The start of life in Yamagata...

On the last day in Tokyo, the little air-conditioned, comfortable English speaking bubble we’d been living in for the past few days was quickly disspating. We were divided into our respective prefectures around Japan and went off in our groups by means of different transport. The Yamagata folk took a plane from Haneda airport (Tokyo’s smaller, largely domestic based airport) to Yamagata airport. The flight only took 40 minutes or so - but that was the moment when we started to realise what would become a common occurance - the 8/9 of us JETs were the only Westerners on the plane. I was sitting next to a rather quiet Japanese guy - I don’t know if he was scared of me, but I couldn’t really make much conversation. ‘Do you fly often? What’s the food like on this trip?’ - such small talk would have probably led him to smash the window and parachute down to Yamagata!
We were all getting a little nervous now. We collected our bags and I walked into the squashed arrivals foyer to see a big sign saying ‘Welcome Chris! Nanyo Board of Education’ and some tissue paper red/pink flowers stuck around it. It was a lovely gesture and later on the other JETs who were on the same journey commented that I recevied the best welcome!

Mr Itagaki my supervisor, Mr Hosokawa a very helpful friend with a good grasp of English, and one of the English teachers I will be working with were there to meet me. We got in the car, and went to the Shiiakshuo or City Office were I would be based. There I met the superintendant of the Board of Education, a lovely warm fellow called Mr Mikayama and I introduced myself in Japanese to the rest of the staff I would be working with.

After that I went to get a mobile phone (priorities!) and then I was taken to an onsen. I will assume that not many people know about the Japanese ‘onsen’ which means ‘hot bath’ - but it involves getting naked most of the time, washing yourself thoroughly before getting into a pool of, naturally hot (often quite hot) water. I wasn’t taken to a proper onsen of sorts. It was more a kind of hotel/spa resort. Not the traditional Japanese setting that you often seem to find (or that I’ve seen in photos I should say - maybe they just do the photos for promotional/tourist purposes).

Well being the reserved and prude British man that I am, it was a little bit of a surprise to have to strip down with a bunch of Japanese guys I’d met about 2 hours ago, but it was probably the best thing to do because the experience was brilliant and I’ve already done it again (in a more desirable setting in an outside location on Mt Zao) - I have no reservations or shyness now!

After a dip on the onsen, we had a very nice Japanese style meal in the same venue, allsorts of noodles, sashimi (raw fish), sushi, meat kept coming in. And of course, there was lots of beer too. I was still feeling a bit Jet-lagged and disorientated so my eating and drinking habits weren’t up to much. Still, the stuff that my Board of Education had set up on the first night was a great way to help me feel more comfortable and settle in.

The post-onsen feast of food and drink!