Tag: preparation

8 Days to Liftoff

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Much progress has been made my friends. The narrow gap between myself and Japan is quickly closing.

Omiyage have been bought. Boxes are filled with clothes and shoes and jewelry I can let go because of this move. My cat has successfully assimilated into my parents’ household and is working his way into the hearts of their own two cats. My suitcases lay half-packed with much cat hair amassed in them. There’s still a few things on my to-do list, but I even closed a couple of US bank accounts I had yesterday — which was remarkably easy — and cutting up cards has never felt so great. ^__^ I’m also digitizing a lot of docs I’ll need while abroad and storing them in the cloud so that they won’t take up space in my luggage. One notable part of this digitization process is recipes, of the Texan/Southern/Tex-Mex variety. So yeah, I’m trying to be prepared in any case. I’m also apparently trying to eat as much good food as possible before departing. I don’t know if I’m a good cook, but I am definitely a good eater. That is the truth.

Basically, the only thing left at this point is to linger and enjoy the presence of my family for a week, go to Pre-Departure Orientation at the Consul-General’s, pack, and then catch a plane 8 days from now. That day, in the words of a very good friend, I will have to wake up “at the butt crack of dawn” to facilitate group check-in and catch the flight, but I think I’ll enjoy every minute of it.

Last week, Wednesday-Sunday, I completed a circuit of where I grew up and where I’ve spent the majority of my “grownup” life. It was pretty great to see some friends and family that I haven’t seen in a while. But it was also humbling for me to be there again. The overall effect though was positive, and it put me in the right state of mind to move forward confidently!

This past week I had some Honest Tea – you know of it I’m sure. Well this is the quote I discovered inside of my lid:

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T.S. Eliot

This seems to be very true. And I can’t wait!

The Yen: Where It’s At?

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Just a quickie post today. What’s it about? You guessed it! (And the title probably gave it away..)

1000yen-soseki-vector

I don’t want to jump the gun here but yesterday and today are the first few days in a long while that the yen has been exchanging at below 100 to a dollar. (Ah, recalling the fine times 5-7 years ago when the yen pwned the dollar.)

Now I know that this is purportedly an indication of Abenomics financial stimulus plan, but there’s several factors going into it and no one thinks it’s going to last. Loads of people are interpreting it badly but finance seems (to me) to be a fickle mistress. I only know the way I hope it goes, which is the beneficial one… ^__^

To that point, I find a lot of people on the forums rooting for the strength of the American dollar to the yen so I feel like I must be opposite by cheering on the strength of the yen; from the way that it sounds, you’ll have more $$ going home if the yen remains strong against the dollar, whereas hoping for a great exchange rate on the way over seems to be a one-time, one-off occasion. I mean… how much of an impact is twenty bucks ultimately going to make when you arrive in Japan?

So, in brief summary, I want to err on the edge of caution, but hopefully the yen will reach a steady, strong point throughout summer because it’s really too early, for me at least, to be exchanging savings of any kind.

I will keep an optimistic mind as I continue to hope for a steady, non-chaotic Japanese economic situation. :)

The Future’s in Motion

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57 days to go and I’ll be in Japan. That’s just under two months!

I still can’t believe it. But the things I’ve done in the past week have sure put things in motion.

Last Friday I signed an early lease termination at my apartment complex, paid the fee, and agreed to get out in 30 days. Then today I handed in my notice at work so I’ll be working for a couple of weeks more, then I’ll be moving from Dallas to my parents so that I can spend some quality time with them and the cats before I leave.

It’ll be really good preparation because they live on an island of sorts as well. Perfect weather and locale prep!

Before that though comes the last minute get-together’s with friends. I’ve already got some people penciled in on the ol’ agenda but I really need to get on that!

Next is changing a bunch of mailing addresses too. And Yakkan Shoumei. And International Driving Permit….

Just thinking about it is making me crazy so I think I’m going to go work on that right now!

 

Waiting for Placement…

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It’s been a little over a month since I was notified that I was on the shortlist to participate in JET and my excitement still has not quelled. But my anticipated mission does not begin until July 27th! What to do in the meantime? What to doooo?!

For now we wait for placement information, and I know it’s going to be coming any day (it has to be right?), but now I’ve had about three weird dreams about it.  So the wait is more torturous than anything else… particularly waiting on the documents as well.  The FBI & IRS docs should be well on their way (or being processed), so other than the paperwork everything is going well. Mainly because I sent off my paperwork as soon as I was notified!

Aside from that I find that I am getting increasingly immersed in Japanese and Japan again. For a couple of years I took a hiatus from most things related to Japan. You might wonder why I did that, but I think I came to a point where I had to firmly evaluate the idea of me and Japan and figure out whether that relationship would help me achieve the things I’d like to in life or not. Another contributing factor was the fact that many people who are into Japan seem to have only one thing: Japan. To flesh it out more clearly, if you were to take that aspect of their personality away from them, there would be a blank canvas. I didn’t want that. I find that the more well-rounded a person is the more intriguing they are, and there are endless combinations. So, after a series of fluctuations and permutations I slowly but surely heard Japan calling out to me again.

And so here we are now full circle.

76 DAYS TO GO!

Summer is coming…

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It’s the perfect time for everything.  The weather’s been a bit confusing (40 degrees Texas? Really?). Summer is the time of flings and friendships. Will it be a long summer?

I’m waiting for some very important placement information currently in respect to a certain international program, so as soon as I get an update I’ll be posting ASAP. :)