Tokyo Orientation

Sorry to be so long, but Tokyo Orientation is every bit as busy, exciting, frazzling, and jet-lagged as I'd been led to believe. This post may be long(ish) on pictures and shortish on commentary, but I'll try to fill in the blanks later.

The day before yesterday afternoon (August 3), we landed at Narita. The humidity, even inside, felt like about the worst Sacramento has to offer, and Boiseans could only imagine it as "bathroom after medium-length shower". I have no idea of numbers,but I'll start adding those as I A.) get used to Celsius, and B.) have a bit more time to blog.There were lines to get through to get Residents' cards, and a quick trip through customs, then out the door to the buses.

Outside was hotter, and stickier, and I have more and more respect for whoever designs Japanese air conditioners, because they work HARD. Here are some pictures of the bus.

The drive in was very nice - green outside and air-conditioned inside. It still didn't really feel like a foreign country, even with the bus driving on the left and all the signage in Japanese. Here's the drive:

 Sorry some are pretty fuzzy. I'm not that great with the camera yet. Don't ask me about landmarks or anything - I don't know them yet. It was fun listening to other son the bus asserting or hotly denying that any particular tower was or was not Tokyo Tower or the Skytree. 

We got to Keio Plaza Hotel, which is schmanzty. A lot of the ads around the place make it look like it's very popular for weddings and other big events. Here's the opening ceremony: 

We're a big group, with representatives from San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland, D.C., Tennessee, New Zealand, Canada, and Britain. No idea how many total, but Americans are the largest contingent in Group B. (Group A came a week or so ago and Group C comes in a week or so).

I learned form a Real Canadian™ that Regina does not, in fact, have shores. The Arrogant Worms are just being goofy, as they do. I got props for knowing about the Arrogant Worms, though. Apparently they're sending a whole bunch of the Canadians to Hokkaido. Maybe they figure Canadians can handle the weather u[ there. 

Opening Ceremonies were mostly people making encouraging speeches, and we moved on to workshops.I especially liked the "Elements of Japanese for Beginners" class - the lady used a lot of the language instruction methodology I learned during my TESOL classes, especially TPK (not what you might think, thank goodness).

Again, this place is used for weddings, so I got some pics of one of the ballrooms that really shows that off:

Last night I went out with some new friends (mostly headed to Ehime as well), and did my first ever karaoke that wasn't a guy with a binder in the corner of a bar. Really. American karaoke is kind of lame. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that, though pictures were taken. I suppose you can monitor Facebook for potential blackmail material. I sang AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill and Cher's Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. But what I need to learn is some J-Pop. My favorite song of the night, Dream Fighter by Perfume:

The most "weirder. stranger. more Japanese" song of the night was PonPonPon:

And because you all must be desperate to know, here's the bathroom situation at a schmantzy hotel in Shinjuku:

This is a Washlet ("washing toilet"). The buttons on the side control the spray and bidet functions.You can turn the water pressure up and down to suit your comfort level. And the seat is heated. The only downside to Japanese facilities is the difficulty, sometimes, in finding "flush". Here it's the handle on the wall, and in Keio as a whole it's easy, because a lot of foreigners stay here, so everything is in Romaji or even English. It may be more challenging out in the countryside.

Anyway, I have to go prepare for Day 2. Post any comments or questions. Hopefully this will get transferred over to a new blog just for Japan, but I may wait for Nick to set that up.