Differences in Japan...

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Well the latest updates from Monday this week...Typhoon No. 9 will hit Japan soon with Tokyo probably getting strong winds and heavy rain. The place I am in, is in Nagano Prefecture and are surrounded by mountains and ridges which means that I would not be affected too much by it except for cool and long rainy days with occasional chilly winds which are probably bearable. So don't need to worry too much about me...the nature here's with me. But as of now, I am stuck indoors in my little shed with the internet being my only means of linkage to anything outside. The winds are howling and the rain beating against the glass sliding door. I have definitely got to get a car as the little scooter that I have will not get me anywhere in this weather which of course, the car will come straight outta my own pocket. Well even if I do get rain gear for cruising around in my bike, that stuff would probably not do much in winter which is like a couple of months away so getting the car is THE only option...besides, you guys would probably come crash at my place which no other public transport will take you to and then the car will do all of us good.

Schools have been pretty fun and mostly positive comments from my peers and seniors to my Boss, Nagisa San, which of course is a really good start for my otherwise new career here as an English Teacher. And learning that the JET programme, which is presumably the BEST to secure an English teaching position here that pays like ¥3,000,000. WRONG! Let me tell you...yes it's no doubt that the JET programme is screen by local Japanese Embassy and the screening criteria to select the right candidate is pretty stringent BUT...well all the JET do is just put you up in Japan and set you up with a bank account and pays you. Tha's it! They will tell you to go to places to get your applications and visas done but you have to go there yourself, go figure...there's ABSOLUTELY no one to help you and you CAN'T get a car or any transport in the first year (Correct me if I am wrong)...meaning that you have to slog your sorry ass around on public transport.

And well at least for me, getting hired by a private English school, though the pay is slightly less than the JET programme, I get proper hospitality, my Boss takes me around, sometimes treating me dinner, show me around places, go with me to schools on the first day, talks to everyone to make sure I am well taken care of, sets me up with a bike and helmet and insurance, pays my a little sum each month for my fuel, sets up my internet, aircon, heater, so to sum it up, my well being is pretty much taken consideration and I do get a hell lots of essential hospitality to make my stay in Japan a memorable one.

And trash here is a bit of getting used to...you simply can't dump everything into a plastic bag and chute them like in HDBs. Trash IS TO BE SORTED out into burnable, non-burnable, cans, recycled plastics, glass, pet bottles, etc and there are SPECIFIC dates issued by local cities for SPECIFIC trash collection. So that means that I have a FULL 1 year calander JUST for trash collection. And you can't use any other plastic bags to bag your trash...you have to BUY SPECIFIC trash bags only just to bag your trash and THROW them away...yes it's pretty insane to buy trash bag and throw them away and I am still getting used to it with bags of trash in my kitchen...Of course there are ways to get around it like disposing them into specific trash cans in 7 Elevens or supermarkets...just dun do it too often or if you must, dun become a public enemy to the local community...

Alrite...now it's back to CSI which I so happen to find and excellent site online that streams it.