Status Report: Mid-April

We have done a lot of research in preparing to go to Japan. That said, we are already behind on some of the preparations. We aren't too worried though. Many young people take a few thousand dollars and move to Japan, without a job offer or even any Japanese language skills. We are going to be very prepared, no matter what.

I am not entirely sure how Tanner would have approached the move to Japan, I think he would have prepared rather slowly, and then finally moved quickly and POOF he was there. I however, enjoy research, a lot. So I do a lot of research, and some planning, for any trip or move. So we have a lot of lists, a lot of ideas, and we have been talking a lot with people about the move. We do get a lot of questions, one of the most common is if we have jobs. Honestly it is very early to apply for any jobs. It takes about six weeks for a company to get a visa set up, so about six weeks from our travel date we will start applying for jobs.

In case this is interesting for anyone, and since it will remind Tanner and I what we are doing, here is a list of things we wanted to do in March and April:

Get international drivers licenses, which means Tanner has to renew his current license
Tanner also has to renew his passport
Get Tanner to a doctor for a check up and to renew a prescription
Get me to a doctor for my H1N1 vaccination
Set up all our prescriptions so they be filled online and shipped to Japan
Create new resumes
Take photos to put on our new resumes and to email to employers
Have my volunteer coordinator write a letter of recommendation for me
Begin to email people we know who have or are living in Japan, to get advice and perhaps in the long run job leads
Practice our Japanese language skills
Continue to research job postings online to get a feel for what we should be looking for
Continue to research Japanese cities, so we have a feel for where we are willing to settle
Read some good resources on how to teach English, so we won't be terrible teachers, and then decide which to take with us to Japan
Figure out how to pay my credit card bill while we are in Japan

I think that is most of what we want to accomplish this spring. When we get closer to the move we have another round of chores. It is very exciting. Honestly, I am mostly excited about graduating at this point. Japan still feels a long way off.