General Updates

Holy smokes, I’ve waited way too long to update this blog. Crazy to think I haven’t even wrote anything down since arriving here. Since I don’t have internet at my place, I wrote everything down for this blog post on paper before typing it up. Unfortunately, after waiting so long to update, this will be a incomplete recap.

What feels like almost a year ago, July 26^th, I took off from Minnesota to Chicago where the first of many JET orientations would be held.

Saying goodbye to Minneapolis

It was awfully sad saying goodbye to family and friends in the days leading up to departure and unfortunately it already feels like so long ago I was with them. Even after just being here a month and a half, despite having new experiences everyday/making a decent amount of money/living pretty much on the sea with mountains as the backdrop/delicious food, it still feels incomplete without family and friends.

Kayla and Kyle drove me to the airport and Kayla and I took a commerative picture to when I left to Japan in 2008.

Arriving in Chicago, I met Uncle Mike and Grandma at the airport and had breakfast together. Said goodbyes to them and was able to check into the hotel early. It was nice to get all situated and decided to go for a little run around the hotel before orientation actually began. Funny how much a run can clear one’s head.

Don’t remember a ton from orientation but saw Zach Krause and a few others from the University of Minnesota there. It was so exciting talking w/ others and learning about their placements throughout Japan.

The next morning, 100 of us or so representing the Chicago Embassy took off to Japan. Arriving into Narita airport and being herded through customs, we took a bus to the Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was a very grand hotel and we shared rooms with two others. My roommates were..interesting..but connected better with others throughout the 3-day orientation.

The orientation ceremonies and presentations were very structured, engaging and inspiring. The smaller elective sessions were either hit or miss but still overall very helpful.

At Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku for Tokyo Orientation

I remember not being so JET lagged from the first day in Japan and it was nice automatically waking up in the morning before 6am.

The first night, just went around Shinjuku with several others and ate some curry udon. It tasted very similar to Marukame in Waikiki Hawaii.  The second night Matt and I went out to Shibuya and Akihabara for a bit. It would have been nice to be able to meet up with friends in the area!

The last day at orientation in Tokyo, we got situation with our prefectural groups. It made me envious seeing the Hokkaido JETs gathered and knowing they were going to such a cool place. Us Hiroshima JETs took a plane from Haneda airport to Hiroshima. It was nerve racking landing in Hiroshima because after being in the Chicago/Tokyo orientations, now we would be meeting out co-workers and fellow JETs who we would be spending the next year with.

While Stuart from Ireland (found me through this blog before even going to Japan) and I were waiting for our luggage, saw a large yellow sign that said “Welcome to Kure! Stuart and Jordan”. We then met 5^th year JET Ryan Fowler and our Board of Education supervisors Kawahara-sensei (Ami) and Hayashi-san (Yuko).

Arriving at Hiroshima Airport

We drove from Hiroshima airport to Kure city where we immediately went to Softbank to get our iPhones. It was a bit suprising getting a cellphone this quickly because I had not even made the decision to get a phone or not in Japan. Hah who knows if I would have even got a phone or not by now had we not been “forced” to get a phone so quickly. Wonder what the experience up until now would have, had I not got one.. Definitely on it too much now but it is invaluable with directions and being in contact with others, especially family back home. However, it does become more special to send/receive snail mail when that is the only method of contact. Seems like we are all in more “contact” than ever before but actually less in “Contact” than ever before.

Regardless, now equipped with an iPhone, we all went out to eat at a prefectural speciality Okonomiyaki shop (like a fried pancake type of thing with noodles and veggies).

We proceeded to hit up several bars in Kure followed by a karaoke. Nothing like a good ol’ karaoke session in Japan.

Stayed at my predecessor from England, Ollie’s apartment in Kure city the first night. The next day Ami took us to Kurahashi.

It was kind of a bizzare feeling taking the car over the new bridge to Kurahashi Island and seeing the old bridge which I had previously saw so many times online. If you Google Kurahashi, it’s one of the few pictures that show up and after all the anticipation we were now there!

After Ollie formally handed me over the key to the apartment and allowed me to enter first, we threw on our running stuff and went for a run. What better way to arrive at a new residence and explore the area. After getting back to the apartment, we went to the nearby Fuji-san grocery store. It is not so big, but has many food choices and enough to not get bored. As we took the short walk to Fuji-san, coming from someone’s house was a slow sound of someone playing the drums for the Obon (celebrating the death of family memebers) season. It really set the mood on the island for me and was a surreal moment.

The next week was spent at the Board of Education (BOE) at the Tsubaki Kaikan in Kure city. It is a bit over an hour bus ride there from my apartment, however it would be faster to bike. The bus ride goes through small fishing towns along the coast and picks up many elderly passengers slowly attempting to get on the bus. Commuting from Kurahashi Island to Kure city costs 700円 (about $7). Kind of silly how much it costs .

 It got quite uncomfortable at the BOE spending 7 hours in a small room with 10 or so other JETs in business clothes sweaty from the commute in.  Compared to the Japanese workers that worked there, we arrived late and ate breakfast there, took a mid-morning coffee break, early lunch and came back late, a mid-afternoon coffee break, and left early. Pretty shameful in comparison actually. 

All of us Kure city JETs went to meet all of the other Hiroshima JETs for orientation. It was a fun change of pace going from an island with the average age of 65 (might not be exaggerating) to a more young populated area. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and the first night we had a Nomihoudai at a place called The Shack on Hondori Street.

Believe the following night Stuart and I decided last minute to go out that night and had some beers on a set of stairs somewhere. Hah. Met a pretty cool guy from England who was traveling Japan to visit his sis and he ended up hanging out with us the rest of the night. We ended up doing another karaoke/nomihoudai and putzed around town after later meeting with Ollie and some others.

Was starting to feel nasty from all the drinking/eating in addition to the lack of running. In Hiroshima city, Ryan helped me buy a bike at a placed called P&G. I was very excited to ride the bike home to Kurahashi after the orientation. Unfortunately, the bike shop was closed for Obon the day I went to bike it home and ended up having to take the bus back to Kurahashi. Well over a 2.5 hour trip.

It was nice to be back in Kurashi after spending those few days in what felt like “Sin City”. While grocery shopping the night back from Fuji-san, someone came up to me and starting saying “Gordon?, Gordon!?”. I thought they were saying golden and realized she was trying to say Jordan. Suddenly she started speaking English and I was surprised to hear someone doing so in the location I was because not many people do speak English here…YET! She introduced herself as Setsuko and ended up inviting me to an Obon festival that night which she took me to a house to get dressed up in a Yukata and before I could process what was going on, I found myself dancing around an elevated wooden structure where students were methodically drumming a beat. It was a goofy experience being the only foreigner at this small intimate group of people celebrating their deceased family. After spending a good hour and a half there, Setsuko then told me we were heading to another festival. It was a “pleasant” surprise hearing we were heading to another Obon festival despite it being quite late the night before having to go back to the BOE early in the AM. Kindly, she invited me 3^rd Obon festival the next day..These festivals were sure close-knit communities of only about 20-50 people in which everyone knew each other. I look forward to meeting the people of Kurahashi and becoming involved in the community.

The next big event was our Saijo Language camp in Higashi-Hiroshima/Saijo. We got to stay at the Hiroshima International Plaza which is a place that helps international workers in Japan transition to working/living in Japan. It was pretty fun taking language classes for 5 days with only 7 people for 5 hours a day. The facility we stayed at was a glorified dormitory which I LOVED.  My bedroom was on the 4^th floor (by coincidence..I think not) and it overlooked the outdoor sports field and gymnasium.

View from 4th floor dorm at Hiroshima International Plaza

After our Japanese language classes finished at 3:30pm, we had free time. The first day after classes, played basketball in the gym for a bit and was surprised nobody else was using any of the athletic facilities. Worked out for a bit and then went for a run and found myself at Hiroshima University. Came back and played tennis with Shane Tummons from Australia, followed by some good games of table tennis, topped with some basketball again. Needless to say, this has been my favorite day in Japan so far. Our meals were buffet-style and were super good. Every lunch had curry-rice and other options. Also had a self-dispensing coffee/latte machine. During the day I ate so much at the buffet, that I decided to not eat dinner. Probably wasn't the best idea after being so physically active during the day but boy did I feel good the next morning. After eating a giant breakfast and lunch again the following day, did another no-dinner evening and decided to get back on the 3 meals a day after that.

The language classes were fun thanks to a super nice teacher (Nishimura sensei) and a few goofballs in the class that would make me laugh over and over again. Our 3^rd day we had a 2-hour nomihoudai w/ food and that was super fun. There was delicious food, tons of beer, sake and who knows what else. Did karaoke again. Drank quite a bit that night and woke up the next morning chotto (a little) drunk. Kind of upset how much I ate/drank the last night, decided to put on running shoes and go out for quick punishment run and to jump start the day. Walked out of the dorm and w/ the sun royally beating down and head throbbing, started to “run”. Decided to do a 1 mile run doing a few laps around a lap that went around a small body of water. Did that in 5:52 and jogged back up the hill to the dorm and shower quick to go to breakfast. The last night, Stuart, Jacque and I biked to Yoshinoya for dinner and some other stores for shopping. It was fun to explore with them and chill out that night. I was actually pretty bummed when language camp ended because after the helpful Japanese lessons, and getting to spend a week with the dorm life again we were heading back on our own again.

Through the orientations and events starting in Chicago, all the way to Kure city, I’ve met many nice people and look forward to keeping in touch with them during the time on the Island.

Future posts will not be this general but after waiting longer that I would have liked to blog, found myself just trying to cram info here to help me remember it in the future.

Sure feels like this past month and a half has world-winded by. I miss family/friends quite a bit and am jealous of the cool weather back home, along with the nostalgic reminders of the season (schools/universities starting classes, pumpkin spice at Starbucks/Caribou, cool nights, even college football at the U..)

Excited to be teaching at the 3 middle schools, and elementary schools and will post info about them soon.