Oriented, Intoxicated, Saturated

ORIENTED

Day One of Tokyo Orientation is finished. It all happens at the Keio Plaza Hotel, a 47-story, double-tower dwelling in the heart of Shinjuku. My room is on the 39th floor, from where we have an amazing view of a skyline that goes on until the horizon, where we can only imagine it goes on until another.

INTOXICATED

The morning began for me at 5 a.m., when I suddenly awoke assuming it was several hours later. So I took an early shower and found myself ready for the day before I needed to be. We were all a bit hungover after our night out, which wasn't too over the top when you consider that another guy named Daniel who came from Portland informed me just now that he was out until 6 a.m. For those counting at home, this means he was still drinking when I was in the shower trying to recover ... from drinking. Tonight at the welcome reception dinner, he was drinking ginger ale, cursing his heavy evening on the sauce. But then he caught a glimpse a whiskey and coke and started anew.

SATURATED

You do a lot of sitting and listening at this orientation, and most of the information has been given to us several times all ready. They are very careful to make sure we get certain points, like that even if you only have one beer, you can be arrested for driving drunk. I've probably been warned about this 353 times, roughly. But it's hard to complain when we're being put up in a very nice hotel and get a few nights to explore Tokyo. Which is wear I'm headed now -- more drinking, probably, this time with some Japanese students brother Phil worked with all seven years ago ... the very first Japanese people I ever met. I blame them for my current state of affairs.