Jet-lagged JET

After 17 hours of travel from Atlanta to Tokyo (13 of those sitting on a plane
next Robina from South Carolina who I had some great
Tylenol PM-induced heart-to-hearts with) I found myself in a fabulous
Japanese eating establishment with no idea what the wait staff were
saying.  "Wakanarisomashinma?!  Nalakerinsoshima?!" were the "words"
being shouted at me.  I just stood there and thought, "Hmmmm, Lety was
right, I should have learned some Japanese before I came."
Thankfully, there were two guys from the Mid-west with me who had some
functional Japanese conversation skills.  With their help, our group
of tired, disoriented JETs were seated and served.

Over the next 3 days in the Tokyo Orientation, I met people from all
over the Western world.  The first day was overwhelming because of the
number of crazy accents coming from the English speakers (British,
Australian, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Kiwi, South African, Texas,
Canadian, Jersey...).  The hotel we were staying at was super nice and
located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.  Everything was new and
weird (plus I was extremely jet-lagged so even the normal everyday
things seems mysterious and strange).  By the end of the orientation,
I found myself eating sushi while watching anime during a mild typhoon
in downtown Tokyo.  Awesome.

This magical first stop in Japan soon came to an end and the 1,600
JETs were divided into their respective prefectural groups and sent
off by train, plane, and bus to their new homes for the next year.  My
next destination was Oita-shi, the captial city of my prefecture, Oita
on Kyushu.  But that is a story that will have to wait until later...