Departure Meeting

Yesterday I attended the last scheduled meeting held by my company in the downtown Toronto recruitment office. We talked about several things but mainly focused on a checklist in order to assist me with my final preparations. I also thought of it as one last pep talk to soothe my conscience of any last minute complications or worries that I might have been having. Fortunately for me everything I needed to accomplish got done in a timely manner, so I haven't been too stressed at all. During the meeting my recruiter told me that this could easily change as the final 14 days count down.



So what's left for me to do? The biggest thing is probably getting a hold of Japanese yen to cover the first few weeks of expenses before my first official pay date. It's recommended I take over about 200,000 yen as start up money (approx. $2000 Canadian) which is usually sufficient enough for the matter. Next on the list is an alarm clock device which I surprisingly don't really use at home. Last of all it's apparently impossible to get the same kind of deodorant that we use over here in Japan so my recruiter highly advised me to stock up on what I like to use before leaving.

As for gifts I have already sent over a "Toronto" postcard over to my branch school, Mabashi Amity,(http://www.amity.co.jp/school/english/1223.html) and I'll likely be bringing over some sort of chocolate as a friendly gesture. The postcard thing I feel is so lame but it seems to be highly regarded as a form of excitement when the branch school receives foreign contact. Hopefully that'll be the case when they discover what I've sent! I ended up picking the blue one, the shot of harbourfront, CN Tower, and Rogers Centre-- typical, but it justifies the purpose. Mabashi is going to be so unimpressed.
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Web/Tele Conference Workshops

In preperation for leaving there were two online orientation sessions about living & working in Japan held for all the teachers who are starting at the same time as me. Today was the final of the two workshops and it was about an hour long. Although the material covered seems a bit bland I understand that the information discussed is to make sure no one has any outstanding questions or faced with any surprises when we all finally arrive in Japan.

The group was from all over the place: Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, London (England), and of course myself from Toronto. We all start our training in Japan together at the same time so it's kinda neat to meet everyone ahead of time even if it's just over the phone & internet as a conference.

The person holding the call was Tamiko Kawahara who resides in Los Angeles and works from the recruiting department stationed there. Tamiko had previously worked as a teacher in a branch school and also as a teacher trainer in Japan. She wished us all farewell and good luck and was more than helpful. Thanks much!

About halfway through the conference I had finally come to realize that no one else could see me smiling and nodding to all the questions and comments from the group. Woops. Apparently I need more experience with conference calls. We'll have plenty of time to exchange pleasantries during our training week anyways!

File Transfer

I bought my laptop back in November of 2005 and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't fully justified its purpose or expense. Although most of my university papers were written on it I suppose that they could have been just as effectively completed on my desktop at home. Since it has been lightly used I haven't kept it up to date with the music and pictures from my everyday PC. Today this will change as I will try to sync most of my common files I use from my regular PC via a hopefully painless wireless transfer.

Sadly I'm going from an uber ~450gb area of storage to the laptop's 80gb so it looks like I'll be leaving a lot behind. My music alone has to be trimmed to 1/4 of its original size (1oo down to 25) and it seems that will be the same case for my pictures and tv shows.

I wanted to keep at least half my laptop hard drive space free for pictures I'll be taking while travelling. 40 gb's of pictures?!? Well it'll be over a 12 month (maybe longer) time period... and yes, I'm that much of a photo freak.

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Last Document

Upon being hired I was given two official start dates-- May 9th or June 20th. I decided to take the earlier (May) date but in doing that the Japanese Visa process would be slighty different. Under normal circumstances the employer would outright sponsor the candidate in order to work in Japan, however the paperwork takes up to two months to officially complete and I had missed that deadline if I wished for a May departure.

So instead, I had to independently apply for a Japanese working holiday Visa in person downtown at the Japanese Consulate General. This required me to do a bit of running around but nevertheless it was quick and painless. I picked up the Visa printed in my Canadian passport yesterday morning and I officially have the last travel document necessary for my trip! Yay!

So you're interested in applying for a Japanese Working Holiday Visa too you say? Sure, check it out!
http://www.toronto.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/english/visiting-japan/wh.html

You win, Air Canada.

Less than a month to go and it still hasn't quite hit me that my time in Scarborough/Toronto is running out. I have been so occupied with trip details and additional training packages over the past few weeks that it feels like I've been getting ready to leave for several months now. However the truth of the matter is I was offered the job on March 18th and I have never once looked back on my decision to accept the position.

As for flight details? I was given three options upon being hired and they are as follows: Air Canada, Northwest Airlines, and/or United Airlines. All three depart on May 9th from Toronto to Osaka, each with their own different connecting flights. My employer was kind enough to provide a contact working with JTB International (http://www.jtbi.ca/) and the travel agent there has been helpful beyond belief.

My initial choice was United Airlines since the airfare was a mere $900 compared to the $1700 Air Canada was asking for. The reason for the difference? I still don't know. Both flights are one-way economy tickets so I have no clue why there was such a huge gap. I asked a friend who worked at Air Canada and her only guess was that both Vancouver (my connecting flight) and Osaka International have high airport taxes. I wasn't willing to spend twice the amount so I thought my decision was made. Unfortunately my parents for whatever reasons believe that Air Canada is impenetrable to terrorist attacks, so they insisted I just pay for the more expensive flight. Sigh.