Date: 1 December 2007AD
Time: 9:40pm
Location: Ichikawa, Japan
Current Mood: Exhausted, but excited!
What happened:
The overnight flight was relatively uneventful. However, something in the meal they served didn't agree with me and made it's way back up. Not pleasant, but at least I felt better afterwards. Didn’t get much sleep either and was awoken around 4am for the QANTAS staff to serve breakfast. Attempted to watch ‘The Simpsons Movie’ but was cut short by about 30 minutes as the plane was 'preparing for landing'.
We landed at Narita Airport around 6am where we met Kenton Samuel for the first time. He looked remarkably different to the photo he sent via his ‘Japan Team’ email…probably because he no longer had small dreadlocks and also because he had glasses on.
Kenton hails from Britain and has the same sense of humour as Aussies do, which means we get his jokes. We then met Steve Weemes who is an American and a little bit more forward in his comments, but I think that comes with the turf. Spent the next few moments waiting to meet the Sydney team who had lost themselves at the airport.
Packed our bags then took the train to our Ichikawa* residence. Train ride was approximately 1 hour long with some interesting scenery along the way – despite the windows fogging up 10 minutes into the ride.
Went through some basic orientation for the day including finance, emergency procedures, and general things about the OMF vision. Struggled to stay awake during the latter due to lack of energy and, as I found out later, the coffee I was having was decaf…
Highlight of the day was going on a Cultural Scavenger Hunt which lead us through the heart of Ichikawa’s district. It was a really great time to get to see the city for ourselves and make various observations.
Dinner was had at an Italian/Fusion restaurant chain which was pretty average, but cheap. Later that evening Brad, Jay and myself went looking for shoes for me (my boots were killing me all day) but this didn’t eventuate into anything unfortunately.
Looking forward to:
- Getting some good rest tonight
- Church service tomorrow morning
- Dinner tomorrow evening at a nice Japanese restaurant
- Not all Japanese look the same – I was genuinely surprised at this (though I shouldn’t have been!). Japanese come in all shapes and sizes and I was surprised to seem some look alikes throughout the day (Mark Wee, Andrew Young’s sister, Steve Chong…)
- Hardly anyone uses their car horns despite all the traffic on the roads – apparently a sign of strong self-control/face
- Lots of people ride bicycles – including very old women and women in their mid-40’s who seem to be done up so well
- Engrish is real and common!
- Lots of vending machines with little cans/bottles (150mls), apparently it’s considered rude and lacking in self-control to eat/drink on the go. So the vending machines have small bottles designed for people to drink on the spot and throw away before walking off.
- Lots and lots of recycling – three specific bins for ‘plastics’, ‘burnable’, ‘non-burnable’
Interesting food I ate today:Goyoza – Japanese dumplings which weren’t as tasty as ones I’ve had back home in Brisbane
Teriyaki Burger – which consisted of a burger bun and teriyaki flavoured patty
Hamburg steak with crumbed shrimp – very average as the ‘steak’ was actually just a burger patty
*Ichikawa is situated South-East of Tokyo City, approximately 20 minutes by train from the city centre.
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