Hey all!! This post is loooooong overdue, but now that I have a phone, I have found a lot more time to get to the internet (without having to plan time to lug my laptop to my landline at my apartment after work and necessary errands. So, I would like to devote a post to prep work for leaving for Japan.
First, almost all of the information you would need to prep for a year in JET can be found in the General Information Handbook (GIH) you receive as an incoming JET. However, there are also more details (and honest anecdotes and advice--and cartoons!) that are listed in the "JET Program 2012 Survival Guide" (which I absolutely love!). However, if you are only going to travel in Japan on a tourist visa, a lot of good information is contained there, such as Japanese etiquette, how to access your money abroad, what to do in an emergency, and how to travel in Japan (trains...trains...buses!). Here are the links:
GIH:
http://www.jetprogramme.org/documents/pubs/GIH2012_eng.pdf
The Survival Guide:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1ehqIA7-CgYV1NXWWo4VWJWdTQ
I followed the advice in these documents except for a few things (such as creating a will). I do wish I'd gotten more formal wear before I left America (two suits is not enough, and I need to get a lot more blouses). I did not find time to dye my hair before leaving America, and I learned that dying your hair in Japan "can be a mission" (a fun phrase I've picked up from the South African ALT I work with) if you don't have hair with the same quality and texture as Japanese hair. The hair dressers told me that my hair seemed a lot "stronger" than Japanese hair (funny, because I thought my hair would be weaker, since it is less coarse than Japanese hair), and they had to use twice the chemicals. So, I ended up with very white-blonde hair (with some yellowish base left over from the first round of dye). But luckily, I kinda like the color, so it's okay. I went to a relatively expensive (around $200 for a cut, dye, and treatment to deal with hair damage from the dye) but good hair salon called BISE here in Nabari, but I have heard of other foreigners getting their hair dyed here and having it significantly damaged. So please be careful if you decide to get your hair dyed here, because overcompensation for your "stronger" foreign hair can happen. Here's my blurry, model-pose glamour shot on the tatami in my room to show you just how white they dyed it:
Another thing that should be mentioned that wasn't touched on is the mosquitoes here. I have been bit in America by mosquitoes plenty of times, but I've never had them swell like they do here!! A great product to get to numb the itchiness is called "muhi," and looks like this:
<--This is muhi, but keep in mind this is the "s" type, which is double-strength and can be used for other kinds of bites, such as "dani" bites (ticks that often live in tatami...they suck). But, if you want to avoid the trouble of looking for good Japanese mosquito spray to wear around, you might want to consider bringing your own.I will be putting pix up soon of my apartment and maybe a video of the walk from my school to my apartment. Goodnight! Oyasumi nasai!
