Tokyo II: Big City, Bright Lights

Well, I'm finally done with orientations, and have begun moving into my new apartment in Sabae. Tokyo orientation was full of long days, long nights and futilely making friends with people I'll probably never see again. Once I was able to meet up with the Fukui ALT's who I'll be around for the next year, we all got to go out and do some bonding activities. We went to a place called the Christon Cafe in the Shibuya district in Tokyo. This district is one of the most surreal places I've ever seen. I suppose it's like the Times Square of Tokyo, but probably with 10x more people.

The Christon Cafe itself can only be described as outrageous. The cafe is gothic-Christ themed... as in there are bleeding, dying Jesuses all over the cafe. There was also a painting of the Pope, with a little mini-me Pope attached to his front on a baby harness. Confusing. Decor aside, the cafe was delicious. It's a nomihodai place, which means "all you can drink". For about $30 US, we were treated to a 5 course meal, with unlimited drinks for about 2 hours. Not a bad deal in the least.

After the cafe we were all in good spirits (and good spirits were in us, if you get my drift), so we headed out once again for karaoke. Japanese karaoke is not what you'd find at your typical bowling alley in the US (shout out to All Star Lanes though!). You pay a flat fee, something like $20 a person, and you get your own private booth for an hour. Inside the booth, it's all you can drink once again, and you order through a phone on the wall in the booth. The setup is sweet, with a large TV and wireless electronic device which you input song selections into. The selection of songs was great; they had every English song I could think of, including all time classics like Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend". That was just one section of the selection book, as there were also J-Pop sections, Korean Pop sections, etc. They even give you tambourines so the not-so-vocally-inclined can shimmy to the music! In all I'd say it was a more than successful night out on the town, as well as a great escape from the monotony of Tokyo Orientation.*

Another great opportunity I had in Tokyo was to go up to the public observation tower at night to get a better view of the city. The Tower is appx. 60 floors up on a public building, with a 360 degree view of the city. This was my first chance to get a real idea of the scope of Tokyo, and let me tell you it is gigantic. I've never been to New York, but I can safely say Los Angeles or San Francisco seem like villages compared to this place. At night, skyscrapers fill the view as far as the eye can see in every direction. The closest description I can give you is that it looks like the city in Blade Runner, without the flying cars. I took some pictures that will hopefully give everyone who's never been an idea of how big Tokyo really is.



*link to karaoke fun: http://www.youtube.com/user/brett3053#play/all/uploads-all/0/7lUWdwod3Zw

Tokyo!

Just got into Tokyo for orientation. All it took was a lovely 11 hour plane ride over the Pacific Ocean to get me here. So far I've only had just enough time to sneak out for dinner (even though it's 4am in California right now). We ate at a restaurant where you place your order via machine, and they give you a ticket which you take up to the cooks, who then prepare your meal. Efficient and delicious! I had the katsu-donThen we somehow stumbled upon the most expensive bar in the world, where the waiter kneeled down to hand us hot towels when we arrived. I payed $8 for what else... an Anchor Steam. Nothing like paying 2-3x what you would normally for a Northern California beer! The only other thing of note is that I was assaulted by the android toilet in my hotel room, which looks like it came straight out of the new Terminator movie. It washed and violated me in ways I am only beginning to understand. Nothing like the sound of shifting gears and robo-arms while you do your business! I've also put a picture taken on my dinner trek through the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

Hooray for my blog!

Welcome to my blog, Brett in Sabae. This is where I'll chronicle the next year in my life as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Sabae, Fukui, Japan. While I envision this mainly as a way for my friends and family to follow me in my adventures, I hope to pick up some future JETs and maybe some random folks as well.

I suppose I'll use this first post to fill everyone in on myself and what I know so far...

I'm a 22 year old American from Corning, California. I graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles in May with a degree in politics. I applied for the JET program last fall, and after an incredibly long wait I found out that I had been 1) accepted 2) placed in Fukui Prefecture and 3) placed at a high school in Sabae (with a few months in between each of those notices).
All I know about Sabae so far is that it is in the rural Fukui prefecture, it's a town of about 60,000 people, and they manufacture 20% of the world's supply of eyeglass frames. There seems to be some sweet skiing and hiking opportunities nearby, and maybe if I'm lucky I can get in on some touch rugby and Buddhist meditation. Hopefully I'll learn a bit more as I get in contact with my predecessor, and of course ultimately I'll be there in only two weeks time!

I suppose that's all for now, and I suspect my next post will be from orientation in Tokyo!