The Job Hunt is Over!

That's right, I found a job. yesterday I had a second interview at a large teaching corporation called GEOS. This corporation has many different schools throughout Japan and initially I was applying for a job in Niigata (on the west coast of the main island, about two-thirds up), but when I got there they said that that position was filled, I was a bit pissed because I've heard really good things about Niigata. Then they said that if I was interested I could apply for a position in Nagano prefecture (in a valley in the middle of the southern Japanese Alps, called the rooftop of Japan). This made me really happy! Nagano is where the Winter Olympic games were held ten years ago and as you can probably guess, Nagano is surrounded by mountains, lots of snow in winter, and the towns are a bit more traditional with many Onsen and cool historic stuffs! Check out some of the stuff at the wiki site for the town that I'll be moving to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_City

I'll still be staying in Urawa (northern Tokyo where I've been for a month or so) until the beginning of December while the company sets up my work visa and all that boring paperwork stuff. Although when all is said and done and I've started my job, I will have an apartment, Japanese bank account, and cell phone (I'm excited!).

Also, the other day I went to a Japanese Sento (public bath house) and oh my god it was awesome! they have seven different baths filled with different temperatures of 'therapeutic' water along with a sauna, which was basically dangerously hot! three of the baths were outside and one of those was a 'sleeping bath' with seats that were reclined in the water so you could lay back and look up at the sky, and apparently sleep. The place just makes me more excited to go to an Onsen (hot spring), a couple are even close to Matsumoto!

This weekend I'm going to Nagoya for a four day weekend. It should be a lot of fun to get out of the Tokyo area and see a bit more of Japan. I promise more pictures when I get back!