So the past week or so I've been trying to adjust my sleep schedule for the graveyard shift in case I decide to go back on the night shift for Target (I haven’t even gone in to apply yet but I'm assuming they'll hire me. I don't have any job prospects anyway). Last night I was made it to 5:00 AM. Unfortunately, ever since I started doing this, I've been waking up at 9:17 on the nose everyday. As a result, I've become increasingly sleep deprived as time goes on (which explains these nonsensical rants about sleeping). The combo of no sleep and the intense boredom that comes with living alone and being unemployed over summer break is making me insane (well, more insane). I have no idea why I wrote this rant but dammit it's going up on my blog!

Oh yeah, I got another email from the dude in Fujiyoshida. He described the layout of the apartment: a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom w/ shower room and two living rooms. It sounds pretty big, but for all I know each of the rooms could be the size of a cracker jack box. I was actually kind of hoping I'd be living in one of those Japanese capsules, but it wasn't meant to be.

There's also no central heating and I hear that the winter there is incredibly cold. I think this would have been a bigger deal if I didn't spend last winter freezing my ass off in my house here. With gas so expensive and with my roommate and I being broke, we spent the winter with the heat off. Hooray poverty!

Some news!

Today I received an email from one of the JETs living in Fujiyoshida. He gave me a little bit of information about the city and the other JETS in the city.

There's a ton of nature related activies in the area as you might expect. There are also five large lakes in the region where a lot of the JETS spend their weekends at. Camping, hiking and snorkling seem to be the activities of choice in the area. It's a good thing I like all these activities (well, I've never been snorkling) or else I'd be feeling mighty surly about now...

He also said that I'd be living in a "danchi". I looked the word up and it seems to be a large apartment complex. Although he didn't describe the place, he did give a brief description of all the other JETs living in the same place. I think there's about five of us total and we're all Americans. He also the gave me the name of my predecessor and let me know that the school I'll be teaching at is only a five minute walk away from my home. I wish he had described the apartments, but I guess I'll find out more about the place when my predecessor gets in touch with me.

By the way, anybody who wants to can post comments on my blog, or at least I think they can...

Good news!

My grandmother is 100% a-ok. I'm still not in any hurry to find a job; therefore any charitable donations will be greatly appreciated!

I got the official JET package in the mail today. It came with a huge handbook, a video about JET life and, to my surprise, a Japanese textbook. The textbook is pretty basic; I've learned pretty much everything in it except for some vocabulary.

Meanwhile everything else has been pretty boring. I've been putting off looking for a job until my grandma finds out if they got all the cancer or not. She'll find out tomorrow. In the mean time I've just been a couch potato, but at least I've had some time to wind down from school and to catch up on some reading. I still need to test out my digital camera and find a place online to save all my pictures...

Hey everybody!

I'm trying out this blog deal for my time in Japan. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories to tell and pictures to post, assuming I can figure it all out.

Anyway, here's the summary of everything up to this point:

Last November I applied to the JET program which sends native English speakers to Japan to teach English in the public schools. After the long and painful waiting process that goes along with the program, I was eventually notified that I've been selected and I'll be leaving for the city of Fujiyoshida on July 29th.

Fujiyoshida seems like a great place to live and I'm very excited to be moving there. It's the city at the base of Mt. Fuji. Apparently it's also famous for its udon! Anyways, I'll probably be updating this blog often since I'm currently unemployed and bored out of my mind.