Entries this day: A_State_of_My_Life_Address

A State of My Life Address

3:27am JST Sunday 30 March 2003

State of My Life Address

1. I'm in Japan!

2. I've come to Japan to learn Japanese, the first language in my goal to become conversant in three languages (not English) by 2010. To support myself during this process, I'll be working for Nova, the most prolific ESL company in Japan.

3. Interestingly, I wonder if I've already lost sight of my original reason to come to Japan, or maybe if that reason is just chillin' on a back burner (haha chillin' on a burner) in my subconscious.

   That reason was to get a job for a company called US Experiment (http://www.usexperience.org I think) which requires its leaders to have in-country experience in various countries before they can lead youth group tours there.

4. I have become aware of an Eminem concert here in Japan! According to Cookie, the venue is a good hike from here, but I'm definitely going to talk to a cat named Ben (at Cookie's suggestion) who has been to some concerts there. Ticket price is 8400 yen for advanced tickets. Shows are scheduled for 23 and 24 May (Friday and Saturday). Nice.

5. I've been living in a hotel for the past three nights. My apartment (which I'll be sub-leasing from Nova) is not ready yet (read: the guy I'm replacing has not moved out yet), but I'll be moving in today. Adrienne G will be picking me up from the hotel to escort me there. That's cool though I've actually already made my way there once. But the cool part is that I'll be able to ask her why my train tickets don't work the way I thought they would.

6. My hotel room features a teapot and green tea, toilet with bidet and butt sprayer, a short bathtub that appears deep cause it's so short, light switches at the head of the bed to control most of the lights in the room, a flashlight in case of emergencies (earthquakes), and two sets of pajamas clean and folded on my bed each afternoon.

7. I lost the key to my hotel room yesterday. Paid 2100 yen to the front desk for a new one. But I retraced my adventure from yesterday and found my key in the third to last place I had visited. Got my 2100 yen back. (That's a 1/4 price of an Eminem ticket!)

8. I've met Andrew (Dru Daddy G), Janelle & Kevin, Cookie (5 years with Nova), Fiona (some years with Nova), the guy in my apartment who I'll be replacing (didn't get his name), and some other new Nova recruits whose names I've forgotten.

9. Lots of people smoke here. I just try not to breathe it.

10. I'm awake early this morning because I went to sleep early (8pm?) last night. I don't think it's because of jet lag (8pm JST = 5am CST), but because of culture-shock. I'm comfortable in my hotel room where everyone speaks English. So after a day (12 hours) of navigating ... you know; I don't really know where I am on a large map of Tokyo/Yokohama ... this city, I'm ready to hibernate again.

11. (Okay, I looked on a map. I'm basically on the western edge of the subway loop around Tokyo, near the Shinjuku station.)

12. I do not yet have bicycle or skates here. I don't know if I'll ask Janette for them, but a lot of people ride bikes. There's definitely more pedestrian traffic, but many bikes. My particular bike seems like it would stand out as higher quality than the average bike here. The only skates I've seen were at a skate park.

13. The only Japanese words I can use are "sumimasen" (I'm sorry / excuse me) and "arigato" (thank you) and "hai" (yes). Thank goodness I can just point at display food in a restaurant, and public restrooms are clearly marked.

14. I've purchased stationery to write to people, but I've not gotten my computer connected, so these 20 entries I've written are still unpublished.