Review 1

On 16th, when I almost completed packing, I closed the bag and started playing with the lock without clear knowledge of how it worked. By accident, It got locked, but I knew no way to reopen it. I started to rotate the three numbered dials hoping to find the correct combination, which was of course nearly impossible. As I had to arrive at the airport in a few hours, what I eventually did was merely give up trying and buy a new bag. I cut open the original and disemboweled it to transfer what was inside to the new bag. 1000% unnecessary expense.

For punishing myself for this stupid mistake, I refrained from taking a taxi to the airport and buying a wristwatch, which would have been handy as my mobile phone could not work as a watch in Japan.

While I did not have much time to wander around the duty free shops, the flight itself went smoothly. Onboard, I proceeded with “When Heaven and Earth Changed Places” and also watched an old Japanese movie, “Doro no Kawa (Muddy River).” The Airbus landed at Narita and this was my first time in six years and eight months to breathe the air of the country. When the passengers were disembarking at the Narita airport in the early morning, I found among them one of the people I worked with on the previous Friday. At the luggage claim, I met another man from the same company. Three of us talked for a while.

Not sure if the Narita Express is of JR or Keisei, I almost went to the wrong direction. On the JR train platform I met one of the man again and we talked some more.

It was still morning at the Tokyo station. I tried not to go far from there as I was very unfamiliar with the area. Waiting until afternoon spending some time at a coffee shop and walking a lot around the underground area immediately around the station, I took a taxi to the hotel that was also the venue of the training of this time. For dinner, I had a “konbini-bento” that I got at a convenience store I found across the street from the hotel.

Monday morning. In the room, there were eight people, and I saw two familiar faces. Starting with the customary self-introduction, the first day was the toughest because the first day is explanation-heavy, but that was just as usual. After work, we together walked to a “food court.” As I believe, it was not yet midnight when we staying at the hotel came back. A surprising thing is that I was offered another interpretation job from this same company, for four days again in Tokyo starting on June 1!