Welcome to Matsusaka

The busy streets of Tokyo.

On the 1st August 2012, Taryn and I left Tokyo for the relatively rural city of Matsusaka.

In order to get to Matsusaka, we left our hotel and walked to Shinjuku station (which we were pleased to recognised from our Pimsleur course in Japanese). From Shinjuku we took a normal train to Tokyo station at which we boarded the Shinkansen, Japan's high speed "bullet train". Embarassingly I can't remember whether we transitted off the Shinkansen at Nagoya or Kyoto :(. Either way the train we took, took us down to Matsusaka via Tsu.

Taryn and I thought that when we arrived at Matsusaka we would have to split up, but we were relieved to discover that our supervisors had coordinated the activities of the day somewhat; which meant that our first day was pretty much spent together.

The first order of business was to register our residence at the City Office. This is part of a process that requires the registration of the place of residence of every foreigner living in Japan. This has to be maintained throughout one's stay here and although it may seem like an imposition, it may also be quite practical when living in a disaster prone country like Japan. For instance, I can imagine it being handy to know the whereabouts of foreign citizens when trying to reassure foreign embassy's of the safely of their citizens during times of emergency.

Once this was done, I was taken to my school where I met some of my co-workers, including another ALT (Assistant Language Teacher), my principal, vice principal and other members of the administrative team. I also got to meet some of my future students (as it's currently their vacation). They were all girls and seemed quite excited to meet me. Taryn was with me at the time, and when she was introduced as my wife, this seemed to reignite the excitement as students chatted to one another and gestured at virtual rings on their fingers.

Our new favourite restaurant in Matsusaka

The first week of us staying in Matsusaka is blur of administrative tasks, authentic Japanese food, some interaction with students and generally trying to make our new nest feel like home. Mostly the time was spent trying to acclimatise to the many names, faces, essential Japanese vocabulary and other nuances of daily life that one is presented with when trying to harmonize with the pulse of Japan. Add to this the lingering Jetlag and the effect of being put on slow-motion by having to travel by bicycle instead of having a car, and one's disposable time is quickly found to be insufficient for any but the most essential tasks.

Having been in Matsusaka now for a week and a half, I can feel my perception of time starting to normalize a little. For one, I have time to write a blog entry today. Hopefully there will be plenty more of this to follow :D.

We have our bank account all set up, our car should hopefully be here next week, or the next week at the latest! Cell phones will hopefully arrive this week as well. The timing of these things is complicated by the fact that this week the Japanese people will be celebrating Obon, which I'll endeavour to write about in a subsequent blog. Because of this, many teachers will not be at work, including our supervisors (who often act as intermediaries between ourselves and officials), and subsequently our ability to deal with complicated matters will be greatly diminished. Nevertheless we are hopeful that this week we will finally be plugged in to the internet, not just at home, but while we are at work as well as when we are on adventure!

To close off this blog I will include a few photos we've taken while exploring Matsusaka.

The skyline from just outside our new home. No kidding :D.

The "pond " about 100m from our apartment.

Rich and poor live side-by-side, all under the canopy of the electric wires above.

Taryn defiantly straddles a Gaijin-("foreigner ")-trap!

A look down a residential street.

There are a surprising number of creepy crawlies around!

Matsusaka has many beautiful rice fields distributed throughout the city.

After witnessing the rain last night, it's quite clear why Matsusaka has these!

Please check my blog later this week as I hope to add posts about the Japanese festival of Obon, Nara's lantern festival, and about our fishing trip last weekend!

Tokyo Orientation 2012

Man, I've been meaning to do a blog about Tokyo Orientation now for a while, but I just haven't managed to get around to it. It's probably totally atypical, but I've been so incredibly busy this last week (that's right, I've been in Japan for over a week now and a lot has happened!) but the intention of this blog entry is to bring us to the end of last Tuesday evening, our last full day in Tokyo.

After a brief and unspectacular transit at Hong Kong airport...

the group of 31 South Africans arrived at Narita airport, just outside Tokyo. Here we were greeted by airport staff that asked us cordially whether we were with the JET programme, as our name badges implied. We seemed to be given some degree of preferential treatment and we were ushered through customs with the minimum amount of fuss. Once turned over the the real Japanese populace, (as opposed to the less regular airport variety) we were greeted by a multitude (and I mean a lot!) of JET representatives that politely and quite efficiently ushered us towards the buses that were to transport us to the Keio Plaza Hotel; the massive 40+ story, 5-star hotel at which we were to stay for our 3 nights in Tokyo.

Please see my blog called Touch Down in Tokyo for the details of our first night in Tokyo.

During the 2 day orientation, there was little time to do anything other than attend the organised events, unless you took the time and went AWOL during the conference... which I think many people did. Since I have no teaching background, and because I'm generally a conscientious person, I tried to maximise this opportunity to learn about my new work environment, so I attended as many seminars as I could. But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself...

The format of the orientation was basically divided into 2 days; morning, afternoons and evenings.

The morning slots contained presentations relevant to everyone. The afternoon slots consisted of a selection of seminars from which you could choose a subset to attend. The evening slots were, at least for the South African's, for scheduled social events.

The morning sessions were quite good and quite relevant, although at times a little repetitive. This is not surprising considering the number of people presenting, from both the Japanese and expatriate communities. Off the top of my head, the morning seminars consisted of a formal opening ceremony which I'll describe in a bit more detail below, an introduction to the purpose of the JET Programme and our role as teachers and catalysts of cultural exchange as well as an introduction to a brief description of the role of the ALT in Elementary, Junior High and Senior High School.

The afternoon workshops we attended on the first day were on Technology in the Classroom which was very disappointing (because the gist of the message was "face it, all you're gonna get is a blackboard."), a seminar on how the JET opportunity can be used as the springboard to a career in education, and I can't even remember the other topics...

On the second day we attended the seminars on teaching methods (which was very well presented and worth attending) and getting your Japanese driver's license, presented by one of the cutest (in a Thumper-from-Bambi kinda way), most adorable woman I've ever seen. The information presented here was also quite relevant, and the cute-factor caused me to enjoy this seminar possibly more than it was worth.

One of the evenings was used to host a semi-formal social which provided an opportunity to get to know the people from our newly designated prefectures. The hitherto (yes, it's a word) unmentioned timeslots of the orientation will covered in the highlights below.

So in retrospect would I have gone AWOL on some of the seminars? No, I probably still wouldn't because you don't have foreknowledge on which seminars are going to prove to be useful.

Highlights

Some of my highlights of the Tokyo Orientation were:

• A super-super formal opening ceremony which was attended by various Japanese ministers of government. These people were clearly very important because each minster was let to his/her seat by their own personal usher whose sole responsibility seemed to me to make sure the minister knew at any point in time, simply by looking at them which seat was for them. The ceremony was very solemn  but also very interesting because it was probably the first demonstration of Japanese formal custom that many of us had ever seen first hand.

• The ambassadorial function hosted by the South African Embassy was awesome. It was really a networking and marketing session, but the staff were excellent and the ambassador herself was the image of African sophistication in a typically down-to-earth way. I really enjoyed her company, and the people that attended the meeting were people worth chatting to. I found at the end of the evening that I hadn't had time to eat properly because there were too many interesting people to talk to. :)

• I even enjoyed making time in the evenings to explore Tokyo until it felt like my feet were going to explode!

• One of the highlights of going to the orientation for me was arriving for breakfast each morning and joining a bunch of South African's that spontaneously met to have breakfast before dispersing for the rest of their days. This familiarity was welcome in our new alien worlds, and I hope it helped to solidify the newly formed relationships between the members of the South African delegation. And as an added benefit, it made me feel very patriotic and proud as well :).

• After the South African ambassadorial cocktail party (on the last night of our stay) my wife and I went for the most expensive iced coffee we've ever had (R115 each) at the top (43rd floor) of the Main tower of the Keio Plaza Hotel with a bunch of South Africans for a multiracial talk on race and other things. To discuss race is typically South African, but to discuss it openly with a multiracial constituency is far less typical. The conversation was thought provoking and frank, and I left the conversation feeling like it was one of the kinds of conversations that South Africa desperately needs in order to bring healing and understanding to South Africa's diverse population.

A picture taken from the top of the Main Tower of the Keio Plaza Hotel

Touch-down in Tokyo!

It's 03:45 on the morning after my first half-day in Japan. Due to jet-lag, excitement, a spike in adrenalin (or something) after taking my asthma pump, or a combination of these factors, I am aWakE! While this is mildly inconvenient from the point of view of having to function in the real world a bit later today (that's tomorrow for most of you ;)), is it rather convenient for my blog as it allows me to write! (Yay!)

Yesterday the 29th of July 2012 was the start of a dream-come-true for me. I have wanted to come to Japan for such a long, long time, and yesterday we touched down with a graceful landing at Tokyo's Narita airport.

From there, we took a 90 minute bus ride to the Keio Plaza Hotel in what seems like the heart of Tokyo, and very close to Shinjiku Train Station.

Originally the plan had been to get to the hotel, phone home, shower and have a power nap. Instead I realised that I didn't in fact have the correct charger for my laptop, and hey I was in Tokyo baby(!) so instead my wife and I decided to ignore my literally cramping foot muscles and hit the streets if Tokyo...

The view from our hotel room (14th floor)

And I'm very glad I did!

My first impressions of Tokyo are that it's very clean and green for a capital city. At one point I remarked that it's like the whole city looked like a gold course; although I'll admit it's a bit of an exaggeration due to being a bit overcome by The Awesome at this point. Nevertheless, it is very green, and there are enormous trees lining the streets of Tokyo. Lush green ivy also appears to be everywhere, and the drive into the city took us past more than a few rice paddies (or similarly attractive grass-like fields).

Also, and maybe this is because it's a Sunday afternoon, Tokyo doesn't feel very full. Having said that, while walking around the streets of Tokyo I did have one of those moments where, like a scene from Lord of the Rings or The Last Samurai, two armies simultaneously commence an advance from opposing sides of a road, disappearing into one another's rank and file. The difference being of course that the clash of swords is replaced by the sound of designer heels clicking on asphalt.

When hitting the streets, Taryn, my wife and I, simply chose a direction which seemed to be roughly in the direction of a massive book store we had heard about that stocked English books; hoping to find a super-simple English-Japanese dictionary.

The Streets of Tokyo... on a Sunday night

On the way we stumbled across a multi-level (at least 5 floors) technology store in which we found the charger we were looking for. We did this by bringing the incorrect adapter we had, pointing to it and saying in Japanese “Nihon de”, which we hope means “for Japan”. The shop assistant asked us “PC or Notebooku” to which we said “notebooku!”. The guy escorted us to the correct isle and I noticed the first adapter he showed us only had 2 input wires so I drew his attention to this by saying “san-ban, ni-ban”, meaning “three-number, two-number” and together we quickly identified the correct laptop charger adapter.

The interaction was exciting and illuminating. Exciting because like Neo from the Matrix, I felt like “I know Japanese!”... well you know... enough to get by in this simple scenario, which is great! And illuminating because I still have so much to learn! For instance, “Where can I pay for this?” would have been a great sentence to know, instead I looked at him with the universal expression that says, “Ok, I'm a mime, so read what I mean from my body language” I pointed at my wallet, shrugged and said “doko ni?” meaning “where?”(... which also probably makes me a terrible mime, but hey... do you even get such a thing as a “good mime”?!?)

We found the bookstore eventually, but we struggled to find a dictionary dumbed-down enough for us, so we decided to delay our purchase until a bit later in the week as it seems likely someone will recommend one during our orientation.

Fake food. That's right, plastic food... placed on the sidewalks to give customers a preview of the food provided

After hunting for dictionaries, Taryn and I hunted for food. McDonalds was very tempting, but we resisted it's powerful seduction and opted instead to try a simple looking Japanese restaurant, and I'm so glad we did. I've been watching Naruto eat Ramen with incredible passion for ages, so last night I thought, the time has come... it's time to try Ramen. So Taryn ordered a pork ramen and I ordered a pork and fish ramen, which we had with the glass of unsterilized cold water presented to us on arrival. This was quite an adventurous selection for me as pork and fish would never be something I'd even consider mixing at home, however I'm pleased to report that it was delicious! and there are no signs of deli-belly so far :D.

Ramen!

Ramen is basically a plate of spaghetti-like noddles served in a savoury broth. With our ramen we had a boiled egg which is presented as a de-shelled egg floating in the broth, and the broth contains some small pieces of meat as well. Although no-one back home will believe this, a noodle broth that tastes slightly like fish paste with an egg floating in it is actually divine! (The egg's the best part!) I'm so glad I had the courage to try it! I'm not even a big fan of noodles, but I loved it and found myself slurping up my spaghetti with abandon, which resulted in me creating a puddle of ramen broth all around me (no seriously!) as me slurping spaghetti has much the same effect as a Labrador having a good shaking down after bath-time.

After this we went back to the hotel to iron our shirts for the week and try and get a good nights sleep before the big day tomorrow... Well, I've enjoyed the sleep I've had, and perhaps after getting this off my chest, I'll be able to sleep a little more :D.

Enjoy your day everybody. I suspect it's gonna be a good one! :D

Day -18: !@#$'s Getting Real

Today I sold my car.

Yesterday afternoon I met with a prospective buying in Somerset West, a town close to Cape Town. After introducing the car, the buyer and I agreed on a price and that was that. Super-simple.

But my wife and I drove home with an air of silence as the magnitude of the decisions we've made suddenly seemed so much more tangible. 

We drove home, knowing that there was a pretty good chance that would be the last time that we would be making that trip by car before leaving for Japan.

Even driving around running errands this morning, I knew that if I used that road again, it would probably be with public transport, and I wouldn't have the luxury of just being able to stop and take a photo of a beautiful sunset, or of the mist rolling in.

During the ride home, I think I even heard my wife say, "Shit's getting real." And it is... with less than 20 days to go, shit is getting real.

The buyer made good on their word, and the trade was made. The little car that has served me so faithfully over the last seven years is now in someone else's grubby paws.

I know it's just a material possession, but it certainly feels like our material possessions get imprinted with the memories we make in their presence.

Day -22: Matsusaka

This has been a tremendously exciting week for my wife and I! The board of education informed the JETs that are leaving at the end of their contract that they could start contacting their successors.

On Tuesday morning, my predecessor contacted me via an eloquent and friendly email, and gave me two valuable nuggets of information:


Firstly, I will be living in the city of Matsusaka, Mie for the next year.
Secondly I will be working at two schools for the next year. The schools are:
1. Matsusaka Commercial High School or Matsusaka Shogyo in Japanese (or simply Matsusho for short), and
2. Kameyama High School


Matsusaka

(Thank you JapanGuides.net for this image.)

According to Wikipedia, Matsusaka is a city of about 170 000 people. The city has a large area and as you can see, it stretches across the width of the entire prefecture. Matsusaka means "pine slope", and a neat way of remembering that is that Osaka is actually O-saka, with an honourific O followed by Saka for "slope". Now you know a new Japanese word ;).

It seems probable that Taryn and I will be living about 10km from the eastern coastline of Mie.

Matsusaka Commercial High School

It seems that I will be spending about 80% of my time at Matsusaka Commercial High School. This school is about 5 km from our place of abode, and apparently it's a scenic bicycle ride to work in the morning.

Kameyama High School

I will be spending 20% of my time at Kameyama High School. This school is... actually I haven't figured out where exactly yet :P. I'll get back to you on that one :D.

Iinan High School

Taryn will be working at Iinan High School, which seems to be about 25km away from our HQ at Matsusaka. According to Google this will be a 50 minute commute, however it looks like a mindbogglingly beautiful area, and hopefully the scenery will make the drive worthwhile.

Day -43: The Best News

Wahoo!! We got the best news! Looks like my wife has been placed in Mie as well! ... In fact, in the euphoric afterglow of receiving the news, I think I may even have told the person acting as our interface to the JET Programme that I could kiss him >D. (Names have not been mentioned to protect the innocent.)

Thank you to the organisers of the JET Programme for working so hard to make us happy :D. It's such a relief to know that my wife will have a sense of purpose while being in Japan. (Not that she wouldn't have found a sense of purpose, but rather it's so comforting to know what that sense of purpose is before leaving for such a foreign country.) I think it's really a testament to the fact that the organisers recognise the importance of making sure that everyone is comfortable and feels secure when they first arrive. Maybe it's an acknowledgement that we're about to embrace a huge amount of change, and perhaps the organisation is hoping it helps provide a degree of security for us.

Despite the fact that we haven't received definitive proof of where exactly (i.t.o. the city) we're going to be living, I feel quite confident that the organisers are trying their utmost to make sure that my wife and I are placed within a reasonable distance from one another.

So now, it's on to more practical things:

For starters, in exactly one weeks time the Cape Town JETs will have our local pre-departure and orientation meeting. As far as I understand it, the intention is to meet-and-greet, and it serves as a platform to ask any questions we may have.

I'm not sure whether I'm being a bit blasé about it all, but so far, I don't really have many questions... other than questions about medical insurance, which is a bit of a concern for me, and even then, I don't think it's the kind of questions this meeting is intended to answer.

I am looking forward to meeting the other adventurers that will be joining me on this journey :D. For that reason alone I'm very excited about going next Saturday.

In the meantime, we have a lot to do this week:

• Officially request my visa from the Japanese embassy
• Prepare our apartment for rental
• Read the General Information Handbook (200+ pages)
• Familiarise myself with the Accident Insurance Policy Guide (which is a document we received in the post this week)
• Oh... and learn Japanese :D

Nail Biting Stuff

So it's been a week since I heard about being placed in the prefecture of Mie for my tenure as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET Programme).

This is wonderful news, as my wife and I had asked to be placed somewhere Rural. Even if we're placed in one of Mie's larger cities, it's still going to feel a lot less urban than living in the CBD of one of South Africa's capital cities. :D

I am very excited about my placement, but there's a fair amount of anxiety about my wife's placement which is still inconclusive at the moment. Even though we've received some reassurance that the programme tries wherever possible to locate spouses within a reasonable distance from one-another, it's still not the kind of conclusive reassurance that we as Westerners derive from, for example, both my wife and I signing a legally binding contract saying "By signing below you accept your position at location X."

This is apparently a typical difference between Western-business-philosophy and Eastern-business-philosophy. In fact, when I contacted the powers-that-be regarding progress for the second time this week (Ok, I know, I know I probably should have been patient and not phoned twice in one week, but it's something that's really causing us a lot of anxiety!), I was told in a fairly firm tone that my actions seemed to imply that they had the information and were nonetheless withholding it from me. I was then told that when they know, they'll let us know.

Now just to be clear, this is not the modus operandi here in South Africa, where customer service is, without being sensational, honestly quite appalling.

What follows is not an exaggeration:

On the same day that I followed up for the second time on progress regarding our placement, 

• I had arranged to meet someone at my apartment between 9am and 12am for an inspection. She never arrived and did not try to contact me. I followed up with her to find out what was going on. She then said she needed to speak to her husband and then would phone me back... which she did not.
• I had to go back to the Department of Home Affairs that still had no record of us giving them a very specific official document, despite us giving them a copy... certified by the police... twice. They didn't inform me that anything was missing. I had to phone them to find out that they needed my input.
• I met a letting agent who said she would pop in to our apartment before leaving after her day's work. She didn't arrive that day (although in her defence she did come the next day).

So the point I'm trying to make here is that here in South Africa, if you want something done, you need to follow up and make sure that things are proceeding smoothly.

Now I'm in the position where I feel stressed and have been discouraged from pro-actively seeking reassurance.

Mamma Mie! This is going to be a bumpy ride.