Exhausted.

House hunting is really exhausting. The sales guys that I've interacted are really convincing and every meeting I had with them felt like another brain washing session. I am still unsure on exactly what I will do. Even though I have only looked at houses so far, buying a "manshon" or Japanese equivalent of a condo is still very much in the picture. I just haven't formally made an appointment with a real estate company that deals with condos yet as the house appointments take up the whole weekend. So my progress so far still appears to be the same as when I first embarked in the long and tiring adventure a month ago. So tired...

I did it!!

Today I received my driver's license. It was a great feeling but I was and am still very exhausted. I ended up taking the driver's test just once. I honestly didn't expect to pass it, but I reserved some lessons with some of the driving instructors at the center this past weekend and really took detailed notes. It was pretty expensive, but compared to going to a driving school, it was very cheap. One of the instructors told me that the average number of times that someone passes the test is about 4 and she continued saying that she saw on person take it 10 times. 10 freaking times.. can you imagine?!?! She insisted that I shouldn't expect to pass it on the first try. Anyways, I'm glad I proved her wrong and beat the test. I am sooo relieved I do not have to go back to that place again.. at least for a very long time!

Its time to be legal..

I've been living in Japan for a few years now and I am finally going to try and get my driver's license here. It sucks that I have to virtually go through the same steps I did when I was in high school many years ago. The driving test center is in a remote part of Kanagawa-ken and I have to get there extra early tomorrow as space is limited for test takers, 13 toe be exact. This is only for the written test as well. For the actual driving test, I would have to schedule another appointment at the center on a workday should I pass the written exam. Its pretty busy at work and we are undermanned so me taking off of work for the written test and a future driving test is pretty depressing. A fellow foreign co-worker of mines got his license a while ago but he had a license in Australia. Because Australia is part of the exempt list, all he really had to do was convert it to Japanese without any hassle. It also only took him a couple of hours to do everything so he didn't have to use a vacation day. I was really envious of that guy.. still am after reading all that I "may" have to go through in getting my license. Anyways, I have been lucky thus far driving almost all of Honshu, cop and accident free with a only valid license from a different country. I absolutely understand the world wide rule that luck must come to an end sometime and do not want it to happen to me while I'm behind the wheel without a real Japanese license. Its time to become legal!

Happy mother's day...

6 years to this day since the time I last spoke to my mom. Man.. time goes by really fast....

Sports Depression

I forgot to mention that I am completely depressed on how my sports teams did this year. On two completely unrelated sports, American Football and Basketball and in very different parts of the country, the teams that I support performed EXACTLY the same. Both were considered elite teams before the season started and were favorites to win the championship. At the end, both teams crumbled and finished with complete disappointment, not even close to making it to the same point as they did the previous year. I was completely disinterested when the NFL playoffs began and now, I do not care at all about the NBA playoffs as my team was knocked out of the first round. Oh well, now I can focus all of my attention into deciding whether or not I should buy a home...

To buy or not to buy

I have rented since I've been in Japan. I do plan to be here for the foreseeable future so I am debating if I should buy my own place. The biggest reason is I don't want to see my money that I use for rent go into oblivion. Owning a home is a bit scary though, especially in a foreign country. The flexibility of not being tied down to one place for a prolonged period of time goes away. Also there is more added pressure of making sure I do all I can to not lose my job. Another aspect that I have to think about is the financial side of owning a home in Japan. Like back home in the states, I am not guaranteed the value of my property will go up as time goes by. Actually, real estate in Japan is more like buying a new car. Chances are that your asset will depreciate as soon as you move in. There have been many exceptions to that rule and location has been the biggest factor. Unfortunately, it is crazy expensive to get a place in an ideal or "hot" location in Tokyo. I am also debating whether to buy a house or condo. If I buy the former, the location will not be in an attractive area but I would own land rather than a piece of the sky. Is it worth it at the end? Hmm... *brain is churning*

All is fine in Japan

Man its been a long time for me updating my blog. I did return from my business trip in Malaysia no problem. Unfortunately while I was there, the whole earthquake thing happened. I got back at the end of March and had to make a detour to western Japan for a while before going back home to Tokyo. As my luck would have it, I got sick on the shinkansen ride back to Tokyo and I have been sick ever since. I just stopped taking my plethora of medication this week. It really feels great to be back to normal. Since February I have either been under the weather or out of the country! Crazy.

Anyways, as for the state in Japan, yeah its pretty bad but it depends on how you look at it. If you don't look at the news at all and just go on with your daily life, it is really normal as can be minus the supermarket and convenience stores don't have everything you could want as usual, but they do still carry a lot of things. Conversely, the news, especially the international news is pretty scary and I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to go outside anymore and hoard water and non-perishable foods. The nuclear situation is serious and I believe yesterday they raised the situation from a 5 to a 7 in their "seriousness" meter but the most thing I am concerned about is still the earthquakes. Everyday so far there have been earthquakes. Granted it has not been that bad, like the biggest one was a 4 in my local area. At the office, the scariest part is the announcement before the earthquake. With very strong earthquakes, Japan has the technology to warn its people minutes before the earthquake arrives. So there was a pretty big earthquake yesterday around 2pm. The public announcer came on and warned everyone to prepare themselves for a very strong earthquake. Man.. I was scared but at the end it was only like a magnitude 3 in Shinjuku which isn't that bad at all, relative speaking that is.

Anyways, that is my quick update. Now here are some pics from Malaysia -