Here is where we work
We were very busy our first 24 hours in Japan. There was a 3-day period between home, the airplane, and arriving here that was just a blur. We were scheduled to leave for Japan on July 23rd, 2010 at 9:30 am on delta airlines from Richmond, Virginia. My father and sister, Elizabeth, came to the house to take us to the airport with my mom. Last minute before we left we decided to pay for a fifth bag, rather than have two of our bags charged for overweight fees. I went on the airline website to check-in and pay. This is when I discovered that our flight had been changed to 7:50am. At the time I was on the computer it was 7:10am. This sent me into panic mode and I became very stressed out. We left for the airport and carried in 5 large suitcases. We waited in line for what seemed for forever. We could see that our flight was canceled for maintenance problems. We were hoping to get on the next flight to Detroit, which left at 12:30pm. We finally got to the check in counter when they informed us that the next flight was booked. If we wanted to leave that day we would have had 4 lay overs and arrived in Japan at 8:45pm on Sunday (which is 7:45am eastern time). The other option was to leave on Saturday at 6am and arrive in Japan Sunday at 6pm. This seemed like a better option, so we took that.
We came out of the line with our bags and my family was surprised to see us do that. We then explained the situation to them. In some ways this was a blessing, I felt some of the stress leave. Also, my step-father was in California for the week and he was coming home that night at 5, so we got to see him one last time. We went back home and I unpacked a few things that i decided I really didn't need. We relaxed and went out to dinner with my mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law to Mexico (a restaurant). It was a nice bonus. I also rescheduled our 6am flight to 9:30am so we wouldn't have to stay in the Detroit airport for 8 hours.
Everything worked out fine the next morning. I was less stressed, the line was short and our bags were at the exact weight they needed to be. Our flight to Detroit went well. We enjoyed a nice overpriced lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant at the airport. Then finally it was time to board that 747 to Nagoya, Japan. It was a packed flight. We didn't have seats together, but a nice woman traded with me, so I could sit next to Will. We sat next to a nice lady from Ohio. The only thing that kind of sucked was that there were no little TV screens in the seat. It was like going back in time with the old projector screens at the front of the plane. I haven't flown on a plane like that since 1999. Every other flight I've taken overseas has had the screens in the seats. Oh well! The flight seemed like eternity, because it's kind of impossible to watch movies like that, someone is always walking by or standing in front of the screen.
After a 13 hour flight we finally arrived to Japan!! It was just great to get off that darn plane. All of our bags got there in one piece, that was great. We went through customs just fine. Miyuki, our boss' secretary picked us up. Thank God all of our bags fit in her car. We were a bit worried about that. It took about an hour to get to the apartment from the airport. By the time we got there it was dark and I was about ready to fall asleep. As soon as we got all of our stuff in we were given a tour of the apartment by Lesley and Brian the previous teachers and a chu-hi to drink. I thought chu-hi was just some sort of lemon-lime Japanese soda. I soon discovered it was actually an alcoholic soda-pop.
After the drink they took us this chicken restaurant, called Chube, where pretty much all things are chicken. Will's favorite thing from there was called 'Kojnac'. I know I didn't spell that right, but it is known in English as 'Devils Tongue'. Its some kind of vegetable that has been formed into this gooey meat-like substance. Chube was exactly what I would expect a Japanese restaurant to look like. It was truly awesome, except I was extremely tired. The owners were friendly, it was like an episode of Japanese "cheers" or something like that. The restaurant owners gave Will several free drinks and he had too much. After that lovely meal we headed back to finally sleep!
The next morning we woke up at 3:45am. Brian and Lesley got up around 4:30 and made some breakfast. Around 7:00am we went for a walk around the town. It's a lovely place. I will take pictures and post them here and on facebook soon. We stopped by one of the many random drink machines that you will find in town to get an iced coffee. The machine talks to you. I am not really sure what it's saying, probably "thanks for buying a drink". We couldn't go into any of the stores during this walk because everything had not opened yet, it was too early. We got back to the apartment and then went out to meet Keith for a type of training. He also took us to the kindergarten where Will will teach once a week. You take your shoes off at that school. It is the cleanest school I've ever seen. All the floors were wood. It looked more like a spa than a school. The kids are very cute.
After all that we came back to our school "Let's" where we were getting trained to teach. We shadowed the teachers that afternoon. I think I am definitly going to enjoy teaching. I will talk about what I think about lessons in later posts.
Here is the back of my head in the office.
At 8:30 when we were finished with our last lesson we went to a Welcome Nicole and William/ Good-bye Lesley and Brian party. It was a Korean style restaurant, I think. We went in to the big seating area and had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor. The food and drinks were wonderful. Will ate a dish called 'Yukke' or something like that, which was raw beef and egg yolk. He said it was good but that is something I will not be trying anytime soon. We were both so exhausted that I don't think we were as friendly or as talkative as we should have been. The night was basically a blur. We finally got home around midnight or so.
That was our first day there. It was very busy. The whole first week was very busy, just because Lesley and Brian had a lot to show and tell us about how to teach at Let's and about how to live in Mizuho-shi. We are very thankful they did too.
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