Because I'm lazy...
...these are just copy pasted wholesale from my travel blog.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Going away party
It was good to see everyone today (minus my uncle who was in the hospital), though its kind of hitting home the fact that I'll be leaving home for quite some time. The nerves are at a low level background hum constantly now. Urgh.
To avert my attention, I'm trying to come up with a list of things I should do while in Japan. There are only three long vacations set by the school, and one of them is the week after orientation! I want to make the best of this free time, since my two days off a week are not likely to be consecutive, and thus won't have "weekends" to travel on. I'm thinking of spending part of winter break in Kyoto, and Golden Week... somewhere. Either big festival places or like, the furthest reaches of Japan, lol. But this still leaves summer break a big ole blank spot. I'll have to check out online recommendations to start, I think, but I'm open to suggestions.
So let's play Where Should Jamie Go? Alternatively titled What Do We Want Jamie To Take Pictures Of? Contributions were taken during the party, but I'm open to suggestions here too! Come join in!
To avert my attention, I'm trying to come up with a list of things I should do while in Japan. There are only three long vacations set by the school, and one of them is the week after orientation! I want to make the best of this free time, since my two days off a week are not likely to be consecutive, and thus won't have "weekends" to travel on. I'm thinking of spending part of winter break in Kyoto, and Golden Week... somewhere. Either big festival places or like, the furthest reaches of Japan, lol. But this still leaves summer break a big ole blank spot. I'll have to check out online recommendations to start, I think, but I'm open to suggestions.
So let's play Where Should Jamie Go? Alternatively titled What Do We Want Jamie To Take Pictures Of? Contributions were taken during the party, but I'm open to suggestions here too! Come join in!
- vending machines, especially the weird ones
- theme cafes: maid cafes, prison cafes, vampire cafes, manga cafes, etc. :D
- onsen, or hot springs
- ryokan, or traditional Japanese inns -- sometimes with private onsen
- Need to buy candy for Marc. Preferably right before I return, he says. *scoffs* :P
- robots in nursing homes. or commentary on the elderly population in general
- tea ceremony
- snow
- kimono shopping. It also might be interesting to visit someplace that produces ramie cloth for echigo-jofu -- bleached on snow.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Booked!
Just booked a safety flight from Fukuoka to Busan, rt, 9/28-10/12 on Korean Air. Not that this really matters to anyone, but thought I'd put it out there. This is one of the very few flights that makes it in under the 300$ reimbursement limit from MIL... *sigh*
My efforts to clean up before the party tomorrow have stalled, a bit. More than a bit. Somewhat tempted to do the whole shove-it-in-the-closet-and-be-done-with-i
So nervous. *sigh*
My efforts to clean up before the party tomorrow have stalled, a bit. More than a bit. Somewhat tempted to do the whole shove-it-in-the-closet-and-be-done-with-i
So nervous. *sigh*
Friday, July 24, 2009
Procrastination
Getting entirely too distracted by the fish in the side bar. :D
Working on packing again. I have a week until I hop onto a plane to Japan! My going away party is this weekend! It's crept up so quickly... I have two large suitcases and a carry-on set up, mostly packed so far. All of my dress clothes are split between the two suitcases (in case one gets delayed -- I really hope that doesn't happen :/), towels, an old quilt, a lot of my casual clothes and dress shoes are packed, as are my socks.
Digression: The whole socks/stockings thing is going to be interesting -- coming from Florida, where it's perfectly acceptable to wear flipflops year round... yeah.
Anyway. I have some items, like winter clothes, skirts, etc. that may be packed pending room in the suitcases. And I should get back to that, instead of, yanno, procrastinating. Like usual.
Before I leave the computer, though, a few things:
Working on packing again. I have a week until I hop onto a plane to Japan! My going away party is this weekend! It's crept up so quickly... I have two large suitcases and a carry-on set up, mostly packed so far. All of my dress clothes are split between the two suitcases (in case one gets delayed -- I really hope that doesn't happen :/), towels, an old quilt, a lot of my casual clothes and dress shoes are packed, as are my socks.
Digression: The whole socks/stockings thing is going to be interesting -- coming from Florida, where it's perfectly acceptable to wear flipflops year round... yeah.
Anyway. I have some items, like winter clothes, skirts, etc. that may be packed pending room in the suitcases. And I should get back to that, instead of, yanno, procrastinating. Like usual.
Before I leave the computer, though, a few things:
- Found a few options for flights from Japan to South Korea on Vayama.com. There are ridiculous restrictions for if you need to change your flight on this travel agent, but since I'm not worried about it, the 252 USD round trip is looking full of potential.
- Also, thoughts on using comic books as additional material for teaching English? ^.^
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Why Do You Eat It?
Hello, everyone, and welcome to my new blog.
I set this up to detail my journeys abroad, and in the next few days shall be uploading backdated entries to make the record more complete.
A little about me: Right now, I am a recent university graduate who is about embark on a one year (or longer) trip to Japan, where I plan to teach English at MIL: The Language Center, an eikawa located in Chiba Prefecture. A few years back, I spent three months in Beijing, China on a study abroad trip, and absolutely loved it. Despite what you may have concluded at this point, I am not the adventurous type -- instead, I am a worrywart, I overplan, and I panic in private when things change unexpectedly. Hopefully this will change now that I am finally wetting my feet in this daunting concept called the "real world".
Will post more as I fiddle around with the settings on this. Ja!
I set this up to detail my journeys abroad, and in the next few days shall be uploading backdated entries to make the record more complete.
A little about me: Right now, I am a recent university graduate who is about embark on a one year (or longer) trip to Japan, where I plan to teach English at MIL: The Language Center, an eikawa located in Chiba Prefecture. A few years back, I spent three months in Beijing, China on a study abroad trip, and absolutely loved it. Despite what you may have concluded at this point, I am not the adventurous type -- instead, I am a worrywart, I overplan, and I panic in private when things change unexpectedly. Hopefully this will change now that I am finally wetting my feet in this daunting concept called the "real world".
Will post more as I fiddle around with the settings on this. Ja!