Happy, Happy Japan Time!

Ok, my desire to keep this blog alive and updated has thus far failed completely.  To all my friends and family who I directed to this URL with promises of pictures and stories, I apologize.  My excuse (and I consider it pretty valid) is that our apartment – as awesome as it is – did not come equipped with internet.  Getting internet in Japan is not difficult.  It simply requires a fluent translator to help you jump through all the hoops.  Needless to say, what with training the newbs in their jobs/lives, our wonderful translators have been pretty busy with us already.  Also, our workweek is six days long.  Therefore, we’ve been pretty consistently tied up with other things.  Stolen internet has been semi-successful for Dustin and his pretty, new Macintosh…but for me and my PC, things aren’t as easy.  But now, we finally have our own connection to the World Wide Web once again and my life can resume as normal.

With that out of the way….

Japan is awesome! 

We’ve been here for just over two months now and we’re finally starting to feel like we actually live here.  The sensory overload of those first few weeks is starting to fade and I’m beginning to get through entire days without going, “What the hell is that?” or “Where the hell am I?”

This is a serious improvement.

Driving, by far my biggest fear before coming here (which those of you back home know well), is a worry of the past.  Honestly, it took near to no time to get over the whole “driving on the other side” thing.  Once you get going, the turns and intersections become fairly instinctual.  I’m more afraid of driving in the States again now!  By far, the worst part about driving overseas isn’t that the roads or steering wheels are on the opposite side, it’s the fact that for the first few days you find your wipers randomly scraping across your dry windshield when you go to turn your blinker on.  The terrible noise alone is enough to make you a quick learner.

Since I’ve been absent from this blog for so long – and since SO much has happened – I’m going to be picky tonight about what I talk about.  In later posts I’ll tell you all about the Tsukuba Festival we attended, the fantastic Tokyo Game Show and much, much more.  I am also in the process of writing out a long and tedious step-by-step guide for those of you who have asked me about how to acquire a similar job in this awesome country.  Give me another week or two - I have a lot of good info to give, but I have to sort through pages and pages of documents I created to find it all.  You may want to glance at Dustin's blog if you are impatient and want to get started now. 

For the time being, here are the top ten things I love about my new life.  Ready.  Set.  Go!

10.) Sink Pig

This is my Sink Pig and I love him.  He’s cute.  He washes my dishes.  He conveniently hangs onto my faucet when I’m not using him.  Everything is cute in Japan.  Everything is also convenient in Japan.  Or exceptionally inconvenient.  But that is another topic for another blog.

9.) AKB48

AKB48 is an insanely big, all-girl, pop group right now.  I say big because, yes, they are so popular that you can buy gum, hand towels, mouse pads shaped like their boobies, potato chips, and pretty much whatever else you want with their face - or boobs - on it.  I also call this group big because they are composed of no less than 48 bubbly members.  They do live shows daily in Akihabara – which is how they became popular.  (Get the retarded name now?  AKB = Akihabara) I mostly like them because everyone I know hates them.  (Which doesn’t really help me to understand why they’re so insanely popular.)  Their songs, though terrible, are also really catchy.  Here’s a video of my favorite of their most recent Top Ten hits:

8.) Video Game/Anime Music on Everyday TV Programming

Yeah, that’s right.  I can turn on my TV to watch some senseless, wonderful game show where celebrity comedians are fighting pro-wrestlers while greased up in some kind of clear, slimy jelly, and the Zelda theme will start playing.  Or maybe I’ll be watching a travel documentary about onsens in Hokkaido and the theme from Kiki’s Delivery Service or Totoro will begin to chime in the background.  Or maybe a commercial for some little kid’s bento kit will air and suddenly the sounds of a theme from Final Fantasy 7 can be distinguished in the music.  It goes on like this…everyday…probably without paying the licensing fees...  Wonderful.

7.) Living 45 Minutes Away From Akihabara

Ok, so we haven’t really been able to utilize this fact, yet.  (Being that we’ve been super busy and we have only just now gotten our first full-month paycheck...)  But we’ve gone once already and are going again this week, and we can tell that we will spend great sums of money and massive amounts of time in this geeky haven.  Akihabara rules!

6.) IIAS Mall

This is the gigantic shopping center about 15 minutes from our apartment.  It has everything I could ever want or need.  I could literally live there.  I’ve never been the “shopping” kind of girl, but Japan is going to change that.  How can I resist when there are entire stores dedicated to Ghibli, Japanese candy, and accessories to match every shade of every outfit that I brought overseas???  Here's some plastic food - which could have made this top ten list on its own because I love it that much - from inside IIAS.

5.) Engrish, Engrish Everywhere!!!

If you had asked me a month ago, I would have assumed that this would be closer to the top of the list.  However, the novelty of poorly attempted English is wearing off.  Don’t get me wrong.  I still love it.  It’s not that it’s annoying me or anything.  The truth is that I just don’t notice it as much as I did when I first visited.  Now, it has to be particularly awful (or fantastic, in my eyes) to really make me take a picture.  My intention is to post an Engrish picture once a week on this blog.  Maybe once every two weeks…  Or once a month.   We’ll see.  For now, have fun with this one.  Here’s an awesome guy I caught riding on his motorbike with a wonderful saying on the back of his helmet.  I'm sure this is exactly the message he intended to get across.

4.) Recycle Shops

These are exactly what they sound like.  Think Goodwill, but awesome. Think Goodwill, but without the strange smell.  Think Goodwill, except that we bought our Limited Edition PS3 at one of these stores (in perfect working order).  Yes, that’s Lightning on the top.  Yes, this cost us about 25,000 yen ($250).   There are a million different kinds of recycle shops.  Some are chains.  Some are privately owned.  Most of them have a plushy section which I abuse.

3.) Japanese Crepes

The most wonderful, delicious, beautiful concoction on the planet.  Hands down.  Crepes win.  If I was allowed to eat only one thing for the rest of my life, I would happily beg for Japanese crepes.  If I never get skinny, they are why.  I don’t understand how Japanese people CAN be skinny.  Here are some pictures.  The first is some kind of custard pastry wedged into fresh cream and strawberry.  The second is custard, fresh cream, chocolate cake and banana. The last is a plastic food version to show you what it looks like on the inside.

2.) A World Too Cute for Words


As I said, everything is cute in Japan.  This makes me happy because I love cute things.  Here are some examples.

Food straps for up-sizing at McDonald's...

Some of my favorite Ghibli friends...

Pickachu in my udon...

My sweet, sweet, Loaf-san...

1.) Convenience Stores or “Combini”

Where did all the 7/11s in America go???  Oh, that’s right, Japan stole them.  There are many chains of convenience stores in Japan besides 7/11 (called only “7” by the Japanese): Family Mart, SunKus, Lawson, Mini Stop, CoCo! (not to be confused with Coco’s the family restaurant or Coco the curry restaurant), etc., etc.  They do not have gas stations.  They are simply convenient, little stores with convenient, delicious pre-made food and pretty much anything else you could possibly need on a whim.  And they are everywhere.  Literally.  EVERYWHERE.  We can walk to one in less than five minutes from our apartment.  I can walk to one in two minutes or less from almost every branch of my school.  I love them.

I love Japan.

Tsukuba-shi

When Dustin and I explain to people where we're about to go and what we're about to do, the most common question we get is, "Where will you be living in Japan?"  The truth is, though, that simply saying the prefecture and city name of our new hometown has little real-life impact.  Let's be honest.  When you ask a Japanese person where in Japan they are from and they respond with something like Yamaguchi or Kanagawa, can you actually picture where that is?  Most Americans probably can't.  

In the same turn, most Japanese people won't know where Tennessee is, much less Mt. Juliet.  However, we might have some luck explaining that we're from Nashville.  Famous city name recognition is much easier to get by with.  (Most everyone in the world knows where New York and Hong Kong are.  At the least, they recognize the name and can make some kind of connection.)  Like many of the Japanese people I've met, when faced with the question of where in Japan I will be living, I resort to saying something like, "Near Tokyo."

But this is a terrible generalization.

Tsukuba city is located in the prefecture of Ibaraki. (Think of prefectures as states or provinces.) The Tokyo prefecture is one prefecture down and to the left of Ibaraki. The capital of Ibaraki is Mito. The prefecture is mountainous in the northernmost part, but otherwise flat and covered with many lakes.

There are 32 cities in the Ibaraki prefecture.  One of these cities will be our home in just a couple weeks.

Tsukuba.

Tuskuba is the location of Tsukuba Science City - a planned city developed in the 60s for scientific research. It is the home of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (a.k.a. Japanese NASA), as well as Tsukuba University.  The Tsukuba Express can take us directly from our train station to the station in Akihabara - an area of Tokyo - within 45 minutes.  This is perfect for Dustin and I, being the geeks that we are.

If you don't know much about Akihabara, you were probably more popular in high school than we were.  Also referred to as "Electric Town," Akihabara is commonly considered the geek capital of the world.  From maid cafes to personal robotics stores, it is the ever-beating heart of the planet for all things dealing with video games, anime, comics, and technology.  Obviously, we will be making frequent trips.

Tsukuba itself is a pretty high-tech town.  Because of all the scientific research taking place in the city, we will be surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world and will get to see some of the most up-to-date technology out there. Want to see the first models of those crazy A.I. robots that will eventually take over our planet? Come visit us!

Amazingly, though, as technologically savvy as Tsukuba is, it is also a beautiful - if not even somewhat rural - city.  Set below the majestic Mt. Tsukuba, there are many opportunities for hiking and biking through the attractive scenery.  While living in Tsukuba, we should be able to happily enjoy a mixture of both country and city life.  Also, there is a higher-than-average number of foreigners living in Tsukuba. What this means to us is that Western products that we are used to having in America will be more readily available than in other Japanese cities.  This should make for a much easier transition.  

Overall, I think Tsukuba is going to be the perfect place to start our new lives.

Star Light, Star Bright...

I guess, sometimes, dreams can come true.

When my fiancée Dustin and I traveled to Japan during Christmas break of my sophomore year, we really thought we knew what to expect.  We had both been fans of Japanese culture and media for many years.  One of my best friends from college, Eri - who we would be traveling and staying with - had prepared me with many late night conversations in our dorm rooms at Martin Methodist College in the tiny, country town of Pulaski, Tennessee.

And in truth, the whole trip was pretty much what we had foreseen:  Eri's hometown of Numazu, Shizuoka was set beautifully between Mt. Fuji and the ocean shore.  Christmas was a time of pretty lights, television specials and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  New Year's was exciting and festive.  We loved the food - all of it.  The temples in Kyoto were gorgeous and majestic beyond compare.  There was anime on TV and J-pop on the radio.  Tokyo was almost too much to handle.

   

Really, there was only one major thing that took us by surprise.  By the time our trip was over, Dustin and I realized that we could honestly be very happy and comfortable living in Japan.

Already having a friend who had moved to Japan a few months earlier to teach English, the idea became solidified in my mind.  I began asking questions and doing research.  My interest in Japan became more serious.  Before long, Dustin and I both began to realize that Japan was on our minds constantly.  The idea of going back - of staying much longer - began to haunt us like a craving.  I hesitate to say it, but it was almost like being homesick.  In a couple years time, I graduated with an English degree and took a job as a tutor while Dustin finished his own education.  We had decided what we wanted and we were determined to make it happen.

And now everything we dreamed of is finally coming to pass.

I'm not saying it was easy.  Though I had been doing research and compiling a list of potential schools for a couple years, it took us about four or five months of hard job searching - the kind where you think about it all the time because you're working on it everyday - to finally find suitable positions.  But with enough persistence and dedication, it finally happened.  Pretty soon, our craving will be satisfied.

Dustin and I will both be working as English instructors in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.  Though the date is not yet set, it's looking like we'll be leaving around late August or early September.

In later posts, I will go into greater detail about the job and Tsukuba, what sparked my fascination with Japan long ago, and the process of obtaining a job like this over the internet, as we managed to do.

For as long as I've been interested in moving to Japan, I've been very attentive to the blogs of people who have already done so.  Part of my dream was to one day have my own blog about such an adventure.  Especially during this stage of our journey - when determining what to expect and prepare for - such chronicles are priceless guides, and I am greatly indebted to those people who have charted the steps of their own transitions.  Many of those guides, however, are outdated, since the English teacher boom in Japan has come and gone.

My desire for this blog is to pick up where others have left off.  I plan to use it to keep in touch with friends and family, to (hopefully) entertain, and to help out others who might be wishing on their own stars for a similar dream to come true.