Tokyo Orientation

I keep getting this horrid, nagging feeling that I have forgotten something really really important. I suppose that's what I get for not packing until last night. I have my passport though, and my money, my laptop and charger, iPhone, clothes for Tokyo... iPhone charger. Phone charger. Game boy. Japanese study materials. Clothes for the US, though if I really need anything else I'll probably buy stuff. There are a couple things I need to buy anyways, like capris, because both of my casual black capris have torn giant holes in them. I don't know if that's because of Japanese washers, or if they were just old or not made to be very durable. One pair though I bought last year. And a couple of shirts have lost their stretch; my tanks are super lose on me now, and I'm pretty sure I didn't lose weight. It's annoying because when I bend forward, since they're loose, the tend to fall forward too. It's a constant battle to make sure my bra isn't showing over the top of my shirt. Sigh. I'm also figuring all my old clothes are at home, including flip flops. :D My pair here aren't very travelable, so I just left them at home. I think this is the first time I've brought only one pair of shoes with me for a trip. The business shoes don't count, since they're exclusively for Tokyo. I'm planning on leaving them at home, since like... I haven't needed them at all in the past year since we change shoes anyways when we get indoors. And there are men in suits wearing crocs for chrissakes. They make my hello kitty indoor slippers look totally fashionable.z

Tokyo Orientation starts today (for us Orientation Assistants anyways)! Hundreds of new JETs are flying into Tokyo tomorrow, and hundreds more the weekend after. I can't believe it's been a year! I mean, if you want to get technical about it, I've a couple days before the year mark since I came over on July 31st, but it's pretty much a year that I've been living and working in Japan. I think it's the longest I've ever been away from home, since even when I was at University, there was always Thanksgiving, or Christmas where I'd return home.

Interestingly enough, Takahashi, Japan, will also be the place I have lived the longest outside of my parent's house. I pretty much moved every year in college. It'll be nice to not have to move stuff.

But yay, Tokyo Orientation! I swear it's cooler than it was last year, though I'm not sure if that's just Okayama. I'm glad to be on the other side, and not super jet-lagged and hit by the sudden change from dry to humid like I was last year. I guess I'll get that when I get back from my California trip. Super excited for the new JETs though, and super excited to meet them too!

...we just passed a giant dinosaur statue on the shinkansen. I kind of did a double take, like, what? I guess it's a good advertising technique. Japanese farms are some of the prettiest sceneries that we've passed on the shinkansen so far, I think. It's not like in the states where it's just acres and acres and acres... it's more like just a couple fields connected to a house and then more fields and a house. The rows of bushes are so neat! And I've found that I really do love how rice fields look when they're all green. Absolutely gorgeous. So far I've mostly slept, though I've been practicing for my presentation a little bit. I'm nervous about that. I remember thinking last year that the rural presentation was helpful, so I'm really hoping that this year it'll be helpful too. I remember too well how boring and unhelpful some of the other presentations were.

It's been really interesting collaborating with everyone on the powerpoint presentation, since we have to use the same one between both Orientations, and challenging since everyone has different ideas about what they want to convey as well as how. Seeing different styles manifest is also interesting, and I get the feeling that my portion, the rural aspect of the presentation, will be vastly different than my counterpart's in Orientation B. I have a much plainer, more colloquial way of speaking. When he talks he sounds really smart; I feel like I have to flip a switch in my mind and go into academic mode. If I focus really hard, I can use those kind of GRE words, but it doesn't feel natural (unless I'm writing an academic paper or talking to a professor, which is essentially academic mode). So blending our two modes of speech has been really interesting. I've tried to keep in mind, "what will people find useful" in our presentation, so I hope that comes across!

Oh god, we're near the ocean! IT'S SO PRETTYYYYYYY. <3 I love Takahashi, but sometimes I wish it was a fishing village instead of a mountain town. I swear to god though, there are so many tunnels that we've gone through. Normally, tunnels are pretty sweet. but it kills my internet connection each time. And we go through at least a tunnel a minute. Or more. Oh shinkansen. <3