T minus one day.

I have photocopied my SS card, passport, visa, marriage certificate, residency certification, and birth certificate.

I have converted a big chunk of cash into traveler's checks. And photocopied their serial numbers.

I have compressed everything I'm bringing (there is a small box of winter [ha! cooler weather, really] clothes) into a duffel bag and a suitcase.

Elsa's carrier is set and ready, complete with bribe.

My uncle (who owns a limo company) is sending a driver to bring me to the airport on Wednesday at 5:30am.

My appointment with APHIS is tomorrow morning at 10am.

Left to do: A little packing, deposit a check, some online stuff, trip to PetSm*, few hours at work, figure out how my paychecks will go to Japan, shower.

Looking at everything I've done, I'm surprised I'm as calm as I am. I'm sure I'll be freaking out the day of, but...

Still.

Where did I get the courage to do this?

T minus five days

I'm in a surprisingly peaceful state of mind right now. My YAY:OHNOES ratio at any given time is about 50:1, which is remarkable for a bouncing ball of neurotic tension like me.

I went on a shopping spree for new clothes for Japan. Lightweight, breathable fabrics, less low-cut jeans, layering tanks, that kind of thing.

And bras. Because Japan a) will not have my size and b) puts frills on everything.

Why would I want frills there? Why?

So the essentials are there. I also shipped across 90% of Elsa's supplies to arrive by Monday or Tuesday, and the dog food will arrive at Adam's door any day. I switched her to the new stuff here as well, and she goes bonkers over it. The cats try to steal it, too - so taste is clearly not an issue.

The Animal Quarantine Service has been awesome. A few days ago, I received this e-mail:
---
Dear Sxxxxx Xxxxx,

Have you prepared the certificates for your pet ?
If there are any omissions in the certification when you arrive in Japan,
the animal must be returned to the exporting country on your own responsibility
or undergo a detention inspection at our facility for the necessary quarantine period up to 180 days.

We can check your certificates before your arrival.
Could you send the following documents to us before getting endorsement by fax or e-mail (within 1MB)? (It is too difficult to correct them after getting endorsement.)

1.Form A, Form C 1/3, Form 2/3 and Form C 3/3.
2.Certificate for Rabies serological test issued by the designated laboratory.
3."APPROVAL OF IMPORT INSPECTION OF ANIMALS"

Note: These original documents are required when you arrive in Japan.

I would appreciate your response.
田中　咲子/Sakiko Xxxxxx
---
I was like "Proof them for errors before I get there? OKAY."

So all of her paperwork checks out, and I just need to have my vet and APHIS fill out their respective sections.

AND my visa is in my passport and ready, AND I got my approved Yakkan Shomei in the mail, AND I made copies of my birth certificate, passport, marriage license, and tax exemption letter.

My schedule for the home stretch:


Today: Omiyage shopping, farewell party, packing
Tomorrow: Packing, banking (travelers checks ftw), do any and all last-minute clothes alterations
Sunday: Packing, movie with Dad
Monday: Elsa's vet evaluation
Tuesday: Elsa's APHIS appointment, work
Wednesday: Fly out of Boston at 9:30am. Arrive in Dulles at 12:30, arrive in Tokyo 3:00pm local time,
arrive in Okinawa 8:45pm, where HP, his aunts (!) and his boss (!!) will pick me and Elsa up from the airport.

I've tried to keep my schedule relatively free to leave wiggle room for last-minute things, like shopping or paperwork or mental breakdowns.

All in all, though, despite the incoming hurricane? Everything's pretty okay so far.

Stresses building up again

Yakkan Shoumei bounced back to me. Resubmitting today. Grr grr grr.

But on the bright side, hitting the bike trail tomorrow with papa. Biking through Colt State Park = endorphins and sunshine and exercise and no paperwork required.

FREE AS THE GODDAMN WIND BLOWS

I am planning more Dad-Dates while I'm here, as he'll be hardest hit by my absence. I'm taking him to the Boston Aquarium next week and picking up my passport while I'm at it.

Meanwhile, my mother is stressed to high heaven from the practice wearing down on her and I think no small measure of having an extra person living in the house. She's snapping a lot and becoming more and more erratic, so I'm taking a step back. It's a shame that I have to keep my distance, seeing as I'm moving away in under three weeks, but still. Being a daughter and working for her just means that there are now two places for me to irritate her, so the best solution is to just stay quiet and out of the way. She'll be fine when I leave, so I don't have to worry about the quality time as much as I do with others.

At least I now know where I got my rampaging instincts from.

Also, I've decided that I'm pretty much done traveling. Even taking hour-away trips has become taxing, and short of the trip I'll be taking to re-home the snake, I'm trying to limit them as much as possible.

And the stress level seriously sucks.

As it gets real

This week has been full of packing.

All. The packing.

To anyone reading this, never marry a person who loves books. Twenty-one boxes of books later, he has more boxes of books than I have my entire life's possessions in.

Bastard can get a goddamn kindle.

Know how much box space this takes up? NONE BECAUSE YOU BRING IT WITH YOU, BITCH

It was easily the most stressful week of my life. We had a few friends come over to move boxes to my parents' place of storage, and my apartment STILL has a ton of crap in it. I'm going to die.

As far as packing goes, I don't need to be truly out of here until August 3rd, so I might take tomorrow to recuperate, strategize, and recruit people to help me finish packing and moving on Sunday. Sunday will be a day of trips to Goodwill and exhaustion.

But seriously. All the things still in my apartment.

It has to end sometime, right? Right?

It also doesn't help that my major support is about to leave. I'm inches away from exploding like a volcano filled with stress and misery and covering the poor villagers below with molten anxiety.

"OH GOD IT BURNS LIKE SELF-DOUBT" scream the doomed townsfolk.

But the JETs had their orientation lunch today, where they got their passports back (my visa just got approved, so I'll have to come by and pick it up later), their plane tickets and instructions, and it hit me that at 8am, he's leaving the country.

Get up at 3am. Make sure everything is packed. Leave at 4. Drop him off at the airport at 5. Take a nap. Drive to parents' house to drop off dog and more boxes. Die of physical and mental exhaustion.

I have not yet cried this week.

I hate booking flights

After a grueling battle with various airlines, I now have my ticket to Okinawa all set and ready, and all three legs of the journey notified that I'll have a dog with me.  It's a huge weight off of my mind. AND 24 HOURS IN TRANSIT. 3hrs, 2 hr layover, 14 hours, 2 hr layover, 3hrs.

I also sent off my Notification for Importing Dogs after (yay, more fighting!) another battle, this time with the fax machine. Luckily, this morning I awoke to a message in my inbox from Narita customs saying that they'd received my notification and had a few questions. And now I just sit back and wait for my confirmation number!

Here's hoping the rest of the 363287654834 sheets of paperwork go as smoothly.

Assignment details

So, we're in Okinawa-shi, about half an hour outside of Naha on the main island.

That's us in the fuchsia.

We also have information about the previous JET's setup. It is in an apartment, not like the pile of rocks surrounded by rice fields that HP led me to believe.

This is the image he painted. He may have been messing with me.

The good:
The apartment allows pets
The apartment has a parking setup
Near major facilities, like hospitals and
Near many parks and natural preserves
A working (albeit sometimes unreliable) bus system
We will be inheriting the apartment from a previous JET, so it will be somewhat furnished and she'd be willing to sell us her car
About a 2 mile walk from HP's grandmother's house
THERE ARE DOLLAR STORES

I WILL BUY ALL THE THINGS. KAIMASU YO.

The bad:
It's a 1LDK, so it's likely a two-room setup (although the setup for the standard 1LDK is this, which I find totally comfortable)
The rent is fairly high for a JET (though we don't know if the school will subsidize cost of living, which many do)
The key money is high (about $3k, but see the note above)

So, this is independent of the school. We don't know if the contracting organization will be covering any of it, or if they'd have a certain setup that they would be able to subsidize. Though if they did, the option they'd provide probably wouldn't allow pets.

Ughh. It doesn't seem like a huge problem, but until I get a steady income, money will definitely be an issue. And while we'll have things (like two fold out mattresses, fridge, rice cooker, table), there will be move-in expenses, obviously.

Money doesn't seem super dire, though. I mean, if one JET on her own could afford this and make it work, then two people working definitely should, right?

...Provided I don't cover the house in random Japanese dollar store merchandise?