T is for TOKYO

Yes. That is a fact you know.

SO, as I still do not have the internet in my apartment just yet I have decided to use my time at work to put some posts on this here blog of mine.

And I shall start at the start, waaaay back in July 2012- technically only about 4 and a half weeks ago, just feels much longer- me and the rest of the JET crew headed for Tokyo. We were put on a tiny plane to Paris, that managed to take almost 2 whole hours. It couldn't even hold our hand luggage it was just THAT small.

On reaching Paris, we had a good few hours to wait. So the 17/18 of us Edinburgh departees hung around a lot and had some Japanese beer (which I still never paid Keri back for... SORRY KERI!) Then we were on the plane to Tokyo for 11 hours of fun. I was next to 2 Japanese women who kept falling asleep on me and my tv was broken. Yay.

We eventually made it to TOKYOOOO!!!!

 The Dark Knight Rises posters in JAPANESE

At Shibuya, the massive crossing placey

I just like how everything is turned into a cute cartoon character in Japan...

SHIBUYA again =D

The famous crossing itself!

Yes, we went to an English pub. But it was good, and we were happy.



So that was really out first two nights in Tokyo. The first night was a stumble around a bit of Shinjuku for food, then it was out to Shibuya the second night, and it was great =D 

By the third day I had become extremely tired of being talked to... All these workshops and lecture things seemed to go on FOREVER. I fear my attention span is merely the problem as it's like that of a 5 year old apparently...

So I used my laptop until it died (my charger had already been sent to Kochi, clever Pam). Then we went to the British Embassy for our welcome reception. It was really good. The food was less impressive to be honest, compared to the meal they'd given us at the hotel the previous night, but they put on a Taiko performance for us in their lovely garden and there was plenty of drink.

After the reception, me and bunch of us decided we wanted to go to the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed. The Park Hyatt or whatever it was called. It turned out to only be a few blocks from our hotel, HANDY.

It was a fancy joint like, they even had a Jazz band on too! Which was good since we had to pay 2000 yen each just to get in...

There was pretty epic views over Tokyo, and I'm not for using the word EPIC normally...

... there were ridiculously in-depth toilet functions....

.... the bill came up to literally hundreds of pounds between the lot of us....

.... but it was worth every penny. WE SAT WHERE BILL MURRAY SAT. Worth it.

Then it was off to Kochi the next day... The plane ride was quick and painless. We watched Pokemon, and had a mini breakdown of uncontrollable laughter for quite some time.

AAAAHHHHHHH New Post.

Pam is here, yep. BUT don't expect any photos yet.. I still don't have my internet set up in my apartment, but fingers crossed for this week!!

SO I arrived in Japan in one piece, and I have been at work for... 8 days so far. So I'm settling in, getting used to the heat a bit (my hair might state otherwise) and eating a hell of a lot of rice and noodles.

I shall leave my wonderful glorious tales of Tokyo and my first week in Kochi until I manage to get photos up too =D Or it's just not the same.

STORY FOR TODAY. I was taking a wee trot around the 100 yen shop, and I casually turned the corner and there was a wee boy walking towards me. Said wee boy looks up SCREAMS and RUNS AWAY (still screaming) O.O Yes. I am the terrifying local foreign girl. You may never see hair like this again. I felt slightly disturbed for the rest of my trip in the shop and made sure to keep an eye out for that boy...

But yeah, once I get photos up I can update a'body with my joyful tales. Fortunately that's the worst reaction I've had to myself so far. Now I must get back to pretending to work...

11 DAYS

Yep, it's only 11 days until I leave for Japanland.

CRAZY

It's come around extremely fast, for ages it was all "6 weeks til I go" " 2 months yet.." and now.... I can actually say "I GO TO JAPAN NEXT WEEK".

AND I still haven't packed yet. My empty suitcase is sitting there next to MASSIVE mound of clothes. It is just too daunting right now. Especially with that woman at the London Orientation telling us we should only take the one suitcase pretty much. Now it seems like it's going to be a really fun job fitting my life into one single suitcase (well, and a wee hand luggage one too I guess).

The sun's finally come out in Dundee for a couple of days too. I had a slight panic yesterday morning about going, which made me feel better. I was getting slightly concerned I hadn't panicked about it up until then, so now I'm good.

Also been speaking to my Predecessor a lot too, found out loads about my new home. Got a great sized flat, with 3 rooms and a kitchen/diner and a bathroom =D Apart from there's a fun looking Japanese style bath shower thing... BUT I also have a balcony!


View Larger Map

So yeah. In between the MILLIONS of other things going on in the next 11 days I have to pack my stuff. OH AND BUY YEN! Leaving party tomorrow and my premature 22nd birthday next week too, it's all mental busy with me just now =D

Inooooo Chooooo

So my school, Ino-Cho Business High School, has it's own song! Harris Academy never had IT'S own song. But I'm sure if it did it would've been an unbearable droney thing with the school band...

Ino-Cho High School's Song

Whereas this wee tune seems pretty decent to me. I also found out that the school has a Kendo Club. A KENDO club =D Brilliant. Kendo is the one thing I would love to take up, so I hope they let me join. I hope I can find a Karate club somewhere in the city that I can join too...

Contact Has Been Made

I just had an apple there. It was a big apple.

Then I figured I'd search for the worlds biggest apple...

It is BIG. And funnily enough it was grown in Japan... Strange coincidence? I think not.

Anyway.
So yesterday I logged into my email and saw I had a few of my normal junk mail and... what's that? An email with Japanese characters in it?? I THINK IT IS!

SO I got an email from my EFL Supervisor, which is like the Supervising English teacher from my Board of Education. She welcomed me to the prefecture, and told me I'll be working at Ino Senior High School in a town called Ino. And soooo, more Googling ensued.





So turns out Ino-Cho is a twenty minute train journey from Kochi City! Which is great stuff, as I was slightly freaked out that I was going to be dumped up in the mountains somewhere... AND I had an email from my predecessors friend saying that my predecessor lived in Kochi City itself and got the train in to work. So, everything's sounding pretty good right now! I only work at the one Senior High, so hopefully I should get to know the staff and kids pretty well and I might be living in the city!

Now I just have to wait until my predecessor is allowed to contact me, which hopefully should be sometime this month. For now I'll just plan my luggage and any day/weekend trips I can do in my free time =D

An aerial view of Kochi City, there's LOADS of rivers and water. 

AND they have dead sweet wee trams! 

ONLY 6 WEEKS UNTIL I LEAVE SCOTLAND. Woah...

Where I Shall be Living Soon

Thought I'd post up a few photos of Kochi that I've found online. Looks like a lovely place so far, with 84% of the region covered in forest, mountains, some of the best beaches in Japan and the best surfing spots outside of Okinawa think it's going to be a blast!

Shimanto River, apparently the only river in Japan to not have a Dam

Katsurahama Beach just outside of Kochi City, I shall make sure to make use of
these great looking beaches!

I also watched a whole bunch of videos on youtube about Kochi, this series was pretty decent. Even though part 2 was all about bamboo in Kochi... 

I can't wait to find out where exactly I'll be living and what my new flat/house will be like!! Exciting stuff all this. The JET Programme loves to keep you waiting, and I'm actually getting used to that now.

Kōchi HERE I COME!!!

Yep, finally after 6 or so weeks since finding out I was accepted onto the JET Programme, we in the UK got our placements emailed to us. We'd been waiting, and waiting and waiting some more... But finally, on the 30th of May 2012 we got a text saying our placements had been sent by email! Rushing from my xbox to grab my laptop, waiting (some more) for it to turn it's lazy arse on, I got to my email ANNNDDD....

Nothing. This moment was followed by practically all of us UK JETs on Facebook getting stressed out and moaning. Then someone phoned JET and I decided I wasn't going to wait ANY longer, so I phoned too =D The manny at the JET Desk is brilliant, he's always so calm even though I'm sure he must harassed non-stop by us lot. They resent my email, and I rushed to check it....

You have been placed in Kōchi Prefecture.

My first reaction:

Kooooooocccchhhhhhiiiiiiiii????!!!??!

Where the hell is that?!?!

GOOGLE.

At the same time as frantically typing KOCHI into my friend Google, I was busy getting excited because I also found out my departure date in the same email! I was in Group A and hence leaving from Edinburgo on the 28th of July. The UK JETs unlike everyone else had to wait ages to find out what departure group they were leaving in, this is because of those darling Olympics messing everything up in our country.

So this was the first picture I saw come up on Google whilst I was typing Kochi Prefecture.... 

First thoughts: WHERE HAVE THEY PUT ME?

Second thought: I knew I'd end up on the smallest island... Isolated from the world....

Third thoughts: Shut yer face Pam and look it up!!

The Wikipedia page for the Kochi Prefecture is sparse to say the least. With very little information on anything much. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dchi_Prefecture But I continued my research for a good wee while before announcing to my family the location where I'll be spending at least the next year of my life...

Now my thoughts are all positive =D Well mostly. I know I'll be out of the way of touristy places, but it's only a 4-5 hours coach journey to Osaka. So that is pretty smart indeed, with Kobe practically the same distance away and Kyoto maybe a 6-7 hour coach journey away, it's no bad.

Also, Kochi itself and the island of Shikoku looks like it will be an amazing experience. Being the island with the least tourists, it's said to be a true Japanese experience. I'm excited. OF COURSE. And as I've only been told my Prefecture, apparently that means I'm working with High Schools. Which is good because High Schools should mean I'm in a city or large town of sorts... THANK GOD. What with my lack of driving ability and all....