Departure Day!

Departure day!!! We woke up at 5:00am and checked out by 5:15am to be on the bus to the airport by 5:30am! The ride to the airport felt really short, and we all individually checked in using the kiosk and automatic luggage loading machines (I love those – so convenient). Nothing too special to report about the flight except that they served really nice food for the Japanese options of the meals – salmon and rice for breakfast, and beef and rice for dinner!

Arriving into Narita International Airport – here you could really start to see the amount of massive organization and care that has been put into the JET programme. As soon as you landed, there were JET program staff pointing you all the way to the customs area (it was quite adorable really – there would literally be one person waving you at you and welcoming you every few meters). I’m not sure if it was because of the time we landed or whether we were one of the last flights to arrive, but customs was very smooth and fast! There were even JET staff unloading our suitcases from the carousel for us so when we came, it was just spotting our suitcase and taking it! Then there were more JET staff pointing you towards the luggage drop off area and the buses. They were all really nice and understanding, and they had a little area for you in the airport to switch luggage around if you needed to – which I did, because Gunma is getting so many new JETs this year that we all had to forward on our check-in suitcases and only bring our carry-ons to the Tokyo Orientation. The buses were so nice and such a smooth ride – they even prepared water for us! The drive from the airport to the hotel was about 1.5 hours. I was really happy that we arrived at the hotel and got checked in and settled before 20:00. That meant I had time to go to Uniqlo to get some nice shirts and other formal wear cause I really didn’t have much formal summer clothes before I came! I also bought a few of their Airism undershirts which feel AMAZING – so light and truly airy!

Before I went to bed I read through all the information they had given us at the hotel briefing before they checked us in. Ready for a 7:00am wakeup tomorrow for the breakfast buffet and then a day full of speeches and workshops!