Gotta get some good Tea, and I've already been to England

          We're back again people. 'Back again' meaning I'm leaving again, but we're back here to this space to write my confusing thoughts as a form of therapy, and you read them as a form of living vicariously through the things I do. This time I'm headed to Japan. Land of the rising sun and sushi and karate and steeped in Buddhism. I've wanted to go since high school. It was my intention to go after I returned from Peace Corps, but the application process held me up until I switched to a different organization. Some disappointing years applying to a program that only accepts applications once a year. I'll get into why I want to go and what I'm currently working on, and some thoughts about it. Usually I put up some photos and this trip I'll have a good camera so that will be neat. Welcome back ya'll, enjoy the ride.

         Big question first. Why am I doing this? I've been watching shows and movies from Japan since elementary school. Those media influences motivated focus in martial arts and philosophy. After college when I had some money and could afford it I found the food to be to my liking. I like eating and not feeling dense or lethargic afterward, and Asian food usually puts you right there. I wanted to go see the origin to a bunch of stuff that mesmerized kid me, so I started researching. I figured a 2 week vacation, cause then you see things but it isn't too expensive. However 2 weeks and you feel rushed, so I tossed around the idea of a month in Japan. How to afford it and what to do about a Job back home while away though? Another volunteer in Peace Corps talked about having done a program teaching English in Japan and I started considering the idea. Live in the place you want to go for a year and get PAID for it??? After Peace Corps the idea of living in a foreign country doesn't intimidate me, plus I know I can learn another language. Something I miss from Peace Corps was the unpredictable nature of any given day. Like maybe there's a crazy windstorm, or maybe there's an event going on I didn't know about, or maybe I see a herd of baboons on the side of the road and a baby one waves at me. Every day had the potential for a lot of things or adventures to happen, and I do miss that element. Currently I can have a loose plan for any given day and very little happens to impede my plans. So I want a bit of that “who knows what the hell might happen today?” Oh my goodness I can't forget Tea! I may love tea, and the good stuff is usually Japanese. That's the root of the 'why', so then I set to work making it happen.

          Ample actions needed to be done for that. I applied with Interac and flew to an interview in New Jersey. We did little 5 minute videos demonstrating teaching to a pretend class. A branch company in Japan liked what it saw and picked me up. Now I'm kicking language study into overdrive. The company isn't too concerned with people knowing Japanese, because they don't want you to use it at work. The goal being to increase exposure to the English language by a native speaker as much as possible. Other than language study I'm applying for living/working visa, getting an International Drivers Permit, filling out other paperwork and checking in on things the company wants me to do, such as signing into their teaching and communication software. I'm also looking at flights and figuring out which airport I should fly into. Looking at maps and determining how to get to the city I need to be at on March 27^th. Where I'll stay for the first few nights I'm there before the company is going to put me up in a hotel during initial training. I'm planning on using a capsule hotel. Which is a 3X3X9 foot box with a tv and outlet and sleeping stuff, separate showers and storage area for a bag, 30 bucks a night in a big city though. I'm currently waiting for the return of some paperwork on the visa which needs to be taken to Boston and be officiated at the Japanese Embassy. Luckily Long Cao wants to go with me and make it a foodadventure/pokemongo outing. That should be nice.

          I'm asked if there are things which worry me frequently. Yeah my biggest concern is... driving. I consider myself a pretty good driver, no moving violations on my license and no accidents, never been off the road. BUT I worry about doing something reflexively that would work perfectly here, when everything is reversed using reflexes to make quick decisions could really mess up a bunch of stuff. I just opened an email from the company and got all fluttered without even seeing the content. Content didn't help too much either. They want me to prepare an introduction for when I meet the Principal and Vice Principal of any of the schools I work at. They want the introduction in Japanese... I'm sure it will be easy to prepare 4 sentences with 2 months notice, but communicating needs/desires worries me. My real concern is my Grandparents. I was worried when leaving for 2 years for the Peace Corps I wouldn't see them again, but the possibility is now more pertinent. I've been spending time with them whenever I visit home, and I'm quitting my job to move up home 3 weeks before moving to Japan so I can spend time with family, primarily Grandparents. On a lighter note another worry I have is I might LIKE IT TOO MUCH AND NOT COME BACK! Ha, nah that's a worry of me Mum's.

          I've got 65 days left before I have to be at the Branch Office reporting for work. I'll probably leave a couple days early to adjust to the time zone (being exactly opposite my current timezone by 12 hours), and get my bearings on where I am and chill out. Look forward to lots of crazy adventures and I like to upload pictures and by the end of the experience if I haven't seen them monkeys that hang out in hot springs the whole venture will be considered a failure. Thanks for reading. Questions are totally welcome too. Also please ignore my older PC blog posts as I was young and reckless when writing them and the views expressed in those are not necessarily the views of the same person held today. Thank you for the understanding. Hehehe

Here's all the stuff from my Peace Corps Blog should you want to scour it for spelling mistakes. 

Agnosia Mais Seeking

Oh and here's a few photos for anyone who doesn't like the novels I write. 

That's my study desk. The two Genki books are basically a college course in Japanese. Also a little phrasebook and some quick reference sheets and notebooks and my copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone. Note the name change from Sorcerers stone. I'm also studying by changing some games I play into Japanese and with some phone apps like Anki which is super helpful to learn about anything.

Here's some instant miso which was the only other thing I could think of that signified I was leaving, but I typically have that either way... Maybe I shoulda just added a picture of my International Drivers permit and passport?