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Published: June 28th 2006
My first Japanese restaurant
I didn't want to forget my first Japanese izekaya, so I quickly and quietly snapped a picture when I was walking out the door. Check out the smoke in this place!!With my internal clock totally twisted around, of course I wasn't tired after being awake for almost two days! It was an absolute MUST to hit the streets of Tokyo as soon as I could.
After I found my luggage and room, I headed out with a large group of Toronto JETs. Very quickly the group got split up....I think we were all too busy looking around us, rather than where we were going! I ended up with a guy named Lee. We found an izekaya (Japanese bar) and ordered some dinner by pointing at pictures. Gift giving is an important tradition to Japanese people...we found this out, when the people sitting at the next table ordered a plate of fried chicken fat for us. Yummy!
The next couple of days were spent at the Keio Plaza Hotel, attending seminars about the JET program, living in Japan, and how to teach. It was an overload of information, especially when I was so jetlagged. There were about 2000 people at this orientation. It was cool to meet so many from around the world. That evening they had a Welcome Party in the conference room....free food and drinks....mmmmm.
The Toronto
Coffee, tea, juice?
The Japanese sure love their vending machines! group quickly dashed though....we had bigger party plans! In Toronto we were all introduced to this Japanese guy named Daisuke. He happened to be in Tokyo at the same time as our orientation, so he planned a night on the town! We first went to an izekaya, then walked around Shinjuku, and finally sang our hearts out at a kareokee bar! The kareokee bars here are wild! You rent a room, and pay by the hour. During the time your there, the drinks are pretty much free flowing! Dangerous!! I had a GREAT time.
The next night we went to the Canadian Embassy for another welcome party. This was a more formal, information collecting event. By this point, I think everyone was more interested in sleeping than anything else.
Sayonara Tokyo!
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Roothie
non-member comment
Wow!
Sounds like fun so far..you don't look all that tired in the pics but I'm sure your excitement kept you "up"! Looks like a bunch of neat people! Reading on....