Settling into life in Hamamatsu.

Hamamatsu by night!

It has now been three weeks since we arrived in Hamamatsu via Shinkansen (the bullet train). The journey was fun because we got to see some of the Japanese countryside instead of just city and obviously because we were on a famous Japanese bullet train! I can report that it was indeed fast and very spacious inside. Rows of seats which recline and have lots of leg room and space for luggage. From the train station we were taken straight to city hall to complete our registration and have our Zairyu card (residency card), which we first received at the airport, updated. The Board of Education (BoE) had provided us with already filled in forms which we just had to copy from- thank goodness! It sped up the process considerably and, as the forms were all in Japanese, I couldn't understand a thing so needed all the help I could get!! After getting all the paperwork sorted for that, we then filled in some more paperwork to open our bank accounts… 3 forms later we made our way to the actual bank. Lots of hanging around then followed until we were finally taken to the BoE and reunited with our luggage- hurray! The most exciting part happened after that- we were given the keys to our new flat...

I am able to list on one hand the things that were in my flat when I opened the front door. To be fair, how much can you get into a one room flat?! Minimalist is definitely the term. However, the BoE found our flats for us and they have also sorted out all the bills etc. So I am very grateful, if I was left to sort out my own flat then I’d probably be in some sort of shed. Looking around my room three weeks later I haven’t really bought any more furniture. I have acquired kitchen equipment to cook with (it’s been used twice so far) and hangers so I'm not living out my suitcase like the first few days. I do have quite a large balcony though which is cool!

The view from my balcony. 

For the past three weeks we've mainly been having another orientation but it’s been far more specific and useful! We received our weekly and yearly schedules for school. Japan likes to have a day off to celebrate things so nearly every month we have a 3 day weekend, it’s great! It did take, however, about two weeks before we even got to go to our schools so when the time finally came I was raring to go. We’d heard so much about what to expect and we’d even had a practice commute to school. I have to get the city train which is known as the “Akaden” (red train), for the most obvious reason. It takes about 20 minutes to get to my Junior High school and luckily for me the school is opposite the train station, so easy commute! My elementary school requires a 20 minute walk from the station but I'm not there that often so it’s fine.

My first day at my Junior High school was very quiet! It’s still summer holidays so there aren't many students around and not many teachers either. I have five JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) and three were in on my first day, which was nice. I was given a tour and had my photo taken and added to the list of teacher’s photographs, which I was also given. So every time a new teacher comes into the staffroom I take a quick look and work out who they are and what they teach! Due to my lack of Japanese, I'm not able to communicate with the majority of the teachers, I just do a lot of smiling and make sure to greet everybody and say goodbye. I hope as my Japanese improves that will also improve. Back to actual teaching though, something I did start doing from day one was helping a 3rd year student with her preparations for the city’s speech contest! I've seen her 4 times since last week and she has already memorised the story she is telling AND we've started adding gestures. She’s in with a good chance of getting through if you ask me!

I'm sure everyone knows that I climbed Mt. Fuji last weekend, it was amazing and therefore definitely worthy of it’s very own post. So I will leave it here and promise to post updates more frequently!

Orientating in Tokyo

A display of plastic food!

So after a hectic and incredibly enjoyable July saying goodbye to everyone and anyone, the time came on Saturday the 2nd of August to get on a plane to begin my JET experience!  We arrived in a VERY hot Tokyo at 10am local time on Sunday after a long flight, on which I got little to no sleep. However, determined to see some of Tokyo and have some Japanese food for lunch a group of us headed out. It paid off! We found somewhere that had all the dishes recreated in plastic in the window (standard in Japan) and we discovered we had to order on a machine- how modern! The whole process involved a bit of guesswork, not knowing what most of the food was or how to operate the machine but I ended up with a very tasty fish dish and my first use of chopsticks in Japan! We had well and truly arrived.

Monday and Tuesday were then spent at orientation in the hotel; I’ll just give brief highlights of what I discovered: 

• We were informed we could wear ‘Cool Biz’ for the rest of orientation, an official dress code in Japan, which doesn’t require suit jackets or ties. Cue sighs of relief!

• Japanese teachers are very dedicated and work an average of 53.9 hours a week!

•  In Japanese schools, there is an allotted time for students to clean the classrooms. 

• Club activities are taken very seriously in schools by students and teachers so we should probably get involved as well. 

• There is a HUGE amount of etiquette that we should try to follow, we even practised bowing. 

• In Japan, acts that may be seen as simply misbehaving at home will in fact land you in jail. An example given at the British Embassy reception was of a girl who stole a cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber (of all people) from a karaoke bar on a night out and then spent two weeks in jail for it. TWO weeks! They take this stuff seriously in Japan.

Tokyo by night.

Taiko drumming. 

All of the British JETs were invited to the embassy on Tuesday night and we were given sushi and drinks and told again not to misbehave. The highlight was definitely going into the garden and watching Taiko drumming performed by some of the embassy staff. It was very impressive and nice to be shown some Japanese culture.  

Orientation was a whirlwind, lots of information (some boring) and meeting loads of new people. I met most of the people that are in Hamamatsu City like me and then had to say goodbye to many of the good British friends I’d made. But finally it was off to Hamamatsu!!