July 26-27, 2011

The first morning I awoke around 4:15. The sun was already rising! This really is the land of the rising sun! I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I located the hotel gym on the 7^th floor. I hopped on a treadmill that looked like it was made in the 1990’s. After finally figuring out how to use it (buttons were all in Japanese) I had a nice run with a view of some buildings in downtown Tokyo. I definitely needed the workout after many hours of sitting down on the 13-hour flight. For breakfast, the hotel had French fries, salad, steamed vegetables, ham, fruit and cereal. A strange assortment but I was happy to get some food in my stomach.  At another station they had milk, orange juice, tea and coffee. The orange juice and milk were in little glasses. I drank six or seven glasses of orange juice and wondered if the Japanese hotel staff thought anything of it...The orientation was full of seminars on everything from “Japanese etiquette” to “Driving and living in rural Japan”. After the opening ceremony (there’s always some form of opening and closing ceremony in Japan for everything) they even had a short lesson on how to bow. There’s more to it than you would think!

The morning of the 26^th I decided to go for a jog outside the hotel. I made sure to stay fairly close, as I figured it could be easy to get lost in Tokyo. In-between sessions, I ran into Nathan, from the first flight to Dallas. It was good to see a friendly face. We decided to take a walk outside and explore. I have to say it ranks as one of the most exciting walks I’ve ever taken…the infrastructure is on a smaller scale, the Japanese characters, the different smells as we walked by restaurants, the styles of the people (I saw one girl who looked like a giant toy doll. Kinda scary.) and the little shops. That evening the U.S. Ambassador, John Roos, came and talked to all of the American JETs. His key point was that we were all ambassadors and that we should strive to represent the US well, especially during this crucial time for Japan. Later that night I went out with a couple guys and explored. We decided on a curry place to eat, called C&C. My first Japanese restaurant! This little curry cafe had a vending machine-looking box as we walked in. I couldn’t read what it said, but it had pictures. I inserted 500 yen and pushed the button for chicken and curry. I sat down at the counter and handed one of the young girls the ticket from the ticket box. She held up a sign with different spiciness levels and I picked the hottest one. Only a few minutes later and my food was ready, and it was delicious! A fried chicken cutlet over steamed white rice and curry on the side. Pleasantly surprised! The two guys I was with had studied in Japan together a couple years back, but I felt like a little kid, taking everything in and mesmerized by all the lights, people, food and shops. I also couldn’t help but shake the feeling that it was incredible, yet a little random, to find myself in the heart of Tokyo—a place I can’t say I ever expected to visit at this point in my life. Let the adventure begin!