TOA

So officially, all the new JETS that are coming for the 2010-2011 school year, are now here! Welcome everyone! :D

I was Yamaguchi Prefecture's welcome wagon for the first group that came. The prefecture flew me up to Tokyo, to be part of the orientation held at the fabulous Keio Plaza Hotel.

It was such a blast!

The first day I got there, was training and organizing and stuff like that. Each prefecture sent one person to Tokyo, so I made a lot of new friends!

The first night, I was sent to Narita Airport, to stay, because I needed to be up bright and early, to start my "airport duties". For my terminal, I was at "station one" meaning that I got to literally hold the "WELCOME NEW JETS" sign at the airport!

For the rest of orientation, I was doing things like working the Information Desk, participating in Prefectural Meetings, etc. 3 more nights in the Keio Plaza, walking around like I knew everything. Lol.

But when I wasn't on duty, I was chilling with other TOAs, exploring Tokyo, and .........

Drinking Starbucks EVERYDAY!

Oh how I miss Starbucks. :)

A nice view from the Keio Plaza Hotel.

I really love Tokyo! But I don't know if I could actually live there. Maybe if I had a job that paid like 4 times as much.

Speaking of, a recent study still puts Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world! Taking into account many many different factors: i.e. Housing cost, cost of 1lb of rice, cost of a movie ticket, etc etc.

Working the Hospitality Desk (Welcome to Japan!), and chatting with my old friend Mike who I was friends with years ago at U.C.I. I was very surprised to see him coming off the plane! He told me that I was the one that planted the idea of JET in his head, 7 years ago!

Tokyo Orientation was so fun. I totally would do it again and again and again if I could. We should just have JETS come in on a rolling basis, and I'll wait for them at the Keio Plaza. Grand idea.

Until that happens, back to lesson planning...