Pix from Japan?

Jen - can you share your pictures from Japan on this blog? I know you have them posted on Facebook, but not everyone goes there...

Steve / Dad

We're empty-nesters again! Today, we moved Laura into her new apartment at BGSU. She is just off-campus, and shares the 2-BR apartment with her close friend Kristen. We rented a UHaul, loaded it yesterday, and unloaded it today. It was hot both days -- 95F -- and Laura's apartment is on the 3rd floor. We strung ropes and hauled most of it up to the balcony -- it saved trips up the steps.

Jen is getting settled in Habuka-mura, and we've shipped her some additional belongings.

Our next excitement is our vacation in September. We're headed to Glacier National Park in Montana for 8 days.

Steve

From Japan

Hello! I still have yet to get internet in my house yet. I have to get my alien registration card before I can get interwebs, so I`m spending a lot of my downtime at school while the other teachers are taking their paid leave checking the interwebs and wondering what exactly I`m supposed to be doing. Here`s a breif rundown of how things have been going.

Thu. July 29
Peaced out of Cincinnati for Washington. Ended up spending 2 1/2 hours hanging out in the airport waiting for my plane to be cleared. There were storms in the Baltimore-Washington area, so everything was backed up. Spent most of the time frantically calling my friend Laura, who I stayed with, updating her about my flight. Finally left, and then arrived. Was picked up by Laura and then hung out at her place for the rest of the night

Fri. July 30
Pre-departure Orientation in the Japanese Embassy. I had to go a little early because I didn`t go to the information session in June because DC is very far from Cinti and I didn`t feel like paying for a plane ticket. Then the rest of the JETs showed up and we got told fun things like about our flight and about being arrested. The girl that sat next to be for the first half had perfume on that gave me a headache that slowly got worse as the day went on. Then nausea. By the time we were supposed to have dinner I was miserable. And the Japanese abassador was late, so we didn't get started until 45 min after we were supposed to

Saturday July 31

Woke up super early and left for Reagan National. We got in this huuuuuuuge line fo JETs and checked our baggage. Both of my bags ended up being 49 lbs (50 lb weight limit win!). Then we just kind of chilled in the airport. Flew to Chicago, changed planes, then off to Japan! Because we flew west, there was no night time. Some annoying guy kept opening the window while it was sleep time. I tried my best to sleep, but to no avail. I ended up watching a lot of stuff. Date Night, Shrek 4, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, TRICK: The Movie, two episodes of Monk, and half of an episode of CSI. The girl in front of me had her chair leaned back the whole flight so I couldn't get to my bag. My PSP and DS were very sad, as was I.

Sunday Aug. 1

Plane landed in Narita. We all felt gross and tired. I had only slept for about an hour on the plane, not the best idea I've every had. Went through customs and whatnot. Bag wasn't checked because Japan is cool. There were a bunch of people waiting with JET signs to confused and disorient those on little sleep. I took my Gburg bag out and had my suitcases shipped to Hakuba. Then we took a bus ride to the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shibuya, Tokyo. Once there I showered, and decided I didn't want to go out for food, and then collapsed on the bed.

Monday Aug. 2

French fries for breakfast? No, seriously. After breakfast was opening ceremony for orientation, because Japan likes their opening ceremonies. We listened to some people speak, and then lunch time. After lunch we had our choice of what workshops we went to. Went to the "JET as a Springboard for a Career in Education" which apparently only worked if you were planning on teaching in Japan forever... Then the Cooking in Japan which was really helpful. After that I went to the "Making the Most of Your Time as a JET" but by that time I was crashing pretty hardcore. After that one I went back upstairs and crashed, as did one of my other roomates. The third one came back and thought it amusing that we were both passed out, but then joined us. After that we had the reception. I didn't stay very long because I was still crashing. Sleep time ensued

Tuesday Aug. 3

No french fries?!?!?! What is the world coming to? After breakfast was the ALT discussion panel, from which I have an extremely amusing video about unwanted personal touching. Once I get internet in my house I'll upload it. We then broke down based on what kind of school one would be teaching in, then we had prefectural meetings. The Nagano people were pretty cool. Then I went to the "Managing the Expectations of Your Contracting Organization" seminar. It wasn't really too informative. Just more of the same of what we had heard before. There was another group of seminars to choose from afterwards, but I had crashed by that time so I went to sleep for a little bit. Then my roommates and Laura wandered around Shibuya in search of food. We found an udon place, I got zaru udon (of course) and then we went to the top of the government building. There were a lot of foreigners up there, mostly Koreans but some Chinese. After that we went back to our rooms (except one of my roommates, she went in search of host clubs....)>

Wednesday Aug. 4

Last breakfast in Tokyo! After that I packed up my stuff and checked out of the hotel. Nagano JETs met up and we took a long bus ride (well, not terribly long). We stopped at a couple places, I had soba for lunch. We stopped at Matsumoto to drop half of the people off and I met my block leader, who gave me a heart attack. Despite me being super close to Nagano, I'm technically in the Matsumoto block (JET divided Nagano into blocks since it's such a large prefecture). I thought I was supposed to get off the bus then, but it's ok. Crisis averted. Then we drove up to Nagano City, where I was picked up by my supervisor. He was dressed super casually, but that's ok. We then drove to Hakuba, where the mountains are GORGEOUS. I swear I take at least 5 pictures of them every day. We went to school, but I can't really remember what happened. I think I met the principle and I saw my desk. After that we peace out to see where I would be living. To my surprise, I'm not living in an apartment, but a house! It has three rooms and a dining kitchen! All the rooms are tatami. I think two of them are 6 tatami and one is 5. I don't know what that means in American, though... My predecessor met us at my house and he showed me a bit of ins and outs of how the house works. He also took me to the grocery store and the department store, which was really nice of him. After that we went to an organic Italian restaurant, where I tried my best to eat what was put in front of me. I met the other English teachers and my supervisor's wife and daughter, who is so adorable! After we all went home, I couldn't find my cell phone! So, exhausted as I was, I walked all the way back to the restaurant, crawled around on the ground, but to no avail. Once I got back, I saw it sitting on the shelf....

>

Thursday Aug. 5th

Woke up at like 4:30AM because of sun and jetlag. Bleh. I then went into school. One of the teachers took me to get my alien regiestration, but the lady gave us the wrong sheet, so I got to fill out my address and the school's address twice in kanji. After that we went back to school and my supervisor took me to Omachi, where my visiting school is. I met the principle there, and then we went to get my hanko (personal seal, neccessary for official documents). We then went to a department store thing where I got a towel (since I forgot to buy one the night before) and some shoes for school. I had lunch at home afterwards, and then back to school! We went to the bank to try and open an account, but I needed a special paper saying that my alien registration was processing. Back to city hall! Paid 300 yen and went back to the bank. Finally got the account open. I think I went home after that, but I'm not sure...

And that's that! Essentially the rest is "Jen tries to live life in Japan" More posts to come!