Side note, sorry these have taken so long, I still do not have internet on my apartment, just on my phone and it is too difficult to type this all out on the phone.
My first day I woke up at 6am walked to McDonalds had a coke, then walked around a little bit. I new that my supervisor and another ALT were going to pick me up around 10 so I needed to be ready. They picked me up and we headed to the City Office where I had to fill out paper work to get my Gaijin Card, Gaijin means non-Japanese or alien. There I received my Hanko, which is a Japanese name signature stamp, so essentially it is a stamper with my name written in katakana. It is pretty neat and they have neat little holders for them at different stores. While in the city office we went up to the 2nd floor where the Board of Education office is and I met my superiors. I had to learn how to say watashi no namae wa Emily desu. Which is basically my name is Emily. One of the leaders, my supervisor, the other ALT and I went out for lunch. We had houtou which is a thick noodle that is well known in Yamanashi (the ken in which I live). It was pretty good. They also had me taste a delicacy that is supposed to make you healthy here, so I tried it and it was super pasty in my mouth and I said I do not think I care if I am healthy...haha. They told me it was chicken guts....ewww. Not again.
We then headed to the bank where I had to sign up for a bank account and promise that when I leave Japan I will close my account. Yes, that is right I have foreign accounts now I feel so scandalous...haha. Anyways, more paperwork to fill out and then they were going to send me my bank card in the mail. The bank card works in the atm, but it is not a credit card, so that is different than the U.S. We were there quite awhile and I had to try and learn my new address and how to spell my full name in katakana. Thankfully the other ALT was there to translate, but still I was jet lagged and did not understand anything being said around me, I am pretty sure it just made me more tired.
We left there and went to D2 which is kind of like a wal-mart a little bit just because it has about everything. The other ALT needed to pick up the curtains she had previously ordered. We walked around a bit, I was overwhelmed not knowing how to read anything. When we walked out we got a snack, I dont rememeber what it was called but it was in the shape of a fish had a waffle like outside with red bean paste on the inside. Red bean is much sweeter and in my opinion tastier than the black bean paste that they put in deserts too. It was pretty yummy.
From their we headed across the street to Seria, which is a 100 yen store, basically like our dollar tree, where everything really is a dollar unlike stinking dollar general. They have a ton of disney stuff for super cheap, you would not get that in the states. I bought a key ring in the shape of Stich to put my apartment key on. I also picked up a honku holder.
We then headed over to Fred`s apartment. Fred has been in Japan for about 7 years and tries to help the new ALT`s get things taken care of. He already needed to help another ALT get their phone so they had decided to have me go and get mine as well to essentially save him time. He said he thinks that I hold the record on the ALT to get their phone the fastest from when they landed to getting their phone. Just under 24 hours. We headed to the cell phone store I picked out an HTC phone that has the Android OS system. It has been my life saver has it has some internet and most of all skype on it. I pay $7 a month for unlimited calls to the U.S. it is amazing!
After we got the phones we went and picked up another ALT so we have myself, Fred, Brittany, Matt, and Kelsey and we all go out to sushi, it was really cool because it was conveyor belt sushi where you can order it fresh or grab it right off the conveyor belt as it comes by. When you are done the waitress comes and counts your plates and takes into account the color of your plates to know your bill. I was severely jet lagged at this point and did not eat very much, but it was very good what I had.
The other ALT`s wanted to stop for desert so we went to Mister Donuts. I didn`t get anything as I was super tired and kind of nautious. I was trying to be a trooper for all of them though, because they had all been there for over a week and had recovered from their jet lag. We left and dropped Kelsey and Matt off then they dropped me off. I was so tired I just went in and passed out, however I did wake up at 5am the next morning. I woke up early for like the next week, but it was ok.
Thanks for reading sorry it has taken forever.
