Wed. July 30 - Meet your new ken

Wednesday marked the day all JETs left Tokyo for our new prefectures (“ken.”) We traveled by bus, shinkansen (bullet train) or plane. I’m pretty stoked that my fellow Ottawa JETs – Justin, Chris and Marianna – will be joining me in Fukushima!
After a refreshing 1.5 hours of sleep, I got up for a quick shower and prepped for leaving Tokyo. I paid my lovely 630 yen for the Asahi beer I had mistakenly taken from the hotel mini-bar. (Apparently, you can’t re-insert it back into its rightful slot. Obviously, I didn’t read the instructions until after the fact. Funnily enough, I now live a mere 10-minute walk from an Asahi brewery in Motomiya).
Fukushima JETs boarded two buses – I didn’t mind the long trip, because I was able to get some sleep. At one rest stop, some people tried fish-on-a-stick and sweet-potato-on-a-stick, haha. As we trucked along the main drag, the spaces looked quite green. Good-bye, urban spaces.
We finally arrived in Fukushima, where we met our supervisors at the Fukushima Agricultural Centre in Koriyama City. It was the first time I met my supervisor. It was also reassuring to see the faces of J. and D.; they are JETs in Motomiya with whom I’ve been exchanging e-mails filled with mundane questions. (“So… what do you do during an earthquake?”) Brian is the other new JET working in Motomiya. We were whisked off to our board of education. Surprisingly, the drive only took 10-15 minutes from Koriyama.
Despite my lack of Japanese, I felt pretty confident going into this meeting with city officials and board of education staff. My very short self-introduction was committed to memory: “Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Gemma desu… Watashi wa Canada no Ottawa kara kashmite. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” And then I planned on smiling and nodding a lot.
In reality, this meeting was pretty intense. Dozens of photos were snapped, while these Japanese men asked me questions that I couldn’t understand. We also met the vice-mayor, who seems like a jolly man always sporting a smile on his face. He straight up asked if Brian and I enjoyed drinking. When we answered positively, every second word out of his mouth was “nomihodai!” (I’m guessing the man really enjoys “all-you-can-drink” events). The dudes were totally stoked that Brian drinks – it was quite the sight to see them get all giddy about that news. Interestingly enough, they asked us to watch out for our health and really take care of their children. Can you feel the pressure?
That night, we were invited to Sanpei-san’s house for dinner. They put out quite the spread! It was everything I imagined a traditional Japanese dinner would include: miso soup, rice, fried stuff, Japanese pickled cucumbers, etc. They later served that wack “Calpis” water. It has a whitish tint to it, and totally grosses me out.
My supervisor has two daughters. They were shy around me, because they didn’t really speak English with me. I asked them to teach me some Japanese, though. My word of the night was: “kawaii!” (“cute.”) I showed them pictures from back home. I think they really liked Twix, my guinea pig. I asked my supervisor about the cow he has in his front yard. I don’t think it’s really a pet, though; he did mention the word, “meat.”
I stayed over at his family’s home my first night in Motomiya. It totally reminded me of my extended Filipino family. Grandma and grandpa also live there. It’s kind of like the times Papa Wiron and Mama Poping lived in Toronto with their kids, and Lolo Moling lived in Cali. The Sanpeis also feed ginormous meals, and were concerned when I didn’t want to finish my seven-course meal at breakfast.
It was my first time sleeping on a futon set atop tatami mats. That was another moment that further reinforced that I had truly arrived in Japan. It was also my first night sleeping straight through in Japan. Good ol’ jet lag finally vanished!