I don't know how many of you follow me on twitter, but you might see the odd mentions of JES sometimes, likewise suggestions of moving. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about it on here before now, simply because things were still so undecided, but now more is planned and I feel like I can actually do a decent post about it !
Next year I'll be moving to Japan.
It could be as early as March or as late as July depending on which position I decide to take up.
I have a meeting/interview with the school I'll be going to in Sendai in August while I'm on holiday, but I could be placed in one of several locations throughout Tohoku, their schools are located in Aomori, Goshogawara, Akita, Kitakami, Furukawa, Ishinomaki, Sendai, Fukushima, Koriyama, Shirakawa, Aiizu, Niigata, Joetsu, Yamagata and Yonezawa. My Visa will be processed over Christmas too!
The company is small as far as Eikaiwa go, but after hunting for months for information on various employers, they came out as one of the best, treating staff much better than larger organisations such as BERLITZ and ECC. So far from my emails back and forth with them, they seem better than I could have hoped. I have a reason to be nervous about my holiday too now, I'll take the Shinkansen down to Sendai from Hirosaki on Thursday 2nd of August and have my interview! I might go to find little hearts while I'm down there, depends how it goes for time seeing as it's a 2 hour train ride (Thank god for my Japan Rail pass, it's going to really get a workout!).
I invested in a smart suit dress the other day, my first piece of seriously smart clothing! I feel so grown up haha! I'm now working on slowly downsizing my things, and it feels really odd to have to throw out things I would have kept before, simply because I know there won't be any point in taking them with me.
It's sad but exciting at the same time.
A new beginning.
Mt Iwaki. Located in western Aomori. This might be my view!
So this is going to be my second post about heading to Japan in the summer, more things are set in stone now so I thought I would share.
This trip is going to be a lot more interesting than my last, simply for the fact that I'm going to be getting chance to travel and experience some of the summer festivals in the north of the country. The time I managed to get off work actually falls on a really good time period, even though it's earlier than I first planned to travel, but the first week of August is festival season in Aomori! For those who don't know, Aomori prefecture is the very north before you cross to Hokkaido. At this time of year they have a lot of snow, but in the summer it's still as warm as ever. (Thankfully not as hot as Tokyo, but only by a few degrees!)
As you can see it's a distance from Tokyo. I'll be taking the bullet train the day that I land in Japan. First I'll have to travel from Narita into Tokyo itself and get the train from the central or Ueno station. It's a trip right to the end of the Tohoku line to Aomori city itself and then a regular train out to where I will be staying. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on both the plane and the bullet train, if not I'll be super jetlagged when I arrive!
After then I'll be staying north until the friday, then back to Tokyo for 10 days until I fly home.
Once in Tokyo I'd like to see a band or two, shopping obviously, and then a few things like Namja town and Sunshine city, The Lockup ect ect. Recommend me your favourite places to go and I'll be sure to check them out !
For those who wanted to find out more about the bullet train here's some information pages which I found useful. I've used the bullet train before to travel south to Hiroshima and Osaka, but not everyone knows how to use it! I can recommend getting a 'JRP - Japan Rail Pass' if you plan to take any kind of long journey by train, it can make things a LOT cheaper. Shinkansen Guide
Mt Iwaki. Located in western Aomori. This might be my view!
