Day 1 of TO

Yesterday was the first day of Tokyo Orientation! I went to bed the night before around 9 after getting back from dinner. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. I woke up around 6:30 naturally...seriously, no alarm. I got lots of rest on what the Japanese call beds. According to my brother, it's really more like mats on a platform with sandbags for pillows. I went with my roommates to get breakfast, which was delicious. I learned my lesson again, bacon is very different in Japan. I ate mushy scrambled eggs, french fries, and some corn flakes.

After breakfast was the welcome ceremony. Basically, I sat for about 3 hours and listened to CLAIR, Japanese Dignitaries, and others mouth off about how important internationalization is to Japan. My ass hurt from sitting, but I got plenty of practice sitting from the 14 hour flight from Newark. Lunch of curry and rice...bleh...I think I accidentally ate at the vegetarian option table.

I attended the Pop culture seminar after lunch. It was a really cool little talk. Some ALTs and CIRs went over what is currently popular in Japan including game shows, comedies, dramas, foreign dramas (24! ^_^), video games, manga, music, etc. Apparently there is a j-pop band with 48 members!

I also went to the Food seminar, which was mostly a waste of time. I learned recipes that I'll never use among other things. I did learn however, that pre-made foods go on sale after 6:00PM and apparently taste just as good. I need to buy fruits when they are in season to save money as well.

After dinner, the Nara JETs got together and did some epic karaoke. I sang "Don't Stop me Now" by queen and joined in on many other songs. The karaoke place was a nomihoudai, which is all-you-can-drink for a flat rate. The Nara JETs are amazing, so this year should be fun. After karaoke, we hit a conbini for water and snacks. We chilled out in a circle at a courtyard of a large building until we all went inside for sleep. That was my Day 1.

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