Orientation (3/28/13)

Hey oh y’all,

So orientation. Again. This time with 30 people instead of just 12. But it’s kind of the same stuff.

But first the all important shrine blessing to a good start!

We went to Heian Jingu (Jinja associated with imperial family) for a purification ritual. I admit. I had and still have no idea what went on. There was bowing and paper waving and clapping and the priest chanting. But I do remember that Heian Jingu was built as a way to honor Kyoto’s history as the capital city by enshrining the emperor who moved the capital to Kyoto. See, I’m paying attention.

Then we walked to Nanzenji, where we climbed up the main gate to get a nice view of the area.

Then for the boring paperwork stuff.

Not that it’s unimportant. It’s not. I remember being nervous in the few days before the program – you have to meet and memorize people’s names, figure out how to get from point a to point b and back, remember all the Japanese that went out your head, and not be rude in a culture that you can very easily be rude in – it’s stressful. Having a local staff tell you what you should and should not do makes things a little easier. You kind of do take for granted a lot of things living at home. Though I think this shared vulnerability allows you to more easily make friends you never thought you would so in some ways it’s nice.

I also got to see off some of the winter quarter group leaving after their spring break trips – I’ll miss y’all! Have a safe trip back to Stanford!

And on things you take for granted – cell phones – or at least the ability to tell someone where you are if you are waiting.

For the winter quarter, Stanford provided us with phones so all we needed to do was pay to activate them, but for spring quarter, everyone has to buy their own phone and plan. Of course, everyone figured they’d more or less do the same thing we are (prepaid cards on a monthly plan) since it’s the cheapest option…except every store we went to stopped selling the prepaid model plans. Since you don’t need to “sign up” for a long plan and just borrow the phone, apparently criminals have been using the models…though for what I’m not sure. So we ended up spending the afternoon walking around Kyoto looking for phone stores. Eventually our Director made a special call to basically mail order everyone phones. Isn't it great how people make connections  and communicate?

But that night I was able to regroup with my ALC coordinators and some participants! Yay!

DC