Getting a Cellphone

The view from our apartment, with the train station on the right. 

I was woken up this morning by a now familiar sound of the siren which marks the start of the trains. One disadvantage to living directly beside the train station is that we hear two of these sirens a day, one in the early morning and one around midnight. This is in addition to a small radio attached to the wall of our living room, which plays music at 7am, noon, and 5pm. 

We went out in the morning to try and buy groceries, but discovered that the store doesn’t open until 9:30am, so we walked back home. Around 9:30, O-san came by to pick up his phone, which he has been leaving overnight in case of emergencies. He informed me that I had free time this morning until N-san came to pick us up at noon to go to Tottori city to get cellphones. He also told me that a typhoon is coming this weekend! 

After O-san left, we went back to the grocery store, since it was open now. We got back, ate a bit of lunch, and then N-san and Y-san (another person from the BOE, not really sure what he does exactly) picked us up from our apartment and drove us into the city. Y-san dropped the four of us off at Tottori station, where we were supposed to meet Mayumi, the PA. We were a bit early, but even after waiting Mayumi hadn’t shown up. It had also started raining (a sign of the typhoon to come). Finally, after N-san called her, Mayumi arrived. Justin, Yana, and I got in Mayumi’s car and went to pick up another JET who was getting a phone, S. N-san and Y-san drove ahead to Softbank and waited there for us. However, when we arrived at Tottori BOE, Mayumi was informed that S had been out to eat with her teachers and they were having so much fun that they hadn’t finished, so S would meet us there. So we drove on to Softbank, and Mayumi and I had just sat down to start the procedure, when I realized I hadn’t brought my bankbook, which is necessary for paying the monthly bill. I felt really awful about it, because it ended up that Y-san drove all the way back to Chizu to look for it in our apartment and then had to drive back. Since that took about an hour, we let S get her phone first (she had arrived just after the fiasco started), and then we went with Mayumi and S went to a nearby department store to do some shopping for the apartment. We had just gotten started when Mayumi got a call that Y-san had returned, so we hurried back to Softbank and finally were able to to get the contracts finished. 

After getting our phones, Y-san and N-san took us back to the department store to do some more shopping, but by that time it was late, we were hungry and tired, so we ended up just getting a few more things, going grocery shopping (getting enough food for a few days in case power goes out), and then driving home. However, this meant that we completely forgot to get a few important things, oops. 

Interesting things:

I got my bank account at Tottori Bank, and the mascots are Tom and Jerry. Literally, they are on my bank book and for setting up an account I got a box of Tom and Jerry tissues.

There is EVERYTHING Frozen here. Seriously, everything. Yana picked out a Frozen water bottle at the department store, and there were also bento boxes, cups, chopsticks, water jugs, etc.

My First Day in Chizu

Woke up to these gorgeous misty mountains this morning.

This morning I woke up early, as seems to be the norm when changing time zones so drastically, and to one where it gets light out at 4am. My supervisors were coming to get me at 9am, so I spent the morning cleaning up the apartment a bit (we just crashed last night) and getting ready slowly, so as not to become drenched in sweat immediately. 

When O-san and N-san arrived, they informed me of the day’s plans (sort of, well, as best they could). O-san had also brought a step stool from his house for Yana to use (for the toilet and sink), which was extremely kind as we couldn’t find one in the store last night. 

Firstly we walked to the bank, where I had to set up my account. This is very important, as I get paid directly into my bank account and similarly, most or all of my utilities will be directly withdrawn. Setting up a bank account in Japan is quite the harrowing experience and it takes a looooong, long time. Firstly I had to fill out three forms, but in kanji (Japanese characters) and all by myself. The solution was for N-san to write it out in pencil and I copied overtop in pen. So, impromptu Japanese kanji practice! Then there was a big issue over whether or not I could get a bank account without a phone number of my own. It took a while to file all the paperwork, but finally they could use my personal seal to finalize everything (like a signature)…except that we were then informed that N-san had accidentally put today’s date in the spot for my birthday, so we had to write in the corrections and then stamp it with my seal to confirm. I was then told that it would take 2 weeks to get an ATM card! There are 2 ATMs in my town, and one is in the hospital right across the road from us, which is great (the other is in the bank). It does cost money to withdraw, but only during off hours and weekends. 

After the bank, we walked across the road to the government office, and on the way they told me we were going to meet the “top boss” of all of Chizu’s education! Okay, so that was a great surprise. I’m not sure I dressed nicely enough. We went upstairs and into his office and I awkwardly sat down after almost taking his seat. We chatted a bit and then N-san left and returned a moment later with 3 other people who work in the office, and whose names I’ve pretty much forgotten already. They started introducing themselves and I realized halfway through that I was still sitting on the couch while everyone but the “boss” (we’ll call him Mr. N) was standing. I felt way to awkward too just stand up randomly, so I continued sitting through all their introductions, dying slowly on the inside. Afterwards, N-san filled out a bunch of paper, and I attempted to make conversation with Mr. N and it went alright I think. He showed me some brochures about Chizu and a drawing of the new junior high school which is being built. We talked a bit about Canada and he told me he had been to Petrolia, which is a tiny town in Ontario, oddly enough it is very close to where my grandparents live and I’ve been there myself. 

Next we went grocery shopping at the nearby store, TOSC. I was unsure of what to get, so I ended up getting blueberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, ramen, macaroni, a bag of meat pasta sauce, yogurt, bread and apple juice. It was about $21 CAD. Then my supervisor walked me home and used my seal to fill out some paperwork for internet and water and such. They said I had the afternoon off, to “clean up the room,” which was really kind. 

TOSC, my local grocery store.

Unfortunately there’s not much to do at home. We have no internet, no tv, no books, and hardly any stuff. The stuff we do have doesn’t have a place, as we need to buy some organizing and storage items. Still, its nice to finally have some time to relax, as its been pretty go-go-go since Tokyo for me. 

So I had just settled down with Yana to rest while watching a movie when the doorbell rang. It was O-san and N-san, who had come to say that the schools were closed tomorrow, so we had to go visit today or next week. I said today was fine, so off we went! 

First we stopped at the elementary school, and several girls gathered outside the entrance repeated “kawaii, kawaii” (cute) to Yana. We met a lot of teachers and I can’t remember their names. They also showed me the desk and computer I can use. 

The junior high school is a new school that is still in the process of being built. The amazing thing is that it is almost entirely wood - local cedar which grows on the mountains surrounding Chizu town. The school actually smelled amazing because of it. They brought us into a meeting room to meet the principal and two English teachers, one of whom is the vice principal. We sat here and chatted a bit more than at the elementary school, since the JHS is my base school and I will teach there most often. We also met a lot of the office staff, who all seemed very kind. 

One thing which was funny was that at both schools everyone kept calling Yana “ningyo,” (mermaid) and doll. One man even reached out to touch her hair! Obviously her ego is going to explode here, because everyone fawns over her.

O-san and N-san drove us back to our apartment, where they had to do some work to get our washing machine hooked up to the water. Finally it was fixed, but then we realized we didn’t have any laundry soap, so we had to go out shopping again. O-san took us back to TOSC, but they didn’t quite have what we were looking for, so he ended up driving us about 5 minutes to just out of town, where there is a larger store that is more like a pharmacy. We found some soap there, as well as a few other things we needed and then drove back to the apartment, where O-san showed us how to use the machine. I also asked him about how to sort garbage, as it has just been piling up on counters until then because I had no idea what to do with it. I'm still not sure I know what to do with it.

After that O-san and N-san left, around 6pm. Justin and I made dinner, which was the odd combination of watermelon and pasta with meat sauce. I had bought this sauce which came in two small bags and you squeeze it out onto the pasta. It was “meat” flavour, which was a bit sketchy, but it was actually pretty tasty! However, I’ve found that so far the fruits we’ve eaten here have been a bit tasteless compared to Canada. The blueberries were bland and grainy, the cherry tomatoes were okay, but again, a bit bland, as was the watermelon. But either way, I’m just happy to have something Yana will eat, since she’s so picky!

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Four and First Day in Tottori

Our hotel room.

This morning we had to get up early to catch our flight to Tottori. We packed our suitcases, but didn’t leave enough time for breakfast, so we went straight to check out and then to the 5th floor to meet with the other Tottori folks. We left around 7:20am and took a bus to the airport. I’m not sure if we were the first group to leave, but when we walked out all the other groups in the room cheered us out like we were celebrities or something, which was awesome and hilarious. We got to the airport, checked in, and then had to wait for a few hours for our flight at 10:45am. The flight was good, and it gave us a pretty nice view of Tokyo for a bit.

Tokyo Haneda Airport.

Leaving Tokyo

Leaving Tokyo

We landed in Tottori’s tiny airport and went to retrieve our luggage from the single conveyor. At the airport, my supervisors N-san and O-san were waiting for us. O-san drove us to a restaurant called Cafe Gusto in Tottori city for lunch. We all had hamburg steak sets. Over lunch we discussed what to do over the course of the day. O-san asked me (using a translator app on his tablet - very handy!) what I wanted to buy for our apartment, but I said I didn’t really know what I should buy without seeing what was in the apartment already. They then decided that we should drive into Chizu to see the apartment and then drive back to buy items. I felt really bad about it, but its really hard to express myself completely in Japanese. 

First views of Tottori!

First views of Tottori!

Before we got to the apartment, we stopped at the Chizu government office to register all three of us as residents. It took a few tries, but we finally got it right! They also had all our suitcases there, so those were brought out to the car.

Then we drove like one minute to our apartment building, which is directly across from the train station. There are 2 buildings on the lot, and we live in building 2. Our building has 9 floors and we live on the 5th. There is just one person across from us (so 2 apartments per floor). Our apartment is nice, but its smaller than it looked in the photos we saw! I think its probably about the same size as our house. The wood on the floors and walls is really cozy, but there are some not so nice things, like a bit of mould and air conditioning only in the tatami room (which we weren’t really planning on using). My supervisors showed us around the house, explaining things like the bath to me. Except when he was trying to explain about plugging the bath to fill it up, for some reason his translator was saying something like “it happened after the war.” I have no idea how that worked, but it was really hilarious. 

We dropped off our luggage and then went back in the car. We picked up a stovetop from the government office and then drove around for a while looking for futons without much luck. We kind of wanted a queen-sized futon for me and Justin, but we had to settle for two singles in the end, which is fine. We ended up back in Tottori city to buy the futons, along with other bedding (Yana picked out a Pokemon pillow), and some basic groceries for breakfast. 

Then we went for lunch at an udon restaurant in the city, where Justin and I got tonkatsu and Yana had plain udon, a Japanese food she will actually sort of eat. Then it was time to go back to Chizu. We were all exhausted and everyone fell asleep in the car, except for O-san, who was driving of course.

Back at the apartment, O-san explained a bit about what we would do the next day, and then left us to finally settle down for the night.

Overall, I am really interested to see more of Chizu and Tottori. The mountains are huge, lush, and omnipresent. We drove by a castle on top of a large hill on the way to Chizu, which was gorgeous. I’m really looking forward to our prefectural orientation, when we get to visit the sand dunes and go on a boat tour of the coast!

Oddly I still don’t really feel jet lagged, just tired after busy days. I also feel really calm and completely nonchalant about everything, and I’m not sure if that’s the product of some sort of brain malfunction or an actual sense of ease and acceptance of my new life here. I’ve been holding out for a freak-out moment, so far I’ve felt pretty cool and collected about everything. I am kind of terrified of actually starting teaching, but I know it will get easier with time, so I’m just telling myself to wait out the first few weeks of hardship. 

So that was my first day in Tottori! I will wrap things up here with some random, interesting things I’ve noticed:

The tap in our kitchen is a single lever style and you push down to turn the water on, not lift it up. I am having a lot of difficulty getting use to this and have sprayed water all over myself several times.

At the store, shampoo and soap are all in sealed containers, of course, but there are scent balls hanging beside each one so you can smell what its like without needing to open the container.

I’m really surprised at how much Japanese I actually have retained, even after not using it for 6 years. Its far from perfect, but I’ve been able to figure out most of what my supervisors say and they seem to understand me alright too.

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Three

Today wa our last full day in Tokyo! I really wish we got more time here, especially more free time. I'm not sure when or if we'll be able to come back since we live so far away in Tottori.

I went up to the 43rd floor this morning to try and get photos of the sunrise over Tokyo. It didn't quite turn out as I wanted, because the bathrooms which supposedly have a great view were closed (it was 5am). There was a big window in the hallway though.

View of Tokyo from the 43rd floor of Keio.

View of Tokyo from the 43rd floor of Keio.

7:00am-8:30am Breakfast
Same fare as yesterday, but with the addition of french fries.

Our breakfast spread this morning.

9:00am-10:30am Life in Japan as an ALT panel discussion
There were 3 current JETs who answered a variety of questions. It was nice to actually hear from more JETs. That said, a lot of information is placement specific, so it was all kind of useless.

10:30am-10:45am Break

10:45am-11:35am Meaningful speaking activities
This workshop was about speaking activities, so we learned a few games, how to adapt activities to other levels, and how to balance fluency and accuracy. I felt like it could have been a little more in depth.

11:35am-12:50pm Lunch
Today we had vegetable curry, minestrone soup, and salad. It seems like they are making sure that meals are vegetarian, which is thoughtful.

12:50pm-1:40pm Reviewing vocabulary through games
This seminar was about teaching vocabulary in different ways, like charades or pictionary.

1:40pm-1:55pm Break

1:55pm-2:45pm Improving your language awareness
This seminar was focused on grammar and how to approach it in the classroom.

2:45pm-3:00pm Break

3:00pm-3:50pm Helping students with writing
The last seminar of the day was about teaching writing. I was really tired by then, so I kind of zoned out.

3:50pm-4:05pm Break

4:05pm-4:55pm Host prefecture/designated city meetings
I was really looking forward to finally meeting people going to my prefecture! There aren't very many of us, but there is 1 other Canadian, so I'm not completely alone! I still can't believe there are only 2 new Canadian JETs coming to Tottori, though. Here we found out some information on travelling to Tottori tomorrow, what to expect on our first day, and Tottori orientation.

4:55pm-5:05pm Survey completion and submission
We had to complete and submit a survey about all the seminars across the entire orientation.

5:15pm-8:00pm Luggage collection
We actually missed this, but its just for loading the bus before we go to the airport, so it should be fine I hope!

We missed luggage collection because this evening we met up with Asumi and went to Sweets Paradise, a dessert buffet! It took a while for us to find it and we even had to go ask at an information desk inside a department store, but we got there! The food was really amazing and there was a huge variety - not just sweets either. I completely gorged myself on all sorts of delicious cakes, as well as kakigori (flavoured shaved ice), one of my favourite Japanese foods.

My first dessert plate. The brown one is chocolate, the tart is a yogurt tart, the jelly is ramune jelly, and I'm not sure about the flavours of the two cakes in the foreground, but they were also delicious.

Chocolate fountain at Sweets Paradise.

Just part of the dessert buffet at Sweets Paradise.

Afterwards, when we were walking back to our hotel, we ended up going down this narrow, winding street. It was a traditional Japanese pub street, lined with restaurants. Interestingly, many of them seemed to be run by women. One woman and her 5 year-old daughter caught our attention and we chatted with them for a moment...er, well I guess it was more like awkwardly smiled and tried to get two shy girls to talk without success. The lady was very kind and gave Yana some candy. I wish we could go back there again, it smelled delicious!

If you look closely, you can spot the woman and her daughter peeking out of their restaurant on the right.

I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow because its probably when this will all sink in. Being mostly confined to the hotel over the past few days has really sheltered us from a lot of the realities of living here. I also hope I get my voice back by tomorrow, because otherwise I am going to sound completely ridiculous when I try to speak!

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Two

I woke up around 2am this morning to Yana kicking me in the side. I was so NOT thrilled at the prospect of her being up so early, but luckily she went back to sleep eventually and is still snoozing at nearly 6am - hooray! However, after that I slept fitfully and woke up a lot. I left the curtains open and the sun starts rising really early here (around 4am), so that didn't help either. Tonight I will close the curtains! I feel tired, but mostly just like I didn't sleep well.

Before breakfast we went down to the convenience store in the south tower, mostly to get things for Justin and Yana's lunch. There were a ton of Frozen things for sale! Yana was going crazy at all the cute things. I got some pure gummies, a favourite from when I was here in 2008.


Here was our schedule for the first day of orientation:

7:00am-8:30am Breakfast
I was a bit worried about Justin and Yana getting in, but there was no one at the doors, so it went alright after all. Breakfast was pretty good. Lots of fruit, which I was happy about.

9:00am-10:00am Opening ceremony and essential information
I went directly to the room for the opening ceremony after breakfast, as we had to be seated by 8:45. I ended up with a bunch of the folks from Toronto, so that was a happy accident.

At the opening ceremony.

10:00am-10:15am Break

10:15am-11:15am Expectations of you as a JET
This presentation was mainly about tips to keep in mind. I kind of blanked out a bit during this one.

11:15am-11:30am Break
We ended a bit early, so we actually took a 1/2 hour break and went outside to a convenience store for coffee. We were going to go for donuts (so Canadian), but couldn't find the place and had to get back to the hotel for the next presentation.

11:30am-12:15pm Foreign language education in Japan
This was actually one of the most amusing presentations of the day. The speaker was really funny and he also showed us some great scenery of Japan. This presentation was about government mandates on how foreign languages should be taught in Japan. There is a fairly new suggestion that classes should be taught in English only.

12:15pm-1:30pm Lunch
We went and had lunch in the south tower, since it seemed less busy. We had penne with vegetable sauce, some kind of vegetable soup, and coffee.

Lunch was served on giant lazy susans!

1:30pm-2:20pm Team teaching demonstration and effective lesson planning, part 1 (Junior high)
We split into a bunch of groups for information about teaching at our respective levels. I was in the D group for junior high school. It was pretty informative. We learned about the school system, schedules, how to team teach, etc.

2:20pm-2:35pm Break

2:35pm-3:25pm Team teaching demonstration and effective lesson planning, part 2 (Junior high)
The second part of the teaching presentation.

3:25pm-3:40pm Break

3:40pm-4:30pm Characteristics of Japanese and self study techniques
This presentation was kind of boring and all over the place. It was really random and unfortunately the presenter didn't do a great job. It was supposed to be a kind of introduction to the language and basic Japanese.

4:30pm-4:45pm Break

4:45pm-5:35pm Workplace etiquette
Our last seminar of the day was about etiquette, so we covered things like bowing, greetings, and posture. Honestly by this point I was getting really drained, but thankfully the hours go by fairly quickly.

5:35pm-6:30pm Break

6:30pm-8:00pm Welcome reception
We actually ended up skipping out on this. I was so done with work stuff and I didn't feel like being in a suit and listening to speeches and dealing with forced social interaction. It was optional, so it was okay.

Instead we decided to go out and explore Tokyo, since we don't have much other time to do that.

Yana in Shinjuku!

We were trying to find our way to Don Quijote, but got a bit lost on the way. So first we ended up stopping at 7-11 to get a snack for Yana. She got some blueberry yogurt. Then we consulted some maps and after a bit of a walk we made it to Don Quijote, where we bought an umbrella and some 3-prong to 2-prong converters. After that we stopped by McDonald's because Yana likes their hamburgers. I attempted to order the food, but it went a bit wrong...instead of getting the #3 double quarter pounder set for Justin I instead ordered three double quarter pounders on their own. Which explains why they had us wait for 5 minutes for the food. Oops.

View of Shinjuku.

Oddly I don't think I've really been hit by jet lag at all! I felt tired after the flight, but that was because I hadn't really slept in 2 days. I've felt pretty great all day as far as that goes. Unfortunately I've become sick, which puts a damper on things. I felt it in my throat the day we left, but now I sound like an old man. I'm hoping it clears up at least a bit before I have to meet my supervisor!

Departure for Japan and Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day One

Our flight today was scheduled for 2:05pm, so we left the house around 9:30am and drove to the airport. We were supposed to be there for 10:30am, and it was a good thing because there was some issue with the self check-in machine not printing baggage stickers and we ended up in this huge messy line for ages. Finally we got our 5 suitcases checked. We said goodbye to my mom and then went through security.

Yana was super excited to see all the airplanes.

We still had a while before boarding, so we ate some lunch and played around on the iPads that are free to use! Toronto airport certainly got an upgrade since the last time I was there!

Yana in front of our airplane.

We finally started boarding, in a very confused manner, but we were able to get seated a bit early since Yana was with us. Justin and Yana were in a 2-seat row (25), while I was behind the bathrooms and one row at 32. Unfortunately I was in a middle seat between two guys, so I ended up staying in my seat the whole time. It seems like Yana did great and was amused by watching The Aristocats on repeat.

Overall, the flight went by pretty quickly. Between 6 and 3 hours left until arrival was the slowest period. I had a plan to sleep as soon as we got on the plane (since it was 3am Japan time), but that didn't end up working at all and I mostly drifted in and out of terribly uncomfortable sleep. This was partially due to some guy who felt the need to stand in front of the row in front of us and chat loudly with the people sitting there for hours on end. We were served a lunch (stirfry with rice, bread, salad, and a brownie), a dinner (beef sandwich, biscuits, and cup noodles), and breakfast (omelette/rice pudding, fruit, and bread with jam). I watched a few movies and before I knew it we were landing! There was a bit of turbulence near the end, but overall it was a really good flight and the landing was actually amazingly smooth.

After we landed we went through immigration, where we had our fingerprints scanned and our photos taken for our residence card. Last time I was here it took a few weeks to have the resident card printed, so I found it was a nice change. However, I struggled with the fingerprinting machine just like last time. Next we picked up our massive amount of suitcases, went through customs, and were ushered through halls and up and down escalators until we got outside. There we lined up and shipped off our suitcases (we're just keeping carry-ons) and boarded the bus for the hotel in Tokyo.

Waiting to ship luggage. Somehow we got separated from the Canadians and ended up with a bunch of Americans and Kiwis.

I have no idea how long the bus ride was, because I was drifting in and out of a slightly more comfortable sleep and at this point I had no idea what time it was. I'd say it was probably close to the estimated 2 hours. We were shown into the hotel, where we had a quick lecture, submitted insurance forms, and picked up various things like schedules, room keys, and name tags. I also had to pay for Justin and Yana's various expenses for coming along. 

Currently we're in our room on the 22nd floor of the hotel. It gets dark pretty early here. Its hot, but actually not too bad, but perhaps thats because we didn't leave the airport until after 5:30pm. Justin and Yana are both conked out on their beds. I actually feel pretty good right now. Tired, but not overly exhausted. Actually, I'm starving but I have no idea where to go for food and I don't want to leave the two of them alone. 

The view from our hotel room window.

The Eve of Departure

Today I went into Toronto for the mandatory farewell pre-departure orientation thingy, which was held in Hart House on the UoT campus.

It ran from about 1pm until 5pm. A representative from the travel agency went over the procedures for tomorrow, our departure day! At this point we also got back our passports with the visas and some other necessary items for the trip. Then we were told to leave the room for about an hour, while the catering company set up for the farewell reception.

I think most of us were starving at this point, so when we were called back into the room, we basically swooped in on the food like a bunch of vultures. There were plates of desserts - including nanaimo bars! On the other side of the room was a huge cheese tray and a bunch of breads and dips. There were servers with all sorts of appetizers as well. The sliders were freaking amazing! There was also chicken satay skewers, crab cakes, samosas, sweet potato and shrimp dumpling things...it was incredible. They really feed us well here!

At the reception we were divided into regions. Since there are only 3 of us going to Chugoku, we were grouped with Shikoku. Still, our table was really empty, which was kind of awkward...especially when we did a cheer competition and ours was by far the worst. I'm really looking forward to meeting the other Tottori JETs in Tokyo!

After we had stuffed our faces, there were a bunch of speeches, mostly what I took away from them is "it will be hot." At the end we all did a big kampai (cheers) with sparkling wine. We took a group photo too, but I'm curious as to how that turned out because there were so many of us I think half of our faces will be missing from the photo.

I wasn't really sure what was going on after that, so I meandered around until I somehow managed to politely barge in on the conversation 2 girls were having. There were also some reporters around, so one lady asked us some questions about how we were feeling and where we were going. Eventually the room became pretty empty, so I decided to say goodbye.

At home we frantically finished up packing. We have a few things left to do in the morning, but otherwise I think we're pretty set. Our flight leaves at 2:05pm, but we have to be at the airport by 10:30am, so its a fairly early morning unfortunately.

We ended up adding another suitcase to our pile, just a small one though. We still are under the baggage limit, so that's fine. We are still going to ship all this stuff from Narita, but I recently discovered that the plane to Tottori is so small that carry-on suitcases don't fit, so we have to check our carry-on bags anyway. Which is kind of annoying, but oh well. Still less to deal with than a big suitcase.

I should be able to get internet at the hotel and I'm planning to post all about Tokyo Orientation. I'm hoping internet will be set up at home in Chizu soon, but I really have no idea how long it will take. I'll post here as soon as I can, and I will probably end up backdating a bunch of posts about our first few days.