February ended with me being a little sick--nothing too bad, just a rather high fever. Luckily it only lasted for a weekend.
Then, the first weekend in March I had to come into Kansai to *drumroll* look at apartments in Kobe. I looked at apartments all day long on the Saturday. It was a really long day. Which wasn't helped by the fact that my real estate agent kept getting lost (I mean, okay, maybe she doesn't live in Kobe, but it felt kind of unprofessional of her). Also we had to go back and forth between various real estate offices to pick up keys and bring them back and such things. Anyway, we looked at a few apartments and I found out a lot of interesting things about apartments in Japan. For example, most of them don't have any pre-installed lighting except for in the bathroom and if you're lucky, the kitchen. Also, a lot of apartments don't have any cooktop system installed either. There's a space for it, but often you have to go buy it.
Anyway, at the end of the very long day, I decided on one and we headed back into Osaka (where their main office is) to fill out some paperwork. As a side note --never drive a car between Kobe and Osaka unless you have a lot of time. By train it takes about 30 minutes, but there was so much traffic that it took almost 1.5 hours by car. I may have been mentally pulling my hair out... Then, as we were driving and almost to Osaka, she got a phone call from her boss telling her there was a small problem. They wanted a guarantor. Now this is a kind of big snag-on Japan a guarantor is someone who is legally responsible to pay for you if you don't pay by yourself. So Japanese people are understandably leery of becoming a guarantor for someone. But, it was possible for my new employers to become my guarantor, although I wasn't going to be happy with the conditions attached to that. So the real estate agents said to wait until Monday and see because all of the apartments we looked at were supposed to not need a guarantor, so they wanted to contact them again. And good news for me! Turns out I didn't need one after all. However, at this point, I was already back in Takamatsu, so all the documents and such had to be sent via mail. Luckily, I was at home almost all week (so I could receive them) because I woke up that Monday morning with an extremely high fever that lasted almost the whole week--I got tested for influenza at the hospital, multiple times, but it kept coming up negative although I had all the symptoms.
It wasn't all frustrating though--I was able to see some street lives on both Saturday and Sunday thanks to that trip! Actually, when I showed up on Saturday night,ヨシダさん said he was really surprised to see me there, and so I told him about looking for apartments, and we also had a nice conversation after he was finished as well. On Sunday night, I saw one of the older women who I've seen at his lives before, and she came to talk with me, which was quite nice. And when she found out that I had come in from Takamatsu, she actually kind of started scolding ヨシダさん and FASE (they were doing a joint live) that they should talk with me more because I came from so far. That was so sweet of her. Unnecessary, but sweet.
I also visited Osaka castle really briefly in the afternoon, and saw the plum blossoms.
The following weekend, I spent Sunday afternoon and evening with Narumi. It was raining that day, so we basically just ended up taking a drive while talking. We drove all the way to Tokushima! When we got there we went into a shopping mall and Narumi looked at things in various stores and showed me clothes that she thought would look good on me. After that, she was a little worried about me because I still wasn't 100% after being sick, so we went and got some dinner. After that it was getting late, so we headed back home. On a strange and convoluted route on back roads because that's apparently what Narumi's GPS likes. I was so happy to hang out with her, but really sad after because I don't know when I can see her again!
The week following that was my last week at work and I spent as much time as I could playing with the kids between practing for graduation and getting things ready for when I left. Some of the kids said really sweet things to me and they were constantly hanging on to me. Not sure if it was because I'd been sick for a week or if it was because they didn't want me to leave. Some combination probably. On the Friday, we had a kind of going away party for me and my class and the younger class had both made a present for me and they have it to me and I got hugs and pictures taken with each and every one of them.
Monday was graduation day, and my final day of work. I was like the MC of the ceremony again this year, although the ceremony this year was a little different--this year none of our students cried! At the end Rainbow class brought me a bouquet of flowers from the parents and I got smothered in a giant hug! After that Sun and Sky brought me a present they made, and more hugs! Some of the students wanted to have pictures with me and a couple of them brought me things they had made. It was so nice!!
After the ceremony and cleaning up, we went for lunch (curry) and I got a gift and flowers from the staff.
After that I had a day or so to finish packing and get things closed up. So many phone calls in Japanese. True story; in the past week I've not only used my phone more than I have in the past 2 years but also more Japanese too! Deliveries, appointments, set-ups, cancelling things. Ah...kind of difficult!
When I left Takamatsu, Narumi came to the bus stop to say goodbye. So kind!!! I was happy, but of course also sad to say goodbye. Once I finally got to Kobe I had to go into Osaka to get my keys. My stuff arrived on Friday, so I spent the first couple nights in a hotel and spent my days doing shopping. And shopping. And shopping. I hate shopping! But I had to buy stuff like a bed (actually a sofa bed), table, chair, fridge, washing machine, microwave, curtains and more. Ahhhh!!!!! So many trips to the stores and lots of going back and forth to compare prices and then find out that they couldn't deliver, or couldn't set it up or all kinds of ridiculous things. But I got them eventually. I had to build the table and chair, but I can do it!
Here's a quick tour of my apartment:
If it doesn't work for you, click here
There was also some exploring as well, but maybe I'll talk about that in a later post. And of course the requisite visits to city hall, immigration, the bank and I don't even remember where else at this point. There was a lot to do.
Tonight---nice live and tomorrow 1st day of work. I can do it!
