When It Rains...

When it rains it pours, especially in Japan. I use this term literally, its rained almost everyday since my arrival. I guess the rainy season is supposed to be over but just kept on going, but I also use this term metaphorically. FOR INSTANCE: I got a pretty rough placement for JET. The physical area is totally fine with me. I dont mind that there isnt really anything to do here, its beautiful all around and I am near a bullet train station which makes life a lot easier. The rough part is that there are absolutely no other JET folks near me at all. Some JETs get placed in apartment buildings with 5 other JETs in them, some are just placed in the same town. The closest ones to me take about an hour or so to get to. On top of this, my supervisor (a JET Supervisor is one of the English teachers at your school who helps you do everything, ie. get your alien registration, open a bank account, get you a phone, help you move into your apartment, show you how to get around town, help you get a car if you need one.) is nonexistant. I met him once, he was really really nice, but he just isnt particularly helpful. I lived in that hotel for a week by myself and they expected me to be able to get from one hotel to another on my own as well as into my apartment on my own. I have 150 pounds of luggage and no car. Luckily, my predecessor helped me out a bunch, though I'm not his responsibility. I was starting to get frustrated! In order for me to get any of these things done, I had to do them on my own and on my own TIME. If I wanted to go during the week I had to use my vacation hours (everything is closed by the time I finish work at 5pm), even though they were supposed to take me to do these things a while ago. On top of that, do you have any freakin idea how hard it is to open a bank account and get a cellphone only using Japanese? It ain't easy. So we're off to a good start, yeah? Yeah.

I was informed I had to go work at a three-day-two-night English Camp in Myoko. During these three days my predecessor would move out of the apartment and I could move in when I returned. Great. I moved my luggage into the place BEFORE I left (smart move, yes, thank you, it was my idea.) I kept a duffle bag and a backpack with my computer and phone and stuff in it, though it was still pretty heavy. The plan was simple: Check out of the hotel and catch a 6:23am train to Myoko. I'd get there at 9:30am, itd be great. Easy plan. I woke up, off to a good start. I decided i wanted to wash my hair this morning, I hadn't used my own shampoo yet, just ones provided for me at hotels. I opened my bag that has extra toothpaste, shampoo andconditioner bottles, and a comb. It was covered in a green minty fresh substance. Wonderful, toothpaste all over everything. I pulled things out one by one and looked for the broken toothpaste. I then, for whatever reason, scraped some off with my fingernail and tasted it. Don't ask me why. It was at this point, when my finger was juuuuust touching my tongue, before I could taste anything, that I remembered my toothpaste is white, not green. My shampoo is green and also kind of minty scented. Too late. I ate some shampoo. Great, off to a good start. I showered and packed my stuff up and ran to the station. I got there and walked onto the wrong platform... the train was juuuuuuuuuuuust leaving. So I walked into the ticket office and talked to the guy. He gave me a new ticket, the same price, for a train that would arrive at 10:52, not too much later. I called the camp to let them know I'd be late since they chartered a bus for everyone to take at 10 from the station. They said it was cool, they would send a car to get me at 10:52.


I board the train and everything is going great. I had to transfer twice to two different trains. At the first transfer point, I switched to the train I believed I would be taking. I was stopped. 'This ain't your train, kid.' Said the conductor. 'Why, yes it is!' I said as I proudly showed him my ticket. 'Nah, you need to pay extra to ride this train, this ticket allows you to ride THAT (points to another train) train.' 'Hmm, ok.' I get on the train, its leaving 5 minutes after the one I had planned on going on. Thats ok though. I boarded the new train and we left. About halfway through the conductor said 'Alright, we will wait at this station for a bit so if you need to use the bathroom, please do so.' I still had another 8 stops and a transfer to another train and it was 10:40 hmmmm. Something wasn't matching up. I finally got to the last station where I would transfer and take one more train. It was 11:10. The next train left at 11:45 and would arrive at 12:35. Perfect. I called my mom and let out a long vent of anger and frustration with the lack of help I get at this place. Then I called Hilary, my girlfriend and did the same. THEN I called the camp and informed them. They were kiiiiinda cool with it. One of those 'Oh, Im sorry that you're fucking everything up...that sucks, dude' kind of attitudes. I boarded the train and looked for a seat. Threw my backpack up in the little baggage storer thing and shoved my duffle bag under the seat and listened to my ipod. After a few stops I took my ipod off because I realized they weren't announcing stops and I needed to be at full attention to know when to get off. So I looked and looked and looked. When is my stop? I looked some more. Some of the stations didn't even have signs saying what stop it was. There weren't maps. I was basically alone on the train. Hmmmm. I was in the total-middle-of-no-where-est place I've ever been in. I thought the place where I lived was rural. The places this train was going by were just totally empty. Nothing. I'm not even sure animals stayed there because it would be too rural for even them. Next stop I poked my head out the car door to see if there was a sign. There was! It said 'SEKIYAMA' Which is exactly where I was going. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally. I grabbed my duffle bag and ran off the train. Wait a minute. I had one more bag.... The train bound for Nagano (yes, where the Olympics were that one time) had sitting in it two thousand dollars of travelers checks, my laptop, my external harddrives with all my photos and music so far, a razor, deodorant, and all of the props I needed to show about my hometown during my mandatory 20 minute speech on Chicago I had to give at the camp. Perrrrrrrfect. Before I started freaking out. I bolted into the station and told the old Japanese guy working there what had happened. He explained it was going to Nagano. As if I didn't understand that. I said 'I need it back, there is important stuff in there. It's probably worth more than the train and this town put together!' He said he would call Nagano station later and then call me to tell me when they get it. Then I would have to go to Nagano to pick it up later. Perfect, he can just call my cellphone that I didn't have yet because my supervisor never helped me get it. I gave him the number of a guy who would be at the camp.

The camp went well. We did camp things like make curry over an open fire. (Im not kidding, we did.) I will tell you more about that another day. It poured the whole time we were at the camp. So much that the train tracks flooded between Sekiyama station and Nagano. No trains were running there for a few days. So, what the hell could I do? I told my teacher and he was like 'Fine, I will take you, it takes an hour to get there and then an hour to get back... if there is no traffic' We left and there was lots of traffic. After about 5 hours, I was back in Sekiyama waiting for a train to do my whole adventure backwards to get BACK to Urasa so I could walk by myself to my apartment (about a 20 minute walk) in the rain and pitch black (no streetlights off of the main strip in urasa) with 40 pounds of luggage and I didn't have a key and there would be no internet when I got there. Thanks for the help mr. supervisor. Zack, my predecessor, had said he would leave the key in the storage room, I reminded him a bunch of times and he said he would try and remember. But there was NO freakin way I was walking all the way to that house with the slightest chance that key wasn't there. I went back to the hotel near the station (not the one full of prostitutes) and booked myself a room. In fact, they gave me the same room I had. I found my comb that I left there. Hooray. I emailed the local helper lady, Yoko and asked her to help me move in. She said 'TOTALLY.' She saved my life.


Anyway, that sucked, dude.