Notes From Japan! (or, Crazy Things I’ve Done in the Past Month!)

Yep, I’m in Japan.

Quick catch-up for those of you just joining the blog: back in the spring I accepted a teaching job with the JET program in the Japanese public school system, and three weeks ago I waved goodbye to New Hampshire and hello to amazing Toyama prefecture, a mountainous region on the Sea of Japan coast.

What was the transition like, you ask?  Well, here’s a rundown of the last 3+ weeks…

 

My Moving and Packing Week Was Crazy…But Not Too Crazy

Every time I move I tell myself I’m going to plan ahead and avoid a last-minute rush, but every time I fall behind and end up madly scrambling at the last minute.  The absolute WORST example of this was when I left Nebraska two years ago and made the stupid mistake of staying at my job until three days before I had to leave…then taking on some freelance work on top of that.  This left me with VERY little time to pack up and say my last goodbyes, so the night before my moveout date I stayed up until four a.m. and still had more to do, so I spent my entire last day loading the car, cleaning, and then crashing on extra night on a friend’s futon, putting me a day behind on what was already set to be a frenzied road trip back.  D’oh!

This time I wasn’t going to repeat that mistake—I avoided deadline-driven work of any kind for the two weeks before the move, then pushed back some projects I knew could wait a month or so.  I started packing about five days before my moveout but really kicked it into gear on day three, pacing myself and getting a good night’s sleep every night so I could keep up my energy for the final days.

All told, though, I still didn’t leave myself enough time, especially on the second-to-last day when I was left scrambling to load a U-Haul truck and move my apartment furniture into storage with barely enough time to make a goodbye dinner with some friends.  It was also MURDEROUSLY humid, and making all those trips up and down the stairs left me a trembling, sweating wreck—but all told, it could have been a lot worse.

 

 

I Went to JET Orientation in Tokyo…and THAT Was Crazy

Picture this: seven hundred jet-lagged new JETs (ha, ha) fresh off the planes from their respective countries (mostly America, but also a handful from Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Jamaica, and elsewhere), herded like cattle through Narita Airport picking up baggage, filling out customs forms, checking residence cards, and sending more bags to their respective cities before being bussed off to the 1,450 room (!) Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku for group check-in and instructions.  Every step of the way we were guided by volunteers in cyan-colored t-shirts carrying large JET signs, and when I finally got to my room there was nothing I wanted more than to lay down and be alone.

I spent the next two days sitting through presentations and orientation workshops at the hotel even though I, like most everyone else, could barely stay awake during the workshops but lay restless all through the night because of jet lag.  Though the workshops ranged from earthquake preparedness to the cultural impact of the JET program to teaching phonetics to kids, they all involved a lot of sitting—sometimes in a large auditorium, but sometimes in slightly smaller auditoriums, and attendance was taken by filling out your name and JET number on white cards that we passed in at the end of each session, making the experience feel distinctly anonymous.

The jet lag was not at all fun because each night when I lay down to sleep I’d crash for about four hours before waking up because my body thought it was mid-afternoon, so my roommates and I spent those frustrating early-morning hours lying awake before our alarms.

I harp on the lack of sleep thing because it’s pretty relevant to what happened next, which was…

 

 

I Flew to Toyama and Did a Bunch More Crazy Shit My First Day!

The day after the orientation workshops I was up at 5:30 to eat a groggy breakfast and meet the other Toyama JETs for departure…though our plane didn’t leave until 9:40 and we were stuck waiting for a LONG, bleary-eyed few hours.  There was some confusion over whether we had to wear our suits when we got to our individual schools: several of the handouts stated variations of “It might be a good idea to wear a suit your first day,” which I took to be Japanese code for “You have to wear a suit your first day,” though our regional supervisor said a jacket probably wasn’t necessary.  I decided to play it safe and wear the full suit with jacket, a decision I instantly regretted because right now Japan is fucking hot.

Here’s a rundown of everything I did my first day in Toyama, all while wearing my suit in the sweltering heat:

• Met the city mayor, and listened politely while he explained the area’s traditional myths in an impossible to understand local dialect.
• Met the city superintendent, and also listened politely while he explained his goals for the school year.
• Introduced myself in Japanese…a lot.  Once, after we’d introduced ourselves to a roomful of people, a new person entered, so we had to introduce ourselves twice.
• Learned about the local garbage rules (as those of you who’ve read my Japan novel might recall, there’s a lot of them…).
• Got interviewed by the local TV studio…in Japanese.  I had no idea this was coming and hadn’t prepared any Japanese for what to say, so I just kind of introduced myself and kept it short.  Then the interviewer asked us about our favorite Japanese foods and I said that mine was shime saba, which made her laugh.
• Went shopping at an awesome big box store for apartment supplies and food.  My furniture, however, was still at my predecessor’s apartment and wasn’t being moved for another two days, so until then all I had was my disheveled luggage, a futon on the floor, and the single pan I’d bought to cook eggs with.
• Finally, at long last, got some sleep.

 

 

Things Are Less Crazy Now Though!

So yeah, those 10+ days of moving, goodbyes, orientation, and adjustment were some of the roughest I’ve been through in a long time, but once things slowed down and I could relax, they got about a million times easier.

My apartment’s pretty sweet—it’s way bigger than either of the other apartments I lived in back in Yamanashi, with straw mat tatami floors and windows on either side so I can get a nice cross breeze.  My predecessor also left me a TON of stuff, including an actual Western-style bed, a TV, washing machine, plenty of kitchen appliances, and a rad salmon-colored bike.  What I didn’t have I was able to buy pretty easily in town or off Amazon.jp, including a gas range (electric hotplates are chotto mendokusai…), a low kotatsu table, and a printer for writing projects.

My job is also pretty sweet so far—though I’m not quite ready to talk about it here in the interest of online Day Job-related secrecy.  Part of my job as a JET teacher is to uphold the integrity of the JET program and represent my board of education…and rather than risk saying anything they might not like, I’ll be taking the quieter road for now.  Suffice it to say, though, that there’ve been no red flags so far and everything’s going well ;-)

I also realized that with all the chaos I’ve barely written anything beyond a few notebook scribbles in the last month, which isn’t good.  Yesterday and today were my first real days of sitting back down to write, and I found getting started to be equally tough both days.  Part of it’s the unfamiliar setup, and that my place still isn’t 100% organized yet (!), but mostly I think it comes from having been away from the computer and schedule book for so long that I’ve fallen out of my good work habits, so it’s going to take me a while to warm back up.

That being said, my real goal for the next few weeks is to get organized again and develop a new creative work schedule, since I’ve had to put a lot on hold over the past month.  My Japanese skills also DEFINITELY aren’t what they should be, so sitting down to study is going to be a priority too, leaving me no shortage of things to keep me motivated.  It’s going to be a busy few weeks and months, so stay tuned…

First, though, it’s time to try hooking up a Japanese gas range, and how hard could that be? ;-)

---

One more thing—don’t forget to keep in touch!

But I Also Have a Day Job on Facebook

Occasional Email Update List (with cool bonuses!)

@IantheRoge on Twitter