Friday I drove to Nashville and back to attend a pre-departure JET Q&A session at the Japanese consulate. And yes, that is a ridiculous amount of driving for one day. I left at 8 am, arrived just in time for the meeting at 2, then turned around, hopped back in the car and drove right back to St. Louis, arriving around 11 pm. The long drive gave me plenty of time to ponder such important questions as "how many times can one person listen to the same CD before losing her mind?" and "how fast do you have to be going for a bug to splatter on your windshield?" Ten hours alone with your thoughts produces some strange results.
The Nashville meeting was not necessarily worth the drive, but frankly, I had nothing better to do with my Friday, and it did provide me with some useful information. For example, here are some interesting things I learned about life in Japan:
1) It is brutally hot
2) It is brutally cold
3) Neither of these conditions is ever rectified by climate control, despite its being readily available
4) They have an amazing recycling rate. You can't just put things in "the garbage." They must be sorted, and if you do it wrong, as happened to one former JET, your neighbors might remove your trash from the bin and drop it on your doorstep (they're always watching...)
5) Clothes dryers are merely ornaments for your wall
6) No matter how prepared you think you are, you will never have enough slippers
7) Drunk driving is a huge no-no in Japan. Anything above 0.0 and you WILL be arrested. Same goes for drugs. There is a strict no tolerance policy.
8) You have a good chance of asphyxiating yourself with a kerosene heater
9) No one has heard of Shiso. I'm not sure it really exists...
10) You will be asked repeatedly if you know how to use chopsticks, and met with surprise when you say yes
11) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a stupid movie. I don't know what that has to do with life in Japan, but I thought it was an important point to make.
12) Omiyage (giving presents) is an important part of Japanese culture. I went to Union Station on Saturday and bought a ton of kitschy St. Louis stuff to give to students, teachers, neighbors, supervisors, etc., ranging from pencils that say Missouri to snow globes to picture books of St. Louis. I made a comment to my friend Emily that I would have to do the same thing for Boston, and the cashier said "you know, we have a store there too, in Faneuil Hall." "Selling St. Louis stuff?" I joked. He gave me a disbelieving look. "No... selling Boston stuff." I think Emily thought I was serious too. Why can't people tell when I'm joking? Do I look that stupid? (Don't answer that...)
13) According to the JET handbook, for American women, Japan is a dating wasteland. Japanese men are too intimidated by stereotypes of American women to pursue them, and American men are busy chasing Japanese girls.
I am sure more lists like this will occur as I learn about life in Japan first-hand.
Going to the consulate got me really excited to get going, to get to Japan and start the next phase in my life. Meeting some of the other JETs made the whole thing seem more tangible. Over time away from JET related things, I find my excitement level slipping, and I start thinking "why the hell am I doing this? Am I insane? Why would I want to pick up and move halfway around the world? There's no way I can do this." But then I go to a meeting, or an info session, and they start talking about the program, and I get so excited, and I remember why I'm doing this, because it looks like so much fun, and it's going to be such an amazing experience. I know it's going to be a tough start--I've lived abroad before--but I'm super excited to tackle the challenge.
