My first night

Friday, August 10, 2007

I just spent my first night in my new home in Shinkamigoto. Yesterday, as well as the past few days, has been fairly busy. The 3 new ALTs were escorted around getting our legalities out of the way.

Yesterday morning started around 6 am for me. I managed to catch some news on CNN while enjoying free internet at the hotel. We all met downstairs around 8:45 for breakfast. After that we met up with Urahama-sensei, who took us to the Board of Education (BOE). The BOE itself wasn’t far from the hotel, maybe 5-10 minutes. As we were driving, he mentioned that the building was broken into 3 sections, the BOE, government facility, and I think he said accounting.

The BOE department was on the 2^nd floor where we were greeted by about 10 people. Among those people was Yuasa-sensei, the current ALT supervisor. The first stop was on the 3^rd floor where we met the Superintendant. He had as sit down and talk (introduce ourselves). My Japanese is not as good as the other two, but I managed to get the idea of what he was talking about. When he started talking to me, I just threw out a self introduction that I prepared in college and memorized. However, I did manage to do impromptu speak with my broken Japanese. After about 5 minutes we went back downstairs to meet the BOE staff. We stood in front of the office and did our self introductions. After that, we sat down at a round table and talked over the contract, our schedules, and our paths to our schools. It was here that I received my schedule for the year. I have 2 junior high schools, Uonome being my base school, and 3 elementary schools (1 elementary school per week). My means of transportation looks like bus and taxi. Luckily, both are within walking distance from my apartment. They also gave us maps of the area, our apartment keys, as well as phone numbers to the other ALTs, schools, and our supervisors. We filled out this little information sheet and wrote about ourselves. They showed us a book of all the previous ALTs where they intend to put ours into. Afterwards, we took pictures to stick on that sheet.

When business was finished there, we headed downstairs to the government section to apply for our Alien Registration card and our Inkan(A Inkan is a personal stamp that works similarly to a signature). The process itself wasn’t too bad; however there were language issues in terms of how they wanted information entered. At the end I received a receipt of the registration card stapled to my passport and an Inkan with “Karuro” engraved on it. After paying the fees we were off. It was already about 12:30 when all that business was finished, so we went to lunch.

Urahama-sensei showed us to a small café where he often goes for lunch. This place is known in the area for their iced coffee. I never had curry before, so this was the place where I tried my first plate of hamburger curry. I think Urahama-sensei was making fun of me about it, but I didn’t know. We only stayed about 30 minutes before we parted ways with Laura and headed to our base schools to meet our vice principals. I did the routine of self introductions to the staff of that school as well. I’m wondering how this will go when I’m solo and have to meet my other Jr. High and 3 elementary schools.

After meeting the vice principal, we headed to the bank to open an account. In the states they take care of you right there as you stand in front of the teller. Over here in Japan, you come up and place an “order”, whether be it opening an account, withdrawing, depositing, etc. Then you sit down and they send it to people sitting behind desks. After an “order” is complete, another person comes to the counter and shouts your name. You then go up and complete whatever transaction you came in to do. Their procedure reminded me of a fast food place. It took about an hour to get our bank accounts set up. After receiving a small checkbook like book, they showed us to the ATM. Apparently, you can use this small book as well as your ATM card to make transactions. I deposited 500 yen and it printed it on my book.

After banking, we finally headed to our apartments to drop off our luggage. Around this time the weather was reaching about 90 degrees and the air conditioning made me want to vegetate in front of it. Urahama-sensei came into our apartments and checked the water, electric, and phones to make sure they were on and working. It was during this time I gave him my omiyage. I feel bad that a magnet and key chain didn’t do justice to all the help he’s provided us. About 20 mintues of checking both our apartments, he took us around town to show the general and grocery stores. I did a little bit of shopping to fill my refrigerator, just some bread, eggs, and rice. After that he showed us where my bus station was and the bus terminal if we ever wanted to go around the island.

It was about 7 when we finally got back to the apartment. We said our goodbyes (for now) and he drove off. The rest of the evening I spent unpacking. About 8:30, Joe and Andrea (the other ALTs) stopped by to see how we were doing, as well as giving us some supplies. They offered to take us to a peace party, but I had to decline because I wanted to get my unpacking finished. Instead Joe and I went back to the general store to pick up some garbage bags.

Garbage schedules are different here. Every day is garbage day. Things are separated into categories and they all have their designated day to throw them out.

I spent the rest of the evening sorting paperwork out which leads me to this morning. Nathanial and I went shopping this morning for little things and more groceries. I think today I’ll continue sorting my paperwork in order to prepare for work on Monday.