Like I said in that last post, I’ll be heading to Tokyo at the beginning of August for about 2 weeks for Handi-Craft, to do research and stuff. All expenses paid, which is going to be absolutely great. Although I have to come back to the US between that and the AEON gig in Japan, I figure it will still be a helpful trip to getting things ready for my year contract with AEON, aside from being a ton of fun. Here’s the stuff I’m planning on doing while I’m there; let me know if you guys can think of anything else I can/should do…

  • meet up with the JET kids at their orientation at the beginning of August.
    (I might actually be staying in the same hotel)
  • sign up for my cell phone contract, get my phone
  • Namja Town
  • see Shin-san and some of the Kanda kids
  • visit the AEON school I’m going to work at
  • bum around the area, see what’s around
  • hopefully convince my AEON predecessor to show me my future apartment
  • leave a box or two of my stuff at AEON, so that I don’t have to ship boxes of clothes and belongings from the US
  • buy some DS games, like the Kanji Dictionary and the Opera Browser

I can’t think of anything else at the moment. I’ll add them here as an edit if I do. Aside from getting a sneak peak at my AEON life in Ichihara, I think the second most important thing for me might be getting my phone. I’m a nerd, but seriously, it’s pretty much impossible to be in contact with anyone in Japan without a phone. I’ll be there for two weeks, so I might as well get a phone to e-mail people, and that way I’ll have one as soon as I deplane in September as well. I have a feeling the AEON orientation process doesn’t have a scheduled time to get phones, since everyone will likely get them in their placement cities. My only concern is that I won’t have my address yet, so I’ll have to check with AEON if I can just put the office address down for now. I won’t need my gaijin card or visa yet, since if you have a credit card you can start a phone contract no problem. I think I’m going to get a DoCoMo. Black Tornado served me well last summer, after all, and AU doesn’t give me a discount since I’m not a student anymore.