Packing.

Packing to go to Japan is turning out to be an adventure in itself. I don't know if you have ever packed for something like this, but it can be verrrry tricky! I get two 50lb checked suitcases, a 40lb carry on, and a personal item. Seems somewhat reasonable, right? NOT! I am not in full pack mode yet, but I have been doing some shopping/planning/organizing, and I realized that just my clothes are going to weigh 100lbs. When you need suits and nice clothes on top of the usual, it really complicates things. I have not really even thought about the toiletries or other things I will need. I will have to pack another box or two and send them to myself. (I already sent 3 and my pred was fantastic enough to pick them up for me)

One good thing is that I do not need to take a bajillion pairs of shoes (I LOVE shoes... if you have never seen my closet, well, I have a lot of shoes). Anyway, since I pretty much will wear the same pair of shoes at work every day (i.e. my "indoor shoes"), no matter my outfit, that makes packing shoes a lot easier. Also, anytime I go into an apartment or house, I will take my shoes off and wear slippers, so, again, cute shoes are hardly worth while most of the time. I still need a nice pair of heels just in case, and then a few pairs of fun going out shoes, and hiking/walking shoes, but I do not need to take as many shoes to match every suit and outfit. I am also taking tennis shoes and another pair or two to be indoor shoes. If I am running around with small Japanese children, tennies might be better, but most days, the other flats will be great. I might get by with around 10 pairs. By my standards, that is packing light in the shoe department.

So shoes are easy, yay, I just have to figure everything else out! How fun this will be. The rest of the problem, once I get the weight figured out, is dividing everything correctly between the suitcase I will take to Tokyo and the one that will get sent straight from the airport to Iiyama. That is a whole other challenge, and it will probably take a few tries to get everything right.

It's real now.

I have now heard from my predecessor, received my contract, and emailed with two other Iiyama JETs. One is already there and will be starting her second year, and the other will be a newbie, just like me. The more information I get, the better I feel about this whole thing. It is so incredibly helpful to talk to people who have just spent a year teaching in Japan in Iiyama. What I need to remember is that there are lots of other JETs, and we are all going through this together. Granted ESID, (check the acronym list) but generally speaking, we are all moving to a new country, many of us have never lived abroad like this before, we will all be working in Japan, etc. etc. etc.

So, the contract:
It covers all the important information, age of students (I have junior high school, so essentially 5th-8th graders), work schedule, holidays (there are quite a few), paid leave, sick leave, responsibilities and duties as an ALT, etc. Nothing seemed unreasonable, and I will be making a good salary. My favorite part was the obligatory "other duties as assigned by your supervisor." I also have my apartment address now and my school address. And my supervisor's name. Apparently she does not speak English, so this will be fun. I will be learning Japanese, that's for sure. There are pictures of my apartment (I also got some from my pred, so that rocked) and TONS of brochures about Iiyama. The brochures are all in Japanese, so I honestly don't know what they say. The pictures are pretty, at least!

I am worried about teaching and getting the kids to open up and participate. I know from experience how hard it is to learn a new language and how intimidating it can be to have a native speaker in your classroom as your teacher (or as an assistant teacher, as is the case here). It took me several years of French before I realized that just speaking up and making mistakes is the best way to learn. By the time I took Russian and Spanish in college, I learned a lot because I just threw things out there and laughed at my mistakes. And now I am *trying* to learn Japanese, and making plenty of mistakes in the process, e.g. I said "it is mountain goat-ing" (mountain goats are falling from the sky) instead of "it is snowing" but I will forever know that mountain goat is yagi and snow is yuki. Someday, a mountain goat just may fall from the sky, and I can only hope that I will be there to see it.

Some Japan fun facts!

Purely for fun! Some of these facts are quite surprising.

• Japan is 70% mountains.
• The population of Japan is about 127 million.
• The population of Tokyo is over 12 million. (New York City is about 8 million)
  
• Japan is slightly smaller in area than California. (perspective: CA has a population of about 37 million)
  
• Normal Japanese kitchens do not have ovens.
• In Japan when you move into an apartment, you often have to bring your own light fixtures.
• You don't wear shoes in the house, you wear slippers.
• There are special slippers for the bathroom.
• You do not wear any slippers in a tatami mat room.
  
• The head of the Japanese state is the Emperor. Not to be confused with the head of government, the Prime Minister.
• In Japan, you drive on the left side of the road, and roads are very narrow.