Well,
the past few days have certainly been crazy! Right now it's Friday
evening at the end of my first (half) week of work, and although I
don't have internet and honestly won't have it for the foreseeable
future, I figured that I can still write blog posts and just post
them later! This will probably result in a huge chunk of posts all at
once, so sorry in advance, but feel free to skip through them all if
you get bored. (To be honest I'm not even sure anybody is reading
this, so whatever! :D)
I
forget now where I left off, but on Wednesday morning, all the JETs
left Tokyo for our respective destinations. In case you've forgotten,
mine was Chiba City! I got on a bus with the other Chiba prefecture
JETs and rode for about an hour before reaching our destination. When
we got there, we had a short introduction ceremony. We were all
pretty nervous, I think, and it was also kind of awkward – we were
sitting facing representatives of our destinations and then they
called us up one at a time to meet our contracting organizations. I
had actually already met my supervisor (he greeted us all at Tokyo
Orientation), so it was probably a little less nerve-wracking for me
than everybody else. I heard him telling our co-worker who came to
get us from the ceremony what the ceremony was like and they both
thought it was weird, so I guess that's not normally how those
ceremonies go.
After
the ceremony, we drove to City Hall to meet my office! Or rather, the
Chiba City Community Center, which is where my department actually
works. I actually didn't know that I was going to meet the department
right away and thought that we were going there to get my resident
card, so that was kind of a surprise! Everybody in the office is very
nice – I'll devote some space in another post to talk about them
more in detail later.
I
spent some time getting settled in the office and went out to lunch
with my supervisor, his supervisor, the boss, and Gina, another CIR
(though not JET) who had been working in my office for the past 4
months before I came. After that, I went and met the director of
operations for the mayor's office (or something like that; an
important person whose name and title I don't remember -.-')and
applied for a resident card and bank account before leaving to see my
apartment!
My
apartment has two rooms, a kitchen, and a separate toilet and
bathtub. It's not very big but plenty big enough for me; I was
preparing myself for a really tiny one-room place so I was pleasantly
surprised! The two rooms have tatami mats and sliding doors, which
honestly I have no idea how to take care of, but I'm sure once I get
internet in my apartment I can find something that'll tell me all
about it. I sleep on a futon, which I have to put away every morning
(for the sake of the futon, the mats, and the space) – it's kind of
a pain but it's comfortable enough and I've been sleeping like a baby
on it every night. :)
My
supervisor and the department supervisor, Hirata-san, had already
prepared a lot for me in the apartment, like setting up the
fridge//microwave/TV and bringing towels, dishes, etc for me to use –
which I'm extremely grateful for, as it has helped a lot! - but after
waiting for the air conditioning guy to finish setting up my A/C
unit, we went out shopping. I definitely still need to go shopping
soon (I'm actually planning to go this weekend), but we managed to
get a lot of stuff. After that we had dinner around 9 - I felt bad
for making the two of them wait until then, especially since
Hirata-san said all she'd eaten that day was lunch, but Satou-san (my
supervisor) said that he often worked until this late anyway. Of
course when I remembered that he lives in Tokyo and had an hour
commute home afterward I felt even worse, but they were both really
nice about it.
So
that was my first day! My second day was also pretty busy, but maybe
I'll go into less detail since this already turning into a pretty
long post.
I
started out by taking the bus to work, which made me a little nervous
but was totally fine. It helps that I'd taken the bus every day when
I was studying abroad in Nagoya and that Satou-san had explained what
I should do the day before. At work I met with Gina, who explained
the kind of things I would have to do, like interpreting at courtesy
visits (when people from our sister cities, dignitaries, etc come to
pay their respects to the mayor). To be honest I was pretty
intimidated because it sounds pretty hard and intense (and still
does), but I found out that I'll get the chance to observe at least
one before I'm expected to do any on my own. After that I started to
work on my first assignment (which I had gotten the day before!)
before going to meet the mayor of Chiba City. I was a little nervous,
which also then makes me stumble when saying my self-introduction,
but it was over pretty quickly and now at least I can say I've met
the mayor! After that I went with Satou-san to run some more errands
before finishing my second day of work. Then I took the bus home and
unpacked a little before going to bed early (I'm still not over jet
lag).
Today
I kept working on my translation before leaving with Satou-san and
the section manager to meet the people at the Chiba City
International Association, who we work with a lot. It's actually
where my predecessor started out working, and where Gina works now.
The people there seem very friendly too, and we stayed and chatted a
little before heading back. We rode the monorail there, which I found
pretty exciting. Chiba City actually has the longest hanging monorail
in the world (it's in the Guinness Book of World Records and
everything!), which is pretty cool. I was a little bit disappointed
when I found out that Chiba City doesn't have a subway system
(because I love riding the subway) – or a city bus system, for that
matter, though there are private bus companies that do the same thing
- , but I think the monorail makes up for it! It's not underground
and is in fact pretty high up in the air, so there is pretty much
always a really great view.
On
the way back, the section manager (aka the boss) asked if I'd been to
Chiba's Port Tower, and since I hadn't, suggested that we go see it.
I was a little surprised, since it was still during the workday, but
I wouldn't have known how to politely decline anyway so I just
agreed. The Port Tower is, as it might sound like, a very tall tower
near the harbor. It was really an amazing view - I could even see
Tokyo and Yokohama in the distance, including the brand new (and very
tall) Tokyo Sky Tree.
The
past few days I've mostly just been staying at home after work and
just watching TV and trying to read through the giant stack of things
I should be reading (maps, information about Chiba/moving in, JET
stuff, etc) and not really unpacking, but since tomorrow is the
weekend I'm planning to actually get out and explore some! I don't
have a knife or cutting board (or counter to prepare food on) so I
haven't been able to cook yet, but hopefully I'll acquire those and
maybe even a bike in the next two days. At the very least I think I
should figure out the way to the supermarket (although today I
discovered there's a mini one at the station near my work).
I'm
also going to a fireworks display tomorrow with Hirata-san and Gina,
which I'm very excited for! Japanese fireworks are pretty awesome, so
it should be a good show, even though it's also probably going to be
very very crowded and hot.
Anyway,
I'm excited to get out and explore this weekend! Hopefully soon I'll
be over jet-lag and unpacked (right now all my clothes are still in
suitcases) and more settled in – it's hard to believe it's only
been three days since I got here!
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