Saitama Orientation

On last week Thursday, the four new Hidaka JETs found themselves wandering across the prefecture to Saitama City. Little did they know, they were in for a long day of lectures, presentations, and panel discussions...

"`Little did they know`? I could write books on `little did they know`"

(Sorry, I couldn`t help myself)


Anyway, we left the confines of the Kyoiku sentaa(education center) and went to Saitama City for a prefectural orientation for new JETs. It was omoshirokatta(interesting). The most interesting of all was the enkai(afterparty) on Friday. First stop was Rikki`s. Rikki`s is a restaurant that is completely covered in soccer articles, photos, and memorabilia. After some dinner and drinks, consensus dictated that we head to karaoke. Ironically, the people who had been annoying all of us over the course of the past few days decided to come along. Most amusingly was one guy who veryvery blatantly tried to hit on one of my friends. I won`t go into detail, but it provided ample entertainment for the group of us.

Saturday rolled around, so I decided to ride my bicycle to school. I don`t have a keitai(cell phone) yet, so I don`t have a portable way of keeping time, but I would guess that it`s about a 30 minute bike ride. The commute is actually really nice (I`m sure I won`t be saying that when it`s raining/snowing, but I`ll get to that later). I ride past a couple stores, a rice field, and a tiny little temple (which currently has a sign on it saying something like "beware of chikan(perverts)." Also the bank is close by and the school is near a trainstation (I`m thinking of riding the train instead of biking if it snows. I think I would hurt myself severely if I tried to ride my bike in snow).

Plans for today include meeting the principal of the school where I`ll be working, meeting the mayor (and getting our photo taken for the local paper?), and lots of sitting around.

Anyway, I finally have the romanji(English letter) version of my address, so if you want it, please send me an email. I also have a phone in my apartment, so I can give that out as well.