The man who ate Tokyo
by Rob Cummins
Well, I guess the first and foremost thing to say is that yes, I'm in Japan,
and I made it here safe and sound and alive and well. I'm typing this is an
internet cafe that's sandwiched between six floors of brothels. Three floors
above, three below. I guess the rent was cheap. Or something.
So, I had a really crappy few days leaving London. Saying goodbye to folks
and rushing around like a madman, trying to get stuff done. It was purest
hell. I woke up on my last day exhausted and pissed off, and proceeded to
lug all my crap down to the airport, making my flight by the skin of my
teeth.
Eleven and a bit hours of cramped flight ensued. No sleep. Evil. Landed to find a film crew waiting for us as we (eleven other people going to the same company as me, but in different areas) emerged tired, bedraggled and stinky from the plane. Seems they're filming our group for a special spot on the national news about foreign teachers. They'll be there on Monday too, for our orientation day. Joy. Japan is nuts enough, their film crews are just something else. Then, b ecause of the crew all the Japanese people in the airport think we're famous for some reason. I personally signed four autographs, and posed for about twenty photos with random strangers. Most thought we were a pop group, the others thought we were a sports team.
Bizarre.
Then the company rep shoves me on a train for two hours, where I'm led to my new apartment. This is where everything gets good. The apartment is good. Not great, but good. It's small, but not tiny. Big enough. I have my own room (bare) and have been given a brand new futon as a bed, so that's all good.
I have two roomates and they seem like really great guys. Charlie is a Yank, from Conneticut, and speaks like a Corporate Motivational instructor. He showed me around the neighbourhood yesterday and signed me up to the video store and this internet place, so within five hours of landing in the country I was able to rent videos.
Adam is from Geelong (just outside of Melbourne, where I'm from) so that's cool. He took me around a few places today, and introduced me to a few of his friends. Nice guys.
My area is really nice. It's not Tokyo. It's actually south, and its own city called Fujisawa. Population about 700,000 or so. So a big city, all tied into the Tokyo sprawl. I'm about 30 minutes walk from the coast. I went there today and saw Mt. Fuji in the distance, which was nice. There's everything you could want withing about a minutes walk of my apartment, but it's still not too cramped or hectic. It seems a nice mix, and I've been told it's one of the most requested areas to live in by staff of my company.
So I fell right on my feet there.
So what's Japan like ? ABSOLUTELY BANANAS. It's so strange I'm not even going to attempt to try it. Just absolutely mad. And that's just what you see. The more I hear about how it actually runs, the madder it seems. Which is great, exactly what I was hoping for.
Everyone says it'Ps expensive here, but it's not really. That's me coming from London saying that, it seems about the same. I'm in big trouble with the food. It's fairly cheap, and I want to eat EVERYTHING. It's all weird and really tasty and some of it wriggles. Even the 7-11 across the street is filled with stuff that I can't imagine what it is, so at the moment I'm eating about 5 meals a day and snacking in between. Oh dear.
So I have no idea what the job is going to be like. The vibe I'm getting from my housemates is that the company is crap, but the job is good. We'll see. I have three more days to waste, and then orientation on Monday and on the job training for the rest of the week.
Well, I know I can't put half the stuff I want to mention in this e-mail or I'll be here all night, so instead I'm going to wander off and eat again.