Getting Here

First was the loverly orientation in Tokyo. We all had to wear suits for the actual orientation
part, and we were BOILING. The first night, we were totally jet-lagged but ran around to find
our friends, and then squatted in the hallway mooching off of Carl's wireless connection.
It was awesome to see everyone again. Here's Adam modeling a heat-torture suit, Alyson showing
off how tired we were, and Alyson and Sarah in the computer hallway.

Alyson introduced me to her lj friends Megan and Jamie, really nice twins that she met on
livejournal, and we hung out a lot, crashing Shinjuku. It was such a comfort to see all the
Johnny's ads. And of course, we HAD to do karaoke. I finally got to meet Carl, who went to
Gaidai the semester before me and was friends with a lot of the same people. Jamie and Megan
did a really cute duet!

JET had us put up in the Keio Plaza Hotel, which, aside from the massively inconvenient
elevators, was totally posh. Here are some pics I took from the windows, as well as me and
Jamie at the semi-formal JET dinner, at which there were no tables or chairs.

I had to go to another orientation after arriving in Nara, and was so exhausted that I only
took one picture at the hotel. It seems the Gideons have rivals! Then the Nara JETs went to an
izakaya, where I talked a lot with another first-year JET, James.

When I got to my apartment for the first time, I met my predecessor, Francesca.

Go back to picture index.