Lost in...Tokyo

Tokyo: Days filled with JET orientations sessions, nights filled with attempts to navigate the city with broken Japanese and a poorly translated subway map. I braved the streets of Tokyo's Harajuku and Shinjuku districts with fellow JETs, resulting in three days of "Lost in Translation"-esque moments.

Sunday: We arrived, jetlagged, after a 14-hour flight and 3-hour bus ride, to our five-star hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku district. While the thought of crawling into bed was tempting, the lure of the streets of Tokyo was stronger. I ventured out for dinner with fellow JETs, thanked God for a menu with pictures, and quickly mastered the "point-and-smile" ordering technique. Ironically, my first meal in Japan was much like the culinary delights I'd experienced throughout my college days: ramen noodles!

Monday: After a grueling day of JET orientation meetings, I convinced two fellow JETs that a trek to Harajuku would be easy - just two stops on the subway. However, actually purchasing subway tickets and navigating the sea of people, train lines and vendors at Shinjuku station was a quite a different story. We got lost at the station, lost on our way to Harajuku (we arrived just in time for shops to close and the rain to begin), and lost on our way back to the hotel. All in all, a fun evening!

Tuesday: More meetings, more getting lost on the streets of Tokyo. Orientation leaders organized a Fukui-bound JET dinner at The Lock Up, a creepy jail/funeral themed restaurant. A giant group of gaijin (foreigners) headed out from the hotel, with another Chicago JET and me bringing up the rear. We started chatting, looked up, and realized that we'd lost the rest of the group. After 45 minutes of wandering the streets, creating a sign that said "LOCK UP???" and asking random Japanese on the street for directions (we had to ask for "ROCK UP," accounting for the lack of "Ls" in Japanese), we found our way.

The all-you-can-drink ticket helped alleviate the stress of getting lost, and we rolled right into a 4-hour karaoke session. We got back to our hotel at 3 a.m., refreshed and ready to catch our 8 a.m. bus to Fukui City (a mere 9 hours away). Yokoso (welcome)!!