nothing to prove

the way orientation should be

So last Monday and Tuesday we had prefectural orientation for all the new Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) in Niigata. Let's just say the information was pretty much the same as the orientation in Chicago and Tokyo. It was still a blast, as you can see above, to meet some of the people that live around me. Plus there was a nomihodai (all you can drink) and tabehodai (all you can eat) at the bar we went to in Niigata city on Monday night. A couple hours into the night we were all starting to feel the affects of the alcohol and ended up dancing the night away. It is amazing how drinking tends to loosen people up.

The next morning was a little shaky, quite literally, not because I was definitely hung over but there was an earthquake in Japan on Tuesday. It was actually on the Eastern seaboard and, for those that don't know their Japanese geography, Niigata is on the Western coast. Basically that means everything was fine but when we felt it in Niigata I wasn't sure if the ground was shaking or my head. Some of my friends thought it was my head but obviously they were wrong. Kristi's email subject line said it best, "it wasn't just you." In case you missed the news you can check it out in the links section, thanks for the link Kristi!

posted by Aaron @ 2:39 AM