Yokoso Japan!

Brit JETs in Tokyo

View more photos 

Here goes my first diary entry.....hopefully it`ll work!

My trip to Japan commenced with a chaotic week. Arriving in Tokyo jet-lagged, hungover (Virgin airlines are surprisingly generous with the booze) and battling 90% humidity, I thought I`d hardly be in the mood to explore the city but I was wrong! As soon as we`d arrived in the swanky 4 star hotel in Shinjuku, a group of us headed downtown to try our first genuine Japanese lunch bypassing Mcdonalds (obviously) and walked around the local area. The next few days consisted of a business conference at the hotel with JETs from all around the world and nights out in the evening to sample kareoke bars (only in Japan!). I finally met other people from my prefecture and it turns out that I`m the only Brit but everyone here is a laugh. After 2 days of knackering meetings, introductions and classes, it was time to fly to southern Honshu to meet my supervisors where making myself understood proved somewhat difficult. I guess I`m going to have to start hitting the Japanese books! Over the next few days I was invited to parties, BBQs, fireworks and spent time with the locals sitting around drinking beer! Started to settle into my flat and meeting with my "room mates" (very large spiders and cockroaches) and pretty soon it was time for my first day at the local Board of Education. Arriving at my office and not having a clue what to do made me feel like an impostor but soon I was meeting all the locals and introducing myself in Japanese in front of large groups and being interviewed for the local paper which was quite eventful. My office is very nice with a gorgeous view of the ocean but the problem is that I don`t really know what I`m supposed to be doing! Planning lessons I assume! School doesn`t start until the 1st September when I meet the pupils from my five schools! In the meantime I`ve got plans with other local JETs to travel around Wakayama seeing the sights, sampling the food and trying out the beer. All in all, a good first week!