What Do You Do....

... when all you want to do every day is crawl into your bed as soon as you get home and watch some TV series on your laptop until you fall asleep? Problem is you have work to finish, notes to make, worksheets to plan, and it'd be nice to study as well (you know you wanted to and should). But you just can't find the motivation or care enough...

Well, that's how I've been feeling since I got back from my vacation in Hungary almost two weeks ago. What I don't get is where all this tiredness and the urge to tune out from the world comes from. I've been living in Japan for over two months now, and I've got to tell you: 

I... LOVE... MY... LIFE... HERE!!!

My work is fun, even if it's challenging and tiring sometimes. My co-workers (both in the schools and the office) are pretty cool and nice. My apartment is awesome. I like Japan with all its quirks and surprises. I like my city, and even the weather has been very cooperative.

Then why oh why, I ask, do I feel this way?

In all honesty I'm pretty sure I'm lonely. While the newness of my situation kept me on schedule and motivated in August, now, despite everything I've listed above, as soon as I come home I deflate like a balloon that wasn't tied properly in the morning to begin with. Funny thing is, I actually thought going to Hungary to see my family and to meet up with my husband (who flew in from America) would be a nice little boost, kind of like recharging my batteries. However, as soon as I got back on that plane to fly back to Japan, it became painfully obvious that this wasn't the case... if anything it felt more like the band-aid was just ripped off the wound that was held together by it until then somewhat successfully. Being happy to be back in Japan only helped temporarily.

I miss being close to someone, who I can just hug when I had a crappy day, or when it's that time of the month, or whatever... I hate the feeling that I have no one to talk to when something bothers me, because I feel like I'd only be bothering them and they probably don't care anyways, or just the time difference sucks. I hate how my apartment, though lovely in every way, can feel so empty and depressing. I was even considering getting a pet to have some other life here next to me, just to find out that it wasn't allowed.

There's no way going abut it... I miss my family, my friends, and most importantly, I miss my husband.

As a closing thought, I've heard this somewhere before, so I looked it up online:

We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
—Virginia Satir, family therapist 

How many have you gotten/given lately?

On the Matter of Budgets...

I think most people tend to relax on Saturdays... I, on the other hand, spent most of it figuring out my monthly budget. JET being my first full-time job, I want to make sure that I know how I spend my money and that I limit it where it should be limited, so instead of spending it all little by little on useless things, I can save up for more the important things, like traveling. The good news is that after much calculation I realized I can put 2/3 of my NET salary into savings, which is much more than what I originally thought would be possible. ^_^

Some of the tweaks I did today were:

1) I gave myself a set budget for entertainment like movies and karaoke. I love going to these, so I felt it would be best to separate it from other social events like enkais (drinking parties) that Japanese people tend to have here. This way I won't feel like I'm taking the money away from something else.

2) I put my knitting budget under my personal budget, where I also have categories like clothing and books, because this way I'm hoping I'll be able to limit how much I'll spend on new yarn, especially since I have so many projects to finish up. I also designated the 14th of every month (I get paid on the 16th) to be the day when I go and check out the craft and yarn stores in the city, so I won't spend all my personal budget on yarn right after I get paid, but instead use only whatever got left of it just before my next paycheck comes in.

3) I'm still not sure how to divide up the money that I'll put into savings as soon as I get paid. So far I have an Emergency Fund and a Travel Fund, and I divide my savings up equally between the two. However, I have a couple more ideas/things I'd like to save up for, so I'll have to juggle things a bit more before I'm satisfied.

Overall I'm happy with what I accomplished today. I feel like I'm settling in more and more each day and this is a really good feeling. ^_^

Question: Do you keep any sort of budget? Is it formal (spreadsheet, notebook, etc) or informal (rough estimates in your head)? What do you think about keeping monthly budgets in general?

Knitting and Reading......

There are things that I did back home (in New York) that I did pretty constantly. If you know me at all, you'll know that these two things are knitting and reading. What's been bothering me a bit lately is that I haven't done neither in quite some time, or at least not enough to mention. I've been so busy settling in and doing JET related activities (Hiroshima Orientation and Saijou Language Camp, I'm looking at you two!) that by the end of the day, when I actually realize that I haven't knitted or read anything yet during day, I'm generally too tired to try. Don't get me wrong, it's not all work, and even when it is, it's usually fun! But there just hasn't been time to devote to my hobbies is all. I'm still waiting for things to become "regular," to have a schedule I can somewhat rely upon. Watch, I'll be crying for interesting interventions in a month, but for now, I'd really like to feel a bit more of everyday-ness.

My Cell Phone (Keitai)

Anyways, I've realized I haven't posted any pictures yet really (though there are a few videos up on youtube), so here's something I use every day. I present to you..... drumroll...... MY CELLPHONE!!! OK, ok, it's not that interesting, but this week, while I was at the language camp, I found this super cute Spider-man sticker, and I just had to show it off! Now every time I take out my cell, this chibi Spider-man reminds me of someone special, and thus I feel I miss him just a little bit less that moment. 

But yeah, as for the straps, the koala is from Chinatown (in NYC), and the ox is from Hiroshima City (where I went for more orientation), representing my Chinese astrology sign. I used to have Jiji  (from Kiki's Delivery Service) on my cell instead of the ox, but unfortunately I lost it last weekend during a JET birthday get-together (enkai). T_T Sadness, but nothing to be done, I just have to get another...

In other news, I bought three hats this past week.... 3!!!! I don't know where the urge came from.... well, that's not true, I do know... It's the friggin' Sun... It's pretty strong here, and I've been wanting to get a hat since I got here but have not found anything really suitable.... and now I have three... Oh well, at least I think they're cute!

I also seriously need t get some sort of suntan lotion, and soon. I'm only outside for roughly an hour a day, which is usually broken up into 10-15 minute increments, but at least two of those increments happen around noon, so I've been getting pretty tan on my arms and legs, and maybe even my face a bit too. Good thing I had a base tan from Antigua in May, so my skin changes color gradually and it's not overly obvious.

What else, what else.... if you're my Facebook friend (and here I mean actual friend, not "friend" as Facebook uses it), then you probably saw my video of my apartment. If not, here are a couple of pictures:

This is my kitchen/dining area. On the left (which you can't see from this angle) is the main door with a Japanese "entrance" hall, which is at the same level as the area outside the main door, while the rest of the apartment is roughly 30cm elevated. Also on the left, right after the entrance hall is the doorway to the bathroom area.

This is what I see when I walk through my main door. Straight ahead through that sliding door you can see my living room. The bedroom is next to the living room to the right.

Here you can see the doorway to the living room on the left, and the doorway to the bedroom on the right, the way I see them from my kitchen.

A closer look of my living room. I have a TV in the area to the bottom left.

A view of my living room from my bedroom. Behind the bedroom curtains is my terrace.

Yes, I have tatami mats in both my bedroom (shown here) and my living room. And yes, I do sleep on a traditional Japanese futon... no bed here.... though my couch opens up to a bed-like thing.

And this concludes your tour of my apartment here in Fukuyama. I love it, it's nice and comfortable. It's a good size apartment, same type and size that many Japanese families (yes, families) use. (PS: For those of you who understand tatami sizes, both rooms are 6 tatami mats big.)

The final thing I'd like to mention is that I finally, FINALLY, saw Inception in the theaters this past Wednesday. Highlights (including both positive and strange) were:

0) Pre-note: Movie tickets in Japan are suuuper expensive! One regular/no-frill ticket can cost ¥1800-2000! Luckily I went on Ladies' Day, which theaters tend to hold once a week (just like Men's Day and Couples' Day), so it only cost me ¥1000. Also, as a side-note, movies after 8PM tend to be cheaper, since prime time to go to the movies here is from 5-7PM. (I think this last one has to do with making sure to catch the last train so you can get home.)

1) The movie itself was awesome, and I'm really happy that I chose to see it still in the theater. I think the actors did a good job, and I especially like where DiCaprio's career has been taking him these recent years. I liked him as a teenager (who really didn't?), and I like him now, though this time much more because of his acting ability than his dreamy eyes. ^.^

2) There was an AWESOME Harry Potter preview before the movie! I almost fainted.... enough said. ^o^

3) I found my new favorite soda: Fanta Melon!!!! Try it sometime if you can. If it's imported from Japan, it should be awesome and delicious!

4) Strange thing of the day: It's true what I've heard... Japanese people really and honestly don't make a sound during or after a movie (ie during credits). No laughter, no shocked noises, nothing! Lights in the theater don't get turned on until ALL the credits have rolled, and only then did the audience leave. It was kinda scary, the quietness of it all... >.<

5) And last but definitely not least....!!! drum roll, please..... I ordered my ticket, popcorn and drink all in Japanese! やったー！\(^o^)/  Goooo Language Camp!!!

OK, this has become a reeeeally long post so I'll end it now.... In the future I will try to blog more frequently and maybe a bit shorter blogs. Till then...! ^.^

Rest of the First Week... (1st Week of Japan - Part 2)

I spent the bus ride to the hotel enjoying every last bit of disbelief of finally physically being in Japan. Than that disbelief got put on hold as soon as we got close to the hotel, the "English Bubble" was so tangible...
The Keio Plaza, where we stayed, is located in Shinjuku and was really nice and comfortable. There were two JETs per rooms, and I happened to room with one of my "neighbors" on the Tokyo plane. During the first night I took time to settle in, exchanged the rest of my cash (which in the end wasn't necessary), then went to explore the area around the hotel. Shinjuku is pretty lively, but all I could think of at that point was food, so soon I found this place that served katsudon among other delicious dishes. Though we were provided maps of the near-by area of the hotel, I don't think it was much help when I was trying to get back... but my sense of direction came to the rescue, and I ended getting back pretty quickly.
The next day saw the beginning of our 2-day Tokyo Orientation, which was interesting and fun most of the time, though there were a couple of seminars that were more of a miss than a hit. (Yes, "Technology in the Classroom," I'm talking about you.)
Though we were basically free after 5PM to do as we wished, I spent the time adjusting to the time difference instead of exploring the city, so I can't much say about that... I just feel two evenings are not enough to get any kind of feel for the city, so I didn't even try.

We met up around 9AM on Wednesday to leave for Fukuyama. All Hiroshima Prefecture JETs left together and flew to Hiroshima Airport, where we were greeted by our supervisor and fellow JETs. The 5 of us new Fukuyama JETs ended up taking a small bus to our city, where the first thing we did was to take pictures for our Alien Registration Cards, after which each of us was finally brought to our new apartments. (My apartment will get its own post in a couple of days...) That night we had a welcome dinner, which was expensive (￥4000) but delicious.

The next couple of days were spent with acquiring various paperwork, like bank account, cell phone, utilities, and of course the alien registration card. In the end, there was a bit of confusion about name order (last name first, all capital letters!!!), but eventually everything got settled by Monday. We spent Saturday with shopping, and I spent Sunday with cleaning up and organizing the apartment.

As for the work, all Fukuyama JETs (9 new JETs from group A+B, and 7 older JETs) are based in the Board of Education, and once school starts up, we will be dividing our time between our schools and the BOE. All of us I believe are (going to be) working at junior high schools and elementary/primary schools. Currently we  (new JETs) spend our time catching up on all the reading material we got from the Orientation, planning our self-introductions to our various classes (that we still don't know anything specific about), doing lesson plans, studying Japanese, and generally hanging out. All the JETs are really nice and pretty cool, so it's a fun crowd.

Nothing else really comes to mind, so if you have any questions please post them and I'll answer as soon as I can.

My flight to Tokyo... (1st Week of Japan - Part 1)

So I arrived... First to Tokyo, then three days later to my home city, Fukuyama, in Hiroshima Prefecture. But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

The flight to Tokyo was better than expected, mainly because there were three of us (all JETs) for five seats, so we could actually get a bit more comfortable when we wanted to sleep. I ended up watching two movies within barely 2 and a half hours, which made me question, if not my sanity, but definitely my perception of time... and just how long those movies were. Before you start wondering some more, I first watched the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which was in my opinion one of the best movies I've seen in quite some time and hence highly recommend that you check it out as well! The second one was "Leap Year," which was ok for a romantic comedy, even though the actors were pretty good. Either way, I finished both movies fully (with interruptions from the crew) in much less time than I thought possible. (I still haven't checked how long each movie actually supposed to be... wonder if ours was edited?)

After the movies, I ended up spending my time very constructively... that is, by playing Star Craft (1, for those who are wondering). Unfortunately I got a bit flustered trying to stay alive and I ended up using cheats to try and finish the level, at which point (of course) the game lost all its fun. Oh well... >.< I still have time until mid-September to finish it, so no biggie.

We arrived to Narita around 2:30PM, roughly on time, and headed to the hotel safe and sound...

(To be continued....)

A Tackle of Personal Finance...

It's no secret that I haven't held a regular-salary job in over 5 years. (Yes, I did have one back in the day...) Also, most of my friends know that in those 5 years my personal finance went only as far as "How much yarn can I buy this month?" or "Can I eat a full meal in the cafeteria, or should I just go for a bagel?".

All this will soon be in the past, as I begin my journey of once again seriously dealing with a salary, bills, and savings. You might be wondering what brought on this change? During the past couple of weeks, as I searched for more and more information about the JET program and specifically about Hiroshima-ken (prefecture), I found this blog:

http://www.foreignersfinances.com/

Austin, the author of this blog, is also a JET and currently lives in Japan. I began reading his blog just to get a few pointers on how to save money while living in Japan, but what I got was much more: A view into personal finance, and how easy it can be if one takes a bit of time to educate oneself.

He talks about online banks, investing, and just general tips on how to keep money in your pocket. He also wrote a blog about his top 5 favorite personal finance books, one of which I ended up getting: "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi. 

According to Austin: "This is single-handedly the best personal finance starter for anyone 16-35. The book is 266 pages, but it reads so fast that you’ll finish it in a weekend. His writing is infectious and it’s like reading a friend tell you to stop being an idiot with your money. Credit cards, banking, investing, savings, retirement. It’s all covered in great depth with eye-popping example and diagrams." And that's true...

I will talk more about what I have actually learned from this book and how I put these things into effect in Japan in later blogs, so for now, I just wanted to focus on one idea that Sethi mentions in the introduction:

"Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't."

This got me thinking... what are the things that I love, hands down, no questions asked? I decided to limit these down to three:

* Knitting/Yarn

* Reading

* Traveling

With this list in mind, I'm hoping I will be able to set up a network of different "savings accounts" to keep me more organized during my time in Japan. After the past two weeks, I believe a good hard look into personal finance is the first step in the right direction towards personal responsibility.

What things do you love on which you would spend extravagantly?

2 Weeks...

Two weeks from now at this time I'll be at the Ambassador's residence in my business casual outfit, enjoying the JET Program's Farewell Reception, which, if the lunch at the optional Pre-Departure Orientation is any indication, will be very delicious. By that point, I also have met all the other JETs leaving from New York City, including at least one person who will be living/working in Fukuyama City (in Hiroshima Prefecture) as well, just like I will be, and have hopefully fully packed as well, and will be ready to go.

Two weeks at this point seem both too short and too long, depending on the angle from which I view them.

If it has to do with preparation, it feels too short. Although I have by now bought 95% of the clothes, accessories, and school supplies I think I'll need for Japan, I still have to find small omiyage (presents) for at least 4-5 people, who I don't know yet, but will one way, shape, or form be responsible for me. I also need to figure out what knitting knick-knacks I want to bring, a job which, I assure you, is not in the least bit small. Not to mention, I still have to actually pack to see what fits and what doesn't. Luckily, my predecessor emailed me a couple days ago with a few details about my apartment and the area around it, but I'm still waiting for her answer to a hundred other questions I sent to her in reply (including helpful suggestions of what (not) to pack).

On the other hand, the time feels too long, because I'm so super excited to go, that if everything else would be in order, I would have jumped on the plane already. But that's just me and my impatience.

I do have to mention that over the past couple of weeks I came to believe JET did its best to place me in the exact opposite situation that I've asked for... Yes, they did ask what I'd prefer on several occasions, making me think I might actually get something out of it. (>_<) But no, so now I'm hoping... no... I'm determined to make this such an experience, where I can say a year from now that it was more than worth it even with all those unfavorable circumstances! ^_^

Wish me luck to pack on time, or better yet, let me know if you want to come over and help! ^_^

New Roads, New Beginnings, New Blog...

So OK, this was supposed to get posted yesterday, but if I don't cut myself some slack right off the bat, you probably won't see many of these in the future... -.-

Anyways... Three weeks and a day from now I'll be on a plane halfway to Japan. I thought that being away in a foreign country for at least a year would be an awesome insentive incentive (good thing that I'm going to Japan to teach English... >.<) to begin writing a blog, mainly to be a sort of keepsake, and since I hate writing by hand even more than typing, a blog seems the only way to go. However, I won't be writing just about my experiences in Japan. I also plan to write about books I've read, movies I've seen, thing's I've been knitting, etc, etc, and generally about things that are on my mind.

So as the title suggests, lately I've been thinking about new beginnings, and I acted on this urge by finally creating a new email address for myself, and leaving the old ones behind once and for all. (Though forwarding still works... for now.) I also got new AIM SN, and have been thinking about getting a whole new cell number as well. Allow me to explain where this urge is coming from:
I just turned 25 a couple weeks ago, and since then I've been thinking about just how different my life currently is compared to just 5 years ago. In the last 5 years I've met the person of my dreams, actually learned how to cook and bake (well), met all my current friends, learned to knit and crochet (again), got glasses, got engaged, renewed my relationship with my extended family, got new non-Goth clothes, got married (in New York) with which I also got a whole new wonderful family and a new family name, got married again (this time in Hungary), graduated from college, and have been living very happily overall. ^_^
Now that's quite some change and I felt like it was just natural to get a new email address and maybe even a new cell number when time comes. (For the record, my old screen name originated from the time when I was still in 3rd or 4th grade and have used it since everywhere computer related... Yeah... It was time for a change...)

The only thing that has been lacking somewhat these past 5 years was a purpose... Specifically, what will I do when I grow up? I've always loved languages and different cultures, and have been trying to find a job/career/purpose, where I could incorporate this basic interest. And this is where the JET Program (The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme) comes in:
I was hired to teach English for a year in Japanese public schools, and to help out in exchanging information about cultures (specifically my culture vs. Japanese culture). Can an opportunity be any more perfect? I'm super excited and determined to try and learn as much about Japan, its culture and language, as I possibly can, with these goals in mind (for the upcoming year only):

#1 - I will take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December, and pass the N4 level (old level 3). (FYI: There are 5 levels, N5 being basic Japanese, N4 conversational Japanese, N3 average Japanese, N2 native Japanese and good enough for attending college in Japan, and N1 being highly proficient in Japanese, including technical terms and such.)

#2 - I will take the JLPT N3 in July, and pass it.

#3 - I will learn as much as I can about Japanese mannerism, culture, and tradition, so that if I can't stay for more than a year and have to come back to New York, I can use that knowledge to get a job as a translator/interpreter and/or get into event planning.

So here's to new journeys, roads, beginnings, and a blog! ^_^