One of the most important things I learned in the last two days is that being in a room full of drunk people if you are sober is not fun. The second most important thing I learned is how to use the train to get to Nagano City from Iiyama. Third most important: I need to learn Japanese.
Ok, so Nagano orientation. Fairly useful information, but more useful was meeting other people who live and work in Nagano prefecture. This prefecture is pretty damn big, so I met people who I will see very rarely, but I met my block leaders and they are closer to where I am. Just being not jetlagged made the orientation productive because I was actually able to stay awake and take in what I was being told. It is also starting to feel real now, the fact that I am in Japan and that I will be teaching. Also, I had an onigiri for lunch, and that makes any day fantastic. Onigiri are riceballs with some sort of filling and then wrapped in seaweed, and they are DELICIOUS. I will take pictures next time I get one.
Back to orientation: the most fun part was the scavenger hunt. They put us into groups and then added 3 Japanese high school students to each group and sent us out with some very random questions about Nagano/Japan. One of the Japanese girls in my group, when I told her I am from DC squealed with excitement. They really love Obama here, and she proceded to say in a deep voice "Yes we can!" She was very giggly and excited the whole time.
My group did not win the prize because we were 15 minutes late and therefore lost 30 points from our score. Bummer.
After orientation, most of the group went to the Smile Hotel in Nagano for a nomihodai, meaning all you can drink. You can imagine how that ended. It was also all you can eat, and there was good food, but it was so hot that day that I was just not hungry. I did have my first glass of sake, and it was ok, but not my favorite. They had coctails, but I was not in the mood to get drunk, let alone completely trashed. Almost everyone else in the room had no problem with getting wasted, however, and so they did. Apparently there is a mindset in Japan that you just let loose at parties and all is forgiven/forgotten the next day. Unless you are a foreigner, and then they remember what you do and how drunk you were. Fair, right? After this party and seeing everyone, I am VERY worried about my enkai (drinking party) which my school will have in my honor. That means I will sort of be expected to partake in the alcohol and I keep hearing mixed things of what I should say to explain my inability to stomach beer. Some people say I should just outright say, "I do not like beer" while others tell me to say "I am allergic to beer" or things along those lines that imply that I would love to join in but cannot for medical reasons. Another thing to worry about: I live pretty far from the main part of town, and if you drink at all, you may not drive. Zero tolerance over here in Japan, so often there are shuttles but they do not take people home, they just take people to a central location, like the school, and then people find their own way. I would rather not drink and be able to drive myself home, personally! For the first enkai, it looks like I will just have to grin and bear it (or, forgive the pun, grin and beer it!) and then work from there.
Aaaanyway, back to Nagano, the Smile Hotel staff finally kicked us out at closing, and then most people went to karaoke. Thankfully there was a small group of people who opted out, myself included, so we went back to one of the PAs apartments and slept. Tonya (the PA) has a decent sized apartment, so she was able to fit a LOT of people, all lined up on futons on the floor. It was SO warm in the room with that many people around. The rest of the group stumbled in around 2am and then all was quiet. I managed again to wake up at 5am, so I read while everyone else slept, and then one by one people woke up so we would all talk, and then another person would get up and join, etc, until everyone was up. We went to get some breakfast and then did re-entry permits at the Immigration office. Afterward, I went with a few people to Zenkoji Temple, but we were there during the Obon festival period so it was crowded. I will go back at some point and actually go in and pray, but there was a line, so we just looked around and then headed back out. Had some really good (really expensive) ice cream, too. Then I got extremely lucky and Jo drove me back to Iiyama instead of me taking the train. Fabulous! We tried to go see fireworks in Madarao last night, but it was so rainy/misty/foggy that they postponed fireworks to tonight. Iiyama is also doing fireworks/big street festival tonight, so it will be a very loud night. Good thing I have earplugs! The wonderful thing about the festivals is the food. They have lots of delicious things to eat. I am hiking today so I will not feel bad if I eat some yummy festival food for dinner. Yum.
That is all for now. I just woke up from an accidental nap, so that is why this post may or may not make sense. My brain is not quite up to speed yet.
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