The JET Programme: From Arrival to Tokyo Orientation

Ok, this is the last one in this trilogy series – see The JET Programme: From Application to Acceptance and The JET Programme: From Pre-departure to Departure
for parts one and two. Please keep in mind while reading that I’m a
Canadian from the Vancouver consulate – until you leave your home
country, things vary by consulate. Once you get to Tokyo though,
everyone’s in the same boat until departure day to your prefecture.

This one is all about the most exciting part – getting here!

We
left Vancouver at 1pm and the 40-ish of us from the Vancouver consulate
were thrilled to find out all of us were seated together in our own
section of the plane – I’m sure the other passengers were thrilled too
as not many of us slept during the 9.5hr flight. Everyone chatted
excitedly and many partook in the free booze that is a perk of
international Air Canada flights. One of the flight attendants was a
former JET himself so he watched us with a bemused smile for most of the
flight. The other people on the plane trying to sleep were not as
happy. SAKE SAKE SAKE!!!!!!!!

We landed the next
afternoon in Narita around 3-ish local time. The immigration lineup is
no joke. We arrived right after two planes of JETs from the San
Francisco, Los Angeles and Denver consulates had arrived. They had some
immigration windows cordoned off just for JETs but honestly the other
lines were moving faster! So we waited and waited. We were luckier than
the Toronto consulate who arrived a few hours later – their immigration
photos for their residence cards got lost and they were at the airport
forever. One of the consulates had a delayed flight and didn’t even get
there until partway through the first day of sessions. (You arrive
sometime Sunday, sessions are Monday and Tuesday, and you leave for your
prefecture on Wednesday morning.)

When they tell you,
“don’t worry – there will be people at the airport showing you where to
go” it’s no fucking joke. I saw TONS of volunteers in JET shirts at the
airport, all strategically placed to look for us with our goofy JET
stickers on our shirts and point us to the next volunteer who pointed us
to the next one. It was a hot and sticky blur but I eventually sent
both my suitcases ahead to my placement (don’t worry about this, they
give you tags at the farewell reception and you just put them on your
bags – they know where to send them with the info on the tag, you don’t
need anything else) and got on a (blessedly) air conditioned bus. Once
the bus was full, we were off to Tokyo. The bus ride to the hotel in
Shinjuku took about an hour. We landed at 3:20pm and didn’t step into
our hotel room until nearly 7pm. Don’t make plans the first night unless
your arrival time is in the morning! You have to wait for everyone from
your flight (plus maybe JETs on a couple other flights near the same
time), send luggage, get on the bus, etc. and it takes fucking forever
with hundreds of people.

Every year the Tokyo
Orientation is at the exact same place, the Keio Plaza Hotel in
Shinjuku. You’ll sleep 3 to a room with the same gender with people from
your consulate. You don’t get to choose your roommates. Bring earplugs
in case you get a snorer in your room. It’s TIGHT quarters with three
people. Don’t be the dick with huge suitcases that everyone is tripping
on. You’re in Tokyo for THREE DAYS, you don’t need anything except your
suit/shoes, something to sleep in, something to wear in the evenings if
you want to leave the hotel, and something to wear to  your placement on
the third day. The hotel has soap, shampoo, conditioner, razors,
toothbrushes, a hair dryer, etc. in the bathroom. If you have a family
or spouse you’re on your own for a room if you want to stay with them.
FYI, the room we stayed in normally runs around $500-800CAD/night for
two people, so you’ll probably want to look into a different hotel
close by if you’re in that boat.

Yes, there’s AC in the
hotel. Yes, there’s wifi…imagine 978 JETs on it at the exact same
times though, plus all the other people in the hotel. It’s slow! Yes,
there’s a pool. JETs have to pay 2000Y to use it though, I guess to try
to keep out the yahoos who apparently were rowdy in there a few years
ago.

Pro tip: there’s a convenience store on 2F in
the hotel. Nylons, beer, onigiri, chips, notebooks, fans, Gatsby wipes
can all be found there. You’re welcome.

Pro tip #2: yes,
you need to wear a fucking suit. Who are these people every year asking
this question??? It’s formal business attire. That means a goddamned
suit boys. Nice blouse or collared dress shirt for ladies, with full
length trousers and a jacket. Yes you need a fucking jacket. No you
don’t need heels but you need dress shoes. What is unclear about the
instructions? Don’t be the person wearing neon or crazy patterns,
generally in Japan these are frowned upon. You will be photographed and
on video during this event. You need to look “Japan professional”. The
second day you can lose the jacket but you should still be in a dress
shirt and dress pants. I saw some ridiculously low-cut shirts on ladies
as well as sleeveless blouses and capri pants… all I can say is good
luck in Japan if you can’t follow basic clothing rules. Look, this isn’t
the only time you’ll need a formal outfit during your time in Japan
(you’ll have to to get back into this getup for welcome ceremonies,
graduation ceremonies, meeting the mayor, etc.) so just suck it up and
get yourself these items if you don’t have them.

Side
protip: gentlemen, in Japan you only wear a black suit with a white
shirt and black tie for funerals. Don’t do it unless you’re at a
funeral. Tie color matters in Japan. This is not the time for your
Spongebob tie either, save it for your ES days.

You
will eat at the hotel for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is a
western-style buffet with eggs, cereal, toast, ‘bacon’, ‘sausages’,
(notice the quotation marks people), breads and rolls, yogurt, fried
potatoes, fruit salad and then some random shit like salad and soup. You
can really fill up here and I advise you to because lunch is a
travesty. Lunch is served family-style at each table and is vegetarian
to ‘accommodate everyone’. One day we had pasta and tomato sauce with a
veggie soup. The other day we had some sort of seaweed soup and I can’t
remember what else. I was STARVING afterward. If I could do it again, I
would just go downstairs and make a lunch out of combini stuff. You
won’t have enough time to go out to a restaurant. Don’t even go to the
lunch unless you’re vegetarian and are having trouble finding other
food.

For dinner you’re on your own, or your embassy
might have a dinner for you. I skipped the Canadian embassy reception
because we had to figure out how to get there on the train and also it
said ‘refreshments’ not dinner so those who went ended up being served
snacks. I went out for udon instead. There are tons of restaurants
around the hotel and if you don’t speak Japanese and you’re worried just
look for the ones that say WE HAVE ENGLISH MENU or if you’re feeling
adventurous just go somewhere and point at what you want. The second
night there is a buffet dinner where you’re supposed to go to the table
that is for your prefecture and meet all the other people going to your
area but a lot of people skipped this and went out with people they knew
from their consulate instead. I went to it but they ran out of food so I
ended up still going out for ramen in Shinjuku afterward. But you all
know I never say no to ramen.

No one is joking about
orientation days being super long, and being jetlagged on top of it. You
have to get up early (protip: shower at night so you can just get up
and get dressed and not have to wait for the other two people in your
room to shower and get the hell out of the bathroom) and you are
scheduled in sessions all day long. The sessions are usually from about 9
until 6… the breaks are too short to do anything (even to go to the
bathroom – the ladies room had a line so long I was late for sessions
afterward) and the elevators are packed. People had wait up to 45 minutes to
get an elevator! We are on higher floors (14-30) so you’d be
crazy to walk the stairs in your suit.

The sessions at
orientation were VERY hit and miss for me. I find it extremely
disappointing that AJET is no longer allowed to be a part of
orientation. Many of the presenters had no idea what it was like being a
foreign ALT in Japan and were not in a position to be telling us what
to do (I’m looking at you, manners lady). The presentations that
involved former JETs talking about their experiences were extremely
helpful. I went to the elementary school sessions so I got to have a lot
of fun making crafts, listening to storybooks, and learning how to make
things fun for little kids. The senior high school ALTs got sessions on
how to teach grammar – they said they left scared and bored. I felt
really bad for them. The manners and etiquette classes were a nightmare.
They were run by Japanese business etiquette trainers and these ladies
were so mean and never smiled at us! We got drilled on how to bow (don’t
do it to the wrong degree or everyone will be offended), went on and on and on about how to give
and receive business cards (this happens maybe twice in the lifespan of
an ALT), and told not to sneeze because it’s rude. Um, what? Don’t
sneeze? Honestly, these sessions just felt like a huge list of “don’t do
this don’t do that” and made us all feel like giant gaijin oafs who
were going to offend the delicate Japanese people just by being alive.
It was really disheartening and a lot of people left that session
deflated. This is a great example of a session that would be better run
by a JET. When I got to my placement and we told our supervisor about
the things the manners lady told us, he just laughed and said even
Japanese people don’t follow those rules. Guys, people here KNOW we are
foreigners. It’s not a secret. We are here as cultural ambassadors as
well and it’s not up to us to somehow become a Japanese person. That’s
literally not going to happen no matter how hard you try. You’re going
to make mistakes and it’s okay. Do your best to follow the local
customs, but they’ll give you some leeway.

After two
full days of sessions, the third morning you’ll be separated by
prefecture and head off to your placements. My meeting time was at 7am,
some were even earlier. You’ll very likely be stepping off your plane,
train or automobile straight into your supervisor or CO’s waiting arms,
so keep that in mind when you’re heading out for beers on the last
night. I actually didn’t go out drinking at all in Tokyo. I struggled
through orientation as it was and I can’t imagine doing it hungover.
However, I realize I am about 10 years older than the majority of new
JETs so I guess there’s that too.

We Tokushima JETs
boarded a bus to Haneda airport and flew two hours to Tokushima City
airport. Normally a CIR or someone will travel with your prefectural
group to help everyone at the airport and make sure you’re in the right
place at the right time, but our group’s CIR had just left her position
to move to Tokyo so we had our new CIRs with us going through
orientation with us. They sent a different lady from the same office to
travel with us, and the new CIRs helped.

It was so
exciting finally landing at the airport – there were three of us new
JETs coming to my town and we wondered on the airplane what everything
and everyone would be like. The others going to different cities were
excited and anxious as well. When we finally got off the plane, we saw
all the JETs and COs from different towns around the prefecture waiting
in the arrival area with signs. Once we got our bags, the three of us
got together, said, “well, here we go!” and walked out, sweating and
excited, to see this greeting us:

Best welcome home ever.

Arigato to my fellow Vancouver JETs whose photos I borrowed for this post! I was too tired to take pics.