Long flights, Tokyo nights, Takayama heights.

*it is a bit long, apologies.

20 hours on a plane eventually led to a delightful two hour standing wait in the immigration of tokyo narita airport. Surrounded by natives hurriedly resolving some vague visa issues, couldn't help but be grateful that the flights mainly consisted of sleeping and waking up to eat some rations inspired by countries we flew over.

Guided by the firm hand of Japanese bureaucracy, collected the bags and ascended a bus for another two hours of transit. Increasing levels of light and concrete indicated that the city was approaching. Disembark the bus and enter the lobby of a 40+ story hotel.

Receive some paperwork, a cursory 'post-arrival, pre-orientation, orientation' and room keys. Drop bags off, throw shorts on, say hello to roommates and proceed to a self guided walking tour around the environs. First note is the scale of the buildings which tower over you, big hefty lumps of glass and concrete housing who knows how many people and trapping the hot humid air. Walk the same path until some neon lights catch the eye and wander down that way following the crowds.

Takes some time before coming to the realization that the streets down this way are filled with, what can only be described as 'masseuses' (prostitutes), 'promoters'(pushers) and 'happy massage parlours'(brothels) as well as rooms for rent (by the hour only). Bewildering amount of people approaching you in a predatory fashion, eyes filled with the potential of $$. Get quite lost in this little quarter and continue wandering until reaching some sort of boundary. Walk the perimeter of this seedy little warren collecting some cold liquids from various 'Family Mart'. No lights along the outside of that quarter really as the residential areas seem to be directly across the road from it.

Along this section of the walk begin to realise - there are no bins? But also no litter. Either people are constantly cleaning all of it up or people are tucking their trash into pockets. Odd. Continue walking and start following smaller alleys, most of which are either packed with stores and little restaurants or are the backside of said establishments. Legs are well stretched at this stage and start to navigate towards the hotel again, stopping off at quite a nice shrine. Despite the city, traffic and people surrounding this shrine, it still has the air of being sacred, similar to what you find in most churches. Bit of a muted tone there and not many people in around it. I have no idea what belief system it is dedicated to but it was built in the 1800s.

Set off again for the hotel arrive back around 2 in the morning. The toilets have little computer control panels on them (?). New one there.

Wake up around 7, shower off the sweat and go for the buffet breakfast. Sit across from some genericano Americanos sharing their stories. A long day of yawning ahead as the 'post-arrival orientation' begins. Plenty of stories and warnings on laws customs etc etc as well as some teaching advices. Insufferable Americans leap out of their chairs to proudly show off their 'teacher voices' each consequent American feeling the need to outdo their countrymen. Bearing in mind that the hotel is filled with about 800 soon to be english teachers, 600 of which are from the 'US'. A couple of non-US smirks are passed around at the loud comments from all around us grading their countrymen and taking their turns at showing off. Get Sim and wifi during lunch(paperwork+bureaucracy).

A post lunch interaction in the row ahead was fun:

Enter two grey suited gents

''Oh hey man... you got the same suit as me??''

''... Oh yeah, theyre quite simil-''

''IS YOURS CALVIN KLEIN?''

''No I don't think so no''

'' Oh.. must not be the same then huh''

-> Highlight so far.

I think my sister may have said it at one point ''Americans really drain the culture out of a place'' which I found hilarious. It might seem that they are getting a hard time (mainly because they were the only ones speaking) but i do have a fondness for the americans, they are very easy to get on with, sociable, good fun and enjoy themselves. Good few Australians at this thing as well, also a good crowd.

Yawn conference ends with instructions to wash up and come back again within the hour for smaller mini groups based on where we will be assigned to. Massive Q for the elevators naturally considering the number of people there. See some Irish heads near the front and slink up, cutting ahead of the entire well organised rabble. Up to the room, yap with the two roommates, irish and english, shower and back down. Do not bother changing clothing just lather some deodorant on, nobody will notice. Get down there and exploit the free buffet with roommate, two seemingly seasoned connoisseurs of a free meal apparently, once again blatantly skipping Q, this time completely accidental. Do a bit of small talking with various folk. Find the other souls headed to the same region as myself. Good group thankfully, good mix of experiences, backgrounds and stories. Head back to room and don appropriate attire for walk-swimming in the heat and humidity. Agree to follow some Irish heads down into a pretty touristy area for pints. Collectively figure out conversion rates and make a pile of cash in the table. Usual type of yapping goes on interrupted intermittently by other irish on various quests including counts of 'phone dead, how do i get back', 'do not use the hotel razor lads (completely chafed neck and cheeks)', one broken pint glass, one spilled drink and one count of currency conversion confusion. Go for a stroll then through an extremely neon sequence of streets. Do not bring your epileptic compatriots here, there would be a genuine danger. Few interesting advertisements which seem to actually scream at you from the screens as well as a 3d looking cat animation which meows and people go crazy over. Found an awesome narrow little street filled with 'izakayas', people smoking indoors and eating at the same time.

Peel off from the group when they go back into the hotel and start doing some solo strolling. Again, surrounded by concrete and glass monstrosities and begin noticing more details - underground shopping malls, elevated swimming pools.

Begin noticing a lot more homeless people in certain areas. Learn that all of my wandering over the last two nights has been confined to an area called Shinjuku. Mill around Shinjuku a bit more searching for some alley or some street that would lead to another lively place. Head through a more residential area, noting how low these areas are, 1-3 storeys max. Follow some white lights, fearing another alley of brothels but it seems I have cleared them. Into some nicer more relaxed areas now, a lot less tourists and more what i can only assume in my ignorance are locals. walk around these streets and notice the time :/ Make a course back to the hotel and conveniently find a little path along a canal which runs almost the whole way back up to it, accompanied by some excited real life cats chasing a rat. Arrive back and asleep by 02:00

Déja vu from day two as another 8 hours of 'conference yawn' begins. Skip ahead 8 hours of more workshops, lessons and a god awful 'panel discussion' no doubt inspired by someones youtube algorithm. Excellent time for napping as some faint snores and droopy eyelids indicated. End with the only important note of the whole 'orientation' being revealed by our regional people; have to send luggage ahead to the final destination. Go do so and head down for a nice evening hosted by the irish embassy. Nice folks, free food again and some contacts made for the future. Peel off quite early for a final lap of the metropolis. Head toward shibuya city which is another land of neon. Snoop around there for a bit and head back to sleep early.

Up at 6 for a shower and head off to the shinjuku station which i can only describe as some sort of artery of humanity at 7 in the morning, lucky to have some guides leading the way there because it is quite literally filled with humans. Board a metro/train which is like a little capillary of humans moving along. Out and onto the bullet train, proceed to sleep for two hours and onto a bus. Practice a Japanese introduction, forgotten almost immediately after getting off the bus. Go up to the regional civic building for yet another orientation. Probably the only one that was actually required - covered everything the last 2 days did but in a regional context all within an hour! Nice irish lad running it who offered a free membership to the irish chamber of commerce which i also received the night previous (twice). So I have two spare memberships, if any are interested. Got a nice view of where I was headed from the rooftop.

Meet the new boss and a current assistant english teacher (also from Ireland) and head up into the hills. Meet the other ALTs, grab the luggage, get some grub at a restaurant (the waiter was a robot). Get a few groceries and dropped off to the new home, a relatively spacious apartment partially furnished by the predecessor. Unpack and sleep.

Wake up to some insistent banging on the door indicating that i have slept through the alarms and am a solid 40 minutes late for collection:p Reassure the worried colleagues with some grunts and swallow the shame on a car journey while being regaled of other people who had died in various ways on this exchange programme. Into the city hall and proceed with some paperwork, down to the bank for more paperwork, bang through quite a lot of documents and using the japanese 'hanko', seal, to sign away my soul for all i knew. Switch out of the suit and back to the city hall. Lunch , then some more miscellaneous shopping which was completely idled and lollygagged through. Home, unpack, sleep.

Up and at it, go pick a car. Black suzuki please. Papers please. Lunch at a nice overlook. More shops, jeezus. More idling and lollygagging. Home, freedom, unpack, sleep. Up and at it, apartment is a sweatbox, AC on. Assess the requirements, go grab the necessities. Phone call with the sister. Explore the town - small, blend of traditional buildings and modern ones. More tourists than expected. Busy enough. Surrounded by hills.

Up and meet the predecessor, a nice fellow with some words of advice and pointers for current living situation and future job. Nice burger made from local beef. Region is apparently one of two with grazing cattle in the country. Nice lumps of steak in the grocery stores, decently priced.

That is it for now. Appreciate it if you made it this far, next ones will not be this long i can assure you.