Today was the second day of orientation, and all the participants from countries other than the United States were invited to their respective embassies for a reception and general advice. The United States embassy does not observe “embassy night”, and so we had no obligations.
The orientation itself was very well done today, much better than yesterday. The most interesting session was the meeting with our prefecture – they gave us information about how we were getting to our homes the following day. They passed out a ton of information, which joined the other information we’ve been gathering for the past two days. I hope that sometime soon I’ll be able to sit down and do some information digestion.
We’re going to take the bullet train to Osaka, by way of Nagoya and Kyoto. From Osaka station, we’re to head by bus to a town called Yashiro, where we’ll meet a representative from our school. I had already heard from Andrew, my predecessor, that he would meet me sometime on Wednesday, so it sounds like it will be in Yashiro.
After the orientation completed, I did a quick repack of all my stuff and dropped off my luggage to be shipped on to Hyogo. With my remaining clothing selection extremely limited, I went back to my room and watched a little Japanese baseball – the Hanshin Tigers lost to Yokohama. Tomorrow I’m getting up early to get some breakfast and then head to the Shinkansen station.
