Tokyo, Orientation, and being Lost in Translation

This goes out to all the new folks who will be flying into Japan next month. First, rewind a year or so to August 15 of 2005, and you would find me just touching down in Tokyo after a gruelling 14-hour flight from Ottawa via Detroit. Jet-lagged and culture-shocked, lugging 2 overstuffed suitcases carrying all my worldly possessions, I am herded from the airport along with several other busloads of ALTs into Shinjuku, the heart of Tokyo. Since the biggest city I'd been in before was Toronto (sadly), it's a lot to take in.
We're all put up in the Keio Plaza Hotel, very posh, and I'm pretty impressed, even if they don't have the free bar and in-room masseuse that I was hoping for. We each get a roomate, either to help us bond with our fellow ALTs, make us feel more at home, or save a few bucks. I'm thinking option C. Mine is a very nice Australian named Todd Grant or Grant Todd, I'm never quite sure which.
The next day we have to endure some orientation and training type stuff, some is which is useful; the rest is relatively self-evident and lulls me into a blissful slumber. We are, however, made to feel like honoured guests, and I get the feeling I'll be digging this whole Japan thing, especially when they bring on the free drinks.
Later that evening we're cut loose, and proceed to roam in packs through one of the busiest, brightest, loudest, occasionally smelliest, and most interesting places in all of Japan. The photo above is of Shinjuku at night that second day, and it only gives a modest hint of the craziness...the blurriness is to simulate the pitcher of beer I drank in karaoke just previously. I should also add that said karaoke spot was the same one Bill Murray visited in "Lost in Translation". It was neat - they offered "nomihodai", which roughly translates into "drink until you think you're Elvis", and some Japanese guys crashed our party to deliver their rendition of "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand. Later still, (and despite my slurred protests) we grabbed some McDonald's, and yes, it is pretty much the same here, except it's pronounced "Makudonarudo".
This was followed by a few precious hours of sleep, before I was crammed into a plane yet again, which took me here, to Oita. This was followed by more ceremonies, speeches, bowing, slideshows, dancing, drinking and even a little swordplay, not necessarily in that order. But that's another story.