Current location:	Akita-shi, Akita-ken, Japan
Current mood:	absorbent

Days 4 and 5: Hajimashite times hyaku

Not relishing the prospect of another flight so soon after my last insomnia-inducing behemoth, I awoke with no small amount of trepidation. Thankfully, the journey to Haneda Airport proved rather scenic, even if I did foolishly sit on the one side of the bus that would allow me to take as crappy a picture of Tokyo Tower as was humanly possible. (Re: Tokyo Tower - think Eiffel Tower meets barber's pole). After the slightly disconcerting experience of having not one person at the airport ask to see my passport and partaking of the I-must-find-some-way-to-import-this-when-I-get-back Tokyo Banana (I want to describe it as banana-flavoured chocolate but it's so much more), my journey was finally drawing to a close. The time had come to fly out to my new home in Akita.

Parting ways with the other Akita JETs (single tear) I was met at the airport by my supervisor, Wakasa-sensei (who, for some reason, was exactly as I'd pictured her), plus a 2nd year Akita City JET named Paula (from Ireland) and one of the other four AC newbies, Ryan (a Group B JET from Canada). He, incidentally, has proved something of a godsend this past week, having taken it upon himself to act as my senpai for the settling-in period after his own arrival and subsequent abandonment in the middle of Japan. My "welcome pack" consisted of the staples of life in Akita: a bottle of "Aquarius" (which, like 90% of Japanese energy drinks - including the always charming "Picari Sweat" - tastes like Alka Seltzer to me); strawberry-flavoured chocolate; and a "sea chicken mayonnaise" rice ball. Available at convenience stores everywhere, they're triangles of rice wrapped in nori, require a military operation to unwrap and usually have some kind of meat filling; in this instance, sea chicken. Or "tuna", as it's more commonly known. (If you’ve ever watched an episode of Pokémon, I guarantee that you've seen one.)

We drove from the airport back to the BoE (Board of Education), passing through a singularly beautiful landscape replete with genuine old-style Japanese buildings and a Shinto shrine built on and around a forested hill. My arriving on a Friday was, however, less than ideal, and rather than being given a day to settle in first before having to introduce myself to what felt like 14 separate departments within the BoE in what I'm fairly certain was horrifically mispronounced Japanese, I did it within 2 minutes of entering the building.

Still recovering from that trauma, Wakasa, Paula, Ryan and I went to my new apartment, which - to the chagrin of some of the other ALTs (bar Ryan, who lives in the same building as me) - is both 2 minutes from the BoE, and absolutely amazing. Like 'sliding paper doors, tatami room, fully furnished, looks like a Japanese woodblock print' amazing. Because I'm on the 2nd floor as well, my balcony is about 4 times the size of anyone else's. I'm fairly certain I could play golf out there.

I was given about 20 minutes of "settling in time" before Ryan took me back to the BoE to pick up my (oh-god-disasters-will-ensue-why-did-I-only-take-one-lesson) new bike from outside the building. I promptly crashed into a wall, the pavement, and what I think was a fire hydrant, on our 5 minute journey to the AIA building on Shinkokudo (there are only about 2 streets in Akita City with names: Shinkokudo, running north-to-south, which is intersected by Kanto-odori, running east-to-west. They've fast become my compass points for locating anything else within the city).

The AIA building was my first - but by no means last - encounter with Japanese jingles. Lord, how they love their jingles. Anytime you open the automatic doors, therefore, (and there are 2 sets, 2 metres apart, each with their own jingle), you'll be accosted with music which basically sounds like it was lifted straight from the Pokémon games on the Gameboy 10 years ago. I actually find it quite endearing. Ryan begs to differ. (Curiously enough, they also play 'Auld Lang Syne' whenever a store is closing, which is just absurdly confusing for me.)

On the 6th floor, there are computers with free internet access until about 7 at night (not entirely useful since that's around the time I get back from work), and maps of the city (which, on the other hand, have proved semi-indispensable). After about 5 minutes of using the computers, however, (and somehow managing to switch the keyboard from romaji to hiragana about 14 times), I inadvertently saved my gmail password on one of them, that having been the question which came up in Japanese and not the, "You are about to blah blah blah secure connection" one as I'd originally thought. I managed to switch it back with minimal hassle, though I'm now a little paranoid when it comes to clicking anything requiring a "yes/no" response. At the AIA, I was also briefly introduced to Mara (female, New Mexico) and Tapo (male, India), some 2nd (or possibly 3rd) year AC ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers, if you're curious about my actual job title).

Afterward, we travelled back to our apartment building via the-restaurant-which-never-has-any-customers (so called because of the endless stream of taxis which seem to line up outside of it yet, to our keen observances, has yet to show any signs of custom). Though we're in something of a side street, all of the buildings lining it have their very own - perfectly cultivated - gardens on the front lawn, even if said lawn is only 4 feet wide. They're called niwa, and are really rather charming. I had a short while to change out of the suit which was, by this stage, just about killing (no weather is suit weather, least of all 35° heat), before heading to Leila's place around the corner. She's Australian and, like Ryan and I, one of the 5 AC newbies (though being in group A, she has a good month on the rest of us). She, too, has been of extraordinary help these first few weeks, and - since her mother is Japanese - has been my human subtitles on many an occasion.

Being that it was my first night, I was taken to a restaurant which, slightly misjudging my tastes, was famous for its range of *gag* beers. Despite our being on almost literally the other side of town, Ryan also rather kindly agreed to walk there to save me inadvertently killing myself in some hilariously tragic, bike-related mishap along the way. Eating out in Japan is, incidentally, proving cheaper than actually making food, and I've yet to have a meal in my house that didn't consist of a rice ball from the konbini (convenience store). At the restaurant, I met the final 2 newbies: Joji (Group A, American male with Japanese heritage) and Soma (Group B, Indian female), along with ShiMin (2nd year, from Singapore, and my third and final babysitter for the week), and Ann, my predecessor here at Tsuchizaki Junior High. Afterward, some of us went to Milky Way on Shinkokudo where, overwhelmed by the range of desserts, I ended up having about three ("Mango splits? Green tea ice cream?! I'll take them all!). I really need to go back there...

And finally, to bed - my first night on my roll-out futon which is, perhaps on the less desirable side of my apartment's traditional elements (though it's thankfully not so traditional as to have a squat toilet). The futon itself was surprisingly not uncomfortable, though the Japanese conception of pillows is, confessedly, a little different from my own. ("Is this...is this filled with beans?")

The next day, I awoke ridiculously early, despite feeling the previous night like I was near-collapse and still with that occasional sensation like I was sinking into the floor. I proceeded - with uncharacteristic productivity for that time in the morning - to diligently unpack my suitcases (discovering, in the process, the 400 things I should have packed and couldn't because half my fucking suitcase was filled with omiyage) before Ryan took me out to the ¥290 ramen place opposite Milky Way on Shinkokudo (all within 5 minutes of our apartment building).

(A brief word on omiyage: in Japan, it's traditional to give gifts to your new co-workers (especially - though not necessarily - those who've actually helped you out), and particularly nice if those gifts are somehow representative of the place from which you've come. With hitherto unknown levels of nationalism, I thus spent my last week in Scotland visiting every conceivable souvenir shop in Dundee and stocked up on Scottish-themed crap to the point where my room came to resemble some hideous tartan nightmare. About 10kg of my 20kg weight limit was omiyage.)

We were met at the ramen place by Leila, before the 3 of us headed further down Shinkokudo to one of Japan's infamous hyaku-en (¥100) stores, where, as the name might suggest, everything costs just ¥100. We stopped briefly at a snack stall inside (hello, strawberry and banana crepes), then headed upstairs so that I could buy the necessities of actually surviving in Japan: namely, my now-infamous Ham-Star! handsoap dispenser. Evidently the target audience of kawaii culture is 13 year old girls and 23 year old gaijin with the tastes of the aforementioned. There was also a raffle available to those customers who spent over ¥3000 in the department store that the ¥100 place was attached to (which I ended up doing because the towels I'd appropriated from the Keio Plaza wouldn't hold out much longer). There was a 90% chance of receiving the crappiest prize, that being a choice between a packet of tissues (everyone in Japan will give you tissues) and a Hello Kitty fan (which was the prize I most coveted). Sadly, I was in the other 10%, and so was given a choice of variously household cleaning products (nooo, not toilet cleaner - the fan! The fan!!). The 3 of us have since decided to hold a competition each month to identify the Best (or Worst, depending on how you want to look at it) Engrish that Akita has to offer (and believe me, there is no shortage), one of the prizes for which will be the Hello Kitty fan.

Later, Ryan took me to the an empty carpark in the Yabase sports complex so that I could get some much-needed practice on my bike. There I finally remembered what the hell I was doing, just in time for him to show me the little path between the athletics grounds and soft tennis courts which leads - almost unbelievably - to a tree-canopied otherworld of Shinto shrines, weather-beaten pagodas, and Torii gates hung with delicate paper prayers. My camera and I will, I think, be very happy there.

We then went for one final, death-defying bike with Leila to City Gardens, on the side of the city where the majority of the other ALTs live (the 3 of us being in Sanno). We were met by ShiMin, picked Soma up along the way, then were guided to the AL☆VE building behind Akita Station, where - for the price of your conscience - you can steal free wireless so long as you b.y.o. laptop: a profound discovery in my Akita education.