one month!

Today marks my being in Japan for one month! Since I flew in on the 29th, it's a calendar month since I arrived, but since it's Wednesday, it's also exactly 4 weeks (aka a month) since I got to Chiba City and started working! Funny how that worked out. It's strange to think that I've already been here a month (it feels like it and doesn't feel like it at the same time), but at least now when people ask how long I've been here, I don't have to say 'less than a month' anymore. :D It did sort of hit me today as I was biking back from the store that I am in fact living in Japan and this is my life as I know it now, so I guess that's cool.

I haven't done too much since my last post - on Monday I went to another Vortex (frisbee) practice. It was a little further away and one of the members I met on Saturday was nice enough to give me a ride there, since a couple of other people usually carpool with him, too. This time there were a lot more people, not just Vortex members but college students as well, which was cool. It was a real practice with real drills and everything, which was nice to get back to, although I'm definitely out of practice and also not used to playing with a vertical (as opposed to horizontal) stack. After practice some of us went out to eat together, which apparently is a pretty regular thing. Today I bought a pair of brand-new cleats that I found at a second-hand store that just happened to be my size (which is awesome), and I plan to go to practice again tomorrow!

Today Sato-san took me on a mini-tour of City Hall, since I hadn't really spent much time there other than the courtesy visit (even though we're part of City Hall, we work in the community center next door because the building is too small). I learned a little about the history of the building and got to see the view from the top story, which was pretty cool. I also learned more about how being a civil servant in Japan works - there's an examination that you have to pass, and then you also get transferred to different departments every 3-5 years. The idea is that new people in new positions can bring new ideas to the job, and that working in a variety of sections is also good experience (or something like that). In theory it seems like a good idea, but it does mean that you don't necessarily work in a department you're interested in, or that you may have to leave a department you actually like for one you don't care about. But I guess that's just how things work in Japan, or at least at Chiba City Hall.

Well, it's been a month and Chiba is starting to feel like home! I've spent the past couple of days thinking about what I want to do as a CIR (in preparation for an evaluation interview I have next week) and hopefully some of those ideas will actually happen. Today I bought a vacuum cleaner and this weekend I'm planning to go to IKEA to finally buy a dresser to put my clothes in (yes, it's been a month and yes, my clothes are all still in my suitcase), so soon enough my apartment should stop looking like I just moved in. Here's to the future! :)

chiba orientation + vortex

Well, (do I start every post with 'well'? Maybe I need a new opening word...) this weekend has been fun! It started out with Chiba orientation on Friday, which was basically a chance for them to give all of the new Chiba JETS and WI-ALTS (Wisconsin ALTs, who come through a program between Chiba and Wisconsin, who are sister states) some more advice/information pertinent to life in Chiba prefecture. It was basically a mini version of Tokyo orientation, with some general information sessions and then various workshops.

For lunch I went out with a group of people to a place called Pantry Coyote, which apparently has the best burgers around Chiba City. It was a really cozy little place, with very cowboy Western type decorations, and the burgers were actually really great. I also learned that in Japan they have little paper things that you're supposed to put around your burger before you eat it, so you can keep your hands relatively clean and it can catch all the juice that drips out. Pretty cool.

Then after lunch we had some more stuff lined up. The afternoon session was divided by ALTs and CIRs, but there are only 4 CIRs in Chiba so ours was pretty cozy. I did get a lot of useful information though, some of which I plan to review at work tomorrow. We also had our block meetings in the afternoon - this year they've revived a block system, where every block is made of cities that are close to each other. So I got to meet the other new people who are either in Chiba City (because although I'm the only JET, it turns out there are quite a few WI-ALTS, which is exciting) or nearby Yachiyo.

After that, it was the end of orientation and we had an hour before our welcome dinner started. Everybody kind of wandered off in different directions, and I ended up going with a few of the people I had lunch with. At first we were going to try and check out the planetarium (orientation was in the meeting rooms above the science museum), but we missed the last showing, so instead we just wandered for a little bit before just hanging out in a little pub to cool off.

Then it was time for our welcome dinner! Apparently we had reserved the whole (tiny) restaurant for two hours, which was pretty cool. Most of the new people were there, as well as a bunch of returnees and a few of my coworkers. It was really fun meeting everybody (I think I managed to introduce myself to everybody I didn't know) and chatting! After the restaurant shooed us out at 8, we went to a nearby bar, where I stayed until I had to leave to catch the last bus home. All in all, it was a great night. :D

The next morning, I got up to go to my first frisbee practice in months! Like I said last post, my friend Cory told me about this team, which is called Vortex, and so I went to check out their Saturday practice! It was in Chiba Port Park, which is pretty close to my work and therefore only about 20 minutes away from my apartment by bike. I got there a little bit early and explored for a while, before wondering if I was in the right place. Luckily, a member of the team was nearby and noticed me looking lost, so he came to ask if I was there for practice!

It turns out that on Saturday there aren't too many people, since it's really a day where they just go through the basics for newcomers, but it was really great to throw a frisbee again (even though it was pretty hot outside)! I met a few of the current members and some other new people, which was cool - ages ranged from early 20s to 40s, and though they were all men yesterday apparently they do have women on the team too. I also learned the Japanese words for frisbee terms, which was pretty fun. I also found out that they do stall counts in English, which I thought was interesting because I assumed that they'd just count in Japanese. We did a few drills (turns out frisbee drills are pretty similar wherever you are) and then scrimmaged a little. I even scored a point, which was exciting! Anyway, I'm planning to go to their next practice tomorrow, since apparently a lot more people show up on weekdays and also because I think I might want to actually get involved with the team, since everybody seems pretty cool. :)

And then today I just went shopping and bought a lot of things for my apartment, including a fan, which is awesome. I'm also pretty proud of myself for managing to strap a fan without a box (because it was the display model and on sale) and an aluminum stepstool (because funnily enough I am too short to reach shelves in my Japanese apartment) to the back of my bike and getting all the way home with that, a full backpack, messenger bag, and a front basket full of stuff without any trouble. Tomorrow is back to work as usual, so until next time!

interns, jica, museums, oh my

Well, it's almost the end of another week! I've been in and out of the office all week, which has been pretty interesting. :)

There have been a couple of interns at the office for the past few days, presumably learning about what it means to work as a civil servant/in international relations/whatnot. On Monday Satou-san held a "What is JET" workshop for them, which I sort of helped with. I wasn't there for all of it, but basically we just explained what JET was (even though both he and I are new at our JET jobs, haha) and did some role-playing exercises with them.

The next day, Kondou-san and Hirata-san took the interns to learn about JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), and I went along with them. We spent the morning learning about what JICA does before having lunch at a yummy Thai place nearby. As we were heading back, I found out that I had a meeting at 1:30 for the newsletter I'm supposed to help translate, which I had totally forgotten about. Oops. So we called to tell them we would be late, and then Kondou-san (who was supposed to go with me) ended up having to work on something else so I headed over to the CCIA by myself. I was feeling really bad about being late for my first meeting, but then when I showed up a little after 2:00 they told me that actually my meeting was at 3:00. -.-' So I just hung out with Gina for a while before we went to our meeting, so all's well that ends well I guess!

Then today, after finally finishing up the last of the translation projects I've been working on (yay), Satou-san and I went to the Chiba City Museum of Art! It was partly so that I could see the museum (since part of my job is knowing as much as possible about Chiba City and what's in it), and partly for me to pick up some vouchers to give to the Chiba JETs at orientation tomorrow. We met with the vice-director of the museum (vice curator? I'm not really sure. Second-in-command, anyway), who was nice but really hard to understand - I found out later that even Satou-san had trouble hearing what he was saying sometimes, which made me feel a lot better about myself, haha. We got to take a look at the current exhibit, which is all art involving animals, which was pretty cool. They also had a participation game where we had to find certain animals and write down what paintings they were in, but both Satou-san and I failed to find them all, even though it was the easy version. -.-' We did get consolation/participation bookmarks, though. :)

Tomorrow is finally Chiba orientation, which I've been looking forward to ever since I got here, basically. I'll get to see the other new Chiba JETs again and meet the ones who came later than my group, plus returning Chiba JETs! There's also a welcome dinner planned for afterward, which should be pretty fun. And then on Saturday I'll be going to a frisbee practice, which hopefully will be fun! I found out about this Chiba City frisbee team from Cory, who I knew from Carleton and also works in Chiba (small world!), which is very exciting. So it should be an exciting weekend. :D

three generations festival

Well, today has certainly provided quite a contrast to yesterday, where I literally stayed in my apartment all day. (In my defense, it was pouring when I got up and I did get to chat with my dad and some friends, so it wasn't a totally unproductive day). But anyway, today I went to Chiba's Three Generations Festival!

The CCIA was having an event where foreigners could borrow yukata (summer kimonos) and then go dance the Chiba dance in the festival, and they invited me to join! Since I wasn't going for work I didn't have to be there until late in the afternoon, but they said if I wanted I could also go early and help out, and since I really had nothing else to do I figured I might as well. So I took the bus down to Chiba Station and walked to the CCIA. I got there a little bit early, so I spent a little bit of time wandering around the plaza, which was full of food stands and had a stage with performances. I'm not sure why this is the case, but basically every time I've gone somewhere with an outdoor stage in Japan, the performance has been Japanese kids dancing hip-hop. Weird.

Anyway, then I went in and helped them set up a little bit for the event. After waiting a while, the exchange students from  North Vancouver, who had been there for a bit, were heading off to go carry a mikoshi (portable shrine), and I got invited to go with them. It started pouring right as we left the building, but it cleared up after a little bit and we got to the starting point. On the way there, the mayor of Chiba City apparently passed by carrying a mikoshi, but I didn't manage to see it, which was pretty disappointing - I would have loved to see the mayor helping to haul a mini shrine down the street! Anyway, after that we walked down next to the parade. I was just observing, not actually carrying the shrine, but the North Vancouver kids seemed to have a really good time! It was pretty fun to watch them chanting and heaving the shrine with everybody else.

After that we went back to the CCIA, and I had somebody help me change into my yukata, which I'd bought when studying abroad. This was the first time I've worn it (besides trying it on right after I bought it), and also the first time I used the obi that I brought with me, which, as it turns out, is ridiculously long and also apparently not really the kind that you wear with a yukata. But they put it on me and I got a few compliments on it, so it worked. :)

After that, we all learned the Chiba dance, which is actually pretty simple - you just repeat the same short series of steps over and over again. There was a bit of time before we had to head out to actually do the dance, so I spent some time with the exchange students from North Vancouver and Gina. Then we were off to do the dance!

The way it worked seemed to be that there were lots of groups (various organizations, clubs, etc) that had people dancing on the streets, which were also full of various taiko (drum) groups. The song for the Chiba dance was played over loudspeakers, while all the dancers progressed along a route (while dancing the Chiba dance) and the taiko players drummed. It was actually really fun, even though we were doing the same steps over and over to the same song for at least an hour and a half. I could probably do the dance in my sleep now - after about fifteen minutes I stopped really thinking about the dance steps and just did them while watching all the taiko players drum as we passed. I did get to talk to some new people from the CCIA, too, which was nice.

After the dance, everybody was tired and that was the end of the event, so after helping to clean up a little bit I headed on home. I thought I would have to walk from the monorail station back to my apartment (which takes about 20 minutes) because all the buses from Chiba Station to my apartment had left, but I checked the bus stop at the monorail station and luckily the last bus going past my apartment was in fifteen minutes!

And now I'm home and pretty exhausted, so I think I'll head to bed early! I'm glad to have participated in my first festival (as opposed to just going and watching), and hopefully I'll do it again sometime. :D

week three!

So up until now my job has mostly been just translation, but I do have some events lined up that are more interactive! One of these is an event at the library, where I'll be reading some picture books out loud (in English) and playing some games like Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes. So this Wednesday I went with Satou-san to talk to the people at the library about it, and to get a tour of the library! I picked two books to read: Goodnight, Moon (because it's famous) and And The Doorbell Rang (because I remember reading that as a kid). I'm not really sure what the English ability of the kids who'll be there will be, but hopefully they'll enjoy it.

Afterward I got a tour of the library, which is a pretty cool place! It's a fairly new building (or at least looks that way), and they have plenty of books and cubicles where you can watch DVDs or tapes, which is great since I don't have anything that can play region 2 DVDs but love Japanese movies. They have a reasonably large foreign-language section, too, which is not just English but also includes things like Korean, French, and Portuguese (to name just a few). We also got to go into their story time room, which is a little round room that also happens to be a kind of mini planetarium! Our guide turned the lights off and we got to see the ceiling light up with the constellations in all four seasons. It was pretty awesome. I definitely plan on going back to explore the library a little more sometime!

Today was a pretty busy day, too! It started out with my first courtesy visit (when people visit the mayor), with the high school exchange students from North Vancouver. I was just there to observe and see how these work, because after this I'm supposed to be the interpreter (scary). There were some opening remarks, a speech by the mayor, a speech by the North Vancouver chaperone, an exchange of gifts, a period of open conversation (to ask questions), and then a commemorative photo. I was impressed because the North Vancouver kids asked some good questions about things like environmental efforts in Chiba, until I remembered how in the future I'm going to have to interpret questions like that. -.-' But I guess that's something that'll get easier in time.

My predecessor was also there to help interpret, so I finally got to meet her! I think I'm pretty lucky to have a predecessor who's still in Japan (relatively close, in fact), so I can still contact her pretty easily if I have questions. After the courtesy visit I basically just stuck around with her as she got some stuff done at the immigration office (which is right below my office) and gave me advice about things. We had lunch together and then went to the Chiba City International Association, which is where Gina works and where my predecessor spent most of her time. They were having an intercultural event all day, for Japanese people and foreigners to hang out together and enjoy some performances, so we spent some time there. It was also good because I got to talk a little bit more with the people who work at the CCIA, who we work with pretty often.

After that I stopped by home really quick before heading out to have dinner with some other Chiba JETs! One of the Chiba PAs, Laura, had suggested that we have dinner sometime since we both live in Chiba City, and she also invited one of the other CIRs, Sikiru. I was pretty impressed because he lives two hours away, but apparently he loves driving and makes the trip to Chiba City pretty often! We had dinner at a little cafe, which was really tasty! I'm glad I got to meet another Chiba CIR (apparently there are only 4 of us) and he seems like a really cool person. I'll be seeing them both again next Friday for Chiba Orientation, which is another fun thing to look forward to.

On Sunday I'll be participating in the Three Generations Festival with a group from the CCIA! I brought the yukata I'd bought in Nagoya two years ago back to Japan with me, and apparently they'll help me put it on before we all head out to the festival. We're going to be dancing and maybe also carrying a portable shrine! I'm pretty excited, since I've never actually been part of a festival in Japan.

But for now I'm pretty tired out from the day, so it is time for bed! Until next time. :)

re-connected!

 As of today, not only do I have internet in my apartment, but I'm also the proud owner of a Japanese smartphone! Now I feel like I can really start living here and stay connected to everybody, both here and back at home in the US. :D

Yesterday I headed downtown to start the cell phone search, and to see if I could get one without my resident card. I went to an electronics store called Yodobashi Camera, on the advice of Satou-san, because they had models from all three major cell phone companies in one spot. As it turns out, smart phones in Japan are ridiculously expensive, as in usually around 50,000 yen (more than $500). I found one I liked, but I figured I should try to look in at least one more place before deciding. So I went to a nearby Docomo store (the provider that I wanted to use) and saw another phone that I liked even better. What's more, it had a sign saying something like '0 yen when you enroll in various options' (but more on that later). Still, since getting a cell phone is a big deal, I decided that I should sleep on it and then go get it if I still wanted it (since it turns out they accept identification other than a resident card).

The rest of the afternoon I spent wandering around and shopping. I discovered that I was right not to let myself go into the Uniqlo near my house, since when I went into another Uniqlo 'just to look' I ended up buying clothes (but they were really on sale!).

This morning, I got up and decided to check if my internet had been activated, like they said it would. I'd gotten my modem yesterday and set it up, but without the line being activated it wasn't worth trying to see if it worked. I thought that a certain light on my modem would have to be on to show that it was activated and when I first checked, it wasn't, but I decided to try plugging in the ethernet anyway and to my surprise, it worked! Having internet in my apartment is ridiculously exciting I do have to plug it into an ethernet (wireless costs extra), but I don't care too much.

I had to leave shortly after discovering I had internet in order to catch the bus downtown (but not before emailing my parents, who apparently hadn't gotten the email I'd sent them from work a few days ago to tell them I was fine), but I was leaving to get my cell phone so I was even more excited! I'd read through the catalogue they gave me yesterday to make sure I knew what I was doing, since I've never entered a cell phone contract in English, let alone in Japanese. The people at the Docomo store were very nice (Japan is awesome when it comes to service), and even gave me tea. It turns out that the phone I'd wanted wasn't actually free, but I liked it a lot more than any others and I figured it was worth the various conditions. And now I have a cell phone! I still haven't played around with it, because it was charging and I was distracted by having internet, but that's what the rest of today (and probably the next few days) is for!

Anyway, so it turns out that I got the two biggest things I wanted in Japan all in one day! I feel a lot more relaxed knowing that now I can call people if I need to, and being able to look things up on the internet is always great! Plus I can update this blog in real time (and not all in one block like I just did), which I'm sure you'll appreciate. :D

about the office

(August 10)

Well, it's the beginning of another weekend! It has been another quiet week, but since this is basically my real life for the next year (as opposed to a semester-long study abroad or a short vacation), that's probably going to be the norm. Or at least until I meet some more people or find some things to participate in.

Anyway, the most eventful thing that happened this week was my welcome party, but before that I'll talk a little about my office first! We are the International Relations Section of Chiba City, under the Office of the Mayor. There are eight of us all together; three men and five women. There's the section manager, who we all call 'kachou' (section manager), the supervisor Hirata-san (who I've mentioned a bunch), my supervisor Satou-san, and then Kitamura-san (F), Kurashige-san (M), Kondou-san (F), and a Chinese lady named Aoi-san. We all work together in one room, with Kachou and Hirata-san at the front and the rest of us in a block in the middle. Instead of having individual cubicles, our desks are all pushed together, and I sit in between Kondou-san and Satou-san.

Everybody but Kitamura-san (who had to take care of her kids) came to my welcome party, which was really just all of us eating dinner and drinking together at a restaurant. The director of the office of the mayor was there too, which surprised me a little. It was also an 'otsukare-sama party' (probably not a real term) for Gina, who had been working at the international relations section for 4 months but moved back to the international association when I got here. There was yummy food and unlimited drinks (for 2.5 hours), and I had a good time talking with everybody! It was nice to spend time just chatting, although because of the way the table was set up I really only talked to half of them. Anyway, I've heard that this sort of gathering with the office happens pretty regularly in Japan, so I'm looking forward to the next time!

Other than that things have been pretty unremarkable – I've started some new translation projects at work and bought some more things for my apartment. Today I walked around past the supermarket to see what else is in the area, which is really nothing – it's mostly just apartment complexes. But tomorrow I plan to go downtown to look at cell phones (though I don't think I can get one until I have my resident card, which could take a while) and explore a little, like I meant to last weekend, so that should be fun.

first weekend

(August 6)

Well, I've successfully lived through my first weekend in Chiba City! Sunday also meant that I had been in Japan for a week, although since I spent the first two days in a hotel talking to (mostly) other Americans, I think Wednesday is more appropriate, as the end of my first week in Chiba.

The weekend was pretty chill, partly because I'm still settling in and partly because I don't have any friends or anything else to do, really. I spent Saturday morning walking around my neighborhood and finding my way to the grocery store. I also looked at bikes at the local bike shop, because having a bike would make things much easier.

Then I left to meet Gina and Hirata-san to watch fireworks! They took place in Makuhari, which is only a few stops away by train and apparently a pretty famous part of Chiba City. It's right by the bay (though really, most of Chiba City is) and is home to the Makuhari Messe, a big exhibition center, among other things. The fireworks were right by the water, and in some cases, over it! We made our way to the parking lot (which is where our tickets put us) and settled in, complete with some padding that Hirata-san was smart enough to bring. Then we sat and ate dinner before the fireworks started. They were pretty cool – Japanese fireworks are much cooler than American ones – but we were a little bit far away so it wasn't quite as impressive as when I saw them in Yokohama with Megumi two years ago. But overall it was a good show, and a good chance for me to get to know Gina and Hirata-san a little better!

The next day I had planned to go downtown and shop for things, but I ended up just shopping near my apartment. I mentioned that I wanted to get a bike to Gina and Hirata-san, and they told me that I could get one for relatively cheap at Mr. Max, a store that I think is similar to Sears. So I went there and ended up just buying stuff there and at the nearby 100-yen store. But I did buy a bike! It was about 5000 yen (more than $50) cheaper than the cheapest bike I'd found at the bike store, so I was pretty happy. I rode it to work today and it's already much better than taking the bus! (Except when it rains.)

Things are still pretty uneventful for me, as I have no phone and no internet (and as I said, no friends – or at least none that I can contact without a phone/internet) and have mostly just been staying at home after work. I would explore the city a little, but it gets dark pretty early (around 8) and since I work until 5, I don't want to get lost downtown in the dark (because I probably would). I'm really glad that I have a television (that I'm borrowing from the city for the year) with a decent amount of channels - I love Japanese TV, and without it I think I'd probably get really bored and/or lonely just staying in my house all the time.

Tomorrow is the welcome party that my workplace is throwing for me, which I'm pretty excited for! They keep asking me if I drink and seem pretty pleased when I say I do, so I bet it'll be a good time. :) Anyway, hopefully soon enough I'll figure out getting internet and a phone, but until then, I'll just keep writing this on my computer!

end of week one

(August 1)

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!

hello world!

And I have internet! Prepare yourself for a flood of blog posts in the next ten minutes, as I'll be posting the posts that I wrote on my computer but haven't been able to put up. (Again, feel free to skip them if it's too much at once.) :D

and we're off to chiba!

All right, so this is my last chance at decent internet until I'm not sure when, since I'll have to get it set up at my apartment and probably shouldn't blog at work, so here's a final Tokyo orientation update!

Yesterday was the last day of orientation, and it was just as busy as the first! I spent the morning at a PA training session, although as it turns out I'm the PA for Chiba City and also the only JET in Chiba City, which really means that I'm just taking care of myself. But I talked to a Chiba prefecture PA and I might be helping out a little there, so the whole Prefectural Advisor title may mean something after all. :)

Next were some more helpful CIR workshops and then a presentation from the US Embassy. We also met with the Chiba prefecture PAs, and I met my supervisor! He seems really friendly and cheerful, so I'm excited to work with him from now on.

After that I went out to dinner with a couple of other Chiba JETs and wandered around Shinjuku for a little while. I still don't know where anything is, but since I'm so close to Tokyo I'll probably be back soon enough.

Today's the day when we all finally go to our respective prefectures! Chiba prefecture JETs get a bus ride to Chiba City, where we'll have some sort of welcoming ceremony, before splitting off to our final destinations. Luckily for me, Chiba City is my final destination, so I have a little less traveling than everybody else to do. According to my supervisor, after the ceremony we'll be off doing whatever needs to be done so that I can start living in my apartment - and also greeting some important people (he slipped that into our conversation just as casually yesterday! Hopefully nothing too nerve-wracking), so it'll be a busy busy day!

I'm excited to get to Chiba and actually start feeling like I'm in Japan - these past two days in a hotel, surrounded by English-speakers, hasn't really brought it home yet. I'm sure that once I get to Chiba and my apartment, though, it'll hit me! I'm excited. :)