Cats

We miss our cat, Moses, who is basically the greatest cat I’ve ever known. Japan is completely free of rabies, and so there is a high chance of an extended quarantine for incoming pets. Not knowing how long we would be here, and if we were even allowed a pet, we decided it wasn’t practical to try to bring Moses. Instead, I stopped in Los Angeles for a couple of days on the way to Tokyo and delivered him to my older brother. Now Moses is a California kitty.

To tide us over until we are reunited, we have regularly been going to the pet section at our local home center to see the kitties. One in particular is a Scottish Fold, and we are in love with him. Unfortunately he costs ¥88,000, or over $1,000! 

We found a couple of omiyage (souvenirs) that we may send Moses from Japan.

Inspired by a kitty in an ACTUAL shirt!

This hamster has 2 ways!

Update:  After this post was written, the Scottish Fold disappeared from our local hardware store.  We suspect foul play... or someone now owns a very expensive pet!

Food in Japan

Happy happy at our local udon shop

When people used to ask me what I miss about Japan, food was always one of the first things that came to mind! People automatically assumed this meant I love sushi, which is not the case. I like sushi, but there is so much more in Japan. I’m not sure why sushi and Japanese tepanyaki (Japanese steakhouses) are the only widely available culinary items in the States, when there is udon noodles, soba noodles (eaten cold in the summer), ramen (not just the cheap, dehydrated kind) yakiniku (Korean BBQ), Japanese curry, tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), nabe/sukiyaki/shabu shabu (hot pot dishes), and tons of other delicious items! 

Bento on the Shinkansen (bullet train)

What I often missed most are the simple, everyday food items: onigiri (seaweed wrapped, fish-stuffed, rice balls), bento (traditional boxed lunches), and set lunches at Japanese restaurants, where for a reasonable price you get rice, miso soup, Japanese pickles, meat or fish, and an iced coffee. These are the basics, the comfort food. They’re usually not exotic enough to export around the world, but they end up being the things you really miss.

Sucking down some Hope-Ken ramen

Gaijin Cards

We had to go to city hall to apply for our Alien Registration Cards, commonly called “gaijin cards” by foreigners in Japan. Gaijin is the abbreviated, casual version of gaikokujin, the word for foreigner in Japanese. Before filling out the application, we needed some passport photos. We went to a local photography studio and were greeted by SEVEN Dachshunds! Three were in a pen, and four were laying in cardboard boxes along the wall. They ran up to us, barking like crazy when we came in, and they didn’t stop until we started ignoring them. It was one of those bizarre Japanese experiences that eventually become normal.

Our Apartment

The first thing you think about after being told what town you will live in is what will my living situation be like? Getting an apartment in Japan can often be a costly process with various non-refundable deposits that don’t exist back home. Most ALT’s get to avoid these fees because their contracting organizations arrange their accommodations. Sometimes ALT’s in big cities pay a lot of rent for a tiny Japanese apartment. Many fortunate ALT’s get subsidized apartments, and a few get to live totally rent free.

After learning about the actual apartment/house, the next question is that of furniture. When I was an ALT, I was the seventh or eighth teacher to live in the same apartment, and so I inherited a large amount of stuff. My predecessor had purchased very little, so I didn’t have to pay for anything. This was definitely a blessing, but I was often frustrated by how much stuff I had that I couldn’t really throw anything away because it was property of the board of education.

Often times, the outgoing ALT has purchased a substantial amount of furniture/appliances and tries to sell everything to his/her predecessor. Of course, the successor may not want everything, but when it’s already in place, it’s a good idea to negotiate. Occasionally, a new ALT doesn’t have a predecessor and has to furnish an apartment from scratch. In our case, Becky had a predecessor, but we didn’t move into the same apartment that she lived in. So we purchased a few, key appliances from her, and decided to start from scratch on most everything else. We’re feeling a little like refugees at the moment, but hopefully that changes as we acquire some furniture.

Our front door

Our neglected "back yard"

Miki

View from home

We arrived in Miki today. It’s got a rural/industrial mix often found in Japanese suburbs, not unlike Harima-cho where I lived five years ago. We have plenty of affordable restaurants and all the necessities within walking distance. Some of the more interesting restaurants, shopping areas, and City Hall are at bicycle distance. Hopefully we get some bikes soon.

Rice patties abound in Miki

Becky will be working three days a week at Miki High School and two days a  week at Miki North. They’re both about 20-25 minutes by bike from our apartment and quite a bit farther going on foot and by train. 

Our local train

Miki is about an hour from central Kobe, which will be our home base for shopping, seeing movies, going to museums, going to church, etc. Osaka is another 30 minutes further, so that will also be a weekend option. 

In a couple of weeks, we’ll get our Alien Registration Cards, and then we can get cell phones. We already ordered Internet service, but it will probably be a few weeks before someone can come out. We prioritized buying a bike for Becky this week, and I will get one a few weeks from now. The new semester will start September 1 and free Japanese classes will also start in September at City Hall. All of this adds up to August being a little bit of a limbo month, so we probably won’t get into a regular routine until September.

Regular shopping trip on foot

Tanjoubi (Birthday) in Tokyo

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (view from Becky's hotel)

Our brief time in Tokyo was a bit of a whirlwind. The jet lag that results from traveling halfway around the world can be quite severe. I tend to take about five days to recover completely, and during those five days I am basically a zombie.

As a new JET Program ALT (Assistant Language Teacher), Becky was required to spend the first few jet-lagged days at an orientation comprised of a dizzying amount of  seminars, some of which are more interesting than others. No matter how interesting, the JET-lag stupor kind of makes everything run together.

I arrived in Tokyo a day after Becky, and spent two nights sleeping on the floor at a friend’s apartment. Becky and I didn’t get to see each other until the evening of my birthday. Still both exhausted, we kept it low-key. We did a little birthday shopping in Daikanyama, ate dinner at the A to Z Cafe in Aoyama, and got some blended drinks at Godiva in Harajuku. This particular Godiva was designed by Wonderwall, one of the best interior design firms in Japan. Whenever I visit Tokyo, I try to check out a new Wonderwall designed shop/cafe/restaurant.

Birthday Ben with birthday bag and birthday blended drink

The 4 Stages of Culture Shock

13 hours of flying, watching Jane Eyre, Ceder Rapids, and an entire season of Dexter, a 2 hour bus ride, getting a bit lost in the neighborhood around our hotel, a horrible nights sleep, a small earthquake, and a whole day of opening ceremony, workshops, and presentations later... here I am sitting at a Japanese computer trying to figure out how I ever survived pre-cell phone days.  Not to seem as if I am not having a fantastic time (because trust me I am), but I seem to have recognized that while some start out in the 1st stage of culture shock, Euphoria, I have started in the 2nd which is having an overwhelming sense of not knowing what the hell is going on!  I know that there are two more stages which I will ultimately come to... hoping that I will skip past stage 3, Irritation and Hostility, onto stage 4, Adaptation and Biculturism, and maybe backtrack to stage 1.  Because come on, Japanese Euphoria sounds amazing!  Gimme some of that!

The last few days have been confusing because jetlag has hit me like a ton of bricks, yet I have to function in order to participate in these workshops and put on a good face to meet my colleagues.  I will admit while I have been pretty spaced out, I have learned a lot about what will be expected of me, and I have met lots of great, like-minded people.  I am more excited than ever to be part of this group of people, joining the likes of my husband (whom I have a greater sense of unity with knowing that he sat in this same seat just a few years ago).  Looking forward to seeing where this will take me, us, and the day when I can use the toilet, speak to the cashier of the conbini (convenience store), and order Subway with confidence!

Third Time's the Charm

In a couple of weeks, I will be moving to Japan for the third time. The JET Program brought me to Japan in 2005, when I taught English there for two years. I returned to the States for a year before taking a job doing international business development for a Japanese company in 2008. Upon taking that job, I had planned to live in Japan for around five years. Part of that didn't happen because the world's economy tanked, and my boss's plans to expand into the USA kind of fizzled. So I ended up doing that job for only one year.

It was during that year, that I met my wife, Becky, over the Internet. My plans to try to stay in Japan long term quickly changed as I pinned after a girl in Oklahoma. Becky had been to Japan for a short trip as a child, and from the very beginning there was talk of living in Japan together. Becky had also always been interested in ESL and teaching English. I don't really remember at what point she decided she wanted to apply for the JET Program, but here we are a year or so later and ready to make the move.

This move will be very different from the last two as I am not alone, I will not arrive with a work visa, and we have a whole house full of stuff we are dealing with. The biggest issue will be that work visa. I will receive a dependent visa, meaning I am dependent on someone (Becky) who has received a work visa. I will be a house-husband in the eyes of the Japanese government, and therefore should be supported by my spouse. But because house-husbands get bored, the Japanese government will let me work for 28 hours per week if I can secure a work permit. If I find a full-time job, I can also go through the process of changing my visa to a work visa.

Until then, I will look for anything to do immediately, including possibly doing some work for my old boss from the Japanese company. I'm going to take advantage of my free time first by working to make our new home as comfortable as possible. Then I will begin aggressively improving my Japanese ability, especially my reading and writing. Being able to speak Japanese fairly well impresses many Japanese people, but being able to call myself "bilingual" is what will get me good jobs in the future.

Lastly, I am going to aggressively pursue my long-time desire to become a professional screenwriter. In the past year, I finished the first major revision of my first screenplay. It was an emotional, challenging, messy process! The end result was not something that I will sell for six figures next week, but it is something I want to come back to in the future. More importantly, I learned a ton from the process, and I feel more confident than ever that the next screenplay will be easier to write and a better finished product. I also picked up another screenwriting mentor in the process, so I'm hopping he can help me achieve success in the future. For many years, it has been the desire of my heart to live in Japan as a professional Hollywood screenwriter while at the same time being able to do Christian ministry. Perhaps the third time's the charm.