Like I said in that last post, I'll be heading to Tokyo at the beginning of August for about 2 weeks for Handi-Craft, to do research and stuff. All expenses paid, which is going to be absolutely great. Although I have to come back to the US between that and the AEON gig in Japan, I figure it will still be a helpful trip to getting things ready for my year contract with AEON, aside from being a ton of fun. Here's the stuff I'm planning on doing while I'm there; let me know if you guys can think of anything else I can/should do...
meet up with the JET kids at their orientation at the beginning of August. (I might actually be staying in the same hotel)
sign up for my cell phone contract, get my phone
Namja Town
see Shin-san and some of the Kanda kids
visit the AEON school I'm going to work at
bum around the area, see what's around
hopefully convince my AEON predecessor to show me my future apartment
leave a box or two of my stuff at AEON, so that I don't have to ship boxes of clothes and belongings from the US
buy some DS games, like the Kanji Dictionary and the Opera Browser
I can't think of anything else at the moment. I'll add them here as an edit if I do. Aside from getting a sneak peak at my AEON life in Ichihara, I think the second most important thing for me might be getting my phone. I'm a nerd, but seriously, it's pretty much impossible to be in contact with anyone in Japan without a phone. I'll be there for two weeks, so I might as well get a phone to e-mail people, and that way I'll have one as soon as I deplane in September as well. I have a feeling the AEON orientation process doesn't have a scheduled time to get phones, since everyone will likely get them in their placement cities. My only concern is that I won't have my address yet, so I'll have to check with AEON if I can just put the office address down for now. I won't need my gaijin card or visa yet, since if you have a credit card you can start a phone contract no problem. I think I'm going to get a DoCoMo. Black Tornado served me well last summer, after all, and AU doesn't give me a discount since I'm not a student anymore.
