I met you at orientation...

I stepped off the plane and onto the jet bridge. My stomach was queasy from twelve hours worth of airplane food, my eyes became hyper-sensitive to the sunlight, and my legs felt like Jell-O. It felt good to be on terra firma.

I would be lying if I said I enjoyed the flight. Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad it was a flight that landed safely as opposed to the alternative, but being in the air for thirteen hours is not something that I’m looking forward to anytime soon. I tip my hat to all flight attendants, pilots, engineers, and anyone that has anything to do with taking people thousands of feet into the air, and then placing them back down on the ground in one piece.

Narita International Airport, (NRT) for my airport code peeps, felt like any other airport that a traveler would come across. I expected a strange and new experience to come along with walking through the terminal, but in all honesty, it just wasn’t there. Of course, there were signs in Japanese, and lots of Japanese people, but on the whole, I was underwhelmed. The a-ha moment didn’t come until I opened the window of my hotel room and saw the vast urban sprawl that is Tokyo.

View from Keio Plaza Hotel room

There is a joke within the JET Programme community that Tokyo Orientation has been the same since its inception in the late 80s. It's probably true. So as to not bore you with every detail of my work-related Tokyo experience, let me just give you a few bullet points of what went on at the conference:

"Oh, the kids will be fine without helmets.
Just have them throw on their scarves."

• Lots of welcome speeches from the who’s who of the Japanese government. More specifically, people who are paid to promote internationalization and a global Japan.
• A keynote speech- You can’t have a conference without a keynote speech.
• “Ways to lose your job and ultimately get deported”
• Lots of breakout sessions in the form of teacher development- I actually enjoyed these. They made me feel slightly more prepared as to what I will be doing.
• Free meals- nom nom nom!
• Support for a JET’s  time in Japan- Where to find counseling when needed, tips for physical and mental health, how to handle having “natural hair” in Japan, religion, race, sexuality, gender roles, nationalism, earthquake emergency procedures...
  
  

Tokyo Orientation was so crammed with information and meetings that I never left the hotel during daylight hours, and I probably only retained 20% of the information given. The high point of my experience in Tokyo was my random trip to Akihabara. The twenty minute train ride and ninety minute stay in this electric town summed up my first impression of Japan's biggest city:

-Lots of people moving to the same electric beat.

-Similar to New York, minus the infamous summertime stench.

-Fast-moving trains and synchronized station music to entertain even the most hard-core train-a-holic.

"Don't drop Madeline's hat in the subway, little girl."

Looking back at my experience in Tokyo, I would say that I enjoyed myself. I can’t wait to go back again and visit it from the standpoint of a tourist as opposed to someone who is only there for 72 hours on business. It was overwhelming, exciting, fast-paced, but not a place that I can see myself living for an extended period of time. My first visit to Tokyo made me ready for my new small-town life in the big red dot.

Escalators of Akihabara