The day that everyone awaited finally dawned: 22 July 2017.

It was early in the morning and we were on our way to the airport; my mom, dad and I. It would be difficult for my mom, I thought to myself. I am the second child to move abroad. My sister had worked abroad for two years, but she was back in South Africa – at least she was still there; my eldest brother as well. My parents still had two children left in South Africa – it would be ok.

We arrived at O.R. Tambo Airport; I checked in, declared my laptop and went down to the Spur with my parents to enjoy a last breakfast with them before going away for a whole year.

We had to get together at 13:30 for a group photo; thereafter to walk through the gates into the unknown, awaiting our flight. Everyone was teary-eyed who came to say goodbye. (I had to say goodbye quickly, otherwise I would not have been sitting here, writing from Japan).

It was twelve hours to Hong Kong; thereafter another four and a half hours to the Narita Airport in Japan. Another 45 minutes per bus to the Sunroute Plaza Hotel in Tokyo for three days of orientation.

Eventually, after 22 hours’ journey, we arrived at our Tokyo hotel. Of course, everyone just wanted to book in and take a shower! We had the first evening free after having had a quick information session and welcoming. Although we were all tired, a group of us decided to go to Tokyo Station (we were in Shibuya). Like hungry locusts, we were scavenging for the best food at the station. The sister of one of the South Africans with us had been there for her third year, and she met us and showed us around so that we wouldn’t look like proper gaijin (Japanese for foreigner)!

Tokyo Station is enormous and we took 45 minutes to get there; a further 45 minutes before we found seats at a vegan restaurant (I have long forgotten the place’s name – I was so hungry that I could have taken a bite out of the wooden table next to us!). I was a little but tired and my body couldn’t take it anymore – after dinner, I decided to head back with two other people, as a full day of orientation awaited us the next day.

Day 2 arrived and it’s orientation. Everyone was tired after the previous night and because of jet lag. We sat through sessions and tried not to fall asleep – although I feel asleep in at least two of the sessions and the twins had to prompt me in the sides to keep me awake!

Orientation was the basic stuff that you could expect – how to fit in, how the system works and how to teach. We were divided into elementary, junior high and senior high school groups to allow us to speak to other JETs from across the world and get input from one another. The programme compiles hundreds of people. We were group A; group B would arrive two weeks later and group C in September. There were people from Canada, Jamaica, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, America and even countries I had forgotten about!

Also read Adventures in Japan – Part one

After two and a half days of orientation, we finally met our CIRs who support us, helped us with the adaption and went with us to our prefectures.

Our CIR is Naomi and she is a Canadian. The other CIR is Toby, but he was new and came with group B and all the New Zealanders – we would meet him only later on.

From Tokyo we travelled by bus to Koriyama City, where we met supervisors (our English teachers!) with whom we had been talking for months. It took about three hours per bus. Everyone of us from Fukushima started to get to know each other and became friends – I mean, we had three hours of nothing else to do! I sat next to Louise, an Irish woman whose husband would arrive later in Japan to be with her. Across from us sat David and Angela, a couple from the USA who are now my best friends on the programme. At the back sat Rhett and Yuma -they were going to Iwake, the southern-most point of our prefecture.

We then chatted together before travelling to our new destinations. We would see one another only again in August for prefecture orientation.