The other JETs had arranged a meetup the day before orientation in a good old Weatherspoons. Of course, I managed to get lost on the way and unexpectedly found myself outside Buckingham Palace! This doesn't bode terribly well for finding my way around Tokyo but anyway I digress... So I eventually found the others, had a few drinks, went to the campus for something to eat and a drink, then I turned into my shabby hostel for the night.
The first day of orientation just consisted of a day full of different talks and information being thrown at us, the main gist of which was don't be late to the airport, don't do drugs and don't do stupid gaijin stuff (like wrestling in a pool of rice, true story) that could offend the Japanese otherwise you will leave in disgrace. In short, by the end of the day I was terrified that I was going to disgrace myself terribly in Japan. But I suppose that's the point, that they scared us into behaving as "British ambassadors", a phrase that is thrown round an awful lot in JET. Oh and in terms of drugs in Japan, just don't do it. Not even weed since that is also a class A drug. They will hold you for up to 3 weeks in prison without a trial or a lawyer, and they will get a confession out of you and you most certainly will be convicted. Even being around someone smoking weed can get you convicted by association. Crazy.
After the first day, most of JET piled into the Nandos just down the road. To put it into context, there are around 140 of us, so the staff were definitely kept on their toes that night.
Day 2 was the most intensive day of language learning I have ever encountered in my time as a language student. I was in the beginner's class, but we sped through the curriculum at the speed of light. We went from "Watashi wa Hannah desu" to some quite complex grammar within just a few hours. Perhaps the Japanese can cope with this superfast learning style, but us poor gaijins certainly can't. Despite this overwhelming amount of knowledge being forced on us, our teacher was super sweet, encouraging and extremely hilarious in the way that only the Japanese can pull off. She seemed to have her own private jokes, as she would often say something in Japanese that none of us could understand, then burst out laughing, causing the whole class to also burst out laughing.
After this was the reception at the Japanese embassy. I was expecting this to be a very serious, probably very awkward affair, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. So a big group of us rolled up to the Japanese embassy all suited up and looking like we had stepped straight out of The Apprentice with our wheelie suitcases behind us. This is probably the most similar thing to an enkai (a Japanese after work drinking party) that I will ever experience in the UK. None of us had eaten dinner, and we were literally plied with free champagne. After taking a mere two sips, a waiter would come rushing up to us and practically force more champagne down us. This is the same as in Japan, when someone will pour another drink for you whenever your glass is looking empty. The same could be said for the canapes, which were amazing and ranged from everything from sushi, to quail's eggs to cocktail sausages. Needless to say, by the end of the reception, which lasted a mere 2 hours and ended at 8pm, all of us were quite hammered.
There was also an after-party at the pub just down the road. It was definitely easier to talk with the Japanese officials who worked at the embassy, as like us, they were all extremely drunk and had their guards down now that they had left the embassy. One particularly entertaining moment was trying to teach one Japanese guy Yellow Submarine by having a whole group of us chant it at him. Poor guy. Finally, I crawled into my terrifyingly high triple bunk bed (another cheap hostel) and passed out after all the exhaustion of the weekend.
I woke up, practically falling out of the bunk bed to my death, since there were an alarming lack of safety bars. Anyway, I survived and spent the rest of the day walking around an unpleasantly hot London taking in the sights until my feet gave up and it was time for me to catch the train home.
I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I met some really amazing people that I hope I will be staying in contact with and visiting in Japan next year. Likewise, I learnt that the Japanese are really not so dissimilar to the Brits, especially once they have a few drinks in them. We have a similar sort of reserve and a tendency to drink tea and make small talk about the weather. And from the speeches that some of the Japanese made, our sense of humour isn't quite as different as I initially thought, unless the British sarcasm is rubbing off on them a bit. With all that being said, I am extremely excited and can't wait to go!
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