Arriving in Miyazaki: The first 24hrs.

When I first arrived in Miyazaki, (which I hadn't heard of either before my JET placement!), I was amazed at how tropical it was. I of course researched and found out that it was a coastal region on the Eastern side of Kyushu island famous for fruits, surfing, and having the most sunny days, but there's a big difference between reading these things and seeing and experiencing them yourself.

Miyazaki Prefecture's Flag

One of the first images that still comes to my mind when I think of Miyazaki, is of the drive back along the main road from the airport. There is a row of extremely tall palm trees carefully placed that stretch for over 10kms welcoming you to the city.

The row of palm trees between the city and leading
all the way to the airport area over 10 kms away.

I remember staring up at them and wondering if I was back in Hawaii, where my family had just had a vacation before my departure for Japan. Those palm trees and the August heat and humidity certainly made an impression on me. In my JET interview, I had requested to be somewhere warm and sunny, remembering my childhood days in Durban, and boy did I get my request. I was in the tropics of Japan.

Leaving Tokyo and arriving in Miyazaki was a shock for other reasons too. After our early flight on August 8th, 2012, we arrived at the little two floor Miyazaki Airport. In a room off to the side, the 12 or so of us new Miyazaki JETs were shown an ancient tourism video about Miyazaki, given some welcome speeches, and then helped to order lunch at the airport restaurant.

The areas of Miyazaki Prefecture.
I am in Miyazaki, Miyazaki.

Tokyo, and Tokyo Orientation had been busy and bustling. There had been hundreds of other JETs in the huge Keio Plaza Hotel and Tokyo city itself was big, bright, and fast-paced. Now it was just a few of us in a tiny rural city airport and everything seemed so small, quiet, and slow-paced by comparison. It was good. I felt like I could breathe out and relax a bit after days of flashiness and over-stimulation. For a place to settle and live in, this was more my style.

After lunch we were introduced to our supervisors and then taken to our respective areas within the prefecture. It was only midday on a Wednesday, but I was exhausted. All I wanted at this point was to be taken to my apartment, get out of my ridiculous monkey suit, have a cold shower, and then fall asleep... ANYWHERE!

Miyazaki Airport

However, being a working day in Japan, I was taken to my school, Omiya High School, to meet my Principal and the staff and see where all the magic of my new JET assistant language teaching job would happen.

What a welcome I got! As the car pulled up in front of the school, the boys' baseball team was standing at the entrance each holding a large coloured hiragana or katakana letter so that the message spelled out,
"サマンサ，おおみやへようこそ!” (Welcome to Omiya SA-MA-N-SA!).

Omiya High School, Miyazaki City

I was so touched! But I didn't really know what to do! I did the best I knew how and so got out of the car and walked around them smiling and saying any broken Japanglish I could while clapping and posing with them doing the typical Japanese peace sign photo pose while a student took photos (they really went crazy when I did that!). I felt like an awkward circus penguin, but it seemed to be having the desired effect of showing my gratitude.

The 1st Year Teachers' Office

I had realized before I left Canada that one of the most difficult things for me at first would be the awkwardness I would feel. Awkwardness because of misinterpreting a cultural action or not knowing the correct reaction. Awkwardness because I didn't have the language abilities to understand everything around me or express myself as I was used to. Awkwardness because of feeling a bit alone even though you are in a room full of people, but starting a conversation seems difficult. I knew these would be my issues. However, I had survived my first potentially awkward experience at my new school and hadn't seemed to offend anyone! I was off to a good start.

A Japanese style tea set

Next I was shuffled into the Principal's office to have tea. The Principal poured and gave me a delicate Japanese porcelain tea mug full of hot green tea. I didn't know if I should sit or stand or how or when to drink, and more importantly what to do or say. I wish I could have known I was going to be coming here so soon so that I could have prepared more to say. But then the baseball student who had taken some photos outside was translating for me and the Principal and I had a brief conversation (of which I remember absolutely nothing that was said). I'd say that I probably didn't score as highly on that next experience, but it seemed okay.

The Miyazaki City Hall... where many errands occurred

My supervisor then showed me to my desk area and, trying hard to think ahead and make good impressions, I asked her for the name of the student who was taking photos and helping to translate for me so that I could thank him later. "Student?", she said surprisingly and laughed, saying, "He looks young and everyone thinks so, but actually he is one of the new English teachers you will be working and teaching with; one of your JTEs". I was so embarrassed, but no matter how much I begged, she maintained that he and everyone else would find it amusing to know what I had thought. I groaned on the inside and I knew that my first of many awkward moments had happened.

The main street: Tachibana Dori

The rest of that first day was the beginning of the marathon of errands that every new JET has to go through in their first few weeks of arrival (and which I believe support a large part of the Japanese economy).

Miyazaki Prefecture's Dogs (Mascots).
One is a hyuganatsu fruit, one a beach
or palm tree themed, and the last a chicken.

The first errands involve getting your inkan (印鑑; official name stamp for all official documents), and having it registered, getting your residence card, health insurance card, apartment keys, getting the utilities turned back on in your apartment (and perhaps, if you have a very old one like mine, having the utilities man show you at least three times how to turn on the hot water for a shower with a strange maneuver of holding down a knob while cranking another until the flame ignites), and much more. It was a lot of running around to various places throughout the city, a lot of waiting in different rooms, and a lot of paperwork I did not understand or care about because I was just too tired. Yet to come was still the ordeal of getting a cell phone or internet, but those adventures were luckily saved for another day - I just might have died had they not been.

Further up in the more central area on Tachibana Dori

So the day was finally drawing to a close and some of my teachers took myself and another new JET out for dinner and then to get some groceries. I had met the other JET at Tokyo Orientation and she was from from Oregon, USA, and as it turned out would be living in the building across from mine. Little did I know then that she would become one of my best friends here in Japan, but at the time it was just comforting to have a familiar face with eyes as tired as mine smiling across the table.

In my next post;
Getting to Know Miyazaki