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This is where I will be living as of tomorrow night!
Ogikubo -Ikubo Area.
The only problem being I also start my new job tomorrow. For some reason they wouldn’t let me move my stuff in tonight, even though I am still at a hotel. So after work I have to haul near 50kg of baggage from eastern tokyo to western tokyo. Luckily the hotel owner likes me, and short of marrying his daughter, he agreed to let me keep my luggage here till after work tomorrow. So I have 1 huge samonsite back that weighs about 35 kg that I will take first and hopefully after that come back and get my suit bag and my bogu. The funny thing is that the real estate agent and owner have to meet me, and I dont get off work till 6:30. After that I will go to get my bags and then head to the office. So I should get there about 8. Their office closes at 6, so I guess karma has a way off coming back to them. The only thing is this doesn’t leave me time to get a futon, so maybe I will use my dogi as a sleeping bag… I should have gotten a hotel in the area, so all my luggage would be there. Hindsight…
Continue reading ‘Tokyo!’
Well the Hiroshima chapter of my life is closed. I have made the move to Tokyo. After spending three days looking for apartments and dealing with my company saying they will sponsor my apartment, and then not, I have found an apartment. Or so it seems. Right now I am living in an hotel waiting for the apartment lease to be formalized, which is supposed to be tomorrow. Which means I should be able to move in Wednesday, the day before I start my job. Not ideal, but the apartment is really nice.
I wanted to live in Ogikubo, which is west of Shinjuku by about 10 minutes on train. Very convenient and I will only have a 27 minute train ride to my office, without transfers. This made it pretty ideal, plus the area is where a lot of college students and younger people live. Anyways, I looked at a bunch of places around the area and went with brand new apartment. Just opened maybe a month ago.
The apartment isn’t large by anymeans, 8 tatami living room and 3 tatami kitchen, but it has a walk in closet, separate toilet and bath, and double pane insulated windows!! The best part is that it has free fibre internet. The rent is on the cheaper side also, only 74000y a month. This is about 680usd a month.. The only downside is that the apartment is about 15 minute walk from Ogikubo station (but only 5 minutes from another line.) This isnt a problem though, even though for japanese it seems to be. Besides, I won’t have to pay 5000yen a month for internet or phone now.
The only downside is moving in costs… it is really expensive to move in to apartments in japan. You have pay a security deposit (normally two months), a thank you payment (usually another two months, nonrefundable), a realtor fee (usually 1 month), first months rent and insurance. So moving in is really expensive. You can usually negotiate the thank you money and sometimes the rent.
So hopefully I will get a call tomorrow from the real estate agent, saying, start moving in! Pictures will come soon, I am excited.
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My last official day living in Hiroshima… so sad.
At my school today, they had a going away ceremony. I had to give a speech to the teachers during the morning meeting and then afterwards I gave a speech to the student body (many nice ones at that.) After many bows and a speech from the principal and student council president I gave my speech.
Mine was a pretty simple speech, but I made some jokes and had the students laughing, not like the typical japanese speech. It was really sad for me after, because a lot of the students ran up to me to shake my hand and tell me how much they will miss me or how much they love me. Japan is a interesting place.
Anyways, busy day… I will go to Saino Aikido for my last practice there and then to another dojo where I train with Goldsberry sensei for my last practice there also. After that I will go to coffee with that group and then go back to my friends apartment and finish packing. That will probably be about 11. Saino will be the most difficult for me to part from. After spending almost three years, going to practice 6 days a week, it’s sooo difficult. So a loooong day.
Tomorrow I will fly to Tokyo and spend the next few days looking for housing.
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So I have two days left teaching at my School. At the going away party friday night, they told me they are going to make a plaquard with my picture and words of encouragement for the rest of the school to see till japan sinks in the ocean.
So what should I say?
Two in the pink, one the stink.
Have as much sex as possible in high school.
Donkey Punch.
Goatse
All jokes aside, what words of inspiration should I relay for the future of japan?
据え膳食わぬは男の恥。
すえぜんくわぬわおとこのはじ。
Shameful is he who doesn’t accept a woman’s invitation.
According to the Japanese man, this is true even if you are married.
Just got the results… passed the 3rd Kyu Japanese Proficiency test. Of all the things that have had me bothered recently this was about number 3 or 4. So one of the list, just a few more to go! w00t.
So, now should my goal for next year be 2nd kyu or 1 kyu… Maybe first kyu. Of course that is equivocal to being fluent, so I don’t know if that is possible without some major investment in schooling and time.. we’ll see how Tokyo goes. High fluency = more money and better job.
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For around the past two years I have been teaching English in Hiroshima, it has been a fun experience and I have made a lot of friends in the process.
Recently, on a whim, I applied for a job in Tokyo, pretty much sure I wouldn’t get it. Lo-and-behold I received a call from the company and they requested that I come to Tokyo for an interview. After talking on the phone a few times to them and finally meeting them, they presented me with a networking test just to place where I am. Surprisingly enough, after two years of not touching a router or firewall, I aced their test. By aced, I only missed one question.
Suprising to me was the fact that no ever scored higher then about an 80% on the test.. Anyways, after talking about the test and asking me more technical questions, I was offered the position. I will start March 1st, working for NTT Telecom in Tokyo. I will be a member of the Network Testing and Provisioning Group, dealing primarily with Singapore, Hong Kong and Europe.
The pay sucks compared to the same job in America and they are not helping me get an apartment or paying for me to move. But the hours are nice and there is a lot of room for upward movement, especially into the NTT Labs group which is akin to the ATT Bell Labs Networking group. So needless to say I am really excited.
Now I just have to find an apartment and hope I have enough money to move in! You have to have deposit money, two months rent and pay a mandatory thank you fee to the real estate agent. This roughly translates into anywhere between 2.5k to 4k depending on the building and the agent.