Lost Puppy Tales

Nothing's Carved in Stone @ darwin

2010-01-11T23:14:00.000+09:00

From Home: Unmo to Niche

2010-01-09T23:11:00.000+09:00

Special New Year's Luncheon

2010-01-06T11:54:00.001+09:00

Going home so soon?

2010-01-05T23:26:00.002+09:00

Today was my 5th day of being at my desk all day. Luckily, they have been scattered over 3 calendar weeks. At this point, I can't even image how interminable summer break would be without taking vacation days. 5 WEEKS of sitting at your desk? I'd gnaw off my hands by the third week, just for something to do...

The Japanese take beginnings and endings very seriously. I was glad I was warned that a formal bow and greeting would be forthcoming from every member of the staff as a way of acknowledging the new year, or I would have been mightily confused as to why all the staff had simultaneously decided to show me extra respect today. I also started to wonder why the bowing didn't happen yesterday, before realizing that we were all too busy shoveling snow to observe the formal ritual. With 95% of the staff back to school today, bows were happening all over the place...

After finishing lesson plans for the remainder of the school year for the 7th grade yesterday, I manage to finish lesson planning for both the 8th AND 9th grades today. So, yes, in 5 days I have planned 3 months of lessons for 3 grades. I'm a first year teacher, mind you. This is my first go-'round with all of these texts. Every time I have a successful lesson, I file it away for next year. For the life of me, I can't figure out what keeps my teachers at school until 9pm every night. Except for not wanting to go home, that is...

Like every day of the "break," I take the opportunity to follow my contract literally and leave at 4pm. Most of my colleagues in my position at other schools do that all the time. In the interest of solidarity, etc etc, I usually stay at school until 5pm, even when I have little to do, and often I am actually working much later than that. Despite the fact that I stay late all the time, and that I am one of about 5 teachers who has been at school every day over the break, I still feel the stink-eye when I go home at 4pm. Feels just like the days of working in the movie biz... I half expect someone to make the crack about working "bankers' hours" that I used to get when putting in less than a 12-hour day when doing payroll (never mind if I had worked 18-hours the day before)...

To think that I moved countries and careers to get AWAY from that unhealthy attitude... oh well.

From the gray desk...

2010-01-04T23:04:00.000+09:00

All too soon, winter vacation is over.

My nasty little alarm starts to trill and it is disappointingly dark and much too cold to be waking up for anything, much less an entire day of desk duty (although teachers must report, the kids don't come back until Friday). It's gonna be a loooong day in the staff room.

I get ready and break the hermetic seal on the front door to discover 5cm of new-fallen snow. Since I think snow always makes everything look nicer, I don't mind, and I'm even more relieved to find that it's not slippery as I begin my ride to work.

As usual, I roll into the parking lot at school sweaty and snotty. Unlike usual, about a half dozen teachers are outside, diligently clearing the lot of snow with garden shovels and push brooms. Although I'd much rather go inside and blow my nose and clean myself up (my normal ritual upon arriving at school), since the principal himself is out there sweeping away, I grab a traditional broom (basically, a bundle of sticks) and celebrate my return to work by industriously pushing snow around.

I don't think I've accomplished much, but the teachers all decide we have succeeded in our task, so we head indoors.

I hadn't realized it while outside, but the teachers shoveling away were ALL of the teachers reporting to school today. I take a look at the weekly schedule and I have an AHA! moment: all those weird kanji with the 8s and the 4s next to them? Of course. A listing of the teachers who are taking half and full-days off. All in all, 19 of the 32 or so staff members have taken off. Even the tea lady is out.

I take advantage of the quiet to redo my English Bulletin Board and to finish planning lessons for the 7th graders through the end of the year. Considering school isn't out until the end of March, I feel fairly on-top of things.

Around 3:30, the principal takes pity on me and chases me home. Either that, or he felt like going home early too and didn't want any witnesses.

I stop by Don Quixote for the first time in two weeks or so to load up on corn flakes and organic soy milk. I am somewhat surprised that the little ditties playing on endless loops in each aisle are no longer weird or annoying. In fact, I had kind of missed them. Especially the "Genki for Natto" song... that one's my favorite... (for those of you not in Japan, natto is fermented soybeans that have a consistency somewhat like chunky snot and a smell not unlike dirty feet. Genki is a word that translates as "healthy", but also has connotations of being energetic and peppy. It's not really the first food you'd think of that would have it's own poppy theme song, but at Don Quixote's it does...)

I go to the gym, which has just reopened today after a 2-week remodel. Everything is moved around: I feel like a little kid whose mom has moved all of his toys. The biggest change is that the weight room is now hidden in a corner of the 4th floor. As I lift and look around me at the usual bunch of dudes, I have a realization as to why they have moved Testosteroneville to a new zipcode.

I turn to T, the only regular who speaks English: "You know why they put us back here, don't you?"

He looks at me quizzically.

"So you can't stare at the women on the bikes and the treadmills anymore. You were making them uncomfortable."

He looks around, as the new reality dawns on him. You see, T spends hours in the weight room, but doesn't lift very much. He's mostly there to hang out, practice English, and ogle the pretty ladies. The old weight room had a large window that looked onto the main floor. T would sit there and watch the ladies' butts on the treadmills like it was his own, live widescreen TV.

Within moments, he is gone. I find him later using the relocated machines (I've never seen him do anything other than free weights before), now conveniently located directly in front of the new glass-front yoga room (with a class in session, of course).

"C'mon T, we should sign up for yoga!" I offer.

He shakes his head and continues to stare...

Hermetically sealed hermit

2010-01-03T22:09:00.002+09:00

Third day of the new year and the second in which I haven't opened my front door.

Not a very social start to 2010. Oh well, at least the blog is developing nicely...

In positive news, C returned from her travels in Hong Kong and Macau this evening. It's good to have my closest friend in Japan back in the city. It's been a lonely few weeks...

Another brilliant plan gone awry

2010-01-02T21:08:00.005+09:00

I'm an idiot.

Although this is well-established, here's another case for the file...

C&D's house, where I went for New Year's Eve, is WAYYYY down in the southern bit of Sendai, one stop from the end of the line on the subway. In any other city, on a night of revelry, it would have made sense to have taken said subway, right?

Well, this is Japan, and the Western rules of logic Do Not Apply.

See, New Year's Eve is a holiday here, so the subway operates on the Limited Holiday Schedule. Which means that the last train is at 11:49 PM. I kid you not. You'd think that on a holiday famous for Waiting for Midnight, they'd have one last train. Even if it was at like 12:15... I'd sprint for that.

But no, New Year's Eve is clearly a Holiday, therefore the Limited Holiday Schedule is in effect. Not some kind of special holiday schedule. That would be Breaking Tradition, and as we all know, Breaking Tradition is Very Bad. It causes things like, oh I don't know... hairy palms? Goiters? The Emancipation of Oppressed Minorities?

Anyway, here's where I get bold and stupid. I decide I will bike it down to C&D's house... Yeah, it's a 45 minute ride, it's below freezing, and I'll have to ride BACK, but it will give me the freedom to return home whenever I please.

So, on New Year's Eve, I stepped outside... and the first flakes of snow were already falling. Undeterred, in my stubborn-ass way, I started to ride. I'm not 10 minutes from my house when it is clear that this isn't a dusting. It's already starting to accumulate and gust.

But, like I said, I'm a stubborn-ass, so I ride on.

I do make it to C&D's house, sweaty as a teen on his first date and looking just as bad. The party is fun, a good time had by all, but by the time it lets out, the snow is a few inches deep and has grown itself a lovely covering of ice.

D is kind enough to drive home the three of us stranded by the weather and the Limited Holiday Schedule.

That meant that my poor bike spent the first day and a half of the New Year sitting in front of a Family Mart, covered in snow. I figured I had a free pass to leave it there unmolested on the 1st, as everyone was too hung-over to remember where they had left their pants, let alone for cops to impound abandoned vehicles. But by mid-day today I was getting antsy that my bike was being carted off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished.

So, I hopped on the subway, thankfully no longer on its Limited Holiday Schedule and now full of its normal Saturday contingent of vacant-faced women riding to The Mall (and here, the use of capital letters is neither for emphasis or irony... it really is called The Mall), and rode down too fetch my bike.

There it was, blown over by the high winds, but otherwise just where I left it.

Now all I had to do was ride back the 45-minutes of frequently uphill, and now icy, sidewalks and roads to get back to Sendai proper.

Now that I think about it, I should have pulled "An American" and brought my bike on the subway.

"What's that, officer? What do you mean I can't bring my bike on the train?"

But then they probably would have hauled my bike off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished and I would have wasted my subway fare, so it's probably best that I cycled back...

How'd it get to be the future already?

2010-01-01T20:53:00.007+09:00

Here's a quirk of geography that had my head spinning: For 14 to 17 hours, I was living in a different year than my loved ones back home. Weird.

After last night's late night, I slept through the first half of the first day of the new year (which is as much of a New Year's tradition as champagne and fireworks, now that I think about it...), rousing myself just in time to call the US and wish folks there a Happy New Year. It was nice to be able to report from the future that 2010 was thus far uneventful.

By mid-afternoon, I was sufficiently awake to begin this blog, part of my resolution for the new year. Begin, you ask? Aren't there entries going all the way back to August?? All written after-the-fact: although I left the US on September 1st, I began this blog on January 1st...

It's amazing how fast these four months have gone by and my memories are already getting hazy and begin to bleed together. I kept a journal for every day I was in the Peace Corps. I'm glad I did... This being the 21st century, I figured I should take advantage of technology... Besides, if I blog about my experiences, that's fewer photos and notebooks that I need to lug around when I inevitably move again!

I still don't intend to join Myspace or Facebook, but I do want to make it easier for loved ones to keep tabs on me... I know I can be elusive. As the months progress, and as my photos pile up and intended emails to loved ones go unwritten, I finally had to admit to myself that a blog was the easiest way to share all my thoughts and images of living here in Japan.

And if anyone else stops by? Hello! Hope you read a thing or two that you like.

Happy New Year to all. 2009 was a little too full of Fear for my taste... Let's work for a little more joy.

Loople

2009-12-30T15:51:00.001+09:00

Remodel

2009-12-29T14:54:00.000+09:00

Santa Parade

2009-12-23T19:50:00.002+09:00

Santa Parade - Part 1

Santa Parade - Part 2

Santa Parade - Part 3

Santa Parade - Part 4

Santa Parade - Part 5

Santa Parade - Part 6

Santa Parade - Part 7

Pageant of Starlight

2009-12-12T18:07:00.000+09:00

Soul Life

2009-12-10T17:42:00.001+09:00

Cake!

2009-12-02T18:32:00.001+09:00

Thanksgiving in Japan

2009-11-23T22:54:00.001+09:00

Sex-Android @ Hook Sendai

2009-11-21T20:45:00.001+09:00

Ogre You Asshole @ Club MaCaNa

2009-11-20T22:51:00.002+09:00

Thought Forms

2009-11-14T22:53:00.001+09:00

Elementary Activities seminar

2009-11-13T16:00:00.001+09:00

Damon & Naomi @ Cafe Mozart Atelier

2009-11-08T22:50:00.001+09:00

Santa, is that you?

2009-11-07T22:19:00.001+09:00

Poo culture

2009-11-05T18:15:00.000+09:00

New Zealand Oyster Party at Matsushima Aquarium

2009-11-03T14:27:00.000+09:00

プリクラ (Purikura)

2009-10-30T22:07:00.001+09:00

OK, this might not make sense in the US Purikura

Maid Cafe

2009-10-25T18:54:00.001+09:00

Autumn Festival at Museum of Folklore

2009-10-24T12:32:00.002+09:00

Halloween CosPlay Event at BennyLand

2009-10-18T16:00:00.034+09:00

Socializing at the Italian buffet castle

2009-10-16T22:03:00.000+09:00

On the hunt for concert tickets

2009-10-14T17:34:00.000+09:00

The menu at Frederick Pantry

Bukowski - the funkiest store in Sendai

The signs of a university town

Yamadera

2009-10-14T17:00:00.014+09:00

Info board coming off the train

Walking towards town

Japanese spiders

Buddha on the path

Colorful

Sacred bell

Sacred bell... with vending machines

Picnic in Izumi and Hangin' with C

2009-10-13T16:17:00.000+09:00

A river runs through Izumi

For the eventual CD pamphlet

Torii in Sendai

Village Vanguard - The OTHER Spencer Gifts of Japan

2009-10-11T16:13:00.000+09:00

Lil' Professor pacifier

Lil' Vampire pacifier

Lil' Hillbilly pacifier

Brat on Board

Typhoon!

2009-10-08T12:19:00.003+09:00

Mug shot of an ALT

Building my self-intro board

...and the finished product

Don Quijote's - The Spencer Gifts of Japan

2009-10-03T18:00:00.002+09:00

Gun O'clock

Gangsta Baby: Eminem

Gangsta Baby: Wu-Tang

Gangsta Baby: Possessed by the Devil

Put's Bjork's swan dress to shame

ATM of Doom

2009-10-03T17:09:00.000+09:00

ATM of Doom

American Lover

2009-10-03T13:13:00.000+09:00

Hospital branch school

2009-10-02T10:30:00.000+09:00

Tohoku University Hospital

Sendai Station

2009-10-01T17:42:00.001+09:00

...I'm sure she does.

The scariest kids meal of all time

"American Diner"

Cartoon Americans enjoying the "American Diner"

Festival of... pig scientists and smiling poop?

2009-09-26T16:00:00.000+09:00

Transformer made of cardboard

A pig, his scientist friends, and a man with a lemon head

Horribly racist tourist caricatures... and a Pokemon?

Angry poop

Smiling poo balls - Thanks to Z

Smiling dog poo - Thanks to C

PistolValve Tour Poster

Jozenji-dori

Becoming an Alien... and getting internet

2009-09-25T13:57:00.000+09:00

Nothing says "family togetherness" like matching surgical masks

Who is that guy?

2009-09-24T18:12:00.000+09:00

It occurred to me today that many of you haven't seen me in a few years... especially not with my conservative Japanese hair and ESPECIALLY not with a bland short-sleeve button-up dress shirt!

Koi in the river

2009-09-23T13:34:00.000+09:00

On the way to the dry cleaners...

Wandering the Covered Arcade

2009-09-22T22:00:00.000+09:00

Sleeping puppy

Part Muppet

Oh, little puppy

The second club I have found: Hook Sendai, the metal club

Sweet Potato Fry Sundae

2009-09-22T20:52:00.000+09:00

...and you thought dipping your fries into your Wendy's Frosty was a tasty treat...

Tommy Lee, is that you?

2009-09-22T16:49:00.000+09:00

Do our ads look this weird to foreigners?

2009-09-21T23:30:00.001+09:00

Penguin with good oral hygeine

Zao

2009-09-21T23:00:00.029+09:00

This way to Utopia

Ropeway to Zao

The view from the top

Onward

Fall comes early at this altitude

The road to Utopia is paved with uneven stones

This way

Visiting with clouds

More mist

The payoff

Even the feral animals in Japan are cute

Kitty takes a drink

Kitty in the bushes

2009-09-20T21:20:00.000+09:00

Amusing Mood - It's party time. Everybody gets off tonight!

Japanese ideas on weight

2009-09-19T19:16:00.001+09:00

For when you want to have the body of Christ, apparently...

Culture Day

2009-09-19T16:00:00.000+09:00

Inside the gym for Culture Day

Daini's formal garden

Another view of Daini's formal garden.

Looking into the future

Traditional music

Whole new world

Turtle says hello!

2009-09-17T21:41:00.000+09:00

On my ride home from school...

New bike

2009-09-13T14:00:00.000+09:00

The Coconut

Birdland

2009-09-12T13:18:00.001+09:00

Birdland - Sendai's punk club
The Casualties play Sendai!

Jozenji StreetJazz Fest

2009-09-12T13:00:00.000+09:00

Japanese bluegrass

Golden car

Apartment Tour

2009-09-06T23:00:00.000+09:00

I feel that living in Japan, it is only fitting that I film a tour of my apartment using my cellphone...

So, here you go: a glimpse of my Japanese apartment in 21 easy-to-digest, 50-second-or-less grainy video clips.

Enjoy!

Part 1 - Welcome!

Part 2 - Front door

Part 3 - Foyer

Part 4 - Kitchen

Part 5 - Fridge

Part 6 - Drinks in the fridge

Part 7 - Cabinets: food

Part 8 - Cabinets: snacks

Part 9 - Washing machine

Part 10 - Super Toilet, part 1

Part 11 - Super Toilet, part 2

Part 12 - Bathroom, part 1

Part 13 - Bathroom, part 2

Part 14 - Lone closet

Part 15 - Bedroom, part 1

Part 16 - Bedroom, part 2

Part 17 - Bedroom, part 3

Part 18 - Bedroom, part 4

Part 19 - Back porch

Part 20 - Walking out

Part 21 - Bedroom at night

First Day At School

2009-09-04T16:00:00.001+09:00

Sendai Daini JHS close-up

Sendai Daini JHS

Sendai JHS mural

Japan?

2009-08-31T22:00:00.002+09:00

Nominally, this blog is a record of my life in Japan, which began when I boarded a flight from Seattle to Tokyo on September 1, 2009.

But, this being me, the story doesn't start there. For those of you that know me personally, you know that nothing I do happens without backstory...

In this case, the seeds for this particular jump were planted almost ten years ago (yeah, these roots go deep). Stick with me, this is a good one:

During the summer of 1999, I spent a lovely summer in Berkeley, California. I was interning at an environmental organization, working at a movie theater, and generally having a good time. When the summer ended, my friends in the Bay Area tried to convince me to stay. Although sorely tempted, I knew that if I didn't return to the east coast, I would probably never finish my undergraduate degree.

With heavy heart, I returned to Baltimore to complete the measly 12 credits and silly prerequisites I was missing (I was already on-track to graduate a semester early... if I had pushed it a little harder, I actually could have graduated college in three years... oh well...). Knowing that school wasn't going to be enough to hold my interest, I attended a Volunteer Fair on campus shortly after the semester began. As I perused the tables, I was drawn to Baltimore Reads: yes, because I love to read, but mostly because the two women staffing the table were really cute.

...and so my educational career began.

When they asked me to be a reading tutor once a week for an hour, I found it hard to say no.

The program I volunteered for matched students from my college with one particular inner-city Baltimore elementary school. I was a tutor in a 1st grade classroom... and I loved it. I loved the days when I could relieve the teacher by being the second set of eyes in the class. I loved it even more when I was handed a student to work with one-on-one. Little kids are just so... honest. As I came to discover, I like 1st grade the best: the kids have learned how to sit at a desk and hold a pencil, but they are still enthusiastic and wildly creative. Within short order, I found that my hour of tutoring was what I was looking forward to most during my week.

I finished college in December, and I suddenly had lots of empty time between the new year and graduation in May. I had already applied for the Peace Corps, and knew I'd be leaving sometime over the summer, but the span in between was a big question mark.

Well, the Volunteer Coordinator for my tutoring gig was an AmeriCorps volunteer, and she wasn't happy with how her contract was panning out. As we had become friends, I knew she was thinking of quitting. I asked her to put in my name to replace her when she tendered her resignation. She did, and I got her job. Until the end of the school year, I was in charge of scheduling the volunteers and dealing with any issues that cropped up. I also took the opportunity to expand my own tutoring: since I wanted to be useful on-site, I started tutoring in a different class each day: pre-K through 3rd grade. It still stands as the most enjoyable job I have ever had.

It's a good thing that I had that job, because when I opened my assignment envelope from the Peace Corps in April, it said "Teacher Trainer - South Africa". My jaw dropped. Now, until my tutoring gig, I hadn't set foot in an elementary school since I myself had been an elementary school student myself! I have no background in education: my degree is in Psychology, with a minor in Communications. When I had applied for Peace Corps, my recruiter had recommended me for a job building latrines. I had come to terms with two years of digging holes, now I suddenly had to get my head around trying to rehabilitate an educational system destroyed and warped by fifty years of apartheid.

I was scared to death. If I hadn't had such recent experience in a school, I might have fainted.

But, off to South Africa I went, experience be damned! I taught seminars at three elementary schools and a high school. I put together an HIV/AIDS conference. I got engaged... all sorts of things I never saw myself doing. Was it as good as my tutoring gig? No. Was it a good experience? Hard to explain it in those terms. It undoubtedly made me a stronger person. I'm not really scared of anything now.

I was in South Africa from June 2000 - October 2001. I returned to the US with a fiancée and a desire to stick with education. I ended up getting a job for the remainder of that school year as a 7th and 8th grade math and science teacher at an inner city Cleveland junior high. It was tough, stressful work, in many ways more difficult even than my time in South Africa, but I completed that year still thinking I wanted to be an educator of some kind.

That summer, I got married and almost immediately, my wife and I took a disastrous job in Maui. We returned to the mainland in January 2003, disappointed, down to our last $50, and directionless. Luckily, a pair of friends of mine from college were sharing a house in Baltimore, and invited my wife and me to stay with them until we were back on our feet. Since my wife had a teaching degree, soon she was substitute teaching. As for me? I was at a loss.

One of those two friends had been an art major, and was working as the art department assistant on a major Hollywood film. She called me from the car one day:

"Are you still looking for work?"

"Yes."

"You're good at math, right?"

"Well, I was a math teacher..."

"The accounting department is looking for a clerk. Fax in your resume. They don't have anyone else. I'm sure they'll hire you."

Hire me they did.

The job was scheduled to last about six months... a perfect stretch to get me through until the end of the school year. I could then look for a teaching gig over the summer, and be back in education with the start of the new school year.

I learned a ton on that first film. When that one ended, and I got a call to work on a John Waters film. As he is one of my cinematic heroes, I couldn't turn it down. On that film, I learned how to do payroll... So, when I was offered a job as a payroll accountant on a film with Mos Def and Alan Rickman (I'm big fans of both) at a salary double what I was making on my first film (less than a year prior), I couldn't turn it down.

Suddenly, my six months in the film industry turned into more than six years...

What does any of this have to do with Japan? Excellent question.

That "short detour" was never supposed to grow into a career. I don't regret it at all, as it afforded me a house, it got me through my divorce, I met some wonderful friends, it gave me the opportunity to give my brother his start in the film industry, it allowed me to travel extensively, and it funded my ability to take huge chunks of time off to write screenplays. But I could never shake the feeling that I was heading further and further down the wrong road.

In November 2007, my grandfather was hospitalized in Florida. I went down to visit him, and he passed away while I was there. What was supposed to be a quick "get well" visit had suddenly become the first major death in my family in a decade.

The funeral was going to be in New York. I was living in New Mexico at the time. I didn't know what to do. Stay in Florida? Too sad... Go home to New Mexico? A waste of time. Fly up to New Jersey and spend time with my family before the funeral? Too much: my grandfather was a very polarizing figure, and his death had uncovered all sorts of simmering issues. I needed a breather before diving into that whirlpool.

My solution was to fly to Chicago for a few days to visit my only remaining friend from my Peace Corps days. On one of my long, pensive walks, I picked up a copy of Chicago's alternative paper and I saw this ad:

"No teaching experience or knowledge of Japanese required!!"

I had been adrift for some time, and watching my grandfather die, all I could think about was the brevity of life... I was wasting my time writing screenplays that would never sell, and spending my working days paying rich people for a living (which is about as fulfilling as it sounds)... This looked like a perfect opportunity to get back into teaching, especially considering that my most recent teaching credential was more than five years old by this point.

The drawback? The deadline was December 3rd and it was a few days before Thanksgiving. The recruitment process was similar to getting into college: recommendations, transcripts, all sorts of things I couldn't get together in less than two weeks. So, I scrawled the note on the bottom to apply the following year...

...which I did, sending off my application in time for the November 2008 deadline. I was in the UK during January 2009 when I found out that I had scored an interview. I returned to the US and left the interview in mid-February, sure that I had landed the job.

In the meantime, the movie business came calling again, and, against my better judgement, I ended up taking a gig on a TV series. But, I was broke and needed the money, and it was filming in Portland, OR (my adopted home that I had abandoned for Los Angeles the previous spring)... I took the job on the condition that I might be leaving for Japan. My boss agreed.

The reply date arrived in April... and I was waitlisted. Not only that, but they told me that a slot could open for me immediately... or at any point all the way through DECEMBER. Another eight months seemed like a long time to put my life on-hold. Since the accepted applicants were leaving on July 25th, I told myself that if they didn't offer me a job by early July, I would move on with my life.

The months rolled by, and July 4th weekend came and went. I procrastinated a bit, but I started to look for an apartment. On July 25th, when the accepted applicants were boarding a plane for Tokyo, I signed a lease on a studio apartment in Portland.

The following Wednesday, July 29th, the program called and offered me a position.

"Are you kidding?" I said "You couldn't have called me a week ago... before I signed a lease? What? Did someone quit already?"

No, it turns out someone had forged a diploma. Whoops.

Did I want the job or not? the program wondered. It was mid-afternoon. They wanted an answer by the following morning, or they'd offer my slot to the next person on the list.

I called my future landlord that night and broke my lease. I called my parents and told them I was leaving the country for a year... maybe longer (I was on a 1-year contract, but expandable on a year-to-year basis for up to 5 years). I walked into work the next day and gave my two weeks' notice. As I had been talking about the possibility of Japan for months, and everyone knew how disappointed I was to be waitlisted, no one was surprised or upset. As I was midway through the season of a TV show, I had to work like a maniac to have everything tied up within two weeks.

I had to be even more of a maniac as I spent my final two weeks in the US flying around the country visiting as many loved ones as possible before my departure. I still feel bad that I had to leave people out, but I still managed to squeeze in five states in all four continental US timezones in that span!!

On August 29th, I packed my few things against the wall of my friend's garage. On the 30th, I took a train up to Seattle and crashed with a friend for my final two nights in America.

On August 31st, I took a deep breath, looked around Seattle, and wondered "How did I end up here... and am I really moving to Japan?"

The next morning, I got on a plane and everything changed...