Orientation. CHECK!

Alright, Orientation is done. I have a strong distaste for pretty much all orientations. Orientations tend to give too much information and they tend to be too long. I understand why and I don't blame the people for doing them, however that doesn't that mean I have to like them. For something like the JET program they're good in the sense that they have everyone together who is going through the same thing, but everyone is so scared and everyone is so out of it that no one really pays attention. On top of that everyone's situations are so different, they can't possibly teach us many useful things. BUT it's still fun just hanging out with a bunch of fun people in a really nice hotel in Tokyo. I skipped more of the orientation things. Anything that was said to be mandatory, I went to but... things where attendance wasn't taken I was usually out in Tokyo hanging out.

Once orientation ended I quickly realized that I've never been more scared in my whole life for what was coming. All I've heard about my place is that it's in the middle of no where, it's a tiny mountain "town" if it even qualifies for a town. It has snowed 6 meters in one storm at times... that is about 19.5 feet. Yes... 19.5 FEET of snow. Although last winter they had a lot less snow, which I'm hoping happens this winter. So as I packed my bag and realized I wasn't going to be in crazy Tokyo I started to say my prayers as my bullet train approached Urasa. There are a lot of JETs in Niigata however, Niigata is pretty big and most aren't near me. In fact, 4 people are living in the same area next to me called "Tokamachi" It's about an hour away. Another 5 are in Nagaoka which is an hour away as well. How many are in Urasa, you ask? Well let me take a look at my handy sheet... 1. There is ONE JET worker here in Urasa. That would be me.

I have a meeting next week in Niigata City which is about an hour and a half away by bullet train. We all got this nice map on how to get to the place and it included a train schedule and directions how to get there. Except for me in Urasa. There wasn't directions from me because no one really knows anything about Urasa so he said "Ask your school how to get here." Faaaaaaantastic.

Eventually my shinkansen (bullet train) arrived at Urasa station and I was tossed off the train as it rolled through the station at about 200 miles per hour (alright, fine, it stopped, but all the other JETs and Program Advisers on my train were like 'have fun in.. uh... what's this place called? BYE! Mark!' 'Mike, my name's mi..." "ADIOS!" and they disappeared.

This is where my Urasa adventure beings. Stay tuned for Part II of this story. Does anyone even read this?