The Gaijin Are Coming

Every time I visit Seattle, I fall in love with it a little. Maybe it's how fresh the air is, or maybe it's the mountains and the Sound. Needless to say, sharing that with my partner before we said our very temporary goodbyes was magical. Also, dinner at Lynne's Bistro with my dad was pretty cool and very delicious.



As for the Seattle Orientation, I learned a lot about things they probably won't have time to address here in Tokyo--Japanese NGOs and Ranald McDonald, the first American to teach English in Japan. (It's actually a kind of awesome story and totally worth a wiki search.) The best part, though, was definitely meeting fellow JETs at the Consulate Reception.

Those of us who travelled to Seattle--apparently the only ones who had packed in advance--stayed at a cute hotel...with one working elevator. This caused luggage panic, stress, and twenty minute delays on the morning of the flight. Still, we managed to get to the airport early, not that it matters at SeaTac. The whole process of getting us all checked in was very well coordinated; the security line, however, was a bloody mess and probably the main reason I couldn't sleep on the plane.

So, three romcoms, two meals, and a very depressing episode of Mad Men later, we landed in Tokyo. In the JET section of the plane, there arose a great titter of excitement, followed by groans as we tried to unload our over-stuffed carry on bags. And then everything ever was in Japanese, and I even managed to carry out all of my conversations with airport personnel in Japanese, except when I explained that I had less than a month's worth of a prescription. That was a little too important to mess up.

Then we put our giant baggage carts on the escalator (I feared for my life) and rolled out to the buses. And invaded a five start hotel. I would say we ransacked the Keio's little conbini, but very few of us seem to have been able to find it. Mmm, Zarusoba. I would have taken pictures of it, but I was too hungry.

Tomorrow the orientations begin!