Yesterday morning I left the Tokoyo Inn after a 10-day stay and moved into my apartment, #305. It was an arduous experience, as it took about two hours and it was raining most of the time. The mover AEON hired didn't speak any English, and I definitely misunderstood what needed to happen on more than a few occasions, but we got it done. I only had to call AEON twice to translate, once to answer a question about the washing machine's water hose and once when the utilities guy dropped by. I didn't have much time to tidy up, though, because I had to rush back to school to teach a 7 PM class.
After about four hours work this morning, I finally got everything unpacked and on shelves in some loose order. The kitchen space really is abysmally small, so some of my cooking supplies are currently on bookshelves. Some other small issues are that the washing machine can't seem to drain fast enough (I went through two rolls of paper towels mopping up that mess) and I can't figure out how to turn on the main light in the living area. There's a switch that doesn't do anything, and a remote that doesn't appear to work, but currently I'm not sure if the remote/light is dead or I'm just doing it wrong. I'm also right next to the train tracks, though the noise from the trains hasn't been a bother yet.
These things aside, it really is a nice little apartment, and I can see myself being quite comfortable here. I'm 10 minutes from the school and right next to a department store, a shopping center and two supermarkets. The free Internet I'm using sometimes has extended periods where it won't work at all, but when it does work it's surprisingly fast. AEON also gave me the address, which is as follows:
Espoir Jyoto 305
Taira Aza Jyoto 2-7-20
Iwaki Fukushima 970-8026
Japan
April 29 – May 5 is Golden Week, so I have the week off to settle in, shop for essentials and explore. It's definitely weird having a weeklong vacation less than a month after starting work, but it will be time well spent!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Food and Japan
I think the food situation here might drive me a little crazy. Japanese food may be healthy compared to the normal American diet, but it's not as healthy as what I'm used to. I finally found a store that sells brown rice for maybe 150% of the cost of white rice, all the prepackaged meals use white rice, and it's like they've never heard of brown bread. Every bread I've seen so far is basically Wonderbread; the 'rye' was white bread with brown flakes.
It's not all bad - I can easily get bananas, Fuji apples, prebaked sweet potatoes, and soba noodles. There's also a wide range of vegetables, though that won't be useful until I can cook. I also figured out soy milk, thanks to a fellow teacher in training. I can buy corn flakes at 200 yen for 200g, though the rest of the meager selection is around 300-400 yen for maybe 250g of cereal. I'm still having trouble reading the labels, though it looks like most products lump carbs and sugar together, making it hard to tell how sweet something will be.
I'm grateful that most restaurants here have pictures of the food on their menus, so all I have to do is point and say kore wa kudasai (please bring me that one.) That said, not EVERY restaurant menu has pictures. The school staff and I went to dinner last night for a welcome party, and the menu was entirely illegible to me. I haven't eaten at any of the places in the department store yet because they don't seem to have picture menus. A little variety also wouldn't hurt; almost every restaurant I've seen is a Japanese place, sometimes specialized and sometimes not. This isn't really a surprise, but back in the US I was spoiled with food from every part of the world. I was actually excited to find an Indian place today in my wanderings, though I don't know how expensive it is. There's an Italian restaurant across the street from my hotel, but it's way out of my price range.
I'm looking forward to being able to cook for myself, though it's clear that attempting to maintain my San Francisco liberal elitist healthy diet will be extraordinarily difficult here =P
It's not all bad - I can easily get bananas, Fuji apples, prebaked sweet potatoes, and soba noodles. There's also a wide range of vegetables, though that won't be useful until I can cook. I also figured out soy milk, thanks to a fellow teacher in training. I can buy corn flakes at 200 yen for 200g, though the rest of the meager selection is around 300-400 yen for maybe 250g of cereal. I'm still having trouble reading the labels, though it looks like most products lump carbs and sugar together, making it hard to tell how sweet something will be.
I'm grateful that most restaurants here have pictures of the food on their menus, so all I have to do is point and say kore wa kudasai (please bring me that one.) That said, not EVERY restaurant menu has pictures. The school staff and I went to dinner last night for a welcome party, and the menu was entirely illegible to me. I haven't eaten at any of the places in the department store yet because they don't seem to have picture menus. A little variety also wouldn't hurt; almost every restaurant I've seen is a Japanese place, sometimes specialized and sometimes not. This isn't really a surprise, but back in the US I was spoiled with food from every part of the world. I was actually excited to find an Indian place today in my wanderings, though I don't know how expensive it is. There's an Italian restaurant across the street from my hotel, but it's way out of my price range.
I'm looking forward to being able to cook for myself, though it's clear that attempting to maintain my San Francisco liberal elitist healthy diet will be extraordinarily difficult here =P
Friday, April 15, 2011
Training Is Finished!
Yesterday morning we all performed our 50-minute Roundup lessons, and that evening we received our official AEON lapel pins and ID badges. Apparently I'm Matt-sensei now, which is a hard concept to wrap my head around ;) We have the weekend off, and Monday we're off to our respective branch schools. Most of my fellow teachers are traveling by train, but a couple guys and I are being driven up to our schools by the area manager. Judging from the schedule they gave me, it looks like about a six-hour roadtrip.
One other teacher and I shipped our big bags/boxes from the seminar house to our schools yesterday. We were the two who had to send our things to the seminar house because our school/apartment statuses were still in question when we left the US. We were both a little nervous about the prospect of paying to ship our things twice, but luckily AEON covered the cost this time. The company also got us temporary phones that we can use to stay in touch with our school until we can get phones of our own. We do have to cough up 3000 yen for the prepaid phone card, though, which is an expense we weren't expecting.
Apparently I'll be staying in a hotel in Iwaki for "a little while" because the city is giving residents currently living in emergency shelters priority on all available housing. I'm not sure how this will affect my commute in the short-term, but I will have an apartment (of indeterminate size at this point) eventually. I will be teaching a few lessons Tuesday and Wednesday, so I expect to be spending some time this weekend preparing for that. My days off will be the fairly standard Sunday and Monday, with an occasional half-day of Sunday overtime.
After our 'graduation ceremony', eight of us went out for drinks and karaoke. One of the guys has been in Japan for seven years and was able to negotiate a pretty nice deal: 3000 yen per person for three hours of singing and all you could drink. I don't drink myself, but I had a good time drinking iced tea and singing along to every song I knew! When our time was up, I escorted the women home while the rest of the guys stayed out for one more drink. It's interesting being the only sober person in a group of eight. I played the responsible adult role well enough, and I largely cemented my reputation as a trustworthy guy.
I'm pretty beat after last night (the caffeine in the five or so cups of tea didn't help me sleep any,) and we have a ton of clean-up work to do tomorrow. It feels a little weird to be done with training, but now the real adventure begins!
One other teacher and I shipped our big bags/boxes from the seminar house to our schools yesterday. We were the two who had to send our things to the seminar house because our school/apartment statuses were still in question when we left the US. We were both a little nervous about the prospect of paying to ship our things twice, but luckily AEON covered the cost this time. The company also got us temporary phones that we can use to stay in touch with our school until we can get phones of our own. We do have to cough up 3000 yen for the prepaid phone card, though, which is an expense we weren't expecting.
Apparently I'll be staying in a hotel in Iwaki for "a little while" because the city is giving residents currently living in emergency shelters priority on all available housing. I'm not sure how this will affect my commute in the short-term, but I will have an apartment (of indeterminate size at this point) eventually. I will be teaching a few lessons Tuesday and Wednesday, so I expect to be spending some time this weekend preparing for that. My days off will be the fairly standard Sunday and Monday, with an occasional half-day of Sunday overtime.
After our 'graduation ceremony', eight of us went out for drinks and karaoke. One of the guys has been in Japan for seven years and was able to negotiate a pretty nice deal: 3000 yen per person for three hours of singing and all you could drink. I don't drink myself, but I had a good time drinking iced tea and singing along to every song I knew! When our time was up, I escorted the women home while the rest of the guys stayed out for one more drink. It's interesting being the only sober person in a group of eight. I played the responsible adult role well enough, and I largely cemented my reputation as a trustworthy guy.
I'm pretty beat after last night (the caffeine in the five or so cups of tea didn't help me sleep any,) and we have a ton of clean-up work to do tomorrow. It feels a little weird to be done with training, but now the real adventure begins!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Kids Training Complete and AEON Iwaki Reopens!
We finished our kids training today, with all nine of us doing a full 45-minute lesson this morning. I got through mine with only a few mistakes, so I feel pretty good about the whole thing.
As it turns out, AEON Iwaki has already reopened, and the teachers and students have all returned. They're very interested in having me join them as soon as my training is done, and asked if I wanted to do that or put it off for awhile. I felt that if they felt safe and comfortable enough to resume classes I could trust their judgement, so I happily agreed. AEON Iwaki is an A (adults only) school, so I won't be teaching kids after all. It almost seems like a shame now, since the kids lessons we kind of fun. The downside is I won't be spending time in Tokyo, but on the other hand, a 10-minute walk to work sounds good to me. Some of the others have hour-long train commutes, so I can't complain!
As it turns out, AEON Iwaki has already reopened, and the teachers and students have all returned. They're very interested in having me join them as soon as my training is done, and asked if I wanted to do that or put it off for awhile. I felt that if they felt safe and comfortable enough to resume classes I could trust their judgement, so I happily agreed. AEON Iwaki is an A (adults only) school, so I won't be teaching kids after all. It almost seems like a shame now, since the kids lessons we kind of fun. The downside is I won't be spending time in Tokyo, but on the other hand, a 10-minute walk to work sounds good to me. Some of the others have hour-long train commutes, so I can't complain!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Training Begins!
Surprisingly, there's no internet access at the seminar house (at least not that AEON pays for,) and the nearest Starbucks or internet cafe is a 20 minute walk away. I did manage to find a spot in the house where I could access someone's wifi in the neighborhood, so I didn't have to make that trek tonight. My online time will be limited, to say the least.
I had my first adventure in Japan - on the train to Omiya, the doors closed before I could get on, separating me from the rest of the group. Luckily, our trainer told us that Omiya was the last stop, so I just waited for the next train and rode it all the way.
My fellow trainees are all pretty cool. There are nine of us, mostly from the US and Canada. We've been wandering around together in big groups, partially because we all get along well and partially for protection from getting lost and to pool our meager Japanese :)
Today was only a four-hour day, but the next eight will be full eight-hour days. We'll be preparing and presenting full 50-minute lessons on about half the days, and one will be with current AEON students they'll be bringing here by taxi. It's a little intimidating to think that we'll be going from zero to the real thing in a little more than a week, but I have faith in our trainers and my colleagues to help us get there.
I had my first adventure in Japan - on the train to Omiya, the doors closed before I could get on, separating me from the rest of the group. Luckily, our trainer told us that Omiya was the last stop, so I just waited for the next train and rode it all the way.
My fellow trainees are all pretty cool. There are nine of us, mostly from the US and Canada. We've been wandering around together in big groups, partially because we all get along well and partially for protection from getting lost and to pool our meager Japanese :)
Today was only a four-hour day, but the next eight will be full eight-hour days. We'll be preparing and presenting full 50-minute lessons on about half the days, and one will be with current AEON students they'll be bringing here by taxi. It's a little intimidating to think that we'll be going from zero to the real thing in a little more than a week, but I have faith in our trainers and my colleagues to help us get there.
Monday, April 4, 2011
At Hong Kong Airport
Turns out the HK Airport has free wifi, so score! I survived my 15-hour trek across the Pacific, though it was easily my most hellish flight to date. They changed my seat from a window to a middle seat, and the plane was PACKED. I got basically no (good) rest despite my best efforts and a melatonin pill, so I'm pretty drained. I haven't brushed my teeth or shaved, and I probably won't be able to do that until I get to the seminar house tonight.
On the bright side, my seatmates were friendly, and the staff was amazingly helpful. I also got to watch a few new movies - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rain Man and the Inside Job. The food was pretty good as well, though between dinner at 3 am and breakfast at 5 am I got awfully hungry, needless to say.
I'm currently waiting for my 10:45 am flight to Narita, which should land around 4:05 pm Tokyo time. I can't charge my laptop here (the plugs are weird) so my battery is running down fast. I will be so very, very glad when this traveling business is done. I like BEING places, but getting there is always such a chore :)
On the bright side, my seatmates were friendly, and the staff was amazingly helpful. I also got to watch a few new movies - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rain Man and the Inside Job. The food was pretty good as well, though between dinner at 3 am and breakfast at 5 am I got awfully hungry, needless to say.
I'm currently waiting for my 10:45 am flight to Narita, which should land around 4:05 pm Tokyo time. I can't charge my laptop here (the plugs are weird) so my battery is running down fast. I will be so very, very glad when this traveling business is done. I like BEING places, but getting there is always such a chore :)
Sunday, April 3, 2011
On My Way
Everything is packed, and in two hours my family and I will be leaving to drive to the airport. All that's left now is farewells and nervous anticipation. It was great being here with all of you – the next time I update this, I'll be in the Land of the Rising Sun! Well, possibly during my layover in Hong Kong… but most likely Japan ;)
Just as a reminder, I'm leaving my phone behind, so I'll no longer be reachable at my 415-385-3870 cell phone number. I can, of course, still be reached by email, Skype, Facebook, and here. At some point, I'll have a cell phone number in Japan, though that won't be for at least a month. If I'm really lucky, I should even have a semi-permanent address in the not-too-distant future!
Just as a reminder, I'm leaving my phone behind, so I'll no longer be reachable at my 415-385-3870 cell phone number. I can, of course, still be reached by email, Skype, Facebook, and here. At some point, I'll have a cell phone number in Japan, though that won't be for at least a month. If I'm really lucky, I should even have a semi-permanent address in the not-too-distant future!
Finished Packing!
It took more than a few hours, but my bag and suitcases are packed! Well, as packed as they're going to get tonight :) I'll have to pack some things at the last minute, such as my toiletries and laptop, but overall I'm satisfied with my progress. It's been a lot of work to get to this point, and tomorrow I'm going to the airport to hop on my redeye flight. Right now, however, I'm going to kick back and relax for a little bit!
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