i still don’t really know which one it was for sure, but i do know that both are pretty much true.

i heard from my employer today, and they told me that the principal has told the board of education that he’s “concerned” that i “don’t understand japanese school systems” or something like that.  his complaints against me were how this past friday one of the students caught me chewing gum at lunch recess and went and told the principal, and how occasionally i’m a few minutes late.  i  travel an hour to get to the school and sometimes the trains are delayed from rain.  which makes me miss my bus.  meaning sometimes i AM a few minutes late.  i always call and apologize and i haven’t ever really missed anything anyway.  so it’s not like it’s caused a problem.

obviously his complaints are minor, but he felt the need to call and tell the board of education, my boss’s bosses, that i’m a bad employee.

anyway, i already wrote one really long entry about this but i unpublished it because i don’t think it’s necessary to go so in depth with this.  especially considering the apparent amount of people i don’t know that are finding my blog based on searching for japan or something.  no offense to those that are doing that.  it’s just that i meant this blog mainly for people i know.

point is, i turned out to be right and they really are sort of out to get me at that school.

it’s nice now because it’s sort of in the open now, instead of them just acting like jerks to me all the time and me pretending everything’s normal and trying to be friendly all the time.  now when i’m acting friendly and they’re being cold, i know why.

my company has told me that it’s nearly impossible to get a school change in the middle of the school year, so my options are to either stay there until next march, or, break my contract and leave.  they didn’t tell me the last part, but it’s how i am looking at it.

i’m going to just wait and see.  it’s only been 3 months.  it’s ONLY BEEN THREE MONTHS!  IT’S ONLY BEEN THREE MONTHS and the principal is calling the board of education tattling on me like the kid that tattled on me for chewing gum.  for equally valid complaints, both of them.

i guess it’s no secret that i haven’t been having as much fun in japan as i thought i would be, and after this i’m not sure how much i feel like fighting to stay.  if those jerks at the school are the type of bitter assholes that want to try to make my life Hell for no good reason, then what would i want to fight for that for?  it’s not really a giving up thing.  i’m not a quitter.  it’s more that i feel like i’m wasting my time here.  i was having more fun when i was back in LA.  everybody i know has jobs and they’re making good money and getting started doing big things.  i’m wasting a year and not even enjoying it.  call me spoiled or lazy or whatever you are thinking, because you don’t have any idea.  oh well.  it’s just how it is.

it really sucks because the one other school i’ve been teaching at has been awesome.  they love me there and i love being there.

anyway, i will definitely be sticking around at least until the fall.  i’ve dealt with worse jerks than these people before for much longer periods of time, so i know i can handle it.  i think that if, around september or october, things aren’t better, and especially if they’re worse, then i’m going to put in my 30 days’ notice and get back to the real world.

it’s basically my bed time right now and i feel like i had a bigger purpose for starting to write this entry.  it’s starting to turn out like the one i wrote and took down before.  i don’t know.

basically, i think that maybe japan isn’t really that bad of a place if you get the right situation, but i’m a pretty unlucky guy sometimes and i have got a pretty bad draw.  i also found out this weekend that those little numbers written by my door panel on the outside of my apartment are most likely burglar codes, so i’m probably about to get ripped off.  i scribbled them out, but the fact remains that they are targeting this building.  my door handle was partially unscrewed the other day when i came back.  it was hanging off.

it seems that the rainy season might be starting to come to an end!  and my summer break is going to start in about three weeks!

so i’ll be free for half of july and all of august.  i’m pretty excited even though i have nothing planned.  i’m probably going to just try to catch up on my sleep.

speaking of which, i need to go to bed.  when i remember what i meant to write in this entry i’ll edit it later

i just wanted to write about something that happened today.

i have realized i usually have really good or really bad fridays. just in time to set the tone for the weekend. today, which was friday, was a pretty good one.

i finally started teaching my classes at the “bad school”, and things are going smoother since i don’t have to spend as much time sitting around wasting time. and the kids really love me so much. all that time i spent hanging around the school, hanging around the classes, when i still didn’t have any lessons to teach, really let me get to know the kids, and now that lessons have actually started, they just go nuts for me. it makes me feel so happy. they are all always so happy to see me.

and i think that i like the kids in my schools more than anybody i’ve met in japan so far. when you think of elementary kids (especially elementary kids in asia), you get an image in your head. but one thing you don’t usually consider is that they are all individuals, and especially once you get up to the higher grades (4, 5, 6), they are just young people, not really even “KIDS” so much anymore. not toddlers and definitely thinking for themselves with their own developed personalities and all of that.

so when all of those kids go crazy to get the chance to learn things from me, it really is awesome. because those kids are way more likable as humans and as people than most of the other uptight people around here i deal with every day. it’s like they are old enough to be people but not old enough to have completely taken in all of the societal pressures and nonsense that makes people uptight and too serious. sure, there are some kids that take themselves too seriously. but there are a lot of wild kids too. there aren’t so many wild adults…

what I’m trying to say in my over-tired, too-late-on-a-friday-night way, is that being around all those kids can totally brighten up your day. so today was an ok day, because i got to see so many of the kids.

then as i was doing my commute back to my apartment, and i finished my bus ride to the train station, and got on the train at the station and sat down, i saw two kids get on the same car and sit down across from me. one was maybe around 12 and the other one was much much younger, obviously a younger sibling, and they were wrestling around and arguing. i realized that i recognized the older kid, one of the kids i teach at the OTHER school i teach at, meaning not the one i was at today.

i waved at him in the car and him and his little brother were there on the train across from me. i don’t want to keep writing in such detail like this, detailing every moment. so i’ll just tell you what i’m trying to describe.

Basically the kid is this kid named Kanata, and he’s a really cool little guy. and he had his little brother with him, named Hinata i think, and his little brother is a 1st grader at that other school. and the little brother was just being out of control and jumping around and trying his hardest to get into the bag that kanata had. it looked like maybe there was candy or something in there the way little hinata was going for it. and kanata was teasing his little brother and picking on him. basically that’s it. it was just so hilarious. because of the juxtaposition of all these uptight japanese people on a busy rush hour train grunting and glaring around while these two innocent kids were rough housing and being silly in the middle of it, totally unaware and oblivious to the grunting and staring of the masses around. kanata kept going “shh!” to his little brother, but it was just another way of teasing him, because 2 seconds later he’d be agreeing to give him some of the corn snack straw things from his bag, while covering his brother’s eyes with one hand and shoving the corn snack straw thing up his nose with the other hand. or surrendering his pocari sweat bottle and letting his little brother have a drink and then doing that thing where you shove the bottle up and into the person’s face so it blasts into their mouth and all over their face. and the little guy was just covered in pocari sweat within a few minutes, and had drool and pocari sweat coming down his face like crazy, but he was still just hyper as could be and having a great time. kanata acted like he was concerned and made hinata wipe up his mess using his own t shirt. he tried to wipe his face off but hinata would just waggle his face in the opposite direction, directly into some old man sitting next to him, who was visibly a bit upset about having some drooly pocari sweat dragged across his jacket sleeve.

I guess it’s hard to describe what was so funny about all of this without describing every little thing that happened. I guess it was just like, a big brother picking on a little brother. the big brother was smart enough to know that you’re supposed to be quiet and behaved on trains but fun enough to not care, and the little brother was just completely hyperactive and a junior comedian in the making. i know that a lot of their little performance on the train was a performance to make me laugh, but that’s ok, because it was hilarious and i was cracking up the entire train ride. i think a lot of people around thought i was just some weird foreigner laughing at two random little kids on a train. so i went over near them and started chatting with them.

Hinata’s 1st grade teacher turns out to be this lady that always gives me trouble in the teachers’ office and tells me that i’ll basically never amount to anything because i’m not crazy about all the seafood and japanese food that they shove my way at lunch time. she’s ALWAYS on my case. and she says some pretty screwed up stuff in the guise of joking around and trying to get me to eat the food or become a japanese person or whatever. even the other teachers around tell her to stop and gasp at some of the stuff she says. and i innocently asked hinata how he liked his classes, and he told me he HATES the teacher, and made a joke about her bowl cut haircut, and said he doesn’t want to see her, or meet her, or hear her voice, or think about her at all! and i think they said she stinks, and she’s too loud. that was funny, because i’m not crazy about her either.

Kanata told me they were on their way to a cooking class. i asked why. he said because they like cooking. so this little 6th grader (i think) and 1st grader were off, after school, on a friday, by themselves, to go to a cooking class, because they wanted to. how cute. and poor little hinata was going to show up with soft drink spilled ALL over him, and drool all over him as well. and chip crumbs and junk all over him and up his nose. with a big silly grin. and kanata was going to act like he disapproved of his dirty little brother even though he was the one that did all of that to him! all the while winding up and driving all the uptight people around them crazy and irritated. beautifully done.

basically it was like they put on a little performance on the train, and the comedic timing was perfect. i like those kids.

So i had to put up with some crap from the old hag at the bad school today just before leaving, but i got to enjoy a perfect comedy duo routine on the train ride back, so i was doing well by the time i got to my apartment.

i think as a “teacher” i’m supposed to keep those kids in line and make them behave themselves on the train. i think a lot of people were looking at me disapprovingly for just sitting there laughing (since the two had referred to me as sean-sensei a few times eventually). but being around all these kids all the time has brought out a lot of the kid that i still had in me. i never really am or was such an adult, but being friends with all these kids has really brought the kid in me out a lot more. and i felt like i was a 5th grader the whole train ride back. that’s one thing i have to say i like about this job. i get to run around on recess and play soccer and kick the ball and play dodgeball and run around on the grass barefoot and just act silly like a little kid again, and i think it’s great. i think it’s good for my heart. i never set out to be a teacher. i just took this job as a way to get to japan. i never really considered the prospects of actually having to teach kids and stuff. but now that i’m doing it, i’m finding that i love it. the kids all love me and i love being with the kids.

i don’t think i’ll ever actually be a teacher, though. i think maybe i’m still too much of a kid, and not enough of an adult.

sorry for rambling so much. just tired. i wanted to write this down here before today ended, because it was such a crack up and i know i’ll remember that train ride forever. i wish i had taken a photo or a video of those two going at it for the entire 20 minute train ride.

This is the first time I’ve written any kind of blog entry about coming here since I got here. I got here on the 25th of March, and now it’s the 29th of May. Obviously a lot of stuff has happened.

I don’t really feel like I have it in me to write any kind of detailed account of everything that leads up to right now, but I’ll try to bring you back up to date.

I left Boise, and flew to LA and stayed for about 5 days. Then I flew to Japan. I have a small fear of/thing about puking. My seat on the plane was the aisle seat, and the girl across the aisle from me was nearly overdosing on motion sickness medicines before we even took off, so I knew I was in for a treat of a flight. Just before takeoff, when she went to the bathroom and came back carrying 3 empty barf bags, I knew this would be an important time in my life.

I / she made it the whole flight without actually puking as far as I know, but then I guess the landing was a little too topsy turvy for her because she tried to get up as the plane was still taxiing on the runway and the stewardess shook her head and told her she needed to stay seated. The girl opened her barf bag and puked right across from me in full view of everyone. I was plugging my ears and looking the other direction, looking out the windows and pretending nothing was happening while everybody else was staring at the girl puking.

I got to the airport, went through immigration, baggage check, etc. etc., and got out to the other side. I bought my ticket for the Narita Express train that would take me straight to the area I needed to go to. After buying my ticket I went to a payphone to call my company to tell them what time I’d arrive at the station, so that they could meet me there to take me to the hotel and help me with all my baggage, which is what they said they’d do. They told me they had nobody to meet me, and could I possibly just find my way on my own?

I didn’t have time to flip out on the phone at them because my train was about to leave so I hung up on them and dragged my luggage to the platform and jumped on just in time. Then, I rode that train for about an hour and a half and made it to Yokohama station. From there, I had to use my Japanese skills and a lot of willpower and muscle power to make my way to my next, smaller train station. It was a nightmare, especially after a long flight.

I made it, and just as I walked out of the station towards the hotel (or at least where I thought the hotel was), it started raining. It was already night in Japan, too. I walked underneath an overpass where a bunch of bums were sleeping. I saw two giant rats wrestling each other in some bushes. I asked a bunch of people directions.

I made it to the hotel, got checked in (it was a miracle that the company had even gotten my hotel reservation set up correctly…), and met two girls who were also there with the same company up on the 8th floor where I was staying, as I was lugging my luggage into my room.

After that, I was in my room the rest of the night, and didn’t come back out until the next morning.

-

The next few days, a group of us foreigners banded together and spent a lot of times meeting up in the lobby of the hotel and embarking out to take care of the things the company said they’d help us take care of. Like getting our Foreigner Registration Cards and buying cell phones and setting up bank accounts. I amazed myself with how productive I was. I had almost everything done within two days. I had landed in Japan, and within 3 days I had a bank account, was on my way to having my Foreigner Registration Card, and had a working cell phone under my name. I’m sure there was other crap I did too that I had to do, but I can’t remember all of that stuff right now.

It was nice to already have an installed base of foreigners that I could network with. We helped each other to get things done, and it helped to keep me from feeling completely lost.

-

After a few days in the hotel (which seemed like a very long time), I got escorted to my new apartment that I had picked out while still in LA, by some volunteer woman. It was only a short cab ride from the hotel.

The apartment was on the 7th floor of an apartment building right next to an elevated freeway. The lightbulb in the bathroom didn’t work, and neither that woman or I could figure out how to open the wall panel outside to get in and turn on the gas. My cell phone also stopped working altogether. The woman acted like she was in a big hurry and she ditched me there after a guy from the gas company came to turn the gas on.

I felt awful and laid on the floor of my tiny empty apartment and wanted to die or go home. I couldn’t go anywhere because there was supposed to be a delivery of my furniture (a Japanese futon bed, an electric cooking hot plate, a table, a chair, a little fridge, and curtains) at some unknown point in the day. It was raining again.

I decided I absolutely needed to be able to have some kind of contact with the world in case something didn’t stop going wrong, so I left the apartment and went to the nearest Softbank store and asked why my phone didn’t work. Apparently it was just a crappy pre-paid phone that is buggy, and the girl at the counter just turned the phone off and turned it back on, which got it working. I felt stupid. A few weeks later I ditched that crappy pre-paid phone and signed up for a real-deal contract with a new, better phone.

I went back to the apartment and waited until about 8:00 at night when the furniture finally came. I went to the nearby Mos Burger and had dinner with the Jamaican girl who also came to Japan at the same time with the same company, who lives in the same building as me.

The next day was the first day of training. Training lasted a week.It was basically the first time I had ever worn a suit for more than two or three days in a row. I’m an old pro at it by now.

Training was OK. Nothing spectacular to report. Met a lot of fellow English teachers.

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The week after training, there was a ceremony where us teachers were introduced individually on stage, and then met up with the head English teachers from the schools we’d be teaching at. Sort of nervous to find out where I’d end up.

Met the three people and didn’t know what to think. The job started the following day, and I had to be at one of the schools at 8:30 AM.

-

So my job started. I teach at two elementary schools every week. The third school is brand new to having an English program, so they are still developing their curriculum. I don’t start there until July.

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One of my schools is awful. The atmosphere is like a morgue. The teachers are basically indifferent to my presence and are a little bit unfriendly. The head English teacher gives me busy work and is one of those crotchety old women that everyone wants to slap across the face for being such a nasty old woman. She’s one of those old people that likes to pick on young people just to pick on young people and to see them sweat. Thinks she’s earned some kind of right to be a jerk just because she’s old. I could go on and on about the stories of negativity from that school, but I’ll just leave it at that. Leave it at the fact that there are enough such stories to prove what kind of place it is. Luckily, it’s in a very beautiful area of Yokohama with sort of a small-town feel to it, and lots of nature. Every day at lunch when I go out for a walk I can feel my stress melting away.

The second school is in the same area. It’s excellent. I love going to the second school. It’s the Good School. The teachers are all extremely friendly, it’s bright there, and everyone is lively and happy. The kids are a lot of fun, and they love me like crazy. That’s true of the Bad School, too, though. The kids are easily the best part of this job. I didn’t even really know I liked kids this much until I actually started the job.

I chose this job as a way to get to Japan, not to be around kids and have fun. But every day when I wake up feeling like crap, thinking the world hates me, and I go to the school and start my first lesson and the kids are all pumped up and excited and so happy to see me, it makes me feel so good. I’m not the kind of guy to say cheesy stuff, but the kids truly brighten my day up a lot. At both schools, I get along with the kids better than the adults. I think it’s because I’m still basically a kid. A few weeks ago, I got in trouble WITH the kids at the Bad School. We were in the hallway and they were writing some kind of commentaries on their fellow students’ paintings hanging outside the classroom in the hall, and some of the kids were joking with me and testing my might by hanging on my arms and doing things like that. I didn’t realize it was supposed to be quiet time so I was joking around back with them, when the teacher came back from the bathroom or wherever she was, and reprimanded the kids and yelled at them and told them to silently do their work and be quiet. Just before entering the classroom door, she turned around and said to me in Japanese, “Sean, don’t you be screwing around either OK?”

I was a little stunned and also thought it was funny at the same time. Same reaction I’ve had since I was a 5th grader just like the kids. All I could do was look at the kids who were already looking at me and grinning that, “You got in trouble too” grin at me, and grin back at them. “I got yelled at!”

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Anyway, now that we’re sort of up-to-date, I imagine I’ll start updating a little more frequently and maybe sprinkled throughout my future updates will be some more details and stories that I skipped over on the way here. Obviously there is a lot to talk about since it’s been over two months already.

I can’t really say that I’ve done all that much, though. I still haven’t really made any good Japanese friends since coming here. Made a few good British, American, Australian, New Zealander, and Canadian friends, though. Maybe not GOOD, but I’ve met some people and we’ve hung out together in groups. Actually, my not-making-any-Japanese-friends thing is sort of a big theme in my life right now. Call it culture shock or whatever you want, but I’m bummed out about finding out what a bunch of cold, unfriendly, robotic robots the Japanese seem to be in general. I’m sure there will be more to come on this topic in future entries, so I won’t get into it here…

As far as things I’m actually interested in and things I think I’ll remember as big events in the future when I’m out of this country, I think the only things I’ve really done lately have been two shows. I went to see one of my favorite bands ever, Merry, at the Yokohama Bunka Taikukan. That was awesome, even though my seat was so far back I could hardly see anything. The next friday night I went to see this Japanese band I have been crazy about for a while called The Studs. That was a great show. They played at the Liquid Room in Tokyo in Ebisu. Since then, I haven’t gone to any shows even though there have been some I wanted to go to. The reason is that even for a band like The Studs, which is hardly famous in any sense in Japan, a ticket costs at least $40 when translated to dollars. And then you also have to pay for a $5 drink ticket when you get into the venue. Add in the transportation on the train and you’re looking at about $50 just to go to a show. That really bums me out. I love going to shows and I want to go to more, but at that price…

I think that’s a lot of writing for one entry. The little box on the right says I’m up to 2552 words right now. I know this entry might be a little boring since there are no pictures yet. I have a fair amount of pictures I can share.

But it’s friday night, I’m sitting in my apartment on a rainy night all alone, feeling pretty bummed out, and I’m sort of dizzy from not eating right enough and not sleeping well enough. So I’m gonna call it quits for the day. I’ll update later with more stuff, and put in some pictures, too. Please come and check in from time to time. It’d be nice to know that there are people that notice I’m alive, so please comment if you can.

Thanks!

Until next time.

basically i am still just as in-the-dark as i was when i wrote that entry. except that now i’m back in boise at my parents’ house, after a two-day drive here with my car packed with all of my possessions that i hadn’t already shipped via UPS, through rain and scary snowstorms. that hour when i was driving somewhere in the middle of utah late at night and it started snowing like crazy was one of the scariest hours of my life so far. it doesn’t sound scary but when you’re driving along the freeway by yourself, 8 hours in, and it’s dark and the snow is falling towards your car as you cruise along at 90 (and later slowing to 60), and it falls in such a way that it looks like you’re going into warp speed on star wars, except it comes in different directions and makes you question whether or not you’re going straight, and it blocks out the lines in the road while simultaneously making it wet and frozen and slick, and falls down so thickly in front of your headlights that you can’t see anything and are sure you’re 3 seconds from dying in a horrible car crash in the middle of the desert and becoming another highway statistic,,, IT’S SCARY!

other than that big move i just made, moving back home, and me passing my tuberculosis test at the doctor’s office this week, there’s not much to report. i’m kind of bummed out about moving out of my apartment in temple city. i loved that room. there were a lot of negative things but the price was right and the location and other little things about it made me love it. it’s hard to believe i’ll never throw on my running shoes late at night and take a quick jog up and down hermosa drive whenever i feel like it, ever again. never get to go skating in the shopping area on the opposite side of the block ever again!

but i guess i’ll have more fun things that i’ll experience in japan that i’ll be bummed about leaving behind when i do leave.

Oh, i got a new laptop! I’ve never had a laptop before. That’s what i’m using right now to type this entry on, though. I got it using a savings bond my grandma set up for me when i was still a little kiddo. i figured this would be a good time to put that thing to use. much better than blowing it on an xbox360 or something, at least, right? i wouldn’t do that. cause i already have one of those (CALL OF DUTY 4 WHAT’S UP OH YEAH).

so i’ll leave this blog like this. i’m less than a month from taking off and i still don’t know for sure where i’m actually going to be living and working, let alone have any apartment lined up or anything like that. it’s making me a little anxious.

oh that reminds me, i got some anxiety pills and some sleeping pills from the doctor when i was there. so i don’t have to worry about anything when i leave the country.

err more on that later.

it’s sort of late now, and i am trying to get myself on an earlier schedule while i’m stuck here in boise with nothing fun to go out and do at night, so i’m gonna get goin to bed now!

goodnight!

Sean

My name is Sean (Atten-Sean, a nickname given to me because of my alleged tendency to always try to be the center of attention). Nice to meet you!

I currently live in Los Angeles, California. I moved here about 4 1/2 years ago, from Boise, Idaho. I went to school here, and graduated recently with a degree in Japanese. Right now I’m in the middle of preparing to move away from California, back to Boise. The purpose of this move is to prepare for an even bigger move – to Japan! This is the real reason for the existence of this blog. I decided to establish this station on the internet to keep the people that know me updated on my travels and life in general. I think it will also be interesting even to people that don’t know me but have a bit of an interest in Japan or living abroad.

So that’s my introduction! Now I will get down to really blogging.

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Right now I am sitting in my room in LA with a good 3/4 of my belongings already in boxes in transit via UPS to my house in Boise, or already piled into my old bedroom there. I accepted a job offer with a company called Interac that staffs ALT English Teachers (Assistant Language Teacher) at elementary and junior high schools in Japan. Based on the info I’ve received, I am to be teaching English at an elementary school or two in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, which is the second-biggest city in Japan. This location basically perfectly matches up with the kind of location I stated as a preference at the original job interview, so I’m really excited.

I decided to go for an ALT job in Japan because.. well isn’t it obvious? My major is Japanese, and I think getting some real-world experience living in Japan and experiencing the culture first-hand are pretty much essential to making anything of my diploma. The way I came to have Japanese as my major is a bit unconventional. I was originally studying graphic design while continuing my study of Japanese language (which had been ongoing since high school where one semester of language classes is mandatory), when I realized Japanese was more interesting to me than graphic design. So I switched over.

The reason I requested to live in a place like Yokohama is that I have already had a bit of experience in the area and really liked it. I went to Japan with my girlfriend for a month in the summer of 2005 and stayed just a bit south of Tokyo and liked it a lot. Now that I’m graduated it looks like I’ll be going back, and I am experiencing a mix of excitement and nervousness.

I haven’t done any big moves like this since I moved from Boise to LA without knowing anything about LA at all beforehand. It was almost like moving to a foreign country. A lot of the things I’m experiencing now facing my move to Japan remind me strongly of just before I moved here to LA.

The lyrics to Rivers Cuomo’s demo “Blast Off” match the way I feel pretty much perfectly. It’s a song he wrote based on the feelings he had every time he was about to embark on a long tour with his band Weezer. He wrote the lyrics from a few different perspectives. The first perspective is the part of him that’s already feeling homesick before even leaving home. I understand this a lot, as I sit in my room with bare walls and extra toys, microwave food items, and other fun things that I bought in good spirits never thinking that I’d be moving out of the country before even using them. It’s a feeling that’s hard to express but it’s something you feel if you’re like me. Not to mention that I’ll be leaving my girlfriend of 3 1/2+ years behind in America. Another of his perspectives in the song is part of him that knows that the trip he’s about to embark on is going to be a lot of fun, so he should just relax and have a good time. I know this is true, too! I plan on having a “BLAST” of a good time in Japan. GET IT! BLAST OFF is the name of the song and i said BLAST of a good time!!!!!!!! I’m planning on just going for the one-year-contract anyway, so I might as well go have as much fun as I can and then come back here and unpause my real life.

Anyway this isn’t a JOURNAL, it’s a BLOG, so no more of this going on about wistful feelings and emotions. I am gonna blast off and be positive and have an awesome time in Japan!

So, just to prove I’m writing this all out in one take with no planning or good formatting or any foresight whatsoever, I’m going to write more info here. I only found out exactly where in Japan I’d be going two days ago, and since then I’ve been on light speed mode getting ready for it. I just put in my 30 days’ notice on my apartment today, and I’m already online looking at apartments in the Yokohama area. The only hitch is that based on what I’ve read on other peoples’ accounts on the internet, there’s a chance that I’ll get to Japan, go to my training week, and then find out they’ve reassigned me to a different location in a completely different area of Japan. So at this point I’m still just kind of going with the flow and I guess I’m just going to wait and see where things take me.

In the meantime, I’ll update this blog and let you people know what’s going on! As of right now, I’m waiting for the company to get the documents necessary for me to get my VISA to me so I can go to the consulate here in LA and have them processed. Then 3 days later, I’ll have my actual VISA for entering Japan and working there! Once I’ve got that, I’ll decide on a good pair of days and drive back to Boise.

Anyway, see you next time!