update time!!
where to start...?
well, i guess i'll start by saying DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO WAS SO COOL. it was if the city was straight out of all those movies that are set there-- the buildings all had that unique-to-SF architecture, the street cars and buses rushing up and down every street looked like they were out of a black & white film, the steep, rolling hills everywhere... and last but not least, the booming culture that was apparent there just from looking on from inside a bus window or from walking down the street.
i AM going to go back to that city and explore it throroughly someday soon. hell, i may even decide to live in the Bay Area.
the morning before i left Vegas (ie, the morning of my last post) i received a call from Mrs. M at the SF Consulate saying that there were some issues with my visa app that /hopefully/ wouldn't jeopardize the visa's issuance tomorrow. i was told to call back that same day at 4:40pm to see if my visa could be ready by tomorrow, when i would arrive in SF. of course, hearing this sent my nerves all over the place. it took great effort to not be sweating bullets the entire day. ;( thankfully i had other things to focus on in the meantime... like picking up 3 pairs of boots from a perverted shoesmith on the otherside of town... *shudders*
as soon as 4:40pm came around i was standing outside of the store i'd been in trying to call the Consulate. the Consulate closes at 5pm, so it took three calls almost back-to-back to finally got someone to go over to Mrs. M, who was apparently busy, and to ask whether my visa would be ready tomorrow. :/ throughout that entire week i'd probably called the Consulate 15 times because they would always be "very busy" and would ask me to "please call back." the whole thing was very annoying to say the least, so when i was finally told that my visa would be ready for me to pickup, i was still very apprehensive about it. getting on the plane to SF the next day was very nerve wrecking...
...i arrived at the Consualte the next day after 1pm and, of course, the visa department was busy, but not nearly as busy as i'd invisioned. when my number was called, i went up to the window and the lady said "ah, you must be Crystal. i'm Mrs. M." and with a smile on her face she got my passport and showed me the shiny new visa sticker in it.
....had i ever known such a sense of relief in my life before that day? maybe not.
anyway, i just had to resign the application and fill in a few blanks and i was on my way. thank you so much Mrs. M! i'm sorry i hounded you and your office like a mad person, but i'm sure you understand.... ;(
fast forward to LAX, Los Angeles International Airport. shortly after arrival, i got an email from United (bonus points for you, United! good job.) advsising me that the aircraft for my flight to Japan was delayed an hour, turning my 3.5hr layover into 4.5hrs. eventually i got another email revising that to 5.5hrs. BORING. but upon boarding the plane i realized that the wait was worth it because we got to fly a shiny new Boeing Dreamliner 787, which was really cool. imagine larger windows that have electronic tinting controls instead of window covers, more leg room even in economy, quieter take offs and landings, USB power outlets, etc etc. aside from being 2hrs late, the flight was the best i've ever had with United. i guess /maybe/ i'll consider flying them more in the future. :P
at LAX i had been able to find an internatinal sim card for $30 that allowed me to call family and the manager of my school in Japan with my existing Galaxy Note II once arriving in Japan. YAY for having bought that unlocked, international GN2 after all since i've now used it in three countries. :) i'll definitely be hanging on to it, despite having a newer phone now.
from Narita i took a Keio highway bus to Katsuta Station, the major station in Hitachinaka. the only note worthy thing about this is that it only took 2 hours and that i met a Californian couple who flew the same flight as me to Narita and were also on the same bus with me to Hitachinaka. it turns out that the husband works for Hitachi USA and has been sent to Hitachinaka for a year of training and his wife decided to tag along. i mean, how crazy is that that there'd be someone else going to the little country town of Hitachinaka from LAX on the same flight? he gave me his email address so we can meetup in the future. :)
now on to the more important part.... Hitachinaka and the school.
that first night back in Japan was really surreal. being at Narita again, riding a "highway bus" again-- seeing, hearing and doing so many things again that i'd done many times in the past but haven't seen/heard/done for years was really surreal. when i got off the highway bus and met J, the manager of the school with whom i'd done all my Skype interviews, for the first time it was a huuuge relief. like boarding the plane to Japan and arriving safely at Narita wasn't enough to cool my nerves which had been frayed for so long at that point. when we arrived at the school and i put all my things into the school's guest room, where i'll be staying until my apartment is ready on 11/30, that was another huge sigh of relief.
the guest room is really a one room apartment on the ground floor of the school's main building. it's probably as large as my apartment was in Kochi but with more space given to the main room leaving the kitchen and bathroom rather small. the guest room is nice and totally livable for the two weeks that i'll be here, but i definitely am looking forward to moving into my apartment next Saturday. :)
moving onto the school, my expectations have totally been exceeded. the main school (the school has 4 locations) is so.... it's hard to describe. it's nothing like some of the other eikaiwas (English conversation schools) that i've seen. rather, it's very cozy and Western-feeling rather than feeling like any other place in Japan that just has a bunch of English stuff pasted onto the walls. i really like it. :) the school is family owned and run and everyone is very nice and are totally into English education. the owner/president drove me around the first two days getting my bank account, phone, etc setup and we got to talk a lot during that time, which was nice. it's nice not working for some guy that you never really know because he's always behind some desk at the head of an office. there's more than i could say about each person that i've gotten to know over the past 3 days, but i won't go into all of that now...! suffice it to say that the staff, my fellow teachers and the students have all been really nice. i'll probably write another (private) entry about the school later.
as for Hitachinaka itself... wow. there's a lot that i could say, but this entry is already massively long so i'll try to keep this short. my first impressions of Hitachinaka are nothing but positive and encouraging. everyone keeps asking me about Kochi and i keep telling them that even though Kochi had twice the population of Hitachinaka, Hitachinaka feels like MUCH more of a modern city than Kochi ever did. at a glance, Hitachinaka has SO MUCH MORE than Kochi ever did and even little things stand out a lot to me. for example, the streets are much more nicely layed out and maintained, every intersection actually has street names on signs(!!!!), there are actually hospitals that look like they belong in this century, etc etc etc. there also seems to be a lot to do here if you have access to a car. local public transportation is probably the only thing Kochi trumps Hitachinaka on as in Kochi you could get pretty much anywhere on a bus or streetcar but here nothing really exists outside of the main train line. yay for having access to cars!
speaking of which, the past three days i've been working long hours training but starting today the school will be closed for four days. bL[!! that's four days for me to explore Hitachinaka and maybe even Mito, the prefectural capital next door. i'll also have access to a car for all four of those days...! up until now i have yet to drive in Japan...... but i want to practice and explore this weekend because next weekend i'll have to start driving to branch schools. wish me luck...! now that i have a smartphone (Galaxy Note 3-- w00t!) to serve as GPS, hopefully i won't get lost lol....
anyway, i have no real plans for this weekend and the hours are always ticking away. time to get moving!
Posted via m.livejournal.com.
well, i guess i'll start by saying DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO WAS SO COOL. it was if the city was straight out of all those movies that are set there-- the buildings all had that unique-to-SF architecture, the street cars and buses rushing up and down every street looked like they were out of a black & white film, the steep, rolling hills everywhere... and last but not least, the booming culture that was apparent there just from looking on from inside a bus window or from walking down the street.
i AM going to go back to that city and explore it throroughly someday soon. hell, i may even decide to live in the Bay Area.
the morning before i left Vegas (ie, the morning of my last post) i received a call from Mrs. M at the SF Consulate saying that there were some issues with my visa app that /hopefully/ wouldn't jeopardize the visa's issuance tomorrow. i was told to call back that same day at 4:40pm to see if my visa could be ready by tomorrow, when i would arrive in SF. of course, hearing this sent my nerves all over the place. it took great effort to not be sweating bullets the entire day. ;( thankfully i had other things to focus on in the meantime... like picking up 3 pairs of boots from a perverted shoesmith on the otherside of town... *shudders*
as soon as 4:40pm came around i was standing outside of the store i'd been in trying to call the Consulate. the Consulate closes at 5pm, so it took three calls almost back-to-back to finally got someone to go over to Mrs. M, who was apparently busy, and to ask whether my visa would be ready tomorrow. :/ throughout that entire week i'd probably called the Consulate 15 times because they would always be "very busy" and would ask me to "please call back." the whole thing was very annoying to say the least, so when i was finally told that my visa would be ready for me to pickup, i was still very apprehensive about it. getting on the plane to SF the next day was very nerve wrecking...
...i arrived at the Consualte the next day after 1pm and, of course, the visa department was busy, but not nearly as busy as i'd invisioned. when my number was called, i went up to the window and the lady said "ah, you must be Crystal. i'm Mrs. M." and with a smile on her face she got my passport and showed me the shiny new visa sticker in it.
....had i ever known such a sense of relief in my life before that day? maybe not.
anyway, i just had to resign the application and fill in a few blanks and i was on my way. thank you so much Mrs. M! i'm sorry i hounded you and your office like a mad person, but i'm sure you understand.... ;(
fast forward to LAX, Los Angeles International Airport. shortly after arrival, i got an email from United (bonus points for you, United! good job.) advsising me that the aircraft for my flight to Japan was delayed an hour, turning my 3.5hr layover into 4.5hrs. eventually i got another email revising that to 5.5hrs. BORING. but upon boarding the plane i realized that the wait was worth it because we got to fly a shiny new Boeing Dreamliner 787, which was really cool. imagine larger windows that have electronic tinting controls instead of window covers, more leg room even in economy, quieter take offs and landings, USB power outlets, etc etc. aside from being 2hrs late, the flight was the best i've ever had with United. i guess /maybe/ i'll consider flying them more in the future. :P
at LAX i had been able to find an internatinal sim card for $30 that allowed me to call family and the manager of my school in Japan with my existing Galaxy Note II once arriving in Japan. YAY for having bought that unlocked, international GN2 after all since i've now used it in three countries. :) i'll definitely be hanging on to it, despite having a newer phone now.
from Narita i took a Keio highway bus to Katsuta Station, the major station in Hitachinaka. the only note worthy thing about this is that it only took 2 hours and that i met a Californian couple who flew the same flight as me to Narita and were also on the same bus with me to Hitachinaka. it turns out that the husband works for Hitachi USA and has been sent to Hitachinaka for a year of training and his wife decided to tag along. i mean, how crazy is that that there'd be someone else going to the little country town of Hitachinaka from LAX on the same flight? he gave me his email address so we can meetup in the future. :)
now on to the more important part.... Hitachinaka and the school.
that first night back in Japan was really surreal. being at Narita again, riding a "highway bus" again-- seeing, hearing and doing so many things again that i'd done many times in the past but haven't seen/heard/done for years was really surreal. when i got off the highway bus and met J, the manager of the school with whom i'd done all my Skype interviews, for the first time it was a huuuge relief. like boarding the plane to Japan and arriving safely at Narita wasn't enough to cool my nerves which had been frayed for so long at that point. when we arrived at the school and i put all my things into the school's guest room, where i'll be staying until my apartment is ready on 11/30, that was another huge sigh of relief.
the guest room is really a one room apartment on the ground floor of the school's main building. it's probably as large as my apartment was in Kochi but with more space given to the main room leaving the kitchen and bathroom rather small. the guest room is nice and totally livable for the two weeks that i'll be here, but i definitely am looking forward to moving into my apartment next Saturday. :)
moving onto the school, my expectations have totally been exceeded. the main school (the school has 4 locations) is so.... it's hard to describe. it's nothing like some of the other eikaiwas (English conversation schools) that i've seen. rather, it's very cozy and Western-feeling rather than feeling like any other place in Japan that just has a bunch of English stuff pasted onto the walls. i really like it. :) the school is family owned and run and everyone is very nice and are totally into English education. the owner/president drove me around the first two days getting my bank account, phone, etc setup and we got to talk a lot during that time, which was nice. it's nice not working for some guy that you never really know because he's always behind some desk at the head of an office. there's more than i could say about each person that i've gotten to know over the past 3 days, but i won't go into all of that now...! suffice it to say that the staff, my fellow teachers and the students have all been really nice. i'll probably write another (private) entry about the school later.
as for Hitachinaka itself... wow. there's a lot that i could say, but this entry is already massively long so i'll try to keep this short. my first impressions of Hitachinaka are nothing but positive and encouraging. everyone keeps asking me about Kochi and i keep telling them that even though Kochi had twice the population of Hitachinaka, Hitachinaka feels like MUCH more of a modern city than Kochi ever did. at a glance, Hitachinaka has SO MUCH MORE than Kochi ever did and even little things stand out a lot to me. for example, the streets are much more nicely layed out and maintained, every intersection actually has street names on signs(!!!!), there are actually hospitals that look like they belong in this century, etc etc etc. there also seems to be a lot to do here if you have access to a car. local public transportation is probably the only thing Kochi trumps Hitachinaka on as in Kochi you could get pretty much anywhere on a bus or streetcar but here nothing really exists outside of the main train line. yay for having access to cars!
speaking of which, the past three days i've been working long hours training but starting today the school will be closed for four days. bL[!! that's four days for me to explore Hitachinaka and maybe even Mito, the prefectural capital next door. i'll also have access to a car for all four of those days...! up until now i have yet to drive in Japan...... but i want to practice and explore this weekend because next weekend i'll have to start driving to branch schools. wish me luck...! now that i have a smartphone (Galaxy Note 3-- w00t!) to serve as GPS, hopefully i won't get lost lol....
anyway, i have no real plans for this weekend and the hours are always ticking away. time to get moving!
Posted via m.livejournal.com.