Embassy reception

The past two days were boring . All official stuff - welcome receptions, briefings, seminars, workshops, etc. Getting around the hotel was a major headache coz there were some 1000+ JETs trying to get from one floor to another to attend their respective sessions. Plus some (if not most of) the sessions were not that useful. So a few of us snuck out to walk around the Shinjuku area where our hotel is. There're tons of malls and little shops at Shinjuku. Urghs, its too hot outside! Its like 35-38 deg C!! Much hotter than Singapore!

Here's a shot of a small shopping lane in Shinjuku.

Tonight, 13 of us Singaporean JETs headed to Roppongi Plaza where the Singapore Embassy was hosting us to a Mongolian BBQ dinner. I had a good time talking to my friends from the Embassy. David tried to teach me how to pronounce Japanese words correctly, but I don't think he had much success (yes Jerm, you can laugh all you want, but at least David was nice enough to try to teach me unlike ...).

Here’s a pic of me (in red) with Iris and David (both in white) beside me:

Iris and I shared the table with this vegetarian and 2 Muslims who refused to eat the set meal that was ordered so poor Iris and I had to eat most of all the dishes – BBQ lamb, ribs, peking duck (yeah, is strange to eat peking duck in Tokyo), pek cham goi (white steamed chicken)…urghs…meat overload!

After dinner, we trooped over to Iris’ house coz her mom, who’s a hairdresser, kindly agreed to trim my hair! A free trim in Tokyo...how great is that?! Then, David and Phoebe (David's wife) drove me back to the hotel in their spanking new Toyota Chaser, which disappointingly is a boring family sedan.

Tomorrow, I will take the shinkansen to my town, Urasa in Niigata Prefecture. Feeling a little anxious - it would be good to see the town and school I'll be living and working in.