So, I made it.

It was a pretty easy flight, direct from Portland to Tokyo-Narita. I had no problems clearing immigration and customs, and was met by a representative of Saitama, as well as one of the other interns, at the airport. After waiting for the third intern to arrive, we drove for about an hour and a half to the Royal Pines Hotel in Saitama, where we stayed for the night. After checking in and a quick dinner, I crashed. Woke up before six this morning.

Today is orientation. And as far as I can tell, we’ll be brought to the Saitama prefectural government office, given a tour, introduced to all sorts of officials, then oriented for a few hours. We’ll be meeting representatives from our companies, too. There’s a welcome party in the evening which will probably involve lots of people, and lots of self-introductions. Yikes.

I move to my first host family’s place this evening, and start work after the weekend. I have no idea whether I’ll have regular internet access, or time to blog, for the next few weeks, but here’s hopin’.