Pictures

New picture are up! Here are some shots of the area around my school, and the route I bike to get there. Also some pictures from another trip to Himeji (nearest city, closest civilization) and a festival in Yamasaki.

Yamasaki, Himeji and Another Festival

Himeji and Kobe Orentation

This past Sunday I ventured out of Shiso to Himeji, the closest city. It's about an hour away by bus, and the location of the nearest movie theater. Himeji is famous for its Castle, although I didn't go see it on this trip. My friends Lara, Lana and I hung out and shopped in Himeji for the afternoon and saw a movie before catching the bus back to Shiso. By the way, movies are INSANELY expensive in Japan. My ticket was $18. And that was in a small city, I wonder what it costs in Tokyo. But it's ok because most of my other living expenses are fairly low. My rent is dirt cheap to begin with (something like 320/month for an entire house), and that is further subsidized by the Board of Education, so I end up paying about 150/month for what is essentially a two bedroom house. Pretty sweet deal, no?

Wednesday the Board of Education drove us to Kobe for the Hyogo JETs prefectural orientation. It was a 3 hour drive, and I felt it was kind of pointless to go that far for what they ended up telling. The few pieces of useful information they did give us could have been included in the info packets they gave us in Tokyo, and in fact would have been more helpful then than two weeks later. Oh well. It's not like I had so much work to do that I couldn't spare a day. Since it's summer vacation, there's not a lot for me to do at school. I'm actually there right now, so you can see how busy I am. But once school starts I'm going to be busy I'm sure. I'm using this time to brainstorm things for classes and such. 

O-Bon Matsuri and Video of my house

O-Bon

Tonight was my first Japanese festival! It's O-Bon, which I believe is about honoring the souls of the family's ancestors. There was a big festival in Yamasaki (the town where I live), a maze of little streets was closed off and there were stands selling food, and games, and people in yukata (a type of summer kimono). Our supervisors at the Board of Education took us over to a kimono shop and outfitted us with yukata and geta (which absolutely destroyed my feet). It was really fun to dress up and go walk out in the streets with everyone. 

On the side of the main street there was a big bandstand where people were playing drums and singing, and people were dancing around it in a circle. We all joined in, dancing around under the lights. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the night there were fireworks, and we all went home exhausted and drenched in sweat (even after sunset it's so hot here). 

O-Bon Festival Pictures

O-Bon Videos

Video of my house

I've been trying to get a good video of my house to show everyone, but my camera sucks, so here's a link to the video the guy who lived here before me took of the house. The genkan (entryway) and living rooms look a little different, but basically it looks the same.

My House

Pictures from Tokyo Orientation

First pictures are up! Here are a few shots from Tokyo Orientation, August 3-6. We didn't have much time to see the city, since we were in meetings all day and we were all very jet-legged. We got out a little at night and walked around Shinjuku near the hotel, but that was about it. 

Tokyo Orientation

Enjoy!

Tokyo Orientation

Arrived in Tokyo. Everyone was talking about how long the flight was, but I was asleep the entire time, so I hardly noticed. I took a pill and passed out, so somehow I managed to avoid doing absolutely anything to pass the time, like reading, or listening to music, or watching one of the three movies they showed (yes, three, and I slept through them all).

Orientation is like a well-oiled machine. Around 1000 JETs arrived in my group on Sunday, from all over the world (but mostly the US). Current JETs and people from CLAIR (the body that runs JET) met us at the airport and led us to the buses that took us to the hotel in Shinjuku in Tokyo. The Keio Plaza Hotel is really nice. It's a big business center, and JET totally took over the place. They even put up notices by the elevator apologizing to the guests for the congestion in the elevators (caused by so many JETs trying to get to the same places all at once). 

The view from my window is of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is very exciting. <Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building> Something really cool: the mirror in the bathroom is heated on the part over the sink, so when you get out of the shower and the mirror is all fogged up, that part is not. 

I'm extremely jet-lagged, and it doesn't help that we had to spend the entire day sitting through meetings with very little interruption. I woke up at 5:00 this morning, had breakfast at 7, meetings started at 9 and went all day (with a break for lunch), and at 6:30 there was a welcome reception with some heads of the different ministries involved in JET. At 8:30 my prefectural group are all going out for drinks together. I'm going to go because I want to meet more of the people in my prefecture, but honestly all I want to do is go to sleep, I am so completely exhausted. It's a 13 hour time difference from Boston, so at around 2, 3 pm today, when It was around 1 or 2 am back home, I started to feel like I was about to fall asleep. They say it takes a day for every hour or time difference until you're back on a normal schedule.

Contact Information

My parents insisted I take down my address and phone number, so I'll post them on my Facebook page instead. If you're not on Facebook, email me and I'll send you my contact information.

One day and counting...

The Mess...

I am leaving in less than 48 hours, and I am not even close to ready. I've spent every day this week running around making sure I have everything I need, and I am losing my mind. As it turns out, moving to Japan is a very complicated process. First, there is the 50 lb weight limit for my two suitcases. Then there is the fact that I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything into two suitcases. That's problem number one.

Problem number two: Shipping things to Japan is REALLY expensive. Which means it would be cheaper to just bring a third suitcase and pay the fee. But that means I have to lug three suitcases around. Eek.

Problem number three: I have to pack a small carry-on suitcase for four days in Tokyo during orientation, before I leave for my prefecture. Which means I have to plan in advance what I'm going to need, and also what satisfies the TSA requirements, ie no razor blades in the carry on. A week without a razor blade in the summer; girls, you do the math. 

Problem number four: I'm having a nervous breakdown! This may shock some of you, but I do not handle stress very well. I have completely passed the point of rational, functional thought, and have moved into a true and honest breakdown. I simply can't stand living in a giant suitcase for another second! I have been living with boxes all around me since the beginning of June, when I began packing up my apartment in St. Louis to move home, and the mess has finally reached critical mass (see above). Somehow I have to fit all of that in a suitcase.

I have literally had to force myself to remember why I am doing all this, because there have been times in the last four days when I seriously thought, "I must be out of my mind to be doing this. This is such a hassle, I should have stayed in St. Louis, I had a life and an apartment and friends there, and the fact that I have an Art History degree doesn't by default make me unemployable." I have to muster up a serious amount faith that this adventure into which I am running almost completely blind is going to be amazing. I never heard from my predecessor, so I don't know anything about the school, two days ago they changed my apartment so I don't know exactly where or how furnished my apartment is; I really know next to nothing. This is a huge leap of faith. I know rationally that it's going to work out, and it's going to be amazing, but my emotions are ruling right now, and they're telling me there's no way I'm ever going to get myself and my stuff over there. Ever.