And now, it's Time to Bond!

After an afternoon of optional workshops by AJET (Association of JETs) and a bazaar by companies with services for JETs such as Japan Times, ANA and Vodafone, we had the Welcome Reception party. It was another change to mingle with fellow participants and the Tokyo Orientation Assistants. Mingling here is pretty easy as you have instant conversation starters. Such as: "Where are you fron?"; "Where are you going?", and my personal favourite, "So, where is (fill in name of prefecture) exactly?" Bonding however with your fellow participants will take a little bit more work. Tonight, the JETs going to Wakayama and the TOA from our Prefecture will head out on the town for a night out. The plan is to hit an izakaya (Japanese style pub) and then karaoke in Shinjuku. Luckily Shinjuku is packed with izakayas so it did not take a long time to find a place to accommodate our large group.

Group B Wakayama JETs hanging out at an izakaya in Shinjuku
At the izakaya, we sat in a traditional Japanese room and as the custom follows, you must take off your shoes before you walk on a tatami mat. Since we were still full from the welcome reception, we only had drinks and our TOA was trying her best to introduce us to Japanese izakaya culture. I love izakayas and often eat at them in Vancouver. Gyoza King,Guu, Hapa and, Shiru-Bay are some that I would recommend in Vancouver.


Everybody is pretty genki belting out the tunes at Karaoke
Later, I was excited to move onto the karaoke. Karaoke is not overly popular in Vancouver but in Japan it is very common to go out with your friends or co-workers. Sometimes karaoke in Canada is done in front of a group in a bar but in Japan, it is only in boxes so even if you are shy, you’ll only embarrass yourself in front of the people in your box. Our group of Wakayama JETs dwindled ever so slightly at this point, but the ones who went did manage to get in a few songs. With all of us exhausted after our “performances”, we wandered back to our hotel only to come across an impromptu game of beach ball volleyball outside of Shinjuku Station with some other new JETs and locals. Watch it unfold here. At about 2 am, I finally hit the sack and will try to survive Day 2 of Orientation on 5 hours of sleep!