Kurisu Sensei ep. 1 – Arrival in Japan and Comiket

Starting this month, I am making a contract and becoming a mahou shoujo…no wait, I mean JET programme Assistant Language Teacher (ALT).  That means for the period of 12 months I will be station in funky town (prefecture) of Chiba and teaching English to Jr. High kids!  I know what you’re thinking -

Oh god. Not another travel diary.

Well, true that could be kinda dull, but instead of creating a whole new blog for it, I’m just restricting these JET programme related things to the new ‘Kurisu Sensei’ category!  And anyway, each post will be filled with wondrous art/manga/game related things too because ideally I want to continue developing my drawing and music skills while I’m out here in Japan!

 

It has to be said though, I haven’t managed to draw very much since arriving apart from learning how to draw the main characters from the elementary school English textbook.

 

Arrival in Japan

I’ll skip over much of the detail, but essentially the schedule for my past month was this.

July 30th – Fly to Japan

July 31st – Explore Shinjuku despite hideous jetlag

August 1st/2nd – Jet participant orientation in Tokyo at Keio Plaza

August 3rd – Get on a bus to Chiba (Party central)

Here’s an example of the view that I saw upon arrival.

The Tokyo orientation for 2 days was brilliant and pretty action packed but essentially the real fun began after the bus journey to Chiba.  Upon arrival we went straight into the meeting ceremony with our contracting organisations which in my case included my supervisor, Katori Sensei, and the two other JETs Tommy and Andrew who are teaching in the same town.  There’s a ceremony for almost every imaginable thing in Japan, bowing and saying hello to people is practically a ceremony in itself!  Well, after battling through some torrential rainfall we finally made it to my new, slightly ugly and not very ‘Japanese’ looking flat.

Settling Down

Once I had all the ‘important’ things sorted out, I had to figure out what I had and what I needed.  Among the many tools and utensils my predecessor sold to me were such excellent things as a 5.1 surround sound system (WIN), a desk, cutlery and instructions for practically every appliance in the flat (thanks Paul!).  However, I still needed to stock up my fridge, buy toiletries and, according to my supervisor, choose a new bike!  I was allowed to spend up to 20,000 yen on any bike in the store and thankfully, the most expensive bike in the shop was a Dunlop folding jobbie for 19,800 yen.  very much winning at this point.

It so happens that I mistakenly bought the ONLY bike in the shop with a Union Jack on it too.

After the joyous shopping hectic shopping trip I was left to take a nap.  I’ve discovered that without internet, I sleep a lot more and especially so during the day!  Thankfully, after 2 weeks here I finally got my internet set up and I can resume my sleep deprived, nocturnal lifestyle that I’ve come to know so well.

Matsuri

To say I came at a good time is quite the understatement.  August is Matsuri (festival) season and in my town this involves 2 days of festive wonder.  However, this also comes with the sonic joy that is something like 15 different towns parading past my house resulting, at times, in a Charles Ives-esque Country Band March style composition.  It wasn’t until I ventured into town that I realised that everyone was playing the same tune to the same rhythm, the exciting polyrhythmic patterns I’d heard being nothing more than hearing two groups simultaneously.

 

Daily Life

Most days currently revolve around a combination of popping into school to coach students for the English Presentation Speech Contest, shopping for food at ‘Cainz Home’ superstore and trekking around the local towns.  I’ve had some pretty epic ramen so far and there’s a 100 yen sushi bar down the road which is particularly amazing because your sushi deliver by Bullet Train!

Ok so it’s not exactly the Shinkansen…

Comiket

Now, the part that the Manga/Anime fans have been waiting for.  Comiket!  Yes, I made my first trip to the legendary Comic Con of Japan known as Comiket (Comic Circle Market).  I’ll be posting an article up on AnimePicks soon so I’ll detail it more there.  I picked up some awesome swag though it must be said.  Comiket attracts something like 600,000 attendees over the course of the 3 day weekend, and it runs twice a year!  Epic!  The venue is Tokyo Big Sight and when they say ‘Big’, they absolutely mean it.

Aside from this main building, there’s something like 4 main exhibition halls all packed to the seams with comics, toys and cosplayers.  It’s so massive that my dear friend, Kotaro, insisted that I arrive only after 1pm on the sunday afternoon because otherwise it’d be too dangerous and I might get trampled :s

You might think that you need to watch your wallet in case of some dude pick pocketing you, but actually the only thing you need to worry about is controlling yourself spending all the money you brought.  It’s faaaaar too easy to find yourself 1$$’s later with armfuls of comics and stuff you really don’t need.  I know I did, and now I feel great (but poor).

If you were looking for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica or Anohana fan comics, you definitely came to the right place if you found yourself at natsu-comi (summer comiket).

What’s next?

Well, for the rest of August I’ll be continuing with English coaching for the speech contest, and then come September I’ll be launching in classroom teaching!  It’s really exciting but a little nerve wrecking too.  Any students who happen to read this article many years from now, please understand that I’m a little nervous!!

It’s going to be an eventful year I can tell, but I’m ready for it (I think).  Thanks to all the new friends I’ve made I’m quite certain that whatever happens, I’ll have the support to get through it.  Now to find time to get programming, music writing and drawing!  Ideally if I can work it into my school teaching too that would be ideal!

For now, I guess I’ll leave you with a particular favourite cultural aspect that greets me each day.  It’s my school shoe locker, and if ‘Home is where you hang your hat’, then well, may I wear my shoes on my head!

Ja ne! (See ya!)

-Christopher

 

Related posts:

1. Kurisu Sensei ep4. – Settling In? & Dictionary app review
2. Kurisu Sensei ep.3 – Reinventing English One Worm Bat a Tyme
3. Kurisu Sensei ep. 2 – Summer ends, heat continues.