Comments and corrections

We all make mistakes and I made a big one in my last post. There was a communications breakdown. When I was told I had a Tokyo placement, what was meant was that the Tokyo branch office would be the one I would report to. The actual placement will be in a “small” town in the north of Honshu. The good news is that this means that I will be in a cooler climate and, having already spend some time in a Tokyo summer, this is a definite plus. Also, the nature of public transport (or lack there of) in the area will necessitate my having a car (that my employer will help pay for). This gives me a huge opportunity during school breaks, to just drive around the country and really get a feel for the land. While I was looking forward to living in the big city, this is pretty cool too.

I’m still waiting for details on my placement school and where I might be living. You know, the little things. The problem is that as a new employee, and a sight-unseen employee to boot, I don’t have the right to bug people for this information. I don’t mind, but this goes back to my wanting to always know as much information as possible before I get into any situation.

Meanwhile, I now have my work visa and am ready to fly. The downside was that this required driving into Portland and back two consecutive days. Not only is this tiring under the best of circumstances, but the drivers are INSANE!!! Did I miss the lesson in driver’s ed that said that speed limits are only recommended guidelines and that turn signals are optional when crossing three or more lanes of freeway traffic in the rain? Short of emergency vehicles and rushing a pregnant woman to the delivery room, there is nowhere these people need to go that driving a mile a minute (60 mph) isn’t sufficient.

Well, I’ve got less than a week before I have to leave the country so I’m going to cut this post a little short.

And heeeeere we go.

At long last, the real world is finally starting to get rolling. I’ve learned a great deal about my future since my last posting. For example, I now know that I’m going to be living in . . . wait for it . . . TOKYO!!! It’s a dream come true. I get to life in the city that defines cutting edge and is where the ancient past and the distant future collide. This also incorporates a good deal of revenge. That said: Up yours Bigot-sensei, up wherever it is most uncomfortably to cram things. Bigot-sensei is my old Japanese teacher who is the most prejudiced person I’ve ever met, not to mention the incarnation of everything wrong with the educational world. So this job is, in part, my way of flipping an incredibly rude gesture right up her nose.

Ranting aside, this is the best placement I could hope for. I’ve always preferred city life to rural life yet I’ve spent the last year in a spot on the Oregon map with a population of approx. 500 that is often mistaken for a squashed gnat. Moving to a city of 12 million people is a definite upgrade.

The one annoying aspect is that the placement is in Seiro-cho. Now the -cho suffix is roughly equivalent to neighborhood and generally incorporate a few square blocks. Such things are so microcosmic compared to the overall city that it doesn’t show up on any of the Tokyo maps that I’ve checked. I’m a research-a-holic and pride myself on my skills in this area. So it bothers me that I’m jumping into this without knowing what I’m getting into.

I’ve sent all the information to the folks in Japan that they’ve asked for any I’m now waiting for some paperwork to be mailed to me so that I can take it to the Japanese consulate in Portland. They’re also going to include a bunch of other pre-arrival information. But don’t worried, I’ll have no opportunity to get bored as I have 14 days to pack and be ready to move. That includes the often agonizing decision whether or not to take a given item. Not mention the fun of having to fit what will be the sum total of your earthly possessions around airline baggage regulations. I'd better move on before I launch into a telling of the shaggy dog joke that is post 9/11/01 US airport procedure.

In current events, James Cameron (SP?) claims to have found a tomb containing the bodies of Jesus Christ, his wife, and his son. Setting aside how such a find stands to topple the very foundation of 2000 years of religion with the guaranteed result in lots and lots of dead bodies, there is one question that must be asked about this alleged son of Christ: How spoiled must that kid have been? What with God the Grandfather showering him with attention all the time.

I’m going to hell now, aren’t I?