My first post

This is the 1st of hopefully many posts I will be making about my year in Japan. I currently live in Melbourne, Australia in a suburb called Fitzroy. I live on Brunswick Street, above a cafe. Living on Brunswick Street is similar to living on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg NYC...Its TOTALY COOL!!! I am really going to miss the creative community vibe of living here, bumping into old housemates at Bimbos ($4 gourmet pizzas yummmm), visiting galleries and hanging out with my fiance. Henry (my fiance) is staying in Melbourne to finish his interior design degree while I go and teach English in Tokyo, Japan for 1 year. I am really going to miss him. Lucky for me he is going to visit me for 2 months around xmas....not so lucky for my 2 new housemates in Japan, lol. The company (Nova...yes I know they are really bad ect but I currently work for Telstra and it really cant be much worse) orgainises your accomodation, sets you up in an appartment with 2 other teachers of the same sex. If the housemates wont let Henry stay for 2 months I dont know what I'm going to do.


I leave in 18 days, but I'm not that scared because I have been to Tokyo before and I know what I'm in for. I loved Japan last time, I love the many different faces of Tokyo, the tradiontional aspects mixed with the extremely modern. At the top of this post are some of my fave photos from that trip. I found out yesterday exactly where I will be living in Tokyo. It is suburb called Fuchu, 25 mins from Shinjuku. Fuchu has an estimated population of 236,491 and a population density of 8,060.36 persons per km². The total area is 29.34 km². The city of Yarra (the district I live in, in Australia which includes many suburbs such as Fitzroy, Richmond, Abbortsford) has approx 68,000 residents and has an area of 20.0 square kilometres. I cant believe how small Australia is. In Tokyo the streets are always full of people, here it is like we live in a small country town when we walk through the city at night. I cant wait to leave, but saying that there is alot I will miss about Melbourne. I will miss trams, but not the time you wait for one to arrive (Trains in Tokyo come every minute, here its every 20 minutes) I will miss my family and friends, I will miss shopping and being able to fit into clothes, I will miss my lovely house, I will miss Brunswick Street, I will miss the food (cheese, bread, pizza, pasta...Japanese versions really suck).


I need more work clothes for Japan because I wont be able to buy anything in Japan unless I dont eat for a year, lol. Nova are really strict about the dress code and I am getting a little bit stressed about it and trying to do some last minute shopping. So far though it has been unsuccesful. I need some white short sleeve (NOT sleveless) shirts, a black suit blazer and like a million pairs of tights as you HAVE to wear them if you wear a skirt. As it is becoming summer here it is impossible to find tights and I am going crazy. I have given instuctions to everyone I know to send me tights when they see some for sale.


On my last day at my current work we are having a Japanese themed dress up day. I am going to hire a Geisha costume and do the Geisha whole makeup thing. I cant wait its going to be fun. My team leader is going to come dressed in Karate gear. After work we are going to this bar in the city that has those Sumo Wrestler suits you can wear and fight in. Hilarious! And then we are going to do Karaoke...and all this in our costumes, I cant wait!!!! I will post photos! Its not for 2 weeks though.

Ok enough for my 1st entry, I can explain more another night.

Sayonara!