No Place Like Nihon

The day before the leaving for Japan, I had to head to Chicago for a pre-flight orientation with the other JET members that have been chosen from the Chicago consulate.  I was dropped off by my folks along with my wife, Natalie.  Even though it was only going to be for two weeks, it was very tough to leave my wife behind.  As all our friends and family know, we are practically inseparable.  We would have preferred to go together, but because JET participants' travel expenses and accommodations are paid for by either the JET program or by our contracting organizations, this was not possible.

You may be asking, "What do you mean, contracting organizations?"

The JET program is merely the organization that coordinates the application, interviewing and selection process of choosing the participants, as well as the travel arrangements to Japan.  We are each individually employed by the board of education in the city we will be teaching in.  To make a long story short, in addition to purchasing her plane ticket (which we had to already), we would have had to pay for her bus trip from the airport to our hotel, a separate hotel room for Natalie and I (because the JETs share rooms with other JETs at the hotel), and her train ticket to Kyoto.  It would have been close to $1,000 for all that, not even including her plane ticket.  For this reason, we decided to have her come to Japan after I get settled in.

During the orientation, we learned that there are 1,661 people in total who have been chosen worldwide.  There were at least that many who applied to the Chicago Japanese consulate alone.  However, only 109 were chosen from our consulate, the second largest group after the Los Angeles consulate.  It's pretty crazy to hear the actual numbers.  I always knew it was competitive, but just how competitive is quite mind boggling.

The orientation was just to give us information about the travel day that lay ahead of us.  Because this is the third time I have traveled to Japan with a group, it was pretty standard.  The best part about the orientation is that it gave us the chance to meet other people in person that we had only met via the Chicago JET Yahoo group page or on Facebook.  It's good to network.  I mean, what else are you going to do when you are standing in line waiting for an elevator...

This took about 20 minutes or so...

That night there was a get together at a bar across the street at another hotel which allowed us to meet some JET alumni and hear funny stories about their experiences.  Best of all though, I was able to have a Dogfish Head IPA.  This is my favorite beer that is no longer carried in Indiana, even though you can go across the border to Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, or Michigan and buy some.  What kind of sense does that make?  I'm not bitter, or anything.  But I digress...

Get together at Harry Caray's

Then, the day had finally come.  After all the applications, all the paperwork, and all the days counting down, I was moving to Japan.  And to be a teacher, no less.  I still can't get used to that notion.  

Wish me luck...

Let's do this...

 This about sums it up.