Denver

This morning, I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. 3:25. 5 minutes before I was planning on getting up. I showered, got dressed in my nice new clothing, and had a small bowl of cereal. Stef and Nate rode with me to the Oakland airport. Nate took the car as Stef and I waited in the lines to check baggage.

I waited for my 6AM flight, which got to Denver at 9:15. I was expecting to meet up with the Salt Lake City JET Program participants to ride together to our hotel in downtown Denver. I was told that they would be arriving at around 11:25, so I grabbed something small to tide me over until lunch while I waited.

10 o'clock rolled around. 11. 11:30. Not seeing anyone with some obvious connection to JET, I started to worry. I hauled my heavy bags back and forth between the flight schedule monitors, the baggage claim area, and the landing area for the inter-concourse trains. 10, maybe 15 times. Dark, wet circles began to accumulate in the underarm portions of my nicely-ironed, brand-new dress shirt. I began to wonder if I'd see anybody at all.

Noon arrived, and I knew that I needed to act fast in order to make it to the hotel by 1 PM. I withdrew some cash from the ATM, paying the $2 fee, and headed out to the shuttles. I boarded a shuttle and hoped that the driver would know where my hotel was. Almost exactly at 1PM, we arrived at the hotel, which is right in the middle of downtown Denver. Denver's a pretty town with clean, old fashioned architecture to compliment the more modern designs of its many sports stadiums.

As I waited in line to check in, I found that some other JETs were waiting in the lobby. I chatted a bit with one of them and found out that we were supposed to meet back in the lobby at 1:45. I took my stuff upstairs and met my roommate for the night, Kemper. After talking a bit about Japan and JET, we made our way downstairs to the lobby. I made a passing comment about how hungry I was since I hadn't eaten for a few hours, and one of the JETs informed me that we wouldn't be eating until about 6:30 or 7.

After some instruction, we loaded into a bus and drove out to the Consulate General's house for an orientation and reception. The orientation consisted of some important information about getting ID cards and other necessary things. Unfortunately, it was long and dry. There were some funny moments, and I truthfully would have enjoyed it much more had I eaten something. My stomach growled for a good 4 hours.

After the orientation, we had the reception, where we listened to four speeches before having a toast and eating dinner. I'm already getting sick of people talking about making the best of their experience. Dinner was prepared by the Consulate General's personal chef, who's from Japan and doesn't speak English. He made all sorts of sushi and tempura. I hadn't ever had real sushi before today, but I can say that I was pleasantly surprised. I ate a lot of raw fish and actually enjoyed it. Of course, my enjoyment of it might have been affected by my hunger. Who knows? At least I'm starting out on the right foot.

After eating, I mingled with some of the other JET participants, including some of the married ones, but I was mostly content to just sit around and absorb everything. I have a lot running through my mind right now. Doubts creep in, and I wonder what I will do once I leave the JET Program. Then, I remember that I prayed about this and felt strong confirmation that it was right. I also remember that Stef, Kelsey, and I will be having an incredible experience--one that few people get. I remember that I always have banking as a safety net, and that I have gotten the distinct impression that I will get a better idea of what awaits our family while we're in Japan. I must not let doubt drag me down. My confidence got me here and will continue to push me to new heights.

Perhaps my emotions wouldn't be so strong if Stef and Kelsey were here. Today is the first day of a three-week period away from them. I'm definitely not looking forward to missing them. I already do.

Six days to go!

In two days, I leave Sacramento for Napa. Three days later, I leave for Denver, where I'll attend a pre-departure orientation. The next day, I head out to Japan! I can't believe the time has gone so quickly; I'll be in Japan in six days!

Our last few weeks in Utah, it was pretty easy to keep from stressing about Japan, since there were so many things keeping us busy (moving, etc.). Now that we're out here visiting family, and I no longer have a job in the U.S., the stress is mounting. This a pretty big change. There are also a lot of things that I want to do here in California, but not enough time to do all of them. I find myself being short with people and not having a whole lot of patience. It's frustrating, because I normally don't let things get to me.

Even with the stress, I am excited. Japan is going to be an incredible adventure that my family members and I will never forget. It's not likely that we'll ever be able to do anything like this again. I'm a little bummed about having to be away from Stef and Kelsey until they come out three weeks later. But I'll be pretty busy, and I'm sure the people on Uoshima will do their best to keep me company.

I promised I'd write more about Uoshima. Even though it's been a month, I still will.

Uoshima is a little island in the middle of the Seto inland sea, way out in the middle of nowhere. It takes about 2-2 1/2 hours by ferry (it's actually two separate one-hour ferries with an island connection) to get to the mainland. We'll be making the voyage every week for church, and it won't be cheap. It's going to cost about $100 every week just to travel to church.

Uoshima is a little fishing village (it literally means "fish island") with fewer than 200 inhabitants. We really will know everybody on the island. Ethan, the teacher I'm replacing, only teaches about 5 or 6 kids, so that's what I'll be doing as well. Ethan's also the lead singer of Uoshimax, a 60's brit-rock tribute band. Since he's leaving, I'll be taking his place as lead singer. Rock-n-roll stardom, here I come! Ha!

We'll be living in a two bedroom apartment that's mostly furnished. We'll want to buy a bed, since Ethan's been sleeping on an old futon. Anyway, I'll write more about Uoshima when I get there.

Holy crap!

So, it's Uoshima, which means Fish Island! Wow! We're going to be pretty isolated. It'll be awesome, though. More info later.

Stef and I took Kelsey to the Scottish games today. While not as cool as the games in Sacramento, they were still a lot of fun. Bagpipes are awesome.

Some links to Kamijima blogs

So, more on Kamijima. Like I said, we’re either going to Yuge, Ikina, or Uoshima.

The ALT on Yuge, has a blog. She’s got some neat photos of Yuge here.

Ikina’s ALT also keeps a blog. More good pictures.

Uoshima, which is even farther away from everything, also has an ALT. And luckily, he blogs.

I’d post pictures, but I really don’t want to infringe on any copyrights. But through their blogs, you can pretty much get an idea of what we're going to be doing out there.

Kamijima town, here were come!

..but we still don't know exactly where.

So, we're headed to Kamijima, which is a group of small islands in the Seto Inland Sea (the sea between Honshu and Shikoku, two of Japan's four big islands). Pay no attention to the green arrow.



Here's the Seto Inland Sea:



Kamijima's islands are actually closer to Honshu than they are to Shikoku, but they belong to Ehime Prefecture (similar to a state), which is part of Shikoku.



There are four assistant language teachers (ALTs) in Kamijima. One is living on Iwagi, one on Yuge, one on Ikina, and one on Uoshima. The Iwagi ALT is staying for another year, but the other three are leaving. That means that we'll be on one of those three islands. We still don't know which of the three islands will be our home, since we haven't been contacted by my contracting organization (I'll be employed by the Kamijima board of education). We'll surely let everyone know when we find out.



Later, I'll go into a little more detail about each of the islands and Kamijima in general. For now, everyone can know where in Japan we'll be (sort of).

Projects

Stef and I have a few projects we're working on before we go to Japan. I'm typing out the journal entries that I originally sent to Christina so that I can get those back to her if she wants them. Also, we're converting our DVD collection into .avi files and keeping them on an external hard drive. It's a lot easier than lugging all those dvds in a case. Much lighter, too.

We're trying to figure out what we need to bring with us. As of now, all we can really think of is clothing, the Wii, and the laptop. We'll ship any books that we need separately. I may need to buy a bike and take it on the plane with me.

I'll be leaving for Japan on July 26th. Stef will follow me out with Kelsey on the 15th (or so) of August. We're going to drive (or fly, not sure yet) to California around the 6th or 7th of July, and I'll fly back on the 24th in preparation for the orientation in Salt Lake on the 25th. I'll arrive in Japan on the 27th and go to some orientation meetings for a few days. Then, the real adventure starts.

Stef and I have started studying Japanese together in preparation. It's very exciting to think that we'll be able to communicate with each other in another language. Kelsey will probably pick up a bit of Japanese, too.

Stef is going through the final preparations to become a labor doula. She's flying out to Colorado for a conference at the beginning of May. She'll take the classes she needs, and then return to Utah to participate in a few births. She's already go some possible clients after setting up an ad on Craigslist. That's exciting for her. She's hoping to do a little bit of that while in Japan.

How did I wait so long?

"Dear JET Program Applicant:

Congratulations! You have successfully passed the second stage of the screening process and are now on the final short-list of candidates for the 2008 JET Program."

We're going to Japan!!! Now, we just have to get everything in order and wait to find out where we're going.

Also, I took my last final on Friday! Sweet! Done with school! Finally! Now I can spend more time with the fam.