It’s been about two weeks now since I first arrived in Japan and headed to Sapporo. Time has seemed to pass by quite quickly since I first landed, but I am now beginning to settle in nicely. It’s nice to have a bit of free time between moving out of my apartment, traveling, participating in orientations, buying things for my new place and just getting over jet lag in general. Here is a recount of the events of my arrival in Japan on the Japan Exchange Teaching Program (JET).
Boston: July 25th - 27th
I arrived in Boston in the evening of July 25th and was asleep not long after. A long few days of both packing and moving out of my apartment in Vermont had taken quite a lot out of me. The next day would be my chance for any last minute repacking before the pre-departure orientation that evening at the consulate. In the morning, I grabbed some bag tags and a luggage scale and began what ended up being quite the struggle: to balance the weight in between my suitcases. With 2 checked bags at a max of 23kg (50lbs) finding ways to pack my most important affairs into just under 50kg proved quite difficult. I ended up repacking and weighing over and over again, right up until I needed to leave for the consulate in town.
After throwing together my suit, I booked it downtown to the consulate, making it a comfortable 15 or so minutes before the start of orientation. In the lobby were the first JET applicants I had the chance to meet up until this point. Surprisingly enough, the first people I talked to were both from Vermont too, so we got on great. It wasn’t long after that we headed up to the consulate floor to begin our pre-departure orientation, and more importantly, get our passports with newly issued visa therein.
Orientation was about what I’d expected, telling us the procedure for departure day, addressing concerns and basically bridging what gaps they could to get us into the hands of the staff at the proper orientation in Tokyo. There was time for questions at the end with some older program veterans. Standard questions were asked, along with some interesting questions things like item availability in supermarkets and dealing with the various insects, quite infamous to the particularly warm and humid parts of southern Japan.
The main part of the orientation concluded after the questions were held, and we were issued our passports back. The two hours following would be a mixer with drinks and snacks, a chance for the new participants to get to know each other a bit and talk personally with the consulate staff and previous JETs. While I had planned to leave soon after to do my final stress repacking and get a good night’s sleep, I ended up staying for the whole event.
I had the chance to speak with the JET program coordinator for the Boston consulate, someone who I had been in regular email correspondence throughout my application process, face-to-face. It turned out that he had been placed in Hokkaido during his tenure in JET and spoke candidly about his preference for it. I was quite pleased to hear about Sapporo having a Costco and Hokkaido grocery stores being one of the few places in Japan with easy access to cheese thanks to its strong dairy industry, supplying over half of all dairy in the country. I was also introduced to a representative of the Massachusetts Hokkaido Association, who spoke to the merits of my placement as well.
I met and spoke with many people and exchanged some contacts. What was quite amusing was that Sapporo beer was one of the drinks on offer, so when introducing ourselves and sharing our placements, I needed only point to my drink. Soon enough, the final stragglers were heading out and cleaning began, so made my way back to double-check my baggage situation and get a good night’s rest.
While my sleep wasn’t particularly restful, it wasn’t for naught either. With the anticipation of such a big trip ahead of me, it was hard to keep my mind from wandering. I woke up and did my last checks to make sure I had gathered all my affairs. Dressed now in more comfortable wear, I moved consolidated all my bags and called an Uber to the airport. After one last minute repack, I was able to get my luggage checked and through security with my now particularly heavy carry on luggage.
The wait for the flight was mostly taken up by making final phone plan arrangements, but I found time to have a slice of airport-priced pizza as a send-off meal and boarded my plane. Next stop: Tokyo.
Tokyo: July 28th - 31st
The flight went rather smooth, given the length. I spent most of my time reading and playing the mahjong they had on the in-flight entertainment system. I managed to catch a bit of sleep, in about 30 minute intervals. While not much, it definitely made a huge difference.
After about 13 and a half hours in the air, we touched down at Narita International Airport sometime around 3:30 in the afternoon. It was a pretty smooth arrival and being quite a quick walker and eager to stretch my legs, I was the first of our cohort to make it to the immigration line. The arrival hall was still jam packed with all both arriving JETs from various flights and the deluge of summer tourists that Tokyo has been no stranger to as of late. After around a half hour of waiting on a slow-moving line, I made it to the immigration desk, where I cleared relatively quickly and had my residence card printed and issued on the spot. With my bags already waiting for me, I made it past customs with no sweat and headed for the bus to the hotel. I dropped off my bags to be later shipped to the Sapporo Board of Education and boarded a bus that left for our accommodations shortly after.
The trip to the hotel was my first chance to really begin to get out of travel mode and let my new environment sink it. My only obligations for the rest of the evening was to check into my hotel room and get some grub. The 50-minute ride into Tokyo was filled with the familiar excitement of arriving in a foreign country. Lots of looking out the window to more and more impressive views as we got closer into the city. From the Tokyo Skytree, the third-tallest structure in the world at 634m tall, Tokyo Tower, a steel-lattice telecommunications tower built in the 60s and now an iconic attraction, and a trip over the Rainbow Bridge, an iconic suspension bridge over northern Tokyo Bay. I also had a chance to talk with some of the other JETs on the bus, learning that one was placed on an island of about only 80 people off the coast of southern Japan, accessible only by a 4-hour ferry ride.
After The bus ride, I arrived at the hotel and was checked in with my bag in my room within 20 minutes. The room was cozy, being shared with 3 other JETs, but given that we would be spending little time in the room and being quite jet-lagged, it was no big deal. With it being only about 6 in the evening at that point, I made an effort to get out and walk around. Being that the hotel was in Shinjuku, a major district of the city with a huge nightlife, it seemed obvious to take a walk and keep moving before I fell to the seductive draw of exhaustion.
As far as places go, Shinjuku works great for keeping a sleepy traveler occupied with ample stimuli. Pachinko parlors, nightclubs, hosts and hostesses on the streets trying to entice clientele, as well as some more seedy sights kept me on my toes. It only now began to skin in that I had finally finished the bulk of my journey. After my quick lap around town, and disinterested in getting drawn into an expensive, tourist-catering restaurant, I went for a snack at the famous konbini for the ever similarly famous Family Mart fried chicken. Satisfied with staying up until past 8, I turned in for the evening.
The remainder of the time spent in Tokyo was quite the Jet-lagged rush, with back-to-back panels, presentations and speeches from the official JET orientation. It was really just dressing up formally, sitting in a conference hall and listening to whatever was on. While the information was useful, there wasn’t too much of note besides some of the free time I had outside of my obligations. After the whirlwind of presentations on the first day, we all split off into rooms for JETs placed in the same region to socialize over drinks and hors-d’œuvres. I was sent to the banquet hall for North Japan JETs where I quickly ended connecting with Robert, an American placed in Misawa, Aomori. He was lamenting the difficulty of being placed in a city with a large American air force base, worried about being somewhere where the reputation of all the airmen might influence the local perception of Americans generally. He did say that in spite of this, he was looking on the bright side of his placement and was excited to explore the prefecture. After talking and sharing a drink, some more Aomori JETs gathered and got to talking, the conversation was so pleasant, it almost made me wish I had gotten my second choice placement of Aomori for just a moment. Regardless, we chatted away and turned in for the evening for the next day of presentations.
The next and final day was more of the same, lots of jet lag and too much orientation. Though, all this did indeed help become adjusted to the new timezone quite quickly with the help of plenty of bottled green tea and some light snacks. The final day was also the longest, though it was easier to get through as, uninterested in visiting the touristy bars and restaurants of Shinjuku, Robert and I had made plans to hop on a train 30 minutes west to Kichijoji. Our destination was Harmonica Alley, a small maze of narrow streets and little bars and izakayas. The evening before, we were able to figure out that we both knew of the area from the same YouTube video. With our plans for the evening as a motivator, the day went by easier, but was still quite a drain. After debating with myself whether to go out after a day of exhaustion, we met in the lobby that evening and hit the train out to Kichijoji.
After figuring out the ticketing system in the labyrinthine nightmare that is Shinjuku station, we made it to our destination without much fuss. We did a lap around the alley, scoping out potential spots to patronize, finally working up the courage to visit our first place. It was a small standing bar where we both ordered a Sapporo, pleased with our navigation. After finishing the drink and working up some more confidence, we decided to see if we could situate ourselves in a new place. We walked a bit and eventually found the little bar that was featured in the same video we had both seen. We squeezed ourselves in, with Robert dropping his change on the floor, but managing to strike up a conversation in the process. We enjoyed our drink as we chatted and watched Olympic swimming on the TV. It was a lot of fun and, while we were eager to stay, early buses to the airport the next morning convinced us to call it a night at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow would hail the end of my brief sojourn in Tokyo and arrival at my final destination: Sapporo, Hokkaido.