Letters from Japan : Aug 15, 2002

OK. Call me lazy or self-indulgent (or even a liar since I said I was going to blog only for myself), not sure which it is, but after reading through my old emails from Japan yesterday, I have decided to post them in my blog. I'll start from the beginning and post one a day (we'll pretend like it's Aug.-Nov. 2002 all over again). But first, a little background...

I had lived in Michigan all my life. I taught high school English and Psychology for one year and HATED it. I needed a change...something different (and way less stressful). So that summer, after school was out, I moved with my boyfriend to Nashville. His friend had offered him a job there, and I had a summer of teacher pay still, so I had money and time to look for a job there. I landed a job as a corporate trainer at Sprint only to lose the job a year or so later when they began shipping jobs to India. By then, my boyfriend and I had broken up, I was living on my own, my lease was about to end, and I decided it was the perfect time to do something I had always wanted to do: teach in Japan. And here is where my adventure begins...

Hi ya'll

 I finally made it to Japan.  The trip was 13 hours by plane and 5 hours from the airport to my new pad (lots of train hopping...reminds me of Chicago but 10 times more confusing.)  Never got to sleep on the plane because the Japanese man next to be (the one with the huge booger hanging out of his nose) snored louder than the engines of the plane, plus two screaming babies were on the other side of me so when one wasn't screaming, the other one was.  Yes, it was a delightful 13 hours.  When I finally arrived at my new place, my soon to be ex-roommate told me how she is picking up extra cash by working as an escort...then proceeded to tell me about her latest 16 hour romp with a Japanese client who paid her $1,000 for her services.  She was all excited about that...what do i say...congrats?  So now I feel like I am walking around Disease Central because she likes to sit in the chairs naked (like the one that I am currently sitting in to write this e-mail.)  I'll have to spray the place once she leaves.  My new roommate should be here sometime today.  Hopefully, she doesn't have the same aspirations as this other girl.  Don't think I can live with that.  ANyway, my job starts on Monday so I have a few days to learn my way around this megatropolis.  It's a bit overwhelming by yourself but I guess that may build my character...or SOMETHING!  I won't have the option to e-mail regularly until I find an internet cafe close to here because this chick is taking her computer when she leaves and I don't want to buy a lap-top and pay for DSL.  The object here is to SAVE money. I guess if I can't do that, there is always the escort service...

Write soon, Love Rachel  (This is Shinjuku. I took this picture from the building I was working in.)