The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Since the first job offer to the time I landed in Japan was fifteen days, which I spent almost entirely packing.
You might ask “if you knew you were going to move to Japan, why weren’t you packing anyway, even before you got the official job offer?” Well, every time I spoke with a school or visited a job board, I specified that I would need about 30 days to get ready- plenty of time to pack a 1400 square foot home. I was so excited to get the job offer from ALS, the school I actually *wanted* to get into, that I took the position, even though they wanted me to start in just over a week from the initial job offer.
Moving, of course, is always a pain in the ass. My last two moves were both to spaces that could absorb everything I had, so I didn’t really need to get rid of anything. In the last few days though, I ended up spending some time packing that I’d normally be sleeping, and consequently got about six hours of sleep in the last two nights before I left. I didn’t even have an opportunity to go get the playing cards I wanted to give as small gifts to students and teachers at ALS. I’m so thankful I built an “extra” 24 hours into my move schedule, as it allowed me to do mop up of things I forgot to take care of before then. Canceling my utilities and services, for instance, and spending an additional six hours at my house so my mom could pack up things that interested her that I was ready to just toss as trash (a lot of food from my pantry, for instance).
After convincing ALS that starting the week after they initially wanted me would be at least as good (really, is eleven days enough to pack a house and move to a foreign country?), my start date was pushed back by a week. Effectively a little less than that though, as they then told me that I should arrive in Tokyo three or four days before training started, so I could acclimate, decompress, and play tourist a little before my class started on Tuesday. At any rate, my last few days were totally consumed by packing, to say nothing of the panicked couple of hours I spent at the very last moment (early early in the morning of the 11th) unpacking, redistributing, and repacking to keep my big bag under 50 pounds. It’s a great suitcase, but it’s a bit heavy by itself, so I need to be more careful about using it on flights with a weight limit. It ended up at 53.5 pounds, but the nice lady at the check in counter didn’t make me pay the $50 to have a bag in the 50-75 lb range (thank god it wasn’t $100 for the 75-100 lb range).
I had the forethought to put all liquids in my checked bag, so I didn’t have to deal with that fiasco again (ask me about the Helena airport screening sometime). I squeezed my Wii and controllers into some spaces between clothes in my carryon bag (I had originally planned to pad it with the clothes in the big bag, but I couldn’t add the weight). Without my knee brace, I breezed right through security in Las Vegas.
The flight from Las Vegas to LA was uneventful. To pass the 1.5-hour layover I struck up a conversation with a Korean accountant who was waiting to fly home (whose sister, coincidentally, used to own an English language school).
The flight from LA to Tokyo was quite long. It seemed much longer than any of the transoceanic flights I’ve flown previously, probably because the in-flight entertainment system was malfunctioning. It only worked for a few minutes at a time, then the system would show static and a message saying the channel was no longer available (which only lasted about a second at a time, but it forced you to change back to your chosen movie or TV show after it reset). At any rate, I have to say the in-flight entertainment system on Japan Airlines is much better than American Airlines. Though they both have individual seat-back monitors, JAL’s system offers true On-Demand programming, where American Airlines had a two-hour (2.5?) block of programming on thirteen channels that looped throughout the flight.
I was met at Narita airport by an ALS teacher named Chris. Chris is 27, originally from Long Island, and has a degree in psychology. He’s been with ALS for a while now, and helped me get the perspective of someone that actually works in the trenches. Everything he told me jived with what the recruiter said, so I felt pretty good about my decision to join ALS. He also mentioned that he was moving in next door to the guest house, and should I need anything, to feel free to ask. We rode the JR East train from Narita to Yotsukaido, which turned out to be a bit further from central Tokyo than I thought (the fact that we had to take a train instead of a subway might have tipped you off).
Here are my four bags on the floor of the train. Even though you can see the orange “Heavy” tag on my big green bag, it was only about two thirds full- but still, all four bags together weighed about 135 pounds. The problem with this became very apparent when we arrived in Yotsukaido and I had to carry my laptop, blue backpack, and overstuffed garment bag from the station to the guest house, almost half a mile away. I seriously felt like I was plucked out of a cartoon, wearing the backpack with the garment bag looped over one shoulder and the laptop bag over the other. Chris walked next to me, and we tried to talk over the din of my 53 lb suitcase’s plastic wheels negotiating the rough asphalt road. We certainly weren’t travelling covertly, that’s for sure.
I was pleasantly surprised by the guest house itself. It has five bedrooms- four upstairs, and mine downstairs. Yes, like all of the homes in Japan, you do need to take off your shoes when you come inside. Just next to the front door is a cabinet to store your shoes and a long shoehorn to help you back into them when you need it.
The living room, kitchen, and dining areas are one large room. When I looked around, I was pleasantly surprised again- one of my housemates brought his Nintendo Wii, and was playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl. The kitchen is modestly sized, and generally exactly what you’d expect, except for the undersized refrigerator (undersized to my American preconceptions, anyway) and the built-in oven that’s almost the exact same size as a toaster oven. In fact, the only advantage it has over a toaster oven is that it doesn’t use up valuable counter space. The only internet connection in the building is through the one ethernet cable on the desk in the living room, where I’m sitting right now. Also on the desk is a crazy rotary pay phone. It costs Â¥10 for each 30 second increment of local calls, so people generally use it just long enough to tell someone to call them back.
My room is about the size of a single dorm room. I have a sliding door that affords me an excellent view of the not so excellent rear cinderblock wall and the rear of the neighbors’ house. The bed is a standard bed frame, but uses a futon mattress and pad. The downstairs toilet room is just outside my bedroom, and the shower/laundry room is five steps further. All things considered, I’m completely satisfied with the digs.
After I put my bags down, Jonathan stopped playing his Wii and joined Chris and I on our walk to Ito Yokado, a department store about a quarter mile away from the guest house. It’s a three (?) story standalone affair with its own internal food court and supermarket, and is a great place to shop for just about anything you need. We each grabbed a pre-wrapped item or two from some waist-high open-top refrigerated cases, and brought them back to the house to eat and talk.
It’s funny what happens to your concept of “reasonable walking distance” in a situation like this. I’ve walked to Ito Yokado at least once a day since I’ve been here, and I was still shocked when I figured out the distance using Google Maps. It really doesn’t seem far from the house at all, just a few blocks. I imagine this’ll get me in slightly better cardio shape, at the very least. 🙂
All in all, I’m very happy with my decision to pursue ALS the way I did. Everyone I’ve met from the company seems very friendly and knowledgeable. I’ll have a lot more to say about that in the days to come, as I get into my actual training, I’m sure.
Signing off,
David
