I've just settled down in my dorm in Japan. Post here some of the notes taken these days.

2006-11-6 in Tokyo
Japan Airline JL792 brought us to Tokyo Narita Airport today.
It is actually the first time I've ever been abroad. And this may also be the first time for many VFP candidates.

It was reported that a bird hit the engine of our plane before we took off at Shanghai PuDong Airport. The plane departed around 3:15 PRC time which is an hour and a quarter behind schedule.

There was dinner served on the plane. I mistaken French salad sausages for some salty sauces, and unfortunately put it on my beef & Spaghetti. So I’ve had the weirdest beef on the plane. "The Pirates of the Caribbean Sea" helped me to kill the 2 hours trip. We met some turbulence when we fly over the “Internal Sea” of Japan.
Around 18:15 (Tokyo Time) we hit the ground. Carrying my laptop and a small baggage, I made my first step onto the Japanese soil.

10 of the VFP members gathered at the exit of the airport around 7pm. Tokyo is a bit colder than Shanghai during the night. We took a bus to go to the Fuji Xerox Training Center which is located in a mountainous area. We rode for like an hour and a half before we stopped at a place call “Ebinan” (海老名). It was like a big shopping mall. And we had dinner there. The dinner was kinda expensive, it cost me like ￥1080(Japanese Yan) to have a dish of some beef & rice. After another 1.5 hours ride we finally arrived at the training center.

Yue Ming, a Chinese lady who works at the Fuji Xerox HR dept. told us that there was no elevator for this 4 storied building, so we have to move all of luggage manually. And it’s sad to discover that there’s no internet connection here in the training center. There was only 3 telephone card so that we have to call home in turn.

Okie, and so much for tonight. I need to get up around 6:45 tomorrow morning, since breakfast time is 7:45. Wish the best for the orientation week here.

2006-11-6
Good morning Japan!
This is actually the first working day that we will have for the coming year.
I got up around 6:30 in the early morning. I didn’t slept well last night, cuz it was really cold in the apartment. I woke up from time to time. The first day was filled with all kinds of orientation activities. From company briefings in the morning to tons of paper works in the afternoon and a introductive Japanese survival training program to the party in the night, we had a full schedule. And it was carefully kept within the planned time frame.

2006-11-8
I didn’t write any dairy last night, cuz I was hanging out with other 6 VFP members playing the “Killer Game” in one of our dorm. The game was interesting if you try to play it among people that you know well. It will uncover some of the natural instinct and something that lies in the sub-conscious mind. But it seems like I have a good intuition. Maybe it’s mainly the reason that I’ve a first time player.
We were occupied in the “Inter culture” training & Survival Japanese training yesterday. Nothing special.
This afternoon we will visit a small town which is 15min away by train to utilize the Japanese we’ve learnt these days.
My Japanese somehow still sucks, but I’m getting on-board. I’m gonna have a nice try.
We’ve found that we can access the internet in the classroom, if possible, I’ll post these blogs on to the web tonight.

We headed to Odawala 小田原 around 1:00 in the afternoon. It takes us about 15 minutes walking to the rail station. The train ticket cost like ￥210.
We had ￥2000 as our budget. We had to buy a post card, a cup of drink in the local coffee shop and visit the Odawala Juo （小田原城）.
We were asked to get back to the Odawala 駅around 16:30.
We first headed to the local post office to buy a post card which can be sent to China. And then we went to the Odawala Juo which is near by. After visiting the Japanese Castle, we headed back to the station, hoping to find some place where we could sit down and have a drink. At last, we settle us down in a KFC shop. A cup of ice cream cost for like ￥190. We were the first one to arrive at the station in the night. It was dark when we get back to the training center. There was a party during the night, we gathered in the classroom and discuss on what we’ve seen and heard during the afternoon visit. And all the pictures taken have been shown.

2006-11-9
We had whole day class for today. The lectures were still focused on the Survival Japanese Language and inter-cultural Communication skills. During the night, we went to Odawala to “KARAORKA”. Tomorrow we will set out in the morning and we will visit a place called 镰仓. And we will be handed our to HR tomorrow night. On Saturday morning, we will check out and will leave for our dormitory and our real life in Japan.

2006-11-10
Today has been a quite relaxing day. We’ve scheduled to visit a place call “Kamakura” for the day.
The great Budda statue in Kamakura, the great Sea view, nice Japanese Lunch & the dearly beloved raw fish during dinner. This seems to be a honey moon period.
The Killer game lasted till 2 o'clock in the morning, everybody seems to be sooooo excited!

But Raw fishes seems to get me down, I "DEFICATE" from time to times. Approx. 3~5 times a day. Oh Jesus Christ!