful of Ottawa JETs. A., our CIR dude, knows his way around the city; he navigated us from the hotel to the Shibuya district. We had to hop on the subway to head down two or three stops. Like someone said, everything about Japan has a cartoon-like quality. Weird music blares on the speakers when you’re waiting for the train, and the ads look super cheesy. I love it.
There I was… standing in that Shibuya intersection you can see in Hollywood movies. It was pretty cool to see the sheer amount of people walking around, plus the flashing lights. All of that made me really feel like I had finally arrived in downtown Tokyo. Dinner was another new experience. We lined up outside a busy noodle shop. You need to punch some buttons at a machine to pay for your dinner ticket. I think we all chose a basic bowl of soup. You then circle different options on a small sheet of paper to customize your meal. We don’t read kanji, so V. and I. simply circled the options in the middle, and hoped for the best! Anyways, a map of the restaurant’s booths is posted on the wall – when a blue light sparks up, that means you can sit down at an available spot. Each booth is shrouded in privacy, with dividers and a wall covering that separates you from seeing the cook’s face. I slipped the piece of paper to the cook, who quickly whipped up for my soup. It was very oishi! We capped off the night by visiting a nearby convenience store, where we discovered tiramisu-to-go for the low price of 200 yen. Mmm.