Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Catching Up

Blerg. So I find myself unfortunately with a bunch of pictures that don't fit together super well within the timeline of my life. So these next few posts are going to be informative and scatterbrained. Here we go:
The Japanese Bridge to Terabithia. Pretty right? It is at the Fuji springs place that we went to. 
Here you can see the koi in the natural water...thing. The coins are for wishing and it is about 50 feet deep. The water is super crystal clear, so you can see all the way to the bottom. 
Remember when we went to do that training thing at the rich guys house? This is his garden. That big tree on the right? Some fancy tree from his hometown or something. 
This is in the halls of his giant house. You can see out into the courtyard. The house is a classic representation of mansion during the Meiji Period. The Meiji Period was around the turn of the century.  
You may be asking who did this phenomenal calligraphy. You know who? Me. Yeah, that's right. As part of our orientation at the rich guy's house, we did calligraphy. You may be asking yourself, what do these professional-grade characters mean? The one on the left means summer, and the one on the right means love. I did in in remembrance of the super popular hit by one Justin Timberlake, "Summer Love." 

To be fair, that was the only song title that came up with the characters that they gave us.  
These are the ravenous fish that are in the moat-thing that surrounds the house. Neat as they may be, I think they are ugly as sin.  
Looking in from the front gate toward the house. 

Let me tell you about something else that we did. We learned proper manners for tea, bowing and sitting. That is what they called it. I called it nasty evil torture method of ankle crushing terror. 


Seiza is what this is called. Awful. We didn't have a super cool bench like this guy does. So instead, you just sit on your own ankles until they presumably crack under your weight. This went on for far too long and I would give away my feet before I would willingly submit to any more of this torture. 

After this, we learned how to get on and off the zabuton (the pillow that he is kneeling on). We practiced this method of standing up and down off these about 20 times. It was almost as awful, but at least I wasn't cracking my own ankle bones. I don't know if I have clearly articulated how much I hated this, but I really did hate sitting that way. I just don't understand a society that doesn't appreciate chairs. I would not have survived in the Meiji Period. 


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Getting Orientated

So...It has been like a week since I posted last. Sorry about the absence. I was pseudo-busy with stuff... Anyhoo, this last week I was at the local orientation which was full of adventures and experiences. Here we go! Buckle up!
 Seriously though, you buckled? Cause that right there in the hazy distance is the renowned Mt. Fuji. You can see the lake in front of it as well. This is taken from the Houtou restaurant that we went to (picture later in post).
This is a picture of me looking out over all that I will someday possess. All the way to the Elephant Graveyard.
 We visited a town at the base of Fuji that is known for its water that flows from Fuji, one of the 5 springs or something. I drank it, it was good, but I wouldn't write home about it. I would blog home though...
 Looking into the little lake of Fuji-spring water.
 All the people gathered to look at the water (which is crystal clear) and the Koi that swim around in it. 
 Here, some dragons spit the water out for you to drink.
 Hot mochi. It is like a bun thing...which has sweet red bean paste inside. It is the Japanese sweet of choice, especially during New Years...
 Here is the picture of the Houtou dish. It is traditionally a winter dish. It has squash, noodles, carrots, onions and a bunch of other Japanese vegetables.
 This is the picture of the hotel where we stayed. It was wild, the key was old fashioned and had a keychain attached to it that made it possible to turn on the lights. I can't explain it, but you had to put the keychain part of the key into the slot to operate the power in the room. 
 It was quite small
 That's pretty much it. The only hotel room I have been in that was smaller was in Paris.
The bathroom 

This was laid out for me on the bed. I guess it is Japanese pajamas or something, but it looked suspiciously like a hospital gown/button up moomoo. I didn't fall for it. Jeff 1 - Japan 0


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Leaving Time

I landed in Tokyo at about 5 pm on July 24th, 2011. If you are not familiar with the Utah holiday on July 24th, it commemorates the first Mormon pioneers coming into the Salt Lake Valley. I am sure my mother (who is a 4th grade teacher) could tell you all about it and have some songs to go with it. I have been thinking a lot about what I should name this blog. The obvious choice - Jeff In Japan is just too obvious, so I decided against it. Then, seeing the contract which extends from the 24th to the 24th and the fact that I am venturing into a far land alone, I decided that The Pioneer Year would be a good one. So there ya have it.


I wish I could crystallize the thoughts that I have had over this last week (which has been one of the most tumultuous in my life). It is bizarre to think that I said goodbye to family only a week ago. The time for me has moved so slowly and quickly at the same time. I left early Friday morning to get to the airport in time for my plane to Denver to be delayed for over an hour. After arriving in Denver, we were whisked away to a hotel to get ready for the Pre-Departure Orientation. The PDO was relatively interesting (lots of don't forget your passport and here-is-your-ticket-info). After that we had a big meal and party at the official residence of the consulate general for Denver. At this party there was a whole lot of Japanese food that I ate and had a good time. Don't ask me what the food was because I don't know. I do know that there was something that looked like it should have been a chicken nugget, but it was filled with fish. I feel that this little surprise may be common in Japan.


On to the next day. Fly to Japan day (also known as the day of tears). If you didn't know, flying to Japan is...pretty awful. We flew Japan Airlines which was very accommodating, but sitting in one place for more than 10 hours ever is pretty much torture. Additionally, the sun doesn't set when you fly into it. We arrived in Tokyo like I said at 5 pm. Still sunny. America time it was about 2 am. My love for movies may have ruined me on this flight because I couldn't sleep because I wanted to watch all of the movies that they had. I ended up watching The Adjustment Bureau, Tangled, Limitless, Just Go With It, some of Sucker Punch, and some of Cars.


Arriving in Tokyo wasn't bad except for the bone-crushing exhaustion that comes from travelling for 21 hours. The temperature was abougt 80, but the humidity is like a sticky soup that you swim through. Cleared immigration and customs and I was off...to a bus...for 2 hours. Narita airport is actually pretty far away from the hotel we were staying at in central Tokyo. So it took a LONG time to get there. The Keio Plaza hotel is really quite ritzy. There were something like 650 foreigners there, so it didn't feel much like Japan. It was very comfortable, and my toilet had a bidet (which I didn't use).


I am going to break the next part into another post because I am sure that many of you didn't even keep with me after the fish chicken nugget...