Weekend success

What a weekend! As I suspected, I got right on top of exploring once I got settled in my apartment. The journey has initiated its next phase. Work was good on Saturday. Classes went OK and the business end of things went just fine. Actually, our shibucho (divisional manager) came in, but she was just checking numbers, so I wasn't really affected any sort of way by her visit. The night ran long for the Japanese staff though. They were talking to prospective students still as I left the school at 9ish. Poor guy and gals =/

While they took care of business I headed to dinner with my American as well as one of my Japanese colleagues to a familiar spot. It was this family-run Indian/Bangladesh restaurant near my pad I have been to three times already since I've been here and is really good (it was even recognized by the governor of Yokohama). I need to get some photos of their food huh? Anywho, the three of us chatted away the time and made a delightful evening of a satruday night.

Sunday marked my first official trip away from where I sleep with the intent to explore Japan . . . finally. It was awesome for that reason AND that I got to meet up with one of my friends from the states and explore Tokyo together. The first checkpoint was to meet up in the town of Shibuya. Some of the things that I have been told about shibuya is that it is known for its shopping, eating, and nightlife. The trip we took there confirmed that. We went shopping for a bit and just walked around looking at shops and people till we got lost and ended up walking to Harajuku (next town down; not far at all) LOL.

Unfortunately it started raining on our little walk and the rain probably chased off all the Harajuku kids, cause we didn't see all that many. We did see a few here and there though, so it wasn't a total loss. We of course walked down crowded ass (plus umbrellas!) Takeshita street and checked out a handful of the little shops along the way and all around town there as well. An interesting sight we saw was a forever 21 that had a Line outside it just to get in and an H&M next door with the same situation. The even crazier thing was that everyone leaving forever 21 had a bag with merchindise in it! FOREVER 21 IS MAKING A KILLING IN HARAJUKU! From there we then decided to stop at an English style pub for a quick lunch.

This is where I need to mention that my freind decided to change her shirt cause it was hot out. What she changes in to was essentially a sash that covered her breasts. It was halter top style, tied at the base of her back (thats right, no back at all) and a ring kept the front together. Guys and girls were checking her out EVERYWHERE we went. It was really entertaining. She was quite the scandal that day. I even heard a Japanese woman go: " Ehhhhh!? shexy Desuyo!" As we went into the pub and she though we could't hear. Quite entertaining . . . and it wasn't hard on my eyes either =P

Anywho, from lunch, we went next door to a local Karaoke place and sang our hearts out for an hour. Trying to talk to the staff and get an English songbook was interesting, but we got the job done hehe. Afterward, we took the train back to Shibuya where we actually randomly ran into a store we were looking for earlier and couldn't find. My friend got another racey shirt that suited her style and we were off once again. It was 6 pm and we walk up to a dance club that we saw along the way and heard them playing music (we wanted to dance). We asked if we could get in, but alas, it was a college event. No biggie; we just went to the club nest door called Lounge Neo Club Asia and got in fine. WOOHOO!! we danced for practically two hours straight and as we were the only foreigners in the joint, we were quite the attraction. Many people came up to us, danced with us or took our picture. It was a feakin blast. I have been dying to dance since I got here and finally did. I'm so happy!

After that we headed back to the JR Shibuya station and went our seperate ways. It was a wonderful adventure. Thank you Stephanie!

Today I slept in, as you can imagine, and then was productive as hell. I went to the community sports/recreation center here and used the gym. Its small, but good enough for my workout regimen. It is only missing pull up bars and another machine I can't recall the name of, but I can adjust for the lacking easily enough. after that, I picked up some things for the house, organized all my official and billing documents (for here) into folders and did all my laundry and ironing. I will head to sleep tonight with nothing to worry bout. Love it.

Before I go, check the picks below. They are of the route I walk to work everyday. Usually there aren't the streamers though. They went up last week and I really like how festive they have made my trek. I will try to find out the name of the holiday for which the city is flying these decorations. I just wanted to share the sight though. Enjoy!

uh . . .

So I have my phone in hand now. It is charged and I am connected to the rest of the country finally. . . thank gosh! It will take some getting used to though as you may imagine with it being suited for Japanese customers and all. The texting functions aren't the same, I have two choices for messaging, and messages from softbank (my carrier) are in Hiragana and kanji hehe. Its all good though. I will get used to it soon enough. One really cool thing that phones here do is use infrared technology to get contact information from other phones. So if I meet the girl of my dreams here and try to get her number; all I have to do is make sure we both have infrared on our phones and our info can be exchanged by holding our phones near each other. That's pretty cool I think. Here is what it looks like (notice the Hiragana on the key pad):




































Yesterday wasn't too eventful as far as work was concerned. Though I feel even more convinced that it will probably be sometime before I get the hang of teaching. Like any particular skill, teaching requires careful prep and A LOT of practice. I just need to be patient with myself as I linger in my metaphorical room of mediocrity for a while longer. Now, about my school.

Though I refer to it as a school, AEON Nakayama does not necessarily meat the commonly understood criteria that makes a school beyond educating pupils. I have yet to teach a class that has more than six poeple in it. All my big classes are kids classes, and my adult classes are mostly one or two students big at the most. All homework is checked in class, and since AEON is a conversation school, there is very little written work to check. Makes the 25 classes I (am supposed to) teach quite manageble. I just need to be able to "think on my toes" a lot. I like it this way so far though. In terms of location; my school takes up the 5th and 6th floors of a 6 story building. The recpetion desk, lobby, teachers room & kitchen, one class room, admin office area, and an interview room are on the fifth floor and the sixth floor is all classrooms. All my classes take place in room 7 out of 9 others(my favorit number!) ^_^ It is smaller than you are probably imagining it, but it is a good fit for our purpous here.

Today . . . hehe

Fridays at work (at the moment) are looking like "kids days." from 3 until 6 in the evening. There are parents and their children everywhere. every teacher has a class and they all seem to have at least 4 kids a peice. It gets hectic, but the kids are so cute that I don't mind. I should also note that kids are a bigger challenge for me to teach than adults. I need to be really good at not only managing the flow of class, but making sure my younger students with short attention spans pay attention. I am up to the challenge, but it will definitely be quite the challenging task.

Speaking of being challenged; life threw me an interesting curveball today. I was trying to show my youngest kids class how to play "patty cake." To make the game easier for as well as seeming less imposing on my shorter partner, I squatted down to play with my student. No biggie, but as I was talking to two of the kids who began to goof off, my helper (a maybe 7 or 8 year old girl) patted my crotch exactly where my nuts are . . . WHAT THE HELL?!!! I didn't over react or make a big scene about it( I actually just casually but firmly said "quit that"), but what the hell moves a 7 or 8 year old girl to pat her teachers balls? Serously! I was taken completely off guard. It isn't going to be a problem for me or anything, but I won't be forgetting this event for a while I'm sure. Geez

Well my weekend starts tomorrow night and I am looking hella forward to seeing my friend who is here from the states. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes and get some good pics up ^_^

Smooth

Success! The company (SoftBank) gave me the phone >_< I couldn't leave with it in hand as mt colleague and I had to wait but didn't have enough time to do so before work, but I pick it up in the morning and will be connected to the rest of Japan soon enough. Thank gosh! Now I can get the bank in order, and with luck, the internet company as well. They have an English help line and I will attempt to flex my charm on them. Wish me luck!

One thing I do need to add to last night's post (that was brought to my attention today) is that even though I seem to have gone through a hassle, the people here are super nice about it. Up to this point, every Japanese person I have had direct contact with has been nothing but super polite and gracious. Even if I am getting the run around, its from policy rather that rude people. I am thankful for that much. That's why it hasn't bothered me to a significant extent.

Work was good today. My classes flowed better and I am getting comfortable with them to the point where I am working on other aspects of my teaching style (classroom English, and how to best work with the material and adapt to student skill levels). Its better, but not by much. It will be a while before I even consider claiming that I am good. Kids have been a different matter this week though. Since they had counseling they don't learn lessons this week and thus all I do is play games with them. So far, they freakin LOVE the card game speed. It has been a hit with all ages under 12 thus far and they seem to warm up to me after we play. Good stuff! I hope that means that teaching them will be made easier next week. we shall see.

Ok, off to bed so I am not too tired when I get this phone!

Training wheels off

Well, I am glad I was born with such patience as they are presently being tested and I have been relying on them some. This entry is not intended to be a venting of complaints, but rather a relation of utter fact. Furthermore, even if I were to be annoyed at present by my circumstances, it is because of my inability to adapt to my situation/surroundings and have really only myself to blame for my state of mind. Anywho, I have been facing a number of personal logistical challenges since I have arrived in Nakayama. Apperently, I need a Resident Alien card to work and live here in Japan as well as to take advantage of various services that are offered privitely or by the government. I registered at my local city hall the day I arrived to Nakayama, and they said I will need to wait till the 30th to come and pick the card up. Normaly I wouldn't care, but like is said, I have faced some challenges due to this policy.

Right after city hall, my head teacher took me to the bank to open an account so I can get paid this coming Thursday. That took a while, but was a successful endeavor. From there we went to one of the cell phone carrier shops and tried to get me a phone. No dice, the saleswoman said I needed the resident alien card before I could establish a contract. A bummer, but one of my colleagues went to another location and got a phone without her card, so I held off till I got another shot 4 days later. On Friday, both of the foreign teachers went with me to another city where I could get my internet and phone in the same building. The internet seemed to go easily enough (though I needed AEON to fax em my proof of employment later on in the day) and the phone seemed the same but we didn't have time to go through the whole transaction and had to get to work. The sales person gave a card with some notes on it and we left assured that we could get me a phone easily enough when we returned. Also, we faxed the proof of employment and everything seemed good.

Well it wasn't. The office got a call yesterday from the internet guy saying I needed my actual registration card to open internet (the official proof that I was gettting it made no bearing at all). AFTER THAT, the bank called saying that I cannot get my bank cards unless they have my telephone number. Even my manager was calling the bank and general sensation a headache. I even got annoyed for about ten minutes, but got over it quickly enough. I think It may get to me tomorrow if I can't get the phone afterall though. Cross your fingers for me!

My second day off wasn't really all too eventful. I responded to all the messages I had gotten since I arrived here, which felt really nice and I also was able to go on a run. Back into the swing of things hopefully.

Work today was good. I am off the training wheels and taught two classes today. Still needs work, but not too bad nonetheless. I did have another class, but it was a kids class and that with all the other kids classes this week will just involve me playing games with the cchildren so we can get used to eachother. I'm looking forward to it.

alrights I need to hit the sack so I can take care of ish tomorrow. Leave a comment if you have a topic request for one of my next blogs! Payce!

Ah . . . day off.

So it is sunday and my first day off in Nakayama. What did I do? I cleaned my apartment finally and chilled. I am one of those people that needs to be indoors all day once in a while . . . though it seems to happen every time I drink the night before and happen to not dance. Which, happened last night, but I'll get to that. It actually feels really nice to have my apartment in order like this. It feels like its mine now. If it is actually called messy by anyone, it is my responsibility rather than the person who lived here before. Stay tuned as I intend to eventually get a video tour of my pad so you can get a taste of my living if you don't already have an idea.

As for work yesterday, it went pretty well. I taught two more classes and they went a lot better than Friday's class. My predecessor even told me so ^_^ I admit they were far from perfect, but better nonetheless. I will strive further and further to improve my abilities to facilitate my students learning. It has to happen in steps though and my first one to make is actually two-fold. I need to get on top of how to make a lesson flow correctly in terms of time (I will still strive to perfect other aspects of the class at that time of course) and I need to remember my students names. I need to know them rather than just who they are. When I know my students, I will know best how to help and instruct them. Names and class flow are my two top priorities right now. I hope to knock them out quickly, as it will be just me in the classroom teaching from Tuesday on. Sink or swim . . . I can do it!

After work yesterday was the big event, the welcome/farewell party for my predecessor and I. It was quite the event to. We ate at a local Italian restaurant (buffet/hourdervs style) and about 47 of the students and friends actually showed up. We literally closed out the joint once we got there till it closed. It was really fun. The head teacher had put together a quiz on my predecessor that was funny and enjoyed by everyone as well as a commemorative sideshow. From there all the foreign staff gave a speech in turn. I said "hello", my predecessor said "goodbye", and my colleague said "I'll miss you." From there we took the party (maybe 25 of us) to the local bowling alley where we rented out a huge Karaoke room where we sang and drank the night away in both English and Japanese. Then we went to a late night Japanese restaurant and snacked till about 330 or so. . . AEON staff and students know how to party lol. Through out the night I got to chat with different students and even got my first traditional tea ceremony lesson. It's complicated. I also got lots of advice on where to go, what to do, and eat. I apparently have a lot to do during my time here. I am looking forward to it.

In closing I need to acknowledge the departure of my predecessore, Ram. He was an indispensible source of seaoned wisdom and expert guidence all week and any confidence I display in the classroom Tuesday morning and everyday after will be attributed mostly to him. If you ever read this Ram, I hope you know that I am ever grateful for your help in getting me started on the right foot in my teaching career. I hope your vaction home was amazing and that you find what you were looking for in Thailand. Know that you will be missed here in Japan by all that knew you including myself. It was short, but it was great . . . dawg. Laters!

My first live time blog since I got here

Beleive it or not, I am actually writing this post in real time. I got off work and decided to blog about the day before I hopped off to bed. I have to be in at 930 tomorrow and am looking at quite a long day/night in front of me. I will be teaching two classes, observing four others. From there, we go pretty much straight from work to celebrate my predecessor's going away from and my welcome to the school. We are having dinner at a local italian style restaurant, then going to the bowling alley where they have . . . bet you can't guess . . . yes, bolwing (as well as karaokee somehow) and then something else after that as I am told. I am interested to see how it plays out and will obviously be needing my rest this evening -_-

Today went pretty well. I woke up early to jump on the train to my predecessor's town so I could set up my own internet and phone. Two years here really paid off for him and his Japanese cause he translated everything with both sales people. The only problem was that the internet guy took too long and I didn't have enough time to finish the transaction with the cell phone lady and had to leave mid talk. Furthermore, it seems that it takes a while to install internet here, so I may be out of touch from July first till the 9th or possibly the 13th. I have internet now, but it was paid for only till the end of June. No worries though, there is an internet cafe near here and I will trek there when I need. Also, I will go get my phone on monday . . . hopefully with no more problems.

As far as work is concerned, it was an OK day. I taught my first class and I felt like it could have gone better on my part. I talked a little too much I feel and I wasn't as organized as usual cause I overlooked some pre-set up steps. It is not the end of the world though. My predecessor actually said I did OK for my first time and I know how to fix myself for tomorrow. Hopefully I'm better! Now I am off to bed to handle tomorrow. Wish me luck!

June 19, 2009 0124 JST

How’s it rollin? I cannot believe I actually waited 8 days to write this. So much has gone on in the last 8 days. Well. . . not really but there is so much detail wound up in every experience due to it being new and novel that I feel like I could go on for pages about just one days experience at this point. Nonetheless neither you nor I have that kind of time so I will have to sell things somewhat short. So here it goes . . .

The rest of my time in training at Omiya went well. We all completed our training and I got feedback on various points that were encouraging and helpful. I was very optimistic about moving on to Nakayama (my branch/town). I was glad to get out of there. I was growing tired of living and sharing a space with a lot of people real fast, but fortunately its over. On our first day off before I moved to my pad. I went with 3 other teachers around our town. Our first stop was the local Shrine. I was so glad to have gone. It is hard to articulate the experience. I wasn’t merely seeing some ancient architecture or cultural artifact to take pictures, but something about being at that place made me feel at ease or at peace. I honestly felt that the location was stripping me of my worldly concerns and luring my soul to place of stillness. I didn’t say anything to my companions, but that place really affected me. If all shrines are like this, I cannot wait to get to the next one. From there we checked out a crude city zoo they had and explored their public park. It was a really nice trek and overall afternoon. On the next day, I just chilled got to the internet to hollar at those I haven’t gotten in touch with since I left. It was nice to reconnect with home.

Monday brought about my move to Nakayama. It was a full and good day. I said farewell to my comrades as they got off the train at stops before mine and finally met up with my head teacher. He is a pretty nice guy thus far. He showed me to the office where I met some of the staff that were there. Everyone made a good first impression. My manager and the two part time teachers there at the time were very welcoming and pleasant. I actually graduated from the same high school as one of them (she was a year ahead of me). How small is the world again LOL! From there I was taken to register with city card for my alien registration card, get a bank account and finally be moved into my apartment. I love it!! The best part about my place is . . . I share it with no one =p I do have to keep my noise down, but that is of no bother at this point. I have not yet been able to meet any of my illusive neighbors but my backyard does happen to be the local police station. Pretty funny huh? They aren’t Irvine cops, so I don’t mind. It would actually be cool to have some sort of morning greeting ritual with them. I think that would be funny. If that goes down, I will let you know.

Now I am settling in . . . to both my pad and job. I have been slowly arranging my apartment to suite my taste day by day. Its coming along slowly, but I am getting there. In terms of work, I have been trailing the teacher I am to replace and learning the ropes from him and taking tips from the other staff. So far I pretty much like everyone at the school. They have all been super nice and gracious and I couldn’t have been more lucky with my new crew I think. The students are all really nice as well. As most of you know, I will be having trouble with names, but it is almost my top priority to tackle that first so hopefully I have a good grasp on who is who when I take over officially on Tuesday. All and all the week has gone well thus far.

Today, it feels like things are starting to come together. I am remembering how things work and the higher staff has indicated that I am making a positive contribution in my efforts around the school already. I was pleased to get such remarks so soon. Also, a professional photographer from the head office came in and took pictures of all the staff that were present for both our branch website as well as possibly for ad campaigns if any of them a deemed good enough. It was an interesting day like all the rest. One thing that stuck out about the day took place just before I went home. My head teacher asked if I had taught or worked a similar job before this. He was impressed with how I interact with the students and was wondering where it came from. I told him it was cause of our students. Our students are better than I had hoped for during training in Omiya. They really want to be at class and excel and learning how to speak Eglish. Their drive and motivation drives me to be the way I am. They aren’t some spoiled priss-ass giving you shit cause they are hungry and don't want the food you made them. Rather, they want to be able to connect with me through language so they can engage a larger portion of the world in which they live. They are excited to accomplish this goal and project this excitement on me in the classroom and school lobby and I get off on that. As long as my students want to learn from me, I want to teach them. I see good things coming about based on this exchange. We’ll see.

I know I have skimped on many details, but this is long enough as is. Now that I am at my place, hopefully I can be better bout posting bout things in detail. Do hit me with follow up questions should you have any though.

June 11, 2009 10:06 JST

Yesterday was another full day. We learned and went over how tot teach parts of a children’s lesson in the morning and then taught adults a different type of class again in the evening. It all went pretty well I think. I think I had performed somewhat better than the day before for the students but I still need to slow down. It is a problem I think will be more solved by time rather than my willpower (as the past has shown), but I will be making any possible changes nonetheless to get my speed right. Other than that, I got really good feed back from my trainer and it was super encouraging. I can’t let it go to my head though. I noticed something about my peers in training though. It seems a good portion of them have gotten way caught up in all the processes we have been taught and are overlooking the student care aspect. I think it is a minor function of the intense training we are going through, but nonetheless, it seemed as if the these teachers were robots going through their motions and not being aware or sensitive to the atmosphere the were making in the classroom. It was a bummer to watch but, like I said, will go away when what they are doing becomes more natural. I hope.

The reason I noticed this is that the students I have worked with thus far are super motivated and enthusiastic about what they are doing. In class they consistently exceed and think beyond the help and support the book and teachers provide. This makes me want to be perfect for them. They are trying so hard and I want them to get as much out of their efforts as they can. They are really inspiring. I hope my students in Nakayama are the same for the most part.

After work I hit the Internet café for a short bit and then went to this wonderful restaurant where we got some Okonomiyake. It’s cooked like a pancake in that it has egg and batter to make its form, but there are also vegetables, meat/seafood, and whatever else you want on the inside. The manager of the restaurant prepared them for us at our table in front of us and talked to here a bit in our broken Japanese. It was actually really pleasant. She was so sweet and even gave some extra ingredients and gave 80 円 off our bill. We also talked to one of the servers there that was in college and had been studying English for 6 years. It was a fun chat and he was also really nice. I want to go back to that place again soon >_<

Afterwards it was homework then bed. Then today I woke up cleaned a bit and did the rest of the homework. Now I need to change and have at it. We get a free lunch today, so I am looking forward to that =P I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!

The lunch was awesome!

June 9, 2009

Good morning, how’s it rollin?

The last three days have been really nice. I have gotten to do some exploring, I already met up with and made new friends, and training has commenced wonderfully. It isn’t too hot here quite yet, and may be due to consistent cloud cover everyday besides Saturday, which I have appreciated as I have had to walk to lunch during my breaks during training. Hehe they have 7 eleven and AM PM here and the food they sell are perfect lunches. It may just be the novelty of em, but I seem to like the ones more than those back in the states based them having more types of food I would actually consider eating for lunch. I also managed to get to the McDonald’s next door to the 7-eleven because I wanted to try to the Teriyaki burger they offer. It was pretty good. I won’t be eating there often, but I must say that the amount of service and care that go into the food and customer service there greatly exceed that of their counterparts in the states. Watching them do their thing actually resembled that of a diligent In-N-Out crew working at a McDonald’s. I want to also note that the menu is pretty simple. There were 8 meals and around 7 familiar items on their 100 and 120 円 (basically “dollar”) menus, as opposed to nearly 30 or 40 (?) different items one can get at one in the states.

I trained all day Saturday and Sunday. Including an hour break and a few 10-minute breaks here and there, training days are about 9 hours long. The trainers are all super kind and helpful. They have been instructing us how to go about presenting the materials they provide in a manner that has shown to be most effective to efficient and better learning over the years. We also just learned about how to teach kids . . . I am kind of nervous about it. I know I will have at least 8 kids classes, so I need to get confident and get over it. I’ll be depending a lot on my staff for tips and pointers I think. Overall, everything is actually pretty interesting, though I am anxious to learn and move on. I have been a student pretty much all my life. I want to do the job; I know I need the training but I am still really looking forward to getting to my branch school on Monday and starting the job for real. Today we practice our abilities on students they train in from schools around the area. I’m super excited! My first professional contact with Japanese people since I have gotten here . . . hopefully I do well. Ok I have to head off to work . . . Will complete this at the end of the work day . . . hopefully =P

It went well >_< My enthusiasm has held up thanks to the students as I though it would. Today we trained some on how we will be teaching tomorrow, but the highlight of the day came after lunch break when we started practice for the “mock class.” My partner and I got some good practice in and then they came; about 9 Japanese AEON students like those that I will be teaching. We were all staged in our little staging area and got to meet and chat with our three students that came in. They were very kind and seemed enthusiastic about speaking with us. It actually relaxed me, as I knew that they wanted to be there as much as I wanted to help them and that would make instruction considerably easier. So three of us did a practice lesson with the three and they were great. They were patient and super motivated. They even would exceed our instructions on certain parts of an activity. So helpful! I went last, but didn’t have much of a worry. I was fairly well rehearsed and I knew the students rocked. I wasn’t near perfect as any would expect, but the feedback I got back from the trainer was very encouraging. I might just be good at this and I am looking forward to doing more so I can find out. I will be good at this (if not the best) I promise. Students like those I had today deserve nothing less.

In terms of “personal time” stuff, I already had the great fortune of making some friends. One of my TAs from my Japanese class, Yosuke, was in Tokyo on Sunday and I met up with him and hung out with him, his friends as well as his older brother and his older brother’s friends (9 of us +1 more at dinner). We actually started off helping his older brother move from one apartment to the other. It was a super nice pad on the top floor of his building with a to-die-for view of the town he lived in (Ogikubo). It is super small according to American standards, but the quality couldn’t be beat. He had dark hardwood floors and the place had not yet been lived in. I was glad to have helped him move in order to see what different apartments are like and just see how moving works in Japan. Once we were finished, we headed into town where Yosuke’s brother treated us to some really good Japanese food and some Sapporo (beer). I had chicken sashimi, dried squid (almost like jerky) and a few other dishes I can’t remember the name of but I enjoyed it all. The best part of it all is I made friends with Yosuke’s brother and friends. I got away with 6 different sets of contact info and Yosuke’s brother even invited me to his concert this weekend. I think I am actually gonna try to go to >_< We shall see. . . Wow this is long. I will try to be more consistent so entries aren’t so ridiculous. Sorry!

June 5, 2009 19:47 JST Day 1

So it starts. I have embarked on my new journey and the first day went without any negative event thankfully. I had to transfer some weight from one bag to another at LAX, but that was the worst I had to deal with. I slept for at least six of the first 13 hour flight so I spent the day feeling sufficiently rested. My airline across the Pacific was China Airlines and I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. They were very helpful with check in, super accommodating all flight long (2 meals and plenty beverage runs!), and I like their uniforms. They reminded me of old school American stewardess style from the 50s. They look quite elegant and very attractive. The Japanese staff at customs was awesome also. If they weren’t wearing a mask, everyone greeted me with a smile or at least a kind tone that kept me at ease through the three customs stations I had to pass through. At one of them they actually took my picture and got prints of both my forefingers. I was surprised but commend their precautions. You can’t be too safe I guess.

After I got past customs, I waited 10 minutes till I met up with the AEON training rep. and other students. Everyone is really nice in the group I met with. There were 7 of us including the rep (4 Americans, 2 Aussies, and 1 New Zealander). The training house was about a 1:45 hour train ride away from the airport so I got to know some of the gang as we made our journey. I like the crew so far. A kind and interesting group of people they are. I also need to mention that my eyes were busy the whole train ride. Everything from the landscape to architecture is unfamiliar and I loved it. I feel like a foreigner and am enjoying the sensation at the moment.

Once we arrived to the training house, we met the rest of the staff that will be training us till next Friday and got a grand tour of the building. The layout is Japanese style and I am digging it. I am sharing a room with one other gentleman (Also from So Cal) and we are getting along well. I basically spent the evening preparing for tomorrow’s training and taking it easy. My long travel has caught up with me as I type this, so that is why this entry lacks some coherent structure and eloquence. As I turn in for the night, I have to say that I am excited and optimistic. I have finally begun my journey and I look forward for tomorrow in order to make it the best. Though a bit fatigued right meow, I am looking forward to it ^_^