Still Training

Ohayoo gozaimasu!

Training continues unabated 8 hours per day, and my emotions are rocketing around. It's just too weird to see myself as a real adult; wearing business attire every day and talking about my future as if I am responsible for it.

Viewing myself as an adult is made all the harder by the fact that our training sessions are reminiscent of the scene in "Hook" when one of the lost boys bounces a ball off Robin Williams's head and demands, "Play!" All we've done so far is learn how to clown around and draw kids into playing games. It's fun and deceptively simple, and I really like this attitude towards teaching; it's all about helping the students love the language, and nevermind their pronunciation or grammar. Our trainer is Cedric-sensei, an Indian from South Africa who is fluent in 5 languages. If I could make learning as enjoyable as he does, I doubt I'd need any other life goals to keep me satisfied.

The other teachers are a wide mix of nationalities, but most are from the U.S. or the U.K. We definitely stand out here, wandering around the hotel like a school of wide-eyed guppies (it's interesting how fast I've adjusted to seeing myself as part of a minority, and a funny-looking one at that).

Tonight the jetlag finally waned enough that I felt brave enough to go out into the city with my roomie. She and her friends settled down into a bar and started drinking and talking about bands that I'd never heard of. They were all so friendly, especially considering how quiet I was being...but I've just never been able to get into those kinds of discussions. I left after only an hour and did some minor shopping (I stand by my original assessment of Japanese chocolate) and had my very first conversation in Japanese with a woman on the bus! It was the best part of the night.

Arrival

So I'm in Japan! How crazy is that? I realized when I finally stepped off the plane that I always thought of Japan as being mythical in a way. I'd seen the pictures and heard the stories, but it all sounded too weird to be true. Now I can tell you all: it is true. Everything looks as if it should be intimidating; there are high tech machines that I've never seen before all over the place and everything is clinically pristine--I just bought a mysterious soda (I suspect it involves milk somehow, judging by the cows all over it and has "mooh, mooh" written in hiragana for a title) from a machine that appeared fully capable of beaming me onto the Enterprise for the low low price of 100 yen. All the staff members at the airport wore little masks, which gave me the distinct feeling that there was an epidemic of filth and I was the most likely cause. However, the people themselves were so unfailingly polite and soft-spoken that it was impossible to feel uncomfortable, even when I got lost in the middle of the airport and had to use my limited knowledge of kanji to navigate.

Future posts will be more cohesive, but for now I just want all of you to know that I arrived safely and am loving it so far. Some observations for the road (before my time online is up):

Most of the other teachers here are guys. What's up with that?

Most of the administrators are from some region of the UK. I guess the Japanese like their accents as much as we do. Speaking of which, the guy who picked me up at the airport said he learned everything he knows about America from American Idol. Uh-oh.

I saw a girl on the plane with a tattoo around her wrist of the dancing men. I don't know if they belong in some other context, but the place I recognize the dancing men from is a Sherlock Holmes story; they were used to represent letters of the alphabet. Now I dearly wish I'd memorized that code.

I had the best hot chocolate ever in Seattle. It had so many types of chocolate in it that I lost count, and represented about 1/2 of my recommended caloric intake. Awesome.

The flight was surprisingly painless, considering its length. I watched Whip It and was thoroughly entertained　by Drew Barrymore beating other girls up on roller skates.

Everyone was impressed that I packed so lightly "for a girl" and could carry all my luggage by myself. Guess pilates has done me some good.

There's no way I can compete with these people, looks-wise. Not only are they naturally blessed with glossy hair and flawless skin, but it seems mandatory to wear very sharp clothes. Seriously. This?
http://img59.imageshack.us/i/viczhou67pe.jpg/
This is what people look like ON THE STREETS. It's unnerving.

Time's up. Love you all, miss you already, thanks for everything, and I'll find a way to get in more consistent touch soon.