Things That Go Fast

Hello from sunny (and humid!) Kyoto City! We arrived here a scant hour ago by the Shinkansen or bullet train. The ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was about two and a half hours long, in which time we ate our lunches purchased at the Tokyo train station. I'm pleased to say that I ate my first takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and onigiri (rice balls) this afternoon, and also had coca cola from what looked like a thermos.

Another activity on the Shinkansen was to practice our introductions in Japanese. One thing that struck me was how different Japanese sounds with a British accent- about half of the JETs at our orientation were from the UK (including my future co-worker) but I had never heard them speak Japanese before. It's been interesting for sure, had I met any of them in England or America I might have been more shy but because we're all in Japan our similarities are overwhelming by comparison to the rest of the population. Thus I've met more people from the UK in the past three days than I had in my life up until now! This is not what I expected when I got on the plane for Japan.

In other news I have found myself very dependent on others ever since we arrived. With my conversational Japanese almost zilch and my poor knowledge of Kanji rendering me illiterate I'm relying heavily on other people to take care of me. Yesterday this dependence hit a critical point when I got sick- at first I was just feeling over heated so I went to my room to take off my tie and dress shirt and have a lie-down. When I woke from my nap I was shivering and too dizzy and nauseous to stand up for more than a minute at a time. At that same time my next three appointments, meeting the American Ambassador, shipping my luggage ahead to Kyoto, and lastly having dinner with the other Kyoto JETs were looming ahead.

Americans tend to kid ourselves that we are totally self sufficient, but given the circumstances I was more than happy when my Prefectural Advisor, Jeff, answered his phone. He and Miyajima Sensei arrived a short while later to take my suitcase for shipping and shortly thereafter reappeared with sandwiches and an electrolyte drink for my dinner.

There is nothing more frightening than being that ill in a foreign country. Thankfully I was well enough to stand up and get around this morning, but I was honestly afraid that I wouldn't be able to make it to Kyoto with the rest of the group. Because of this Jeff and Miyajima Sensei have my deepest gratitude. どうもありがとうございます！！！

-Andrew