Moving to Japan: Passport Blues among other things…

Well, I have just got my birth certificate from Aunt Mandy is Taiwan.  So I am going to try to get my passport renewed.  Now I do have a passport, but it was so out of date.  Heck, I still had hair in the picture that is how old it really is.  I had got my passport when I was like eighteen for my first trip to Taiwan with my brothers and I have to admit I did not want to go, but by the time my month was up in Taiwan, I did not want to leave.  That is how I am picturing my trip to Japan.  I am scared but when I get there, I find out I will be fine. 

My old passport, me with hair...

New passport photos, me without hair... sigh...

After my stroke, I found out I did not talk to many people anymore.  I just sat and listened to other people talk.  I have adopted the quote by William Shakespeare: listen to many, speak to a few.  But a bit of me misses having someone to talk to.  One on one I am fine, but get two or more people opposite me and I just shut right up.  I had a girl notice that about me once a long time ago and she asked my about it.  I just said I was tired of getting cut off and ignored.

Blah.  I am taking about my passport troubles.  As I was saying I have got my birth certificate and it is in Chinese.  What has got me worried is that it does not have my name on it.  Anywhere.  It should have my name in English but it doesn’t.  I am going to have it translated and find out if I have got the right ones! Get my niece to read it for me.  After all, she can read Chinese much better that I.

[I have just got my niece to read it and I am obscured in the corner.  I do exist!  I just have to get it translated now... yay...]

Now I could of had dual citizenship and I wish I had taken it, instead of just taking American citizenship.  But I was worried about the Taiwanese mandatory military service for all males eighteen and over.  I wish, so wish that I had the guts to take the dual citizenship.  Oh well.  I was eighteen and did know any better.

Now +Jim Mullins suggested that I should get my job situated before I head on over to Japan.  Maybe I will, but I feel that it is too early to be looking for a job.  It will all depend on when I am going and how my airfare will be because I am churning for it.  I am looking at a Sakura House for staying there.  I figured out I will get there and play the tourist for a week or so.  Then look for a job and move to where I can find the job.  It will be a teaching job, that much I know.  Been reading up on the visa situation as well and I found a really good Guide to Living in Japan on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan website.  That, combined with the Japan National Tourism Organizations Practical Travel Guides, and I should be good to go.

Now relearning Japanese.  I have picked up the book Japanese from Zero and I hope that it is good enough to teach me.  Heck, I hope I am good enough to learn!  hehe

Working on passport, check.  Relearning Japanese, check.  Now I have got to go through all my stuff and pick what I am keeping and what I am selling and visit somebody... I am looking at you +Rynyn.

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Fear

Part of me is very frightened of going to Japan, especially because I am going alone.  Ever since +Rynyn had stated that she will have to pass for a couple of years, but even then that is only for a vacation.  Now that I have thought about it, my confidence is a bit shaken.  

Sigh.  

Let it wash over me.  

I am still going, that much I am sure.  Getting a job, a place to live, what to pack, the language barrier, all the prepwork I can do and am doing is for naught when faced with these things.  Nothing can prepare you for the inevitable changes that I will be facing.  I do not have any friends over in Japan except for jvolggers.  Of all the jvolggers I know, +Jim Mullins is the only one that I have corresponded with.  I will have to add talking to many of the jvolg community that I know from YouTube, like +ozzy78, +Kurt Bell, +Eric Berg, +Myargonauts Jason and many others to get their input and advice and help.

That doesn't mean that I do not have friends here.  As I have stated in a previous post, I have friends who are quite familiar with Japan.  On January 1st, I attended an osechi that my friend +Jay Estrada and his beautiful wife held.  His wife is Japanese and she had spread out for us six or seven bentos filled with Japanese delicacies.  Except for the miso marinated salmon (which was delicious!) and quail eggs, it was all vegetarian.  It was similar to what my mother used to make, well pieces of it and Chinese.  Jay said that he wasn't sure that I ever attended an osechi (I haven't) and he stated that because I am going to Japan, that I should have a little taste of what it is like.  Jay had a good selection of sake, shochu and yume.  I had a wonderful time and talked to Jay about travelling to Japan.  Still there is more to do.  So much more to prepare and ask.

Though all of this, I am still afraid of travelling by myself.  It is always so hard going to a place that you have never went to before and starting over.  I am taking a big risk and I would hate to have to come back to the states without really trying.  Of course I could go there is just to travel but that would defeat the point of going to start a new life.  So many people to talk to and so much to do...

January 1st, 2014

"Today is the first page of a 365 page book.  Write a good one."

I sit and write this at the home of a good friend after the New Year.  I spent the New Year with good food and in good company.  Now I am awake around 8:30 and write this, I feel a little sad that this will be the last New Year's party that I possibly ever spend with these people.  It makes me sadder still that I have nothing to really hold me back anymore.  It is strange, but at the same time it is not.  I feel that I must travel now before I get too old.  I am only forty-four right now, not old at all, but in actuality I have nothing here but some really good friends.  I think that is why I am going to Japan.  It is different.  Different enough to possibly give me a new life.  This is the first day and I am going to try to make it and all my coming days worthwhile ones.

Well, to document this I will be writing here and posting videos on YouTube.  So join me on this adventure that I am taking.  I hope it won't be for naught.