Although the actual orientation is technically from the new JETs' arrival on Sunday to their departure Wednesday morning, we TOAs showed up on Saturday to start preparing. I was assigned to be an airport TOA, aka one of the mass of people who greets and directs the newbies at the airport, so on Saturday night we headed over to Narita to spend the night. On the road back to Chiba in the evening we even saw fireworks from the bus, which I'm pretty sure were from the fireworks display in Makuhari that I was missing! Also I absolutely love seeing Tokyo from the highway at night; there's just something so pretty about all the lights and buildings and the occasional ferris wheel (if going to/from Chiba, which I usually am).
The next few days were a whirl of greeting new JETs at the airport in our bright green T-shirts, helping them find places in the hotel, having shifts at the information desk and hospitality center, delivering my presentation and facilitating some CIR activities, and meeting tons of new people! Tokyo Orientation is really one of the rare times when you get to meet other JETs from all over both Japan and the world, whether they're ALTs or CIRs or brand new or experienced, and it really is full of an incredible energy that I think really motivates the new JETs and revitalizes the old ones (not to make us sound decrepit or anything).
I did have to go to work Wednesday afternoon after riding home with the new Chiba Prefecture JETs (!) and attending their ceremony, which was tough because I was absolutely exhausted from five nights of little sleep (and none from the night before), but it was definitely worth it! The perfect way to start off my second year on JET. :D
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