Little Earthquakes

Plans

2008-10-24T15:17:00.002+09:00

It's been a busy week or so but it's all good. Tomorrow I'm helping out with a 'trick or treating Halloween Parade' through the mall with the international pre-school and they're going to be so. cute. On the down side we were told yesterday that we needed costumes for it, which left me scouring the hyakuen store (100yen store (about 50p)) for anything that might do. I ended up with a cowboy hat, a toy gun, and a gingham handkerchief to tie around my neck as a bandanna, paired with jeans and my brown cost that will have to do as a cow-girl costume.

Cinema tonight to see PS I Love You, how is it that it's only coming out at the cinema here now? The amount of time some random things take to be released astounds me.

OMG

2008-10-09T11:15:00.003+09:00

The exchange rate is AMAZING right now. When I came to Japan it was 250 yen to the pound, now it's 174. I just wish I had some money I could send home, I'm going to have to keep my fingers crossed that it will stay low until payday on the 21st.

My predecessor's predecessor has to come to school for a visit. It's been interesting talking to him and getting his thoughts on the job. If he ends up turning up today I think we're going for ramen at lunch. I've moved my private lesson to this week instead of next week so that he can come an see everyone, they'll be so happy to see him!

Oh happy day

2008-09-29T09:25:00.001+09:00

The weather has finally turned - hurray! Today I actually wore a light coat for my walk to school. It was kind of bizarre though, I never expected the seasons to be so punctual. We had the typhoon, then some hot days (though without the crippling humidity), then came the Autumn public holiday and BAM! Much cooler weather/rain/grey skies (I'm not complaining, I love it). In Japan even the weather is more efficient.

The folly of youth

2008-09-24T12:50:00.000+09:00

I just amazed a student by eating lunch. I have a student that wants to come and eat lunch with me some days to help improve her English, so she came to the staffroom for the first time today.

For my first trick I ate a hot lunch of bolignaise sauce and broccoli (I had heated it in the staff room microwave). "Hot-to?" she said in confusion. I then finished my lunch and then pulled an apple put of my bag. She was shocked because Japanese people usually have their lunch box and that's it (the apple wouldn't have fit in my bento box). Finally I had to explain a few times that I was definitely eating an apple because she thought all apples were red. To be confronted with a Golden Delicious type variety broke her brain, so I must be eating a pear (pears are apple shaped here).

I should clarify that she is an absolutely lovely student, I had fun, and I'm not berating or otherwise making fun of her. I kind of love discovering these pre-conceived notions people have here, and how something so normal to me can seem so bizarre.

There she blows

2008-09-19T12:31:00.003+09:00

A typhoon is supposed to hit us here at some point this afternoon. At about 9am this morning an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling all students who take the local JR train line to go home because they were closing down the service in preparation for the weather, so they had to get home before that happened. At the beginning of lunch the vice-principal received a warning from The People Who Decide These Things that actually now we have to send all the students home.

But not the teachers. Because apparently in Japan teachers are like captain, they go down with the ship.

Or not, I don't think it will get that bad (and I've been talking to other ALTs who have reported that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as people were saying) but then their students weren't sent home so maybe it's just hitting us more directly?

It's supposed to hit at some point this afternoon and I have to walk 20 minutes home at 4pm. Without a coat (too warm) and probably without an umbrella as I imagine it will be too windy for one at that point. I am not looking forward to it.

I may take a few hours of nenkyuu and just go home now.

Why would no one warn me about this?

2008-09-18T13:37:00.003+09:00

I've just walked into the bathroom and realised that my middle shirt button was undone. All I can hope is that it happened during lunch rather than in one of the two classes I've taught today. It's the kind of thing you'd think one of the teachers would mention to me.

It's raining here now which means there's a cool breeze that I'm quite enjoying. However, the bad news is that it's raining because they're expecting a typhoon this weekend, so we'll see how that goes.

The exchange rate bumped up overnight (dammit!). I want it to drop down again to under 190 for when I get paid tomorrow so that I can send some money home.

Result

2008-09-08T12:55:00.000+09:00

Be proud of me my eBrethren, though I awoke with only 20 minutes to go before I had to leave I managed to get up and dressed, saute a chicken breast so I could throw together a bento of chicken, cherry tomatoes and string cheese, and both make and scoff a quick breakfast omelet while simultaneously packing my laptop bad and wielding my mascara and toothbrush (thankfully in approximately the right areas of my face). MULTI-TASKING: I HAS IT.

In other news I just booked my hotel for Malaysia (you are going to be sooo sick of hearing about Kuala Lumpur by the time I go). We ended up spending slightly more ($18-24/night rather than $11-14/night) so that we could have a budget hotel rather than a hostel with shared facilities. We had a lovely looking hotel in mind but after some hard digging on the interwebs I uncovered a veritable plague of bad reviews for the place, so we decided to spend a little more and get somewhere that had excellent reviews across the board.

Christmas plans settled

2008-09-07T21:55:00.003+09:00

I'm going to Malaysia for Christmas! A friend and I have booked flights to Kuala Lumpur and we're looking at hostels/hotels now. I've seen a beautiful looking one on the edge on the historical district(link). It's a budget hotel so I don't think the rooms will be anything special, but at the very least we should have our own bathroom rather than sharing one and it's very well located (there is a train station very near) and has a very picturesque style. I got a really good deal on flights considering how much some of the prices were ($2000+ with some day combinations! ARGH! I ended up getting it for $610 though).

I'm so excited! I'm slightly nervous as the last trip I went on with a friend (the same time last year as it happens) was rather a disaster. But then Bangkok on the whole didn't impress me as much as I thought it would (don't get me wrong, there were a few highlights, but it was so much dirtier and broken down than I was picturing) so the fact that I didn't end up getting along with the girl I went with was about on par with things.

The girl I'm going with now is absolutely lovely though, and we're both like little kids on Christmas Eve. We want to go everywhere and try everything.

Wohoo

2008-09-06T11:07:00.003+09:00

If I can get a decent price on tickets then I'm going to Malaysia for Christmas/New Year! I've never been to Kuala Lumpur so I'm really looking forward to it!

Bunkasai

2008-09-03T15:28:00.003+09:00

My two day Bunkasai (school festival) begins tomorrow and while I'm looking forward to going around the school on Friday and checking out what the classes have done, I am really not looking forward to spending the day in the hall tomorrow listening to speeches I can't understand and listening to the music club recitals.

Last year I fell asleep and one of the teachers made fun of me. In my defense, when has a warm darkened room intelligible background noise ever not equalled nap-time?

A Moment of Panic

2008-08-29T12:22:00.003+09:00

I got into school today with no idea what I was going to do with the third years today for fourth period. It's a shame, on the surface the class should be great. It's the older students and the class has only 15 students as appose to 40-45 (seriously, class sizes here? Kind of nuts.), and I can teach them anything I want.

There in lies its greatest potential and it's biggest weakness.

They have no textbook, no curriculum, they will not be tested orally in their English exams, meaning that my lesson is really one they don't have to worry about. The teacher that I 'team teach' (me: What shall we do? him: do... what you like) with a certified English teacher that speaks significantly less English than my better students in the class. One who can't even translate what we're going to do when needed even though I've gone through it slowly and carefully before class with him and he's told me he understands.

Basically I have absolutely no guide, and it seems like such a wasted opportunity.

Last week I had them writing haiku in English, which was quite fun. This week I have some riddles that I'm going to get them into pairs to translate and then try and solve together. I made up the worksheets, gathered riddles online with language simple enough for them to be able to translate accurately (er... fingers crossed) and still make them think for the answer. Then everything goes dark.

Quite literally; the builders earthquake-proofing one side of school knocked the power out. All my handouts are still on my computer. No printers.Quelle horreur. The prospect of having to hand-write 15 handouts looms large before me.

Luckily the power is back on now and you'd better believe I took the opportunity to print hard copies fairly quickly. I would have printed a hard copy (singular) but the school decided to give us all new photocopiers that no one really knows how to work. (They don't photocopy exactly, they ghost a master copy of the paper and then give you however many copies of that. Unfortunately no one quite knows how to redo the master so it's a bit of a mess).

Well, I have half an hour before class. I'm sure my team teacher will show up in 20 minutes to check what we're doing. I don't know why he bothers. I'm trying to be more patient with him this term because I think the students may have picked up on my frustrations and the fact that he can't translate things when they need it, and no matter what I think of him, they should be able to respect the fact that he's their teacher.

Next week is bunkasai: Japanese school festival. It's a little like a school fete but the students are much more involved. I'll try to take pictures!

Back

2008-08-21T13:45:00.002+09:00

I arrived back from England extremely tired but pretty much in one piece. My plane was a hour late taking off in Heathrow, but I had a six and a half hour layover in Bangkok so it didn't make a huge amount of difference to me overall. The jet lag really killed me though! I've never been one to suffer from it but for some reason the trip to Japan gets me every time. The last day or two have seen me back on schedule, but it was touch and go for a while there.

I just went to the bank to transfer some money home and the got lost coming the straight line back. I'm so retarded.

Welcome to Japan

2008-05-26T18:23:00.002+09:00

This breaks my brain.

Atsui, ne?

2008-05-26T17:24:00.003+09:00

I thought we had somehow skipped the rainy season (Dear Japan, FYI: A week does not a rainy season make, Love: The British Chick) and gone straight to ridiculous heat. It got to about 29 degrees or so today, and it's only going to get worse. Even though I left all my windows open today, I got home to a 35 degree living room.

Luckily for me the weather has just broken, it's absolutely pelting down and has taken the temperature to a much more manageable level. The air isn't that horrible sticky stillness it's been all day, instead there's a nice, brisk breeze. Even luckier for me, it decided to do this half an hour after I walked home instead of half and hour before I had to.

My whole apartment smells lovely. I'm roasting a chicken breast and potatoes in some rosemary.

Snacks

2008-05-23T11:37:00.007+09:00

One of the teachers just came up and gave me some snacks. Never one to turn down the opportunity to try something new I graciously accepted, and waited until he was gone before doing an in depth analysis.

The packaging would like me to believe that it is exploding dog flavoured onigiri (rice-cakes). What had I done to deserve these canine stealth attacks? Heedless to the dangers I pressed on, determined to know what it was or die in the attempt.

Closer inspection revealed rice crackers with a soy glaze and nori pieces. It was nicer than I expected, but I probably wouldn't buy the myself.

I'm unsure what the first rice cake had done to upset the exploding dog, especially since the second pack seemed so happy?

We can only assume it deserved it. And that the dog didn't read the sign on the front of the supermarket store asking very politely to please not blow anything up:

Reason I'm stupid #382987520

2008-04-16T00:44:00.000+09:00

I bought a bike - rawr! But I have been too embarrassed to get on it in case my students see me - doh!

Seriously, I'm so dumb.

The thing is, everyone uses bikes here. Outside the stations there are veritable forests of them. It would make my life easier if I had one, and being surrounded by them seduced me, kind of like when I got my iPod, only I actually like my iPod. I've had it for nearly a week and the closest I've got to it is when I sat on it earlier today. I was going to give it a try but there was a guy standing in his kitchen window right there and I didn't want him to see me make my pathetic little concrete circles.

Bikes and I have a sad history; I learnt to ride one against my will when I was ten. By 'against my will' I mean that my mother decided I was going to learn whether I whined about it or not, and locked me out of the house with my uncle until he had taught me how. No, seriously. It wasn't a particularly auspicious start and I've kept away from them since.

Now that I've got one I just need somewhere to practice a little bit until I'm comfortable (err...well, stable anyway) again. Until I know I'm not going to fall straight into one of the open drainage systems at the side of the road. I live quite close to school though and lots of students bike past where my house is.

I'm ridiculously embarrassed about this.

An Update

2008-04-04T10:29:00.004+09:00

I went to Kyoto the other week and managed to lose my front door key at a shrine somewhere. My school had a spare but it was the weekend, so I had to spend the night at my friends house in the next city and get a stupidly early train to get to work on time the next day, while lugging all my luggage from said weekend with my because I didn't have a key to leave it at my apartment.

Piece by piece things are coming back together. My apartment got into a Terrible State as I've been busy the last few weekends (when I usually do my Big clean), from which I am still trying to rescue it. I'm working on the theory of cleaning one room a day, and hoping that by the time the whole place is finished the first room won't be messy again. So far I have the living room and the kitchen under control, bathroom and bedroom to go. Last weekend I decided to have a proper clear out of my kitchen shelves and get rid of all the old cutlery/glasses my predecessor left me and rearrange it to look nicer. There is a severe lack of surface space in my (and indeed in all) Japanese kitchens, so the things I don't use had to be done away with.

Have I mentioned the hatred I feel for the Japanese trash sorting system? If not I have been sadly neglecting my duties. They have 12 different categories for sorting out your rubbish, and then four different types of collection days. I have several issues with this ridiculously complicated system (seriously, Britain only introduced compulsory recycling a few years ago, and it took me long enough to get to grips with what was going where then) my biggest one being that I have trouble figuring out which items to put in which type of rubbish, and when to leave it out. I have a list, but there are so many things that aren't on it. Cutlery, for example, has no section. Knives do, but all other kitchen utensils apparently don't exist. Also, I know that regular (burnable) trash goes out Mondays and Thursdays, but the other three types have completely different dates. Some of them seem to come the first Tuesday of the month, but then the first Tuesday this month was April 1st, so they didn't (maybe they will next Tuesday?), and I thought 'recyclable resources' came on Fridays but my cardboard boxes were still there on Friday afternoon, even though they (should of?) been picked up Friday morning.

I asked one of the teachers in the staffroom. "I don't live in the city so I have different days. It is a little bit of a serious problem for you". Truer words were never spoken.

I have now come up with a very good system. I put any rubbish I have in bags, and put everything out on the regular Monday/Thursday pick up day. I ensure that any items with my name or address are thoroughly destroyed before throwing them away. The bin men then take the bags because they have no way of knowing who left it at the pick up point and therefore cannot track me down to give it back for resorting, and they cannot leave the bags there because the weather is getting warmer and it will attract bugs.

The system works.

In whih the authors body rebels

2008-03-17T10:15:00.005+09:00

Welcome to Sick Town, Sickmusshire, Sickonia. Population: Me.

Please forgive my absence gentle reader, a malady befell me and I have only just begun to wrest myself away from the villain. As a peace offering, here is the other part of my post I should have given you a week ago:

Blossom season is a very famous time in Japan, with good reason! I'm going to Kyoto this weekend so hopefully the sakura (cherry) blossoms will be out by then, but I have a feeling we may be a few days too early. Considering how ugly Japanese cities can be (no joke, mine especially), I thought it only fair to show that some parts can be absolutely breath taking during certain times of the year.

Yuuki Shrine:

I also went to see my friends nieces, how's this for cute? (err, ignore me, I am terrifyingly un-cute in this picture).

Why hello there Monday morning

2008-03-10T08:55:00.002+09:00

The first thing I did at my desk this morning was accidentally knock over a cup of water, thereby soaking a form I have to fill out and almost (but thankfully not quite) soaking the back of my laptop.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

I have things to keep me awake today! Nothing work related (don't be silly), but some beautiful pictures from my insanely busy weekend, so there's something for you all to look forward to.

Weekend plans

2008-03-06T14:14:00.002+09:00

I've got to make more of an effort to keep updating this blog. I was recently re-reading my blog from Sweden, and it makes me remember things that I'd just lose otherwise. I've been far too lazy.

Work is gouge your eyes out boring right now. I work at a senior high school and I'm a somewhat under utilised ALT. It's exam time right now so unless the teachers are directly involved with the exams (which I am oh so not) they have a little more free time. I've been filling this time with Japanese study and chatting, but the weight of all the time is starting to press on me, and left to my own devices I'm doing less and less. Inertia breeds inertia, and the thought of cracking open a textbook is enough to put me perilously to sleep.

Time has slowed to a crawl.

I'm going to Nagoya tomorrow though! My friend has to get a re-entry permit put on her visa so I'm bumming along for the ride. Anything that gets me out of school for the day right now is a good thing. I want to go to the foreign book store and foreign food store, but at some point I need to go and do all the tourist-y things, the castle, the shrine, the robot museum and so on. I might head up there after Kyoto at some point, I bet the castle would look beautiful around then.

Or, I suppose I could just be shrinking

2008-03-05T14:10:00.006+09:00

I got a delivery from theflyingpig.com yesterday, hurray for a multi-region DVD player and various snacks!

However, I seem to have misunderstood exactly how much I was ordering as everything is monster truck size! My apartment now makes me feel like a tiny person.

The thick acrylic cups I ordered (because God Almighty if I smash another glass in my sink...)? I can just about wrap my fist around half of one side because they hold 24 fluid ounces of water.

The package of brownie mix? A six pack wrapped in a giant cover box.

The dried cranberries? (that looked perfectly reasonable in this picture) weighed in at 850g. That's a lot of Craisins folks.

The danish pastries I thought were a mini selection pack? CAME IN A BOX THE LENGTH OF MY LOWER ARM! Containing 12 cartoonishly huge, head sized pastries.

The poor delivery man nearly had a heart attack getting it up the stairs to my second floor apartment ("amoii, amoii" he kept saying. All I could manage was "gomen" and little half bow as I took the box from him. He seemed mildly affronted that I was able to carry it).

But all is good. I also (intentionally) bought some cans of beans so I can make chili without having to soak them overnight, and I set up the DVD player with no problems.

The hovel is a little bit sweeter tonight.

Happiness is...

2008-03-03T16:25:00.001+09:00

Spending the day at 'work' IMing one of your best friends about the trip to Kyoto your planning for the long weekend at the end of March,

Sneaking out of work an hour early,

Walking home in the sun,

Stopping by the supermarket on the way home to find almost everyting you wanted is reduced,

Forgetting that you did a Big Clean on Sunday and being surprised by a spotless apartment when you open the door.

What's your happiness today?

Springwillcomespringwillcomespringwillcome

2008-01-21T12:19:00.001+09:00

My teacher told me last night that I should be careful not to get sick because 'it will get cold from now'.

Get cold? Apparently you missed me weeping icicles into my three scarfs.

I'm considering having the sweater my sister sent me for Christmas surgically attached to my body.

Bah

2008-01-17T12:20:00.000+09:00

I've been looking into distance learning with a university at home. I'm really struggling with picking up the language here and it just doesn't seem to be getting any better. With time slipping by I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time. The volunteer lessons I go to here just aren't working for me, I need something more methodical, more structured.

The good news: The University of Sheffield has the perfect course for me.

The bad news: It costs 300,000 yen (with the exchange rate today that's about £1425).

Siiigh. The advantages are huge, I am getting really sick of not being able to communicate with anyone, and if the head of my English department asks me one more time 'why don't you learn Japanese', or try to 'test' my (non-existent) Japanese skills one more time (like it's the work of an afternoon) I'm going to punch her right in the face.

Still, I was hoping to save some money while I was here and that would be a major finance drain. Pros and cons, pros and cons. I've emailed to ask for some information from the people in Hiroshima, so we'll see what happens.

It will be mine

2008-01-16T23:48:00.000+09:00

I saw a trailer for this movie when I went to the cinema in Bangkok and it looks awesome. As soon as it comes out on dvd it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. I just hope the dvd has English subtitles. Until then I'm going to keep my ear to the interwebs and see if any groups out there are going to fansub it.

A slow monday (public holiday - yay!)

2008-01-14T18:55:00.000+09:00

The presentation went fine, surprisingly well actually. People really participated so it kept things going nicely, which was a big relief.

I just did a load of laundry and forgot to check the pockets of my trousers. After a little post-wash cycle drum archeology, I found the pieces of a watch I bought in Bangkok. Don't worry, it was just a cheap thing I picked up in one of the markets to offset the frustration of not having my phone so I could check the clock, and there was a 50-50 chance the rash on my wrist wasn't from the heat, but from the buckle on the leather cuff making my nickel allergy flare up, so it's not a huge loss.

It was a bit sad picking out the pieces though. The washer wins another round, it is yet to be seen who will win the war.

The pound to yen exchange rate is at a year low! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way until next Monday when I get paid...

Gah!

2008-01-09T09:56:00.000+09:00

I have to give a workshop on how to encourage the kidlets to speak and listen in class (that is, to develop their own sentences and express themselves outside of the set vocab/dialogue) at our midyear conference on Friday. I wish I had an excuse to get out of it, but I don't think they're going to believe 'I was dead at the time!' when I come in to work on Monday. Bah. Mostly, first years don't have to do it because they're first years, and as such have not had the experience necessary to generate enough info for a workshop. This is a very good thought and I only wish I wasn't the exception to the rule. Apparently my predecessor didn't get rota'd in for it for quite a while and so I'm being punished for that by having to do it my first year out. Given that I'm one of the more under-utilised ALTs I've taught a total of two lesson plans since I got here.

I have a feeling that it's going to bomb. Big Time.

I really don't want to do it.

In other news I've just handed in my recontracting form to my supervisor, so assuming they want to keep me I guess I'm here for another year.

Back

2008-01-02T20:49:00.000+09:00

Bangkok is a city of contradictions. The ultra-modern lines of the mega malls rise above the cities, attached by the sky train the people are enclosed away from the dirty, broken streets below, protected from the noise and pollution of the never ending expressways. It's easy to play Eloi in these monuments to modern architecture. The levels are all encompassing, rising from the aquarium of the basement floor through the dedicated levels of food courts, designer goods, electronics, household, books, cars (cars! inside the mall!), beauty, all topped with a multiplex cinema.

We descended from these castles in the sky to the Morlocks below. Their territory is hot and dusty and so loud. People line the streets hawking their wares, chopping great baskets of fruit, shouting for you to come to see, to buy, very cheap, very good. The con men line the streets in taxis and tuk-tuks, stopping us every few feet to see if we want a ride, but we know their game and keep making our way over the cracked pave stones, keeping an eye and a hand to our bags as we go. It's not as nice as the clean, air-conditioned shopping centres, but the street markets are more real and more interesting than their new counterparts, and stumbling upon the tiny patches of startling beauty the city still holds is all the more breathtaking for it's unpolished surroundings.

You get the feeling that things age quickly, but there are still beauty marks on the face of Bangkok. The Grand Palace is a great jeweled eye, drawing people in from afar. Between the relentless march of stores lining the roads are littered brilliant yellow shrines, laid with garlands of fresh golden flowers, at odds with the corrugated grey and brown surroundings. People teem from every pore, an uncontainable mass. This is not a city for a leisurely walk, there is nowhere for you to stand dumb in your amazement, and with the haze of pollution hanging low one does not go to 'breath the air' of this place in any sense.

Good bye Bangkok. For better or worse I shall not forget you.

2008-01-02T10:18:00.000+09:00

Am writing this from Fukoka airport and am　on a timer, so I will have to be brief. It`s been a very long have to be brief. It`s been a very long day and be brief. It`s been a very long day and I keep accidentally switching this keyboard to Japanese characters when I press caps lock.

My flight left Bangkok at 1am, a godforsaken hour at the best of times. I landed here at 8am local time and am now waiting for a connection to Nagoya at 1230. From Nagoya Ihave to get a ferry, then a taxi from the ferry to get a ferry, then a taxi from the ferry to the train, then a train home. I have ferry to　the train, then a train home. I have a feeling I won`T be a train home. I have a feeling I won`t be in the best of moods by then.

Time is running out. I have pictures but they will have to wait until I`m home and not sleep deprived.

See you next year

2007-12-21T15:10:00.000+09:00

Well boys and girls, I'm off to Bangkok on Sunday and will not be back until after the New Year.

Heh. I'm walking to the station, to take a train, to ride a bus, to catch the ferry, to get to the airport, to fly to Bangkok.

I rock.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Dinner, last night:

2007-12-09T17:38:00.000+09:00

Verdict? Surprisingly delicious!

Guess what I gots?

2007-12-03T12:03:00.001+09:00

I know, it could be a long game.

Okay, okay, I'll just show you

A teacher asked me to check her translations on some things and we were chatting while I worked on it. Turns out she's really into homeopathy, and she asked me if we use it in Britain. I explained that we don't use as many natural remedies, but they are available, and that we use things like tea tree oil for our skin and things. Anyhow, the conversation somehow got around to Lush and how they try to use natural ingredients. We went online so I could find her the international site for Japan.

Today, I come into school and there's an early Christmas present on my desk! How nice is that?

The star soap is 'rock star' and I'm not sure what the pink think is. I think it's a bath bomb and they both smell gorgeous.

Happy!

My Supermarket, an endless source of delight!

2007-11-29T14:23:00.000+09:00

I've had a few pictures on my phone that I've been meaning to post so I figured I'd get them all up now.

Have I mentioned the giant fruit? Like, size-of-a-small-child's-head giant fruit? It seems to be the fresh produce of choice here. It's difficult for you to fully appreciate the scope of these gargantuan growths from my crappy cell phone pictures, but I'll try anyhow.

I have quite small hands and a fair size laptop.

This little baby is a sweet potato thing that was brought to a private lesson I teach by one of the students.

It was insanely purple, but tasted like potato and was a little bit... bacon-y? It had kind of a smokey-ness to it anyhow. It confused me a little at first because apparently it's called satsuma, which in England is a small orange/tangerine (called mikan in Japan). Delicious, but disconcerting due to my brain screaming at me that it should taste totally different every time I put a spoon of it in my mouth.

Next up, nothing says Christmas like フライドチキン (fried chicken)!

Actually, some one told me that people tend to eat fried chicken at Christmas here. New Year is the traditional family time, but Christmas was just sort of imported by companies here. KFC make a big deal of it I think? It's become a time to eat order cake and eat chicken with friends/significant others. There's Christmas music in stores and a little section of decorations and things, but I don't think many people really celebrate it though. I don't get time of work for it (well, I do because I booked it off for Thailand, but technically).

The 'Work' Place

2007-11-21T13:32:00.000+09:00

A huge part of Japanese work culture is turning up. There are many days here that I don't have class, but I would have to take part of my carefully hoarded vacation time should I want to go home. Appearances are everything.

There are various degrees of looking busy that you can choose to practice (or not, as the case may be) when you have nothing to do. Whether I choose to largely depends on my mood and my observations of other teachers. Usually, if I want to do any obvious slacking (such as watch a TV show, or listen to music), I'll go up to the LL room out of the way. If I'm just surfing the web I've become more inclined to stay in the staff room as the temperature drops (and God, how it's dropped). I don't know if the fact that the vast majority of sites I use are in English (and therefore indecipherable to the majority of the staff) has saved me or not, after all, it doesn't take much to recognise an instant messenger conversation or a live journal page. When the other ALT is here (meaning we are in the LL room all day) we go out for very good (long) lunches.

Some teachers don't care. I've seem many just lean back in their chair and sleep. Emphatically not in a subtle way. During the summer it was laughable, there were no students but unless we used vacation time we couldn't leave.

Don't get me wrong; I do my work, prepare for my lessons, even (God help us all) mark my exercise books when circumstances force it. I just happen to be in an ALT position that has a fair amount of downtime, this is not true of all positions. I'm just lucky enough to have a school that doesn't micro-analyse everything that I do (definitely not true of all positions!). I've been trying to decide if it's just the turning up, or if I really do have to look busy all the time (or just some of the time? for the oh so important appearances sake?).

I've been knitting at my desk for the past hour. So far the only person to mention it was the person sitting next to me who managed a mangled 'presento?' when I took it out. I wonder how long I can last?

I would if I would be able to successfully bullshit an excuse to keep doing it should anyone try?

Edit: Still nothing. I'm giving it half an hour and then pulling out my iPod to see what they do...

Improving the hovel

2007-11-19T15:42:00.000+09:00

I have been meaning to clean out my junk/spare room and figure out something to do with it for a while. It just seemed like such a waste of space in a small apartment you know?

It was a daunting prospect; my predecessor had used it for storing suitcases/boxes and drying laundry, just as I have been since I got here. I got restless Friday night and decided to actually do something about it instead of just picturing it.

Before:

This is actually the picture my pred sent me before I got here, but trust me when I say that their isn't much difference between that and what I started with. I just swapped his junk for mine.

So I cleared everything out. Wow there was a lot of crap stuffed in that small space. Then I took the sofa out of my TV room and put it in there, I never use it anyway (I'm always in the chair at my computer table) and it was too heavy for the tatami flooring so it was leaving marks, along with the bookshelf out of my bedroom.

After:

I also set up my kotatsu in my (now empty) TV room! A kotatsu is a type of low table with a heater attached to the underside, and a blanket to keep the heat in. In cold weather you sit in it (and try not to fall asleep!). This is extremely useful as Japanese apartments seem to be make of paper and wood, which means there is no insulation.

The Kotatsu:

Given that it's soooooo cold right now, it has become my new favourite piece of furniture. I bought a couple of floor chairs and just tuck myself in :)

In other freezing my arse off news: I need to buy more winter clothes. Desperately.

Somebody Kill Me

2007-11-09T13:10:00.000+09:00

I've just been informed that it is the job of my schools ALT, and his/her supervisor, to do one of the presentations at the re-contracting meeting in January. Why was I under the oh so naive impression that these things were voluntary?

Also, considering I've only technically taught an hours worth of lessons at this point, what on earth do they expect me to talk about for an hour long presentation? It's nuts.

My supervisor told me with a bow and an 'onegai shimasu'. If he thinks for one moment I am planning this thing on my own he has another thought coming.

In other (more boring, but less heart attack inducing) news, I gave back the lists of students who hadn't handed in their compositions this week. After making the teachers tell them they had to give me their books by Friday, I've had an amusing trickle of embarrassed students coming up to me and bowing apologies. Some of the more unfortunately ones have been harassed and prodded into apologising in English by the teachers standing behind them.

Why on earth do they make the boys change outside for basketball practice? I keep turning around the blind corner when I walk to the konbini and not knowing where to look.

Sweet breath

2007-11-01T15:22:00.000+09:00

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

The can of chemicals I injected into various parts of my tatami have worked a miracle.

I am breathing my arse off right now.

I'm going to be vacuuming every day for now, which is a bit of a hassle but worth it. It's sooo much better at my place though. I knew it was bad but you don't really appreciate how bad until things are better.

Japanese lesson tonight and I have managed to lose the book with all my carefully organised notes in it. This is what I get for cleaning my apartment, I have no idea where anything is now.

Zan the mighty dust mite slayer

2007-10-30T20:40:00.001+09:00

So I had a nice post about the Halloween party I went to the other night, complete with pictures, but that will have to wait until later this week.

Firstly, and far more important, Japan is trying to kill me.

I had the flu a few weeks ago and figured that all the breathing problems I was having were connected to that, but it turns out that when the seasons change all the dust mites in the country realise that my tatami flooring is their Mecca, and move on in.

That's right, I'm allergic to my house.

I vacuum every day but it's just not making a difference. It's also apparently quite common for the nylon blankets to really set some people off, so now that it's gotten a bit cooler and the blankets have come out, my asthma has been really bad.

Luckily I found some dani no kujo or dust mite killer spray. You stick the needle into your tatami and it wipes out the little bastards. I've declared war and one of us is going down.

I bought some more bedding tonight and am just going to start fresh, mine was obviously in storage in the cupboards over summer and I have no way to wash an dry a thick blanket that won't end with it going mouldy. I changed my curtains recently (because the old ones were mind-breakingly ugly) so I don't think they will be a problem. If none of that helps then I'll go to an electrical store and buy an air purifier. It will cost about 10,000 yen I think (approx...£40?) but the choice between £40 and breathing is an easy one. I can't deal with my asthma being this bad anymore though, I'm back to using my inhaler a few times a day but it still feels like someone is sitting on my chest all the time.

I last posted when?

2007-09-24T10:15:00.000+09:00

I'm taking it day by day at the moment. There are times when I think everything is just that bit too hard and hiding in the Language Lab is definitely the way forward, and then there are days like yesterday when I just stop and think 'I'm so lucky. I'm So. Lucky.'

I was really looking forward to my Japanese lessons starting a couple of weeks, ago but it turns out I kind of hate them. I'm really disappointed because I want lesson so desperately but the format just doesn't suit me as a student; the one on one teaching sends me into a panic, and the teacher I've been assigned just isn't teaching me what I want her to. It leaves me completely frustrated at the end of the lesson in an embarrassing, near-tears kind of a way. There is a different lesson in Ise that I may try instead. It's more work/expense for me to get there but if the lessons work for me then it Will be worth it, right now the Taki ones are kind of making me hate Japanese and I don't want to happen.

In contrast, the community centre lesson that I inherited from my predecessor is actually awesome. I didn't want to do it but felt guilty just not calling them as apparently it's kind of traditional that the Matsusaka ALT teach it, and they'd be kind of heart-broken if I refused. So glad I did.

I shouldn't leave so long between posts, it makes me forget what I wanted to write. Yesterday I went to the Futami shrine, which was amazing. There was an aquarium thing at the end and we saw the sea-lions. I got some pictures that I look really good in, something I'm just not used to saying about myself as I hate hate hate any and all photos with me in them. As soon as my friend sends them me I will post them.

Bangkok Bound

2007-09-19T10:05:00.000+09:00

I'm going to Bangkok for New Year! Originally I wanted to go home, but prices will be quite high and I just can't face the 14 hour flight coupled with the inevitable bitch of a jet lag. My friend (who teaches English in Korea) wanted to try Thailand and hotels.com had some really cheap rooms available. It's only a short flight so the prices aren't too high, even though they spike a little that close to holidays, and I get to try a new country! I want to visit more of Asia while I'm here, it's too expensive to do from the UK but really cheap from Japan!

With the public holidays around that time it means that if we leave the 23rd then I only have to take 4 days of my nenkyuu (vacation time - I get 20 a year) and then fly back on the 1st.

Start the year as you intend to continue I suppose, remembering that all a good life needs is a passport and a corkscrew.

Victory is mine

2007-09-16T18:26:00.000+09:00

I defeated the Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite some interesting suggestions to scare them away ('sacrifice a goat when you open the door!') I took the long route and let them say their piece and ask their questions. After about an hour of pleasant chatting and lots of smiling they could see that they were getting nowhere with me. I politely refused all further offers of magazines and visits. They seemed disappointed, but with a somewhat tenuous grip on the English language, they lacked the skills to push it.

The upside of talking to them rather than pretending to forget they were coming is that I won't have to make excuses as to why they can't come to my place every time I see them from now on.

All in all I had quite a productive day. The apartment got cleaned and vacuumed, half my laundry got washed (it would have been all but I have limited space in which to hang them to dry), I started to make some flashcards to help me begin to learn kanji, and found some information on DramaWiki for the upcoming Autumn season on Japanese TV. In related news, I love the recorder on my cable TV.

I also made a budget spreadsheet in Excel. Usually I would just check what's happening with my money through my Internet banking, however because I don't have that here and my cash card can't be used as a debit card it's all cash all the time. It makes it harder to keep track. I've got enough to live on easily, but I want to see if I can budget in a trip to Bangkok for the new year, and after that I want to start sending money home, so I'm trying to keep an eye on it.

I'm being followed by a Jehovah’s witness

2007-09-12T17:55:00.000+09:00

I saw the woman again.

Today I'm walking home from school and she's walking with a friend and flags me down. I don't really want to talk to her so I smile, say hello and keep walking. They start to walk with me. We chat until I get home and I say 'sorry I have to go' and she says 'We want to visit you, wednesday ok?'. I tell her I'm busy wednesday night with english club (lie). At this point she's already asked me 'what god I have' and I've told her I don't believe in God. It seems to have made her and her friend more determined and they gave me some literature to read. The long and short of this is that they have refused to get the hint and are now coming to my house saturday afternoon. Gah! I can't get rid of them! It seems the first one is local enough that I'm pretty much guarenteed to bump into her again (let's face it, I don't exactly blend in with the crowd) and they now know where I live.

This day sucks so hard.

The joy of being an obvious minority

2007-09-10T11:49:00.000+09:00

I was packing my bags at the supermarket yesterday and a woman came up to me and introduced herself. I thought at first that maybe she knew my predecessor and so wanted to say hi, but a few sentences in I realised she was just a random woman who seemed excited over a fact that a westerner was shopping at her supermarket. Strange but relatively harmless. She spoke a little English and then got to the point.

"I am a Jehovah's witness, I want to visit you"

err... really?

"Yes! You live close?"

umm... fairly close... I guess...

What you've got to picture here is the fact that this woman seemed so happy to see me. Religion isn't really my bag but I didn't really know how to get rid of her? I don't know if maybe she thought because I was a westerner I'd automatically be more interested than my Japanese counterparts? I gave her the group name of my apartment building when she pressed me for it ("I think I know" she said uncertainly; I didn't elaborate) but not my apartment number.

We smiled and said our goodbyes. I left the store quickly.

I'm going to look for her very carefully next time so I know who to avoid.

Oh the Excitement.

2007-09-05T14:11:00.000+09:00

The school is abuzz with preparations for the school festival; predictions of a typhoon be dammed! There are a small army of students painting enormous banners and shoving food tickets for me to buy at every corner. They've got quite a racket going. Of course, all this excitement means no classes for me! It will change next week I think, but until then I will enjoy the freedom.

I went to the flower arranging club for the first time and they told me I should put a little display in with them at their stall. I was all 'Seriously? Did you see my arrangement?' but they remained determined so I am coming in early to make one with them.

I may have an IP phone waiting to be picked up. I will run home and negotiate with my post office vocab to see if we can hep each other out. If we come to an arrangement I will be Skype bound.

Please do not pet the gaijin

2007-08-31T13:03:00.000+09:00

In Japanese schools they don't have cleaners come in and clear up after everyone. Instead they set aside time at the end of each day for each class to clean their rooms. Just after lunch they come in a group and clean our staffroom.

Which is how I came to be blogging right now, needing an excuse to get me through this 10 minutes when I feel entirely too conspicuous while they're cleaning around us. Not really knowing how to communicate but feeling bad for ignoring them, unable to meet their eyes.

It's a strange time of day.

On to other things. I have a lesson to plan for Monday and I have no clue what to do for it. The teacher has come up and told me 'I will also be student in this class, it is team teaching but this is your class' (big help there, thanks) before leaving for the day. I've looked through my predecessors notes and found his old lessons plans and stuff, but I think at the very least the new vocab is going to have to have Japanese translations (which I don't know!). Some of the work he set for them was 'translate this info into Japanese' so that we can check their understanding, sadly this isn't really possible for me as they could write anything they liked and it would all look like pretty scribbles to me.

On a slightly more positive note, I survived Big Intro quite well, and the kids seem a little less scared of approaching me now. It can be quite funny at times. There are certain rules they seem to need to follow when approaching the ALT. Absolute number one is never attempt it alone! You must either be in a group of 4 or 5 (if you're a girl), or riding past on your bike on the way to school in the morning (good for both genders but again - never alone!). In terms of actual interaction you may only go as far as greeting, anything else may lead the ALT to actually try a conversation. If you are in a larger group, the combination of an audience and the laser stare of a blue-eyed foreigner may cause you to forget your name*. Having successfully received a 'hello' or 'good morning' in return, thus showing understanding and proving your English prowess, you may then proceed to either burst into giggles or high-five each other as you run away (again, depending on gender).

I finally got my foreign reistration card today, I now officially exist. Hopefully that means I will be able to get a cellphone at some point.

I am making an (admittedly, possibly futile) attempt to make my apartment look more like a home and less like student accommadation. I don't want to spend huge amounts but I'm planning on being here for as long as possible so I think it will be worth the investment for 3 years. I went to a third year JETs place the other day and was struck with intense hovel envy.

*Sadly, I'm not kidding. Though this new superpower could be useful when I come to develop my own special brand of 'stink-eye' for the classroom. Must...not...abuse... power...

I survived (for now)

2007-08-28T09:13:00.000+09:00

Speech given to the staff room, I have the big one tomorrow.

It didn't help that the meeting was earlier than I thought so I was a couple of minutes late. The panic caused me to forget one of my lines and have to check, my notes which causes a smattering of laughter. Luckily it felt more like 'aww, look at the ALT trying her best' than 'wow she's dumb'.

I bought a new rice cooker! The one that came with my apartment was terrible, every time I tried to cook it ended up as either hard kernels or rice paste. Incidentally, after a quick gander on my 'Survival Kanji' book it turns out there is actually a rice paste button on the cookers here, but my menu button was broken so I choose to see this situation as 'my cooker was crap', rather than 'Zan is Japtarded'. The fact that I have no problems with my new one seems to support my conclusion.

Speaking of Japtarded, my sense of well being from having mastered kana lulled me into a false sense of security yesterday when I decided to take a trip to Komeri in search of shiny things. Buoyant with confidence in my own abilities I asked one of the shop people if they had an IP phone. Sadly this is where it all started to go wrong. I didn't know the exact word for IP phone, so I used 'computer phone' (konpyuta denwa) in a seemingly logical exchange.

Wrong. Oh so wrong.

コンピュタでんわがありますか
konpyuta denwa ga arimasu ka?

You have never seen so much pandemonium in all your life. You see, the one major flaw with this speaking Japanese thing, is that unless they answer hai or iie (yes or no) I have very little idea what they're saying. If they ask for clarification or more detail I stare at them blankly with that look in my eye of wakarimasen (I don't understand). She goes and gets her supervisor. Somebody else comes over with a piece of paper and a pen and I draw a picture of a laptop with a phone attached and draw an arrow to the phone and say 'denwa'. Nothing. Someone else comes and shows me to the cables, pointing to the wire I'd drawn to the computer, I shake my head and they all look lost.

"Kibordu?" *circles the laptop keyboard*. Iie.

At this point there are about 5 of them and normal business has ground to a halt. They're trying really hard but I just don't have any other vocabulary to offer them, and I'm so embarrased all I want to do is to pay for my rice cooker and run. A woman comes up and says 'I help you? My sister eigo speak' and I nearly cry. She gets her sister on the phone who then explains to the staff what I'm looking for.

They don't sell it. I am still Skype-less.

I leave as quickly as possible.

I feel clever (but I'm not).

2007-08-26T22:20:00.000+09:00

I've managed to get most my katakana down and it's amazing what a difference it makes when you can sound out words on menus and signs. Of course, I still don't know the English translation when I've decoded the kana, but hey, it's all about the baby steps.

It makes me feel ridiculously clever when I sound out 'chuuu.... no wait, chooo..ko...ru...ke..ki? chokorukeki? hang on, chocolate cake? Dude! I'm a genius!'. That's the thing I love about katakana, most if the words are foreign loan words so once you sound it out and remember that Japanese have no 'l' sound you're usually not a hundred miles away from the English equivalent. I'm keeping myself sadly entertained by being able to read (if not understand) everything I see.

Well. Not everything. Kanji still eludes me, but lessons start 9/11.

Assuming I survive that long that is. My upcoming heart attack? An introduction speech I have to give. In front of the whole school inauguration assembly. And some parents. In Japanese.

Somebody kill me.

Just plug it into my vein!

2007-08-21T16:26:00.000+09:00

Hurray! I'm back. Internet has been installed in my apartment as of about half an hour ago so expect much more regular updates from now on. Speaking of being connected, have a look at the picture below and tell me if you notice anything absolutely awesome...

TMI, you have been warned

2007-08-14T14:16:00.001+09:00

I've just had to admit defeat and use the school toilet. This is an experience I would rather have forgone because my school only has the Japanese style squatter toilets. It wouldn't be so bad but the school bathrooms are really not that nice and I was already kinda squeamish about what might be on the toilet slippers (you have to change into special slippers when you enter the bathrooms). One of the other JETs pointed out that 'nice squatter' is a bit of an oxymoron, as if it's going to be nice then chances are it's been upgraded to western-style facilities. I've found the toilets here tend to be either primitive or super powered. My school has the latter, a porcelain hole in the ground (I've never really had to think about aim when I've peed before, oh Japan what new horizons you have brought to me!), though it does have the advantage of no matter how gross it is you don't actually have to touch anything. My hotel in Tokyo however, had a toilet that was more advanced than my laptop.

Though I nearly had a heart attack when I accidentally pressed my hand on one of the buttons during use once. Call me old fashioned but surely toilets shouldn't be able to suprise me like that?

Reporting from the trenches

2007-08-13T14:09:00.000+09:00

I figured I'd give you all a quick run through of what's going on now, else I'll have to do a post with too much in it and end up not saying anything at all.

I feel very stupid here. Without any Japanese I don't seem to be able to function by myself for the most basic of things, but it's different because I can't just guess, or even look it up in the dictionary easily. It's quite a bit of money but I think I'm going to invest in an electronic dictionary, one that will let me write in the kanji and just have it spit the word back at me.

Japan has never met a food they couldn't add green tea to. Green tea flavoured pocky? Surprisingly delicious! Green tea flavoured kitkat? Not so much.

I was thisclose to buying green tea flavoured hagan daaz, but restrained myself at the last moment.

Other Japanese foods I have tried include mochi (a type of ball made of a sweet red bean paste, wrapped in a clear [and I'll admit somewhat suspicious looking] jelly goo type of mixture), and tako-yaki (a piece of octopus wrapped in some type of white sauce with onion, then breaded into a ball and deep fried). Both were magically good (I know! It shocked me too!).

The final countdown

2007-08-04T08:47:00.000+09:00

(80's power tunes optional)

So this is it, I leave tomorrow afternoon. I came back from mum's and emptied my entire suitcase in an attempt to skim off anything unnecessary. Turns out it's all pretty necessary. After repacking it's only 1.5kg lighter than it was and now weighs in at 23.5 kg. Considering my baggage limit is 20 I suppose a kilo and a half is still a help, but I just keep finding things I need to put in there.

I haven't packed my hand luggage yet because I can't stay off my computer long enough to admit defeat and just put the laptop away in it.

I still need to shower and change my bed sheets.

Oh crap! and wash my uniform so I can return it to Sainsbury's before I go.

God I'm organised.

Why I hate packing: part 384856345

2007-07-30T18:17:00.000+09:00

I can't fit my life into 20kg. It cannot be done. With the excess luggage costing £42 a kilo, this is going to hurt. JET are forcing us to pack two suitcases so we can ship one and it turns out they way a good 4kg each. I swiftly changed my second case to a hold-all, but still.

I'm so sick of this packing malarkey. It's 2007, shouldn't we all have transporters by now?

Cold hard cash

2007-07-25T07:01:00.000+09:00

My currency arrived today. I must be careful not to use too much of it when I get to Tokyo, just because it looks like monopoly money doesn't mean it should be spent as easily.

I ended up changing £800 (195000 yen). A lot of the worries about key money didn't end up being a problem so even if I have to pay two months rent up front (about £440-ish all together) that should be enough. I think we get paid on the 21st anyway.

Mi Casa (warning, picture heavy)

2007-07-20T22:16:00.000+09:00

My pred just sent me pictures of my new place! It's bigger than I thought it would be (I was expecting just a room or two).

The entrance:

Turn right:

The Kitchen (just as well I had no plans of throwing any large dinner parties:

The Bedroom:

The spare room:

The living room (the yellow in the corner is another couch):

Living room again:

One thing I don't think I'll be able to get used to is the fact that most Japanese kitchens (including mine) don't have an oven, just a toaster oven thing, so I'll have to look into that when I get there.

Somehow time went from 'Oh, I'm leaving in a couple of months' to 'shit, I leave in just over two weeks!', I'm not quite sure what happened in between there, but it's all going very quickly. I'm doing a trial pack of all my stuff at the moment to check my suitcase weight and what else I need to buy, with only 20kg luggage allowance (damn you American bastards getting twice that!) and having to split it between two bags (one to be sent to my apartment, one for a few days in Tokyo) I'm being forced into actually organising my stuff, rather than just going my usual route of stuffing it in and hoping for the best. I got a letter from the Mie BOE saying they don't allow us to take luggage on the public transport 'for safety reasons' so I have to ship my little bag from Tokyo to Mie as well. It's going to be a careful balancing act of getting stuff I need in the Tokyo bag vs not needing the same stuff the first few days in Mie while I wait for it to arrive.

Information overload

2007-07-04T10:27:00.000+09:00

My predecessor got in touch with me earlier today so I now know a lot more about my placement! Hurray! The poor guy though, once he had contacted me I emailed him back with three million different questions.

The first big thing is that I finally have my specific placement and it is in Matsusaka-shi, exactly where I had requested! Apparently I have nice apartment that is quite well located, so no getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with only rice paddies for company (as can so often happen with JETs), that will cost me 55000 yen a month (about £220/$450-ish). I have just one school (a high school) about 15 minutes walk away, where the English level is quite high. There a quite a few JETs in the area, including one I will be working with one day a week.

All in all I'm feeling pretty groovy about the whole thing.

In (only slightly) less exciting news I have to get up to catch the train to London in two and a half hours, and I can't sleep. I will be there a couple of days for my pre-departure orientation.

I love my life so much right now.

I officially can't control myself

2007-07-02T10:56:00.000+09:00

But I'm now up £300 ($550-600) rather than £150.

Okay, seriously now, must stop.

A way to finance JET

2007-07-01T15:51:00.000+09:00

Online gambling!

R-risk free investment?

(I'm £150 up, as long as I can control myself and not bet again then that should cover London and some shopping I have to do).

Relief!

2007-06-29T15:21:00.000+09:00

I got my sample contract and terms and conditions in the mail today, and it had two pretty cool looking points in it.

The Director shall pay expenses incurred at the time of rental, including any deposits, key money and contract renewal fees.

I went on to the miejet forum and the general feeling is that Mie JETS as a whole don't pay key money! That eases a huge amount of my cash worries right there!

There was also another little bit in the cover letter:

Concerning your apartment [...] The rent will be approximately 60,000 yen. Your apartment will be comprised of a kitchen, bathroom (with a toilet) and at least one or two other rooms. Each apartment will be equipped with such items as a television set, refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner, and bed (or futon).

All that makes me very happy! yes there are cheaper rents out there, but no key money and some appliances means that at least I'll have a part furnished hovel as apposed to a bare one! Obviously I'll get more details on exact numbers when my pred contacts me, but YAY anyway! I feel a lot less concerned now.

Money was one big worry because the key money for apartments in Japan can be anything from 1-6 months rent and if mine ended up being on the high end (or even the mid-range) I just didn't know how I was going to pay it.

This is a huge weight off my mind. And wallet.

A little more info

2007-06-25T08:18:00.000+09:00

The murky waters of my placement are beginning to clear. I received a letter informing me that my placement will be in the Mie prefecture, and that I will be flying out with Group B on August 4th.

While I would have been happy with anywhere at this juncture, I was particularly surprised with getting Mie as it was my top choice on my application. With my being an alternate and then getting upgraded, and with so many shortlisters not getting their placement requests, I wasn't expecting that at all!

I don't know my exact city/town/village yet (I requested Matsusaka) but have been told to sit tight and wait to be contacted by my contracting organisation (and hopefully my predecessor) to find out more.

I'm hoping they'll get to me soon as I'm getting a little obsessive compulsive with my email checks and postman stalking. I think the postman might be hoping the same.

Don't know when I'll be back again...

2007-06-18T09:53:00.000+09:00

Actually, there's a whole lot more I don't know.

I don't know where in Japan I'm going, or exactly when I'll be going there (though right now it's looking to be in about six-ish weeks, which is a little scary with so little information), and I don't know Japanese. I don't really have enough money and I know a total of one person in the entire country. I have no information on my predecessor, if I even have one, nor the number/type of school I'll be teaching at.

Other than that though, totally sorted.

Ahh, but that's the joy of travelling to new places. Going in entirely unprepared, making a bit of a dick of yourself and (hopefully) learning from the experience. It's part and parcel of the whole year (or more!) abroad gig. I've done it before in Sweden and America with varied degrees of both success and terror, but I feel that it's only this trip, in a place I've been dreaming of for years, further from home than I've ever been, that will see what I'm truly made of.

With a pocket guide to beginner's Japanese in my bag, a ESID tattoo on my forehead, and a friendly, if somewhat clueless, smile on my face I say 'dear JET Programme, It's time to make or break me'.

(Please don't break me)