Settling in a bit...

Wow, my first few weeks in Japan have already flown by. I only have one week left of training, and then I’m unleashed on the Japanese public. So, this is now the longest time I have ever spent in the country, as my holidays here before have only been 7-day trips. And so much has happened since my last post. Let’s see.

TRAINING In the initial few days, as I think my previous posts show, I felt so out of my depth, and was questioning if I’d made the right decision. So I was grateful just to have a purpose on the first day or training, as if the job itself could somehow help me make sense of my decision to come here.

Well, the training has been intense – long hours, lots to remember and very short breaks – but the trainers are all pretty friendly and energetic so they make the time pass quickly. I’ll be teaching both kids and adults lessons, so our first week concentrated on adult training which is basically using a textbook we have to get really familiar with. This week we’ve been doing all the kids class training, which is a total contrast, although just as structured in its own way. And I get to play with cookie monster puppets! Yes!

One of the best things about training has definitely been meeting the other trainees. I’m the only only Brit, the others are Australian, Canadian and American – which has been really cool for learning about each other’s countries/customs as well as marvelling at the Japanese experience together. They’re a great bunch and I hope once our work begins proper we can still arrange to meet up often. Most of them are in Osaka, although one is moving out to Hiroshima next week which will be sad because she’s ace… but I want to go visit Hiroshima anyway so it will be good to go see her once she’s settled.

SIGHTSEEING Not done a huge amount of it so far, mainly exploring Osaka and my own neighbourhood, but gathering confidence on the subways and trains means I’m less daunted about going elsewhere once I get paid again. Last week a few of us went to the cup noodle museum/factory, where we saw the history of instant ramen and were able to make our own personalised cup. It was really fun and reminded me of why I wanted to come to Japan, to see the kind of place you wouldn’t get to go on a jam-packed holiday. So more of that to come!

SHOPPING Now, I haven’t got a whole lot of money to spend at the moment so my usual shopping habits have taken a nosedive. However – ECC require we all have a mobile phone, so I had a real adventure getting one.

An ECC trainer had told us about a westerner who worked in one of the Softbank stores in Shinshibashi, and by luck we found his shop - he made a beeline for us as we nosed around the phones. I’m glad we did manage to find Michael, because the process for setting up two phones (mine and Robby’s) took about four hours. Michael had to scan in all our documents (passport, visa, receipt for gaijin card) and fill out several forms with us. And here came the rub – because our visas are only valid for one year, we had to pay upfront for our phones AS WELL AS take out a contract. If we’d got two-year visas, we would have only had to take out the contract. It was a very expensive day, let’s put it that way. However – I’ve always wanted to own an iphone, so I decided to splash out and just get what I wanted. The idea of being able to check my facebook/email any time I wanted was just too much of a draw. The Disney phones were very tempting, though I felt a Disney phone, bank card (YES!) and watch (Which I’m wearing) might be a little overkill. Michael’s customer service was above and beyond – while he worked on Robby’s application papers he sent us to a nearby curry place, or rather, he actually walked with us out of the shop and pointed to his recommendations on the menu. Later, when I flapped about not having a phone case for my super expensive phone, he walked me out to the mac shop just two minutes away. Such personal service!

Michael himself was a really interesting guy. An American, he has lived here 8 years. He gave me some advice, to try and learn more Japanese and just try it out, not be afraid of making mistakes. He also said ‘look around – do you see many old western people living here? Or many children? That tells you a lot about westerners who come to Japan. There’s a time limit.’ He also said it took him three years of living here before he could learn Japanese on a basic level. Wow. So yeah – if you ever come to Osaka and need a phone, drop into Michael’s store because you’re guaranteed an interesting few hours (and he had a very cute co-worker with good hair… my eyes kept drifting!)

By the way, a week on, I completely love my iphone – It’s a great way to kill time on the train and I found a manga reader on it and everything so I’m racing to catch up on my favourite titles. Yay!

SOCIALISING! While she’s a busy bee working her two jobs, I have spent a bit more time with my housemate in the last week or so, which has been really nice. We have little chats when she gets in, usually where I show her what I bought or what I’m working on, and it makes me feel a bit more at home. She told me she has a dog back at her parents, which I would love to meet.

When we’re not correcting grammar or fretting about demos, me and the other trainees have been out and about, drinking in a gaijin-friendly bar in Osaka or shopping in a massive electronics store. We’ve been having some great times and I think meeting each other made us all feel a bit less ‘What have I done??” Why ECC don’t put you in touch with other trainees on your first day I don’t know – well, to be fair they were all miles from me anyway, but it would have been nice to know if I braved the train I could meet others. Which leads me to another point. I’ve seen quite a few westerners wandering around Kobe. I wonder if they work for ECC too, and if they do, why doesn’t ECC put us in touch with one another? It would sure have made settling in a little easier. Maybe they just don’t have anything like a social network… or maybe there is and I just haven’t found it yet. We’ll see.

 Anyway. I know I am still feeling waves of homesickness. I didn’t realise it would be so strong in the initial few weeks. I thought I’d have so much to do and think about that it wouldn’t hit me until a few weeks later. But perhaps some of it is just fear of the unknown. I do wish it didn’t cost so much for my mum and dad to ring me though (£17 last night and we were barely on for ten, fifteen minutes?) So I’ve got to get some skype set up – maybe when I get paid (Nov 12^th)I’ll go and get a dongle (or memory card I think they call them here) so I can have better net connection in the flat. Also I’ll be able to update the blog any my camera pics quicker – just one thing my iphone can’t do. I still love it though <3

 That’s it apart from to say Happy Halloween (^_^) / I hope I can get some trick or treat theme fun in even though its my first proper working week. We’ll see!