4 hours and 20 minutes to go

Yeah, it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm still awake. I'm fully packed, but I'm still awake. On purpose too! Since Japan has a 14 hour time difference I decided to stay up all night tonight, sleep on the flight over tomorrow and then hopefully it'll be easier to reschedule my sleeping pattern.

In other news: this week I got a phone call from the head office and I got a posting! Yay! I'll be working at a few elementary schools and jr high schools in the town of Nishiwaki in the Hyogo Prefecture.

Wow, Koren, that's a lot of words that don't really mean anything to me.

Yeah, well, I figured as much so here's a map. From what I understand, we're near Universal Studios Japan, the Imperial Capital of Japan, and the port where we would catch the ferry to South Korea and China. We're also around 6 hours away from Tokyo, and many hours away from the BFF, G-chan. Which makes me sad, but it's better than being an ocean away. We'll make it work.

Some people had voiced their concerns about us not getting an apartment quickly enough, and I'd like to take this time to let you know, that all is good. The same evening that I got the call about my placement, I got an email from a very nice person from my company who found me a semi-finished apartment near my schools. It comes with broadband internet, a TV and TV stand, a bed, and a washer AND DRYER! And it's more than one room! I'm pretty excited about that. It has a very authentic Japanese bathing area, so I need to do some research on how to to bathe Japanese style. That's gonna be a fun google search.

While I don't have any inside pics of my future apartment, I do have an external photo and a floor plan that you guys can take a gander at (see bottom) . My apartment in on the first floor, suite 104. When I move in on Friday I'll post some pics, or do a video blog and give you a grand tour of my new home.

Speaking of video blogs, expect to see my first one on Monday evening (which will probably be super early Monday morning North American time) which will show my hotel and a bit of Osaka, the town I'll be in for my training. Let's see if I can get final cut loaded onto my mac, and maybe it'll be a better quality of video.

If that's too long to wait to see how I'm doing, follow my twitter and see my instant updates. I will be updating as often as I can. It matters how many free wifi connections I can get. I wonder if there's an internet connection over the ocean...