Finally the Internet!!

Sorry for such a long delay! For as good of a time we have had here, it has been equally frustrating figuring out and waiting for paperwork to go through, appointments to be made, and lastly just figuring out how to do things in a separate country and language! So to start from the beginning...

We got the ok to go home from our work March 9 and less than 24 hours later we were on a plane headed to the U.S. (We needed to go home in order to get enough clothes and get some things in order before we left for a year.) We only got the chance to be home for a little over a week but we made the most of it. We had been just sitting and waiting the couple weeks before that just to hear if we had gotten jobs. The whole process is kind of confusing but I will try my best....

We were hired by a company who secures teaching contracts with different boards of educations around Tokyo. Therefore we were guaranteed interviews with different districts but we still had to go on other interviews to different boards of education who had to discuss it amongst themselves and see if they wanted you to teach in their schools. So by the time they ok'd us to go home, Brad already had signed his contract and was guaranteed a teaching position. I had gone on an interview but they wanted me to go on a second interview after I returned to Japan. They would not schedule the 2nd interview until after we had already purchased tickets to come back to Japan. Anyways, long story short we flew back to Japan on March 19. Soon after I found out that I didn't need a 2nd interview, I signed my contract to work in Higashimatsuyama, and we started looking for housing. Fortunately or unfortunately we have to depend on our company to do almost anything. Therefore it takes a little longer than normal to get the process for anything done just because they are also doing it for about 50 or so other people. Anyway after a week of being back we finally were able to look at some apartments and moved in on March 23. (I'll write more about our apartment later.)

We got the process for our visa's started in late February or early March. We had to wait for someone to issue a Certificate of Eligibility for us to take to the Immigration to pick up. We ended up getting those on April 1st where we had to wait in a line for 2 hours just to turn in some paperwork. Then we had to wait another couple weeks for them to send us something in the mail. Well...it never came, so we had our company call and for some reason they weren't able to find our address so it was returned. By then we were working so we had to wait a couple of days to get excused from work so we could make it to Tokyo by the time the office closed in order to get our visa. We FINALLY got our visa on April 23rd.

The reason we were so looking forward to getting our visa was that we were told that we would not be able to get a phone or internet, or create a bank account to get paid etc. until we got this done. So finally(!) after we got our visa we had to go to the city office in Higashimatsuyama where we live to apply for our gaijin card and health insurance. This is what we needed to get phones! so we could have a data plan and be connected to the world again!! So on April 25, after nearly 3 months of waiting we finally had all the paperwork done to actually live a normal, connected life in Japan.( At this point we still hadn't heard about when we were getting internet but we found out shortly after that that our company had made an appointment and they were coming to connect it May 1. Which is why I'm just writing this now.)

I know I'm going on and on about the logistics but I honestly don't think I've ever been as frustrated over such simple things before. We had to push and push to go look for apartments, we had to wait and wait for our visa to be approved so we could have a phone, we were checking the internet on the curb outside of our apartment in the rain under an umbrella just to keep in touch with our company over meetings and to stay in touch with our families. Come to find out we could have gotten a temporary gaijin card allowing us to get a phone months ago but no one bothered to tell us that. Even after we got all of our phone documents the phone company still had to decide whether or not they wanted us to be their customers because apparently foreigners have been known to start a phone contract and then skip without paying. You'd think just having a credit card would be enough...

We are still waiting to get our official gaijin card in the mail so we can open a bank account and get paid (at the post office ironically enough) but then we will for sure be all moved in!

So now that we have the internet and phones things are definitely much easier. We can skype we can call our company if we need to, we can live like we're used to living! I don't know about you but have you ever lived with no phone, no TV, no internet for any period of time ever? It's hard especially when you're used to being connected!