Because I am a very smart graduate student, I arrived in Osaka about 12 hours before I was expected to start working at the consulate. No worries, spending the night without sheets or pillows coupled with jet lag meant I was awake at 5am anyway. Of course it was pouring rain and I didn’t have an umbrella, or any food in my apartment to eat for breakfast, but that was quickly remedied by the Family Mart convenience store just around the corner from my apartment. The rental agency also didn’t lie about the apartment being an all of 20 second walk to the Miyakojima subway station. I was also very pleasantly surprised to find the station I needed to go to was all of 3 stops and less than a 10 minute ride away from my apartment.

When I arrived at Higashi Umeda station on the Tanimachi line, I esentially guessed which exit I needed to take and started walking in the direction I thought the consulate was based on the map I had printed out in the States. I walked a ways down what I was sure was the correct street, but when I reached a river that was past the consulate, I had to turn around and go back. Turns out I was just on the wrong side of the street. The consulate turned out to be a rather boring looking building about 10 stories tall, but what set it apart were the police on every corner and stationed at the door. Police vehicles also sat parked on the street in front of the consulate, along with a stacked pile of what looked like riot shields.

When I approached the door one of the guards asked me something about a visa, and on reflex I just answered ‘hai’ to him, so he ushered me over to a table outside the building. When I finally found my passport buried in my purse, he seemed surprised and then asked me “Nikki-san desu ka?” Apparently even the guards had been told I was arriving! He showed me inside where I exchanged my passport for a visitor’s badge and was escorted up to the 7th floor to meet my new boss and coworkers.

I’m writing this about a week after it actually happened and honestly I’m pretty fuzzy on the details now. I was extremely jet lagged and hadn’t eaten in some 16 hours or so (and didn’t get to eat what I picked up from the conbini until after a meeting got out around 10:30am), so I was feeling fairly terrible as I was escorted from floor to floor meeting everyone and learning the names of everyone that I would ultimately forget two minutes after shaking their hand. Eventually I went out to lunch with my boss and ate all of a half a bowl of soup while I attempted not to stare into space too obviously. Actually my boss turned out to be a very friendly woman and I have gotten along with her very well since meeting her. At lunch she told me about all the places she had been stationed at before working the Osaka-Kobe consulate. She told me that yes, I was an intern, but half of the reason for being here was to learn more about public affairs and public diplomacy as it applied to the responsibilities of overseas consulates and embassies. I was glad for this because frankly I don’t have a clue about what consulates do (outside of issuing visas) and have never had any experience working in public affairs or public diplomacy.

By the time we were done with lunch, it was getting to be around 1pm Japan time. When we got back to the office, I told my boss and coworkers my apartment woes. They graciously gave me a bunch of paper plates and plastic cutlery, a mug, some pillows that were laying about the office, and (I’m not kidding) some table cloths to use as sheets. Yay for slumming in Japan!

After gifts of sheets I was sent on my way back home, where I told myself I needed to stay awake as long as possible and go to sleep around 10pm if I could so that I could get un-jetlagged. I don’t care what you’ve heard, theres no cure for jet lag and you just have to suffer through it until your sleep schedule has been corrected. Typically it takes me a full two days. When I was in France last year I got over it by the next day, but that was mostly because I managed to stay awake for something ridiculous like 34 hours straight (I just didn’t stop moving or sit down at all, we tackled the Champs-Elysees on my very first day there). Anyway, instead of staying awake I pretty much just laid on my bed for about 4 hours half trying to sleep before I got up enough energy to walk across the street to the grocery store and pick up some cleaning supplies. Oh yeah, did I tell you that not only was my apartment devoid of everything, it was also completely filthy? Like, my white socks I was wearing when I moved in on Wednesday night had turned completely black on the bottom the floors were so dirty? Ew. So I loaded up on cleaning supplies and for food bought (since I had no way of cooking anything at this point): some unagi sashimi, a bundle of bananas, and orange juice. Brought all that back to my apartment and then basically laid around in a stupor for the rest of the night.