３月１８日に東京へ帰ります！I’m Going Back to Tokyo!

I received an e-mail this morning from Interac – my position in Agano has been confirmed and I need to arrive into Japan on March 22nd for training at the Narita View Hotel! This is it, it’s all settled, here I go, back to Japan XD

Coventry

 March 18th

I say goodbye to my hometown of Coventry, middle England, and make the journey to London Heathrow airport. I’ll be flying with Virgin Atlantic, so at least it’s a direct flight The flight takes 12 hours from the UK, although sometimes you get a little treat when you get on the plane and the captain says it’s 11 and a half hours. I’ll probably stay up the night before so I pass out and sleep for most of the flight XD Although I’m sure that won’t be hard, I’m already bouncing off the walls!

Narita Airport

March 19th

I land in Narita airport very early in the morning on March 19th. Like many others, when I first landed in Japan I was expecting to be descending down through skyscrapers. I blame Kill Bill. Narita really is out in the middle of nowhere, and it takes a while to get into Tokyo itself! So after landing in Narita, I’ll be getting on board the good old Narita Express or a limousine bus to my hotel.

Shibuya

 So, I have finally made my return to Tokyo. I’m going to be spending this weekend looking at hotels to spend my spare three days/nights, but at the moment I’m looking at central yamanote spots such as Shinagawa, Shibuya and Shinjuku. Once I’ve picked a hotel and settled down, maybe unpacked a little bit and had a shower, where do you think my first stop will be?

That’s right….. SHIBUYA! 渋谷大好き～ For those of you who don’t know (where have you been?) Shibuya is actually my most favourite place on this whole planet. I love Tokyo, I’ve always loved Tokyo and I adored living there. But Shibuya is just something else. Bright lights, big city, people everywhere, amazing shops, millions of karaoke rooms and the best bars with the best bar staff around. I can’t wait to go back

Shibuya O-Lounge

Another essential stop in Shibuya will be the O-Lounge! I used to go here every weekend and sink a fair few tequila shotto with my old friend Kris from Hawaii. We discovered this place when Kaya had her costume birthday party there. We had the VIP room and good old Souza tequila on tap. The staff working at the O-Lounge were all fantastic, although I bet the line-up has changed in the two years I’ve been away. It seems to be quite popular with other gaijin, I met lots of *one night friends* there. If I see any of you in Tokyo before orientation, you can bet this is where I’ll take you.

Another essential and possibly emotional stop for me will be Keio University. I studied from Sept 2007 until July 2008 at Keio, one of the top Universities in Japan. There was an exchange student population of probably just over 100, and they were like my family. This is also where I spent a lot of time chilling out with Rodger. In fact, one of the last videos he filmed was his return to the Keio campus. However, I’d really like to go back and visit my old teacher and mentor, Ikeda-sensei. We’ve kept in contact over the past few years, and I’m going to take her back some treats to say thank you. She really whipped me into shape! I have really American-style “Keio Spirit”. I’m proud to say I studied there, more so than my English alma mater!

Keio University

Other than this? I guess it depends where I end up. I’m currently contemplating hotels in Shinagawa, Shinjuku and Ginza. I don’t think I can handle Akihabara yet, with recent events. Akihabara was always a Rodg event. I definitely want to hit Karaoke and scream Cutie Honey like I used to two years ago.  Hook up with some old Tokyo friends, visit a shrine or two, maybe see if I can catch some cherry blossoms somewhere, and sink a cocktail partner.

What do I have to do before I leave for Japan? EVERYTHING! It’s okay, last minute dot com is for the cool kids, anyway.

東京、東京、東京！ワイ～！

More About My Placement – Agano City, Niigata Prefecture [阿賀野市,新潟県]

Agano city is a baby! It was founded on April 1st 2004 by the merger of the towns Suibara and Yasuda, and the villages of Kyogase and Sasakami.

Agano is the dark pink area in the northeast

Agano is in the northeast of the prefecture, quite a lot closer to the capital of the prefecture than my original position in Sanjo. I have to admit I hope that this doesn’t mean it’s colder >.<

The light purple area next to Agano is Niigata city. So, although Agano looks like it is extremely rural -  I’ll hopefully be close enough to be in my kind of environment. Bright lights, big city, and 飲み放題カラオケ!

In Agano city, there are around 11 Elementary schools and around 4 Junior High schools. Interac said I could be teaching between 2 and 5 schools, so I’m guessing that it will be a couple of Elementary schools and one Junior High. I know a girl who went with Interac in 2009 had 18 schools, I’m relieved I’m not in a situation like that!

Below is a climate graph for Niigata. Niigata seems to have a *lot* of rain. In fact, someone who commented on my last blog post left me the weather reports and a live camera from Agano city. Thank you, whoever you are!  ありがとうございます！Actually, I just checked Aganocam. IT’S TIPPING IT DOWN RIGHT NOW! If any of you want to check out Aganocam, here is a tiny link: http://tinyurl.com/yz67qwv It actually looks really scary. For those of you who can read Japanese, check out this website, you might be able to find weathercam for your own city! http//weathernews.jp

Niigata Climate

Lake Hyoko appears to be the biggest tourist attraction in Agano city. According to the Agano website, as of early this month, there were over 2000 swans at the lake. Every year, the number of swans tops 6000. That’s a lot of swans!

Lake Hyoko

Suntopia World

 Also in Agano is an amusement park (yay!) called Suntopia World. It doesn’t seem to be in the same league as Fuji-Q, but it has all of the theme park standards. There’s various rollercoasters, a carousel, a ferris wheel, trains, a pirate ship etc etc. Looks like it would make a fun day out, and I bet the views from the ferris wheel are so pretty!

 

 

Mt. Gozu

Hiking appears to be one of the main hobbies in Agano, and this photo shows Mt. Gozu [五頭山], a mountain with five peaks. I always said I wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, but I am a weak and feeble thing. I don’t suppose I’ll get out of hiking in Agano, though! This photo also shows how rural Agano is, you can see the rice fields (and the frost)…

 

 

 

Murasugi Onsen

Hot springs, or onsen [温泉] are very popular in Japan, and seemingly the most famous hot spring in Agano is Murasugi Onsen [村杉温泉]. Now, although I lived in Japan for a year, even opposite a public bath in Kawasaki, I have never been to a hot spring. I know that you can get private rooms in onsen, so I think that’s something I’m going to aim for while I’m in Japan.

Murasugi onsen is apparently in a quiet (read rural) atmosphere, and is surrounded by 100 year old cedar trees. The magic ingredient in the water is radium, and visiting the hot spring is said to relieve the symptoms of diabetes, rheumatism, nerve pain and “women’s chronic ailments”.  If I ever want to get rid of a man, I know where to go.

So, in the next few days I’ll be looking at booking my trip to London. Now I have my certificate of eligibility and a *tentative* departure date, I can take everything to the Japanese embassy in order to get my Instructor visa.

Ta ta for now x

6:15am Birthday Call. Goodbye Sanjo, Hello Agano! [阿賀野市, 新潟県]

So, after falling asleep at around 4:30am, I was woken up on my 24th birthday by a phonecall from Interac at 6:15am.

The moment I heard a Scottish accent, I know it was David in recruitment and my heart sank. I’d read about placements changing quite often on ALT forums, and I knew what the phone call would be about. David told me that the ALT I was meant to be replacing in Interac had decided to stay on, and that I wouldn’t be able to go to Sanjo. But, they had a new placement offer for me.

Imagine my relief to find out that I won’t have to prepare myself for a big change all over again! I’ll be in exactly the same style of placement -rural, driving, teaching JHS and ES, in a city called Agano, in the same prefecture of Niigata. Of course, I accepted. So now, here is a crash course on what I could find out about Agano!

Agano is a pretty small place with a population of around 48,000 people. It’s slightly North-East of Sanjo, but borders the huge Niigata city, with a population of 800,000! Niigata city is only 30 minutes drive away from where I will be. So, although Agano is half the size of Sanjo, I have the biggest city in the prefecture right next to me!

The city flower is the Cosmos [コスモス]

The city tree is the sakura [桜]

The city bird is the swan [白鳥] – When researching my original placement of Sanjo, I’d just heard about the death of my very good friend Rodger Swan. I kept seeing the Swan Lake near Sanjo popping up and deliberately ignored it. I’d like to think my change of placement wasn’t a coincidence.
A beautiful and famous part of Agano is called Hyoko Lake [瓢湖]. So looks like I’ll be surrounded by Swans

On top of all this… Agano is only a 30 minutes drive away from Niigata city! There are other ALTs in Agano, apparently one is a British guy. So hopefully I’ll have some friends to play with in Niigata!

But for now… it’s my birthday! I’m off to eat birthday cake. Let’s hope it’s second time lucky with the placement