Tottori-shi

Today we had orientation at Tottori-shi, the capital of Tottori prefecture.

Took the 10:30 train from Yonago station with most of the Yonago JETS. Tried reading Jared Diamond`s Guns Germs and Steel but couldn't resist small talk. For some reason I sneezed and sniffled throughout the whole thing. An hour later we were there.

Some of us went to an Italian restaurant, three of us, Matt, myself, and Jen from Sakaiminato went to a Korean restaurant. The bi-bi-ban there was not the cold dish as I thought it was, but turned out to be rather hot, both in spiciness and temperature (it was served in a burning hot stone bowl). Matt called it a workout eathing that thing in the heat of the Nippon day without AC.

Orientation turned out to be the usual bore as everything else. Some rather uninformative information sessions later we were served a buffet Italian dinner with all you can drink Asahi beer, which was nice. During which I found out that not-Sakaiminato Jen was a pretty avid poker fan and plays PTY, which was a good thing to know down the road.

Later we went to a bar, and then karaoke. Nothing especially notable, just drinks and ethanolized cordiality. Then I went back to the hotel which was supposed paid for by the Nakayama BOE. And I typed this in the hotel lobby with music box background music. It`s playing The Circle Of Life right now. Good cheesy tune to get some cheesy sleep before tomorrow`s adventure.