Bowing and Burger King

Hello all!

It is presently 8:30pm in Tokyo, which means that my body thinks it is actually 4:25am. Oddly I was exhausted two hours ago but now seem to be experiencing a second wind, so I thought I would sit down to record my exploits thus far in Japan:

Last night I went out with another JET, Tiffany, to try to find some dinner. We found a local food court and did a lap around the plaza with the goal of finding some quick Japanese food. Turns out all the restaurants either looked too expensive or else required us to go in and seat ourselves for an extended period- something neither our wallets or weary bodies were keen on. The only alternative food venue looked oddly familiar. Yes, my first meal in Japan was Burger King. I'm also pleased to say that my six and a half years of studying Japanese allowed me to order a cheeseburger, although I did so clumsily as I did not know the correct counter used for counting cheeseburgers.

After sleeping like the dead (and then waking up at 4am local time!) I followed the other 800 some JET participants to our opening ceremony. Sitting in rows assigned to us by prefecture we were welcomed by the master of ceremonies who informed us that he would be teaching us how to bow. Moments later 800 JETs were practicing our “90 degree bows”- the purpose of which is either to apologize for a grave blunder or else gently rest your forehead on the bottom of the JET in front of you. (Again, there are 800 of us doing this).

I would leave you with that mental picture, but I also wanted to express to you how much information we have gotten over the past 24 hours. Below is a photo of only half of the materials I have received thus far- I ran out of bed to put them on.

So there you have it. I'm going to bed now- it's 9pm and way past my bedtime ^^;

-Andrew