Achievement Unlocked: Get Amity Assignment!

Drumroll please.....

I GOT MY AMITY POSITION ASSIGNMENT!

After worrying about it for weeks, I got a phone call today from the Los Angeles office and they informed me that (should I choose to accept this mission), they want to send me to the Shizuoka-Ekinan Amity branch this November!

Shizuoka in red, a little south of Tokyo.

Shizuoka (静岡，しずおか）is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture in the Chubu region of Japan. It's 1.5 hours from Tokyo, and 1.25 hours from Nagoya, plus it's located next to Mt. Fuji, the Japanese Alps, and the Pacific coast, so in the summer there will be beaches nearby! :) 


There are festivals and events throughout the year, although my arrival time and subsequent training will make me a few weeks late for the Daidogei World Cup (Nov. 3-6) and the Shizuoka Street Festival (Nov. 19-20). Sadness... but there's always next year! Plus there's supposed to be a lot of festivals and events in the spring coming up, and I'll be in time for Japanese New Years!

From Amity's website (the star is where the school is)

According to the info that Amity sent me, the climate is "Comparatively mild. Rarely snow during the winter, although it can get very cold." I'm glad I'm bringing my coat, but it looks like my snowboots will be mostly unnecessary. :/ Not sure how I feel about a snow-free winter, but I figure if I miss the white stuff I can take a train North. :) I don't know where the apartment is yet, bbut it's supposed to be within 5-10 minutes from my school (my school, hee hee!), so I won't have to worry about having to travel too far to get to work every day. It will be hard not to let that become a reason to sleep in daily. 


I tried to be a total creeper and "google street-view" the area, but unfortunately it's not one of the places marked out for that super awesome feature. I'll just have to sit here and imagine it for a few more months. ^_^ As soon as Amity sends me the hire-packet with all my forms and stuff in it, I can get my plane ticket and seriously pack my stuff! The information they've sent me by email has been so helpful, as well as the stuff I've researched online over the past few hours! I found a weekly video-news in English for the area, a city guide for foreigners with information about local hospitals and trash pick-up, and a little guide book that you can print out and take with you to doctors or post offices and point at if you need help and don't know all the words (like "I need stamps" or something). I'm going to try really hard to learn as much Japanese as possible so that I can do that on my own, but it looks like it would be a lot of help!


Anyway, it's official: I'm going to Japan! Please continue to read and support my blog as I keep you updated on all my adventures!