Ok, so, my speech didn't go too well. But I tried. And when I bowed my head, smiled and said "arigato," they all applauded. Probabaly more out of a feeling of "thank god that's over" but what the hell.
Next I was introduced to Ono-san and Yamaki-san who are the two I'll most be working with when at the Kencho and not teaching. Yamaki is my supervisor and Ono is...well, I'm still not sure what he is, but he works hard, or seems to, and has been assigned to help me. Problem is he speaks very little English. When he needs to tell me something he often thinks quite hard about the word he is looking for. Sometimes it takes us five minutes to communicate something that should probably take only 20 seconds. But we make due. Quite often he uses a program (not sure if he's online or not) on his laptop where he writes what he wants to say in Japanese then clicks on what is obviously the "translate" button and it comes up in English. This usually works quite well except that it is a literal translation, which means I have to make sense out something like "Please document residence to post office day in front of this day." And mind you, that's an easy one. Ono-san is great though. He seems a bit shy but is very helpful. Probably about my age.
Yamaki-san is great too. He's the type of guy (sans the language barrier) that you'd want to go the bar with and have a few drinks while you watch the game. His English is better than Ono's but I think he likes me to believe it's not. Maybe so I won't ask too many questions or for too many favors, but I could be wrong. Hell, I might act the same way if I was in his position. It's hard to know what the 3 people who've had my job before me were like.
Anyway, after my mangling of the Japanese language, Yamaki showed me my locker and my desk and then said we'd go to lunch at noon. It was 11:40. So I sat at my desk and sweated (hot and humid here with no air conditioning) and read through a few of the handouts I had gotten at orientation.
Lunch was good but awkward. It was me, Yamaki, Ono, Watanabe (the guy who picked me up), and Naito (the guy who translated what the big boss had said). I think Naito was asked to come along because his is the best English in the office. The other three I mentioned work for the Private Schools Division (my new employers), but Naito works at something else.?@I think he's a programmer or something. A very nice guy though.
So we sat there and Naito translated for me and them and we made small talk. Where are you from? When did you get to Japan? Have you lived in Japan before? Stuff like that. Eventually we finished our steaks (which, by the way, I ate with chopsticks) and left the restaurant.
After a short while at the Kencho, Ono and Yamaki told me it was time to show me my apartment. Now, Alaina (my predecessor) had left some paperwork for me which included a map with the route I was to bike between my apartment and the Kencho done in highlighter. Very helpful.
So I grabbed my stuff and we left. But whereas Ono got in a car, Yamaki and I walked. "Well, this is confusing," I thought to myself. Yamaki and I walked for about five minutes and out of nowhere Ono appeared. Yamaki motioned for me to get in, so I did and we were off. Now I was wondering if this would be the only time I was going to be shown the way to my apartment so needless to say, I paid extremely close attention, all the time looking back and forward to be able to recognize where I was when I was both coming and going. If you've never been on the Japanese streets, it doesn't do justice just to think in terms of the streets we have in America. The streets are not only narrow, but they twist and turn, have odd intersections, and overall seem to be designed to get you lost. In fact, they are. Or at least that's what I read somewhere.
Apparently the streets of Tokyo are designed in such a way as to confuse any would be invaders. It is a labrynth inside a labrynth. Also apparently, Tokyo has been destroyed two or three times by earthquakes, and each time instead of rebuilding with some amount of order, they decide to build based on the old system of confusion. Now, Kofu is nowhere near the size of Tokyo, but whoever built the streets of that great big city took it upon himself to hop a train to Kofu and help out with the layout over here. Ok ok, actually the main streets don't seem too bad, but get lost in a residential neighborhood and be prepared to wonder for a while.
So I was paying very close attention when Ono stopped the car and Yamaki and I got out again. No, we weren't there yet, we were walking again. "What the hell are we doing?" I thought to myself. It was bad enough to think I was only going to be shown this once, but with the combination of riding and walking, I would surely not make it back to the Kencho until sometime next month. But on we walked.
We crossed some train tracks where Yamaki stopped on the first track and pointed down, "Minobu line," he said. Then he walked to the next track, "Chuo line," he said pointing down. And on the last track, "also, Chuo line." The Chuo line runs east/west. It will get me to Tokyo someday, and in the opposite direction to Nagoya. The Minobu line is the line that provides Amy and I with easy access to each other. On this side, it's last stop is Kofu. Amy is only about 15 kilometers south of me but the train makes 11 stops between me and her and you end up riding the train for about 33 minutes. But that ain't bad considering we might have been placed anywhere in Japan.
Anyway, about this time Yamaki turns to me and asks "Do you like sake, beer, whiskey, vodka?" To which I said (you all know what's coming, don't you?) "Yes, I like it all!" He laughed and then with my complete and everlasting appreciation pointed down a street we would not be taking and said, "One block, discount liquor store." Ah yes, I was going to be alright after all.