Beware the Wash

Oh man, have I ever had an interesting last couple of days. If you're on my facebook, you'll know more or less what instigated the primary worry of this time. In short: my passport went through the washing machine.

In long:

I live in Boston. Over the summer, I had a job in Boston. I applied to JET, however, through Toronto. This is because I am Canadian and was going to school at the University of Toronto - any application to participate in JET must be made in the country of your citizenship. When accepted into JET, you must depart for Japan from the city that you applied through. So for me, that means I must go to Japan from Toronto. So far so good? This is where it gets complicated.

You cannot, obviously, work in a country without permission from the government. So to work on the JET program, I need a work visa for Japan. In order to get the work visa, you need to submit your passport to the Japanese embassy or consulate-general. JET, however, has a policy that ordinarily you are supposed to give your passport to the JET coordinator from the city that you applied through. This is supposed to happen something like a month and a half before we leave for Japan. For me, because I applied through Toronto, that means that I should have given my passport to the JET coordinator from Toronto sometime back in June. She then would have taken care of the work visa. Everyone gets their passport back at the same time, the day before we leave for Japan.

That's the ordinary procedure. But I'm not normal. Oh no, I'm not. See, I live in Boston. I have a US Permanent Resident Card. I have to be there. Not to mention that, since we don't get paid in Japan until the end of the month, I need to make enough money to pay for my first month in Japan. Maybe you don't see the problem. Let me highlight it: the border crossing. If I'm going to give my passport to the JET coordinator in Toronto and not get it back until the day before I leave to Japan from Toronto, how am I going to get into Toronto from Boston? I need my passport to cross the border.

So after a great deal of discussion, the JET coordinator and I decided that I would come up to Toronto one week before the departure date and hand my passport in then. There would be, I was assured, enough time. And there should have been, if my passport didn't go through the washing machine the day before I was supposed to go to Toronto.

Naturally, my first reaction was "OH CRAP." I thought I had essentially lost the use of my passport altogether. So I called the Consulate-General of Canada, but got no response. I waited half an hour for a call back, then rushed down (it still took an hour in the 96 degree heat) to see them in person. They told me it would take 3-5 business days to get a new passport and that there's no way I could use my old one in the shape it was in. My first reaction recurred. I asked to see an immigration officer. They said she was out to lunch so I'd have to wait another hour, blah blah. I waited the hour and spoke with the officer, which is when things started to finally turn around.

The immigration officer told me that, if I could get on the plane to Toronto, then I could get a new passport in 24 hours. The key would be to get into Toronto. Otherwise it would take 1-3 business days, which was too long. So I took the forms she said I would need and rushed over to my mum's office (another hour trek in the 96 degree heat) to find the phone number for Air Canada and call them. I was lucky. You see, my passport was still readable and the pages weren't falling out. That meant that, even though it was beaten to hell and back, I could still probably board the airplane. If all else failed, I could back it up with my US Permanent Resident Card. Yay Air Canada!

Night fell and a flurry of packing began. I finally finished at nearly 3:30 AM and promptly went to sleep, only to wake up a hearty four hours later to board my plane. Boarding went smoothly (minus a few chuckles at the state of my passport). I arrived in Toronto at 12:30 and took a taxi directly to Passport Canada. All would go smoothly. I threw 80+ pounds of luggage on my back and went upstairs... only to find that I needed to find a notary to sign my documents and get my photos retaken. Apparently Walgreens, in its infinite wisdom, forgot to date the back of my photos.

Running out of time (and breath), because I needed the passport by Monday if I was to get my work visa, I luckily found a notary only three blocks away. They signed their lives away and directed me to a photo place a block away, to which I promptly rushed. Took the photo, and I ran (sort of... it's hard to run with 80 lbs of luggage all about your person) back to Passport Canada. I made it with a pleasant hour to spare. They gave me a number, I sat down, and in half an hour everything was sorted.

That night I went to sleep, a happy, exhausted man, at a much more reasonable 8:30 PM. I don't think the Sun had even set yet.

I considered not posting this blog until tomorrow, as I haven't actually received my passport back yet. But I cannot possibly foresee any further problems. I've already used up my quota of bad luck for the week. *Knocks on wood*

Yeah, it's been a fun few days.

~Jeffles

Let the Vlog Begin!

Yes, that's right; I have uploaded my first vlog! Yaaaay!

(You can find it here, btw.)

This morning I'm really pretty tired. I ended up staying awake quite late because I was trying to figure out the video editing software. I probably should have just waited until today to upload it, but noooo, I had to upload it last night. Sigh.

Speaking of which, I need better video editing software. There's some pretty basic stuff I can't do, like overlaying pictures on video. And I thought I added text to a video, but then when I uploaded it the text never showed up, so I need to figure that out, too. Maybe it's a YouTube compression thing? I dunno. I'll sure find out, though!

In case you didn't guess, my camera came in the mail yesterday. It is a thing of beauty. Thank you Chris for your awesome recommendation. My shorts even have the perfect pocket for it so that it doesn't just look like a bulge in my shorts. I need to figure out how to use it more smoothly, though. And how to use it in low-light settings. I tried to take some video at a pub that I went to last night for dinner, but it was so dark that there was essentially nothing to see. That made me a bit sad. But at least the food was really good! :D

In other news, this is my last day of work. Bitter sweet, really. On the one hand, it's been a pretty interesting job in many ways (despite the fact that I'm just an intern!). On the other hand, it means that Japan is closer and that tomorrow I get to sleep in. So very much looking forward to that.

Okay, time to face the day. Lots and lots and lots to do. Work, dinner with some people, and PACKING. O.O

~Jeffles

Youkoso!

Howdy. I'm Jeff and you probably already knew that. Starting August 1st, I'm going to be living and working in Japan. The contract is for 1 year, but if I like Japan and Japan likes me, then I could easily stay longer.

A little bit about me. I'm 23, just graduated from University of Toronto (Hon. BA in English and Philosophy). I'm half-Mexican, half-Canadian and my home is in Boston. I've lived in Canada, USA, Scotland, and technically Mexico. I don't speak Spanish, but I do speak a little bit of Japanese. Again, you probably know all this. But on the off-chance that I don't know you in person, now you know a little bit about me!

The program I'm going to Japan with is called the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme. People who go on this program are called JETs. There are three kinds of jobs for people who go on JET: ALT, CIR, and SEA. Those are Assistant Language Teacher, Coordinator for International Relations, and Sports Exchange Advisor. I'll be an ALT, which means that I'll be assisting a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) in several schools to teach English to Japanese children. I'll be doing this at two elementary schools, one high school, one after-school, and four English clubs. If you want to know more about JET, check out their website. I could go on and on about the program, but this is just supposed to be an introductory post. Maybe later I'll talk about it.

I don't want to get too specific on this blog about my job because it is a public blog. Anyone can find it and, from what I hear, people will be looking. Therefore I won't say what schools I'm teaching at, I'll never name students, I'll never name coworkers, and I probably won't even say what town I'm living in. Also, if you happen to know any of that information, I would please ask that you don't post that in a comment on my blog.

That said, I can tell you that I'll be living in Okayama prefecture, in a town in the southwest of the prefecture. The town is a bit inland, and thus rural, and thus I can't wait to get there. For those who are thinking about Fukushima Daiichi (the nuclear plant), be assured that Okayama is quite far from there. I am blatantly stealing this photo from someone else's blog, but I'm sure he won't mind:

So as you can see, Okayama is quite far from Fukushima. Rest assured, I am nowhere near the nuclear badness.

I've had a pretty good summer. Some friends came to visit twice and I had an amazing time during both visits. It is a bit sad to have to say goodbye, I admit, because I don't know when I'll see any of them again. I may love Japan and choose to stay there long term. Or I may hate it. But who knows. This is all just a grand experiment.

This Friday I head to Toronto for a week as a pre-Japan thing. Then on the 30th I hop on a plane for Tokyo. I'll update my blog more when I'm over there. I also have a youtube channel that I've set up. There's nothing there right now, though. I'll post again in here when I've got my first video up there (I'm waiting for the awesometastic camcorder to arrive).

That's it for now. Stick around, I'll post other stuff (cool stuff) later.

~Jeffles