Back to the beginning…

After all the time that has passed, I will try to remember the stories that went along with the pictures. 

Day 2 in Tokyo was really day 1 of orientation.  We were given a welcoming package the night we arrived which contained several books and manuals, including a “surviving natural disasters” booklet and an insurance policy in case we die while on the programme.  How encouraging. 

The next few pictures were taken from the hotel window.  We were on the 15th floor. 

We went down for breakfast around 7:30am, I think.  I was sort of expecting a traditional Japanese breakfast, ie. rice, cabbage, fish etc.  I guess it wouldn’t be much of an international hotel without the westernized breakfast.  But I found the vegetables kind of funny.  Little did I know they would be the best vegetables I would have in weeks.  Hahahaha. 

Since the orientation didn’t start until 10am and we were done breakfast around 8:15, my two roommates and I went out for a walk around Shinjuku.  Looking through my pictures, it seems like I took out a lot of the buildings.  But the architecture was just so cool.  And the buildings were massive.  The pictures don’t do them justice.  There are a couple pictures of all the people coming from Shinjuku train station heading off for work.  It was like a sea of Asian people in white shirts and dress pants.  One of the guys commented that it was like the Matrix when we had to walk through the crowd and that he was waiting for the girl in the red dress.  There’s a picture of the ticket things inside the train station.  They’re much cooler than the turnstiles we have in Toronto.  We also have a wall of vending machines (which seem to be everywhere in Japan) and some authentic Japanese girls (I was surprised at the accuracy of the picture.)  And lots more buildings. 

The morning of orientation day 1 was spent indoors listening to many speeches.  Not much to comment on.  Lunch was a vegetarian lunch and was definitely not as good as breakfast.  But in hindsight I would take that lunch 9 times out of 10 over cooking my own dinner.  The afternoon was a bunch of workshops that we had to choose like 4 to go to.  I skipped my last one to take a nap. 

“Dinner” was served at the welcome reception.  It was a buffet style but we had to stand around to eat.  The food was alright but the standing wasn’t fun.  They had free drinks but I only took advantage of the Coke and water.  After dinner some people were going out to explore the area but I was drained so I went back to my room and was asleep by about 10:30.  The others wanted to spend as much time in Tokyo as they could as they only had a couple days until they would be sent off to, well, all over Japan. 

That was the end of Tokyo Orientation Day 1.  More to come…