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....)