My First Email Home AKA "Panic Over!! Hooray!! "

Hi everyone!

This is the very first mail to leave the Mysterious East on my behalf - hopefully the first of many!

I`m safe and sound here in (very) sunny Tokyo and it`s amazing!

Everything went really well at the airport, I didn`t lose anything and we had a great flight. In fact the flight was really fun in itself since it was Virgin and they have loads of really handy free stuff like eye-masks, earplugs and also a fully interactive entertainment system that has dozens of films, albums, games etc for you to play with. It even had a head up display that showed you exactly where you were in the world, how fast you were flying (average 540 knots) how long was left and what your route was.

We then grabbed all our stuff in the not-too-busy-at-all-Tokyo Narita Airport and then had a nice bus ride in. There was a great girl called Jenni (from New Zealand) who answered lots of our questions and prepped us on what is in store for us over the next few days. We`re staying in a great 5-star hotel and I`m sharing a really fancy room with two guys, Jeff and Laurence, who are placed near me in Hyogo prefecture (although not actually on the island of Awaji-Shima itself). They`re ace and we`ve got on very well.

We (the British) were the first group to arrive and so we`ve had all day to ourselves - spent tucking into delicious Japanese noodles in a creamy, chili sauce (YUM!) adventuring on the Tokyo Metro, witnessing the mad-cap wardrobe antics of the Harajuku crowd, discovering huge Meiji era shrines in a massive forest and also playing Taiko Drumming Arcade games. Tokyo`s super hot and humid and most of my cool clothes have been forwaded on to my school in Awji. Consequently I`ve been knocking about in Gap khakis, white vest, hawaian shirt, aviator shades and Man-From-Delmonte-Hat looking like the most touristy tourist in the world. It`s great fun catching people staring at you and then givving them a massive grin - some smile back while others almost fall over as they look away so quickly.

The actual orientation starts tomorrow with a big presentation followed by lots of individual workshops on various bits and pieces of Japanese JET life. The evenings are our own so I`m looking forward to mass nocturnal expeditions into the city. One fun part is that we have to be in Business Dress (note yonder Capital Letters) which is very smart but also really hot. I plan to escape the heat of a full suit by wearing my waistcoat with a lovely linen shirt rolled up to my sleves and complete with pocket watch set to Greenwich Meridian time - for the sake of The Old Country : ).

Right now it`s time to go upstairs, have a quick shower and maybe hangout by the pool before a quick round of sake and karaoke. Yup, I`ve done well so far. Let`s hope my luck holds out.

Sorry to everyone who I didn`t say goodbye to personally - it`s been so hectic I couldn`t believe it. No excuse for not getting touch mind, just a reason.

Also if you find that there`s anyone I`ve not got in my magical list please let me know their address and I`ll be sure to keep em up to date.

Thanks for being such great and lovely people I hope you are all having as much fun as I am. However I also hope for your sake that you`re getting way more sleep than I am (six hours kip in two days = fun!). I love you all loads and can`t wait to hear about what you`re up to!

Love, hugs and most polite bows,

Will.x