A Void I Cannot Fill...Not Just Yet, Anyhow

Today at work, I decided to log online and kill my time doing something to keep my sanity, considering I haven’t been able to talk to anyone in the longest time and it has been killing me. I saw that Mat was online and we started chatting away. Talk about easing my nerves. Leaving Mat was like quitting smoking cold turkey, although spending time with Mat was/is a good thing and not bad. You get what I mean. He and I had a much-needed discussion and both of us exchanged realizations that seemed to have struck us only after my departure. Mostly, I can say that we were both affected greatly. Personally, I cried because even though I am unsure if going to Japan was the right decision, I know that I had made the correct decision in spending my remaining moments with him. Tremendously…the word that comes to mind when I ask myself how much I miss him. Yet, deep down, I know that we will wait for each other I will get my storybook ending. The wait may jade me but I will make the most of it so I can share even more of myself with him. I hope that he does the same.

At 1:30, Oi-san, a clerk at the Board of Education picked me up and took me to City Hall. I was going to meet the mayor today. On the car ride to City Hall, Oi-san, who is a younger guy maybe I don’t know in his late 20s/early 30s (although I cannot tell with every Japanese person looking 20 years younger than they really are, lol), asked me if I would like to join him and the other office workers for tournament soccer. I got so excited at this notion considering that meant he was interested in getting to know me better. I agreed to play and he told me that they would be practicing that evening. SUPER…or so I thought. So, we get to City Hall, and I meet the other AETs (Assistant English Teachers) from Interac, which is a private company that employs AETs in schools. They were, well, interesting to say the least. I would like to say that JET’s process for employing people seems to bring a certain type of person to Japan and well Interac seems to bring a different kind. Not saying this is bad or anything but maybe the differences made it a bit awkward. Perhaps, I was just imagining all of this. Either way, Tom had showed up as well and the four of us went to see the mayor. We introduced, did all the formal shiznit, and then shot the shit with him about random things. Apparently he is 80 years old yet he seriously did not look a day over 65 if I were to guess really high. Afterwards, Tom and I were separated from the other two and put into a formal meeting where our responsibilities were spelled out to us, hmmm, maybe for the 6^th or 7^th time now. Basically, we are part of a great initiative, students are shy, don’t speak Japanese to the students, do our best, only speak English to the students, try to team-teach, oh and did I mention ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH!!! They were a little adamant about a few things can you guess which? :P Later found out that I cannot play soccer with Oi-san and the guys because of insurance reasons. I understood but at the same time I think it is complete crap. I mean, wth, why does this world have to be all about insurance and lawsuits and not just living a decent life? If I knew I wouldn’t offend someone by trying to break the rules, I would have asked to sign a waiver so that I can play.

That evening, I felt really tired and slept away my entire evening and night, skipping out on dinner and reality. Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of the best thing that has ever happened to me. If you are lost, reread the first paragraph.

Onward! To Nagano we go!

Today is the day! We took a bus from Tokyo to Nagano, where people separated and went off to their own local areas. It was nice being able to talk to some of the people on the bus and get their back-stories. I was happy to find that most of the people in our group are really down to earth people who are skewed to the liberal side, something that I am quite happy about. I feel like I will be able to make some friends with the people immediately in my area. There is one person who I think I will not get along with because that person is a bit on the immature side. I will try to give that person the benefit of the doubt for the time being and avoid too many confrontations until maybe that person gets better adjusted, etc. We had lunch at a nice rest area near Lake Suwa, which is in Nagano-ken (fyi- ken is the suffix used to mean prefecture). I had tempura udon, which is a soup with udon noodles and tempura in it. It was delicious to say the least. Maybe a bit too hot of a day for soup but it really hit the spot.

Arriving at the point where we were to be picked up, I gathered my things and went to meet my supervisor. Other people were much more nervous than me and I think that this helped me to be less nervous as I tried to assure them it was going to be fine. There to greet me and Tom, the other new JET under the Saku jurisdiction, was Nagaoka-san (my supervisor and a clerk at the Board of Education), Oi-san (another clerk at the Board), Toeda-sensei (the head English teacher at Usuda Jr. H.S., my school), and Erika (a current JET in Saku and block leader for the area). It was really nice to have met them all in one shot, especially for me because I got to meet a teacher that I will be working with at my school. The ride to Saku was long and well consisted a lot of Erika talking to us about the area. There did not seem to be much time for me to talk to the others as she dominated the floor…err rather, the van. Arriving in Saku, we went immediately to the city office and board of education. There, we waited and then met the head of the board of education, who welcomed us to the city. After signing our contracts and making everything official, they presented us with our inkan (our signature stamp), and an official certificate that states we are government employees of the city. It was an interesting little ceremony and Tom and I were both nervous about introducing ourselves and not looking like fools. We did fine and moved on to signing up to be aliens. That’s right in 2 weeks, when my card arrives, I will be a bona fide alien. Ask yourself how many of those you know, lol.

Next, we went to the grocery store. It was littered with things I had not seen before. Grapes were weird looking, grabbed those to try. Produce looked fantastic but it should because the prices were outrageous for some things. Mushrooms, however, super cheap. Berç and I were looking at getting enoki mushrooms to eat in the US and they were several dollars for a small bunch of them. Here, they are $1.00 for a huge amount. J

It was not until the second aisle that it hit me. It was at this moment that I was like “Holy shit…I am in Japan.”  Strange, you would think it would have hit me sooner but everything else just seemed like something that could happen in America (minus the everyone looking and speaking Japanese, lol). But, now, I am standing in front of a display of food, everything written in kanji (Chinese characters) and well, nothing here was familiar to me in the least. Grabbed a few things that I thought I might need and headed for the cash register. Got rid of some of the coinage that I had in my pocket that had been weighing me down (they have $5 coins here! Imagine carrying everything up to a $5 bill in change, needless to say I kept forgetting to use it and would just break a $10 or $100 bill, haha, silly American I am). They then took Tom and myself home, where I got a first good look at my place. I was so happy. The location is not on a main road yet not in the boonies. It is sandwiched between two other apartments, our building being laid out horizontally rather than vertically. And everyone living nearby is a teacher at one of the local schools. My apartment has a decent-sized kitchen (compared to others’), a living space that doubles as a dining area, a really nice sized tatami bedroom with plenty of closet space (tatami is the type of flooring used, it is traditional Japanese style, Google it if you want), and a small bathroom with shower/tub/sink/washing machine/toilet. It really is a hybrid between Japanese style and a more modern type of house. I even have a small back portion of grass/dirt that I am thinking of using to grow a garden of some sort. This excites me. Outside of my house are the Usuda Sr. H.S. and a rice paddy. Yep, I have a freaking rice paddy practically outside my front door. Doesn’t get much cooler than that. All for just over $100/month, I’ll take it! Unpacking was a no go as I had to get up early the next day. Instead, Erika picked up Tom and me and we went out to eat at a restaurant where you touched a video screen and placed your order and the food magically appeared some time later. Did not really like it as I really like some interaction between the waiter and the customer. Got home and went right to bed.

Leaving Tokyo

"What the hell is a powertard brake and what is it doing on our bus?!"

Nagano is so pretty.

Yep, wanted to know where you could get God's hair, where else but Japan.