Tag Archives: Jess Damerst

Around Koga

Discovering Koga

Sushi is arriving

The last few days have been spent doing one very important thing: getting lost. Often. While I’m lost, I’m usually quite worried, however, I have to admit that getting lost has taught me more than maps have. This week and next, I am under strict instruction to hang around town and wait to hear about the day that I am summoned upon by my company. This translates to: explore Koga with your phone handy. I think I can handle that.

Last night, a fellow ALT, Carolyn, and I grabbed dinner at a conveyer belt sushi restaurant (かっぱ寿司). This was actually my first experience at one of those! It was pretty cool, and quite reasonable. Some of the sushi was a little radical (hamburger nigiri) but I liked most of it. Desserts were on the belt, too. So dangerous for a girl like me!
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Around Koga

Final Destination: Koga, Japan (古河）

Finally! I’m home~!

What a journey it’s been. Between 1 bus, 2 trains, 4 cities, 4 planes, and 5 homes, it’s good to be settled in. What feels really nice is unpacking my suitcase. I can’t stress how great the last one feels. Most of the last three days have been spent in limbo between boredom and excitement. Sunday was the official moving day, yesterday I was trapped, and today I’ve been out and about.

Sunday was an odd day. Between splitting up with all the ALTs (assistant language teachers) and getting into Koga and finally being left alone to my own devices, it was quite the emotional roller coaster. If there is one thing I’ve yet to learn in life, it’s how to enjoy being on my own. You see, I’m really a social butterfly who can’t sit still and thinks too much. Being on my own with no one to talk to for 3 days has taught me so much already. I’ve learned that I am far too restless. I’ve also learned that I sleep to pass time. Continue reading →

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Travel

Training, Yatta!

Becky the banana.

Training is DONE! I repeat, DONE! I can’t say much about what I learned since that is all super secret stuff, but I can say that it was very challenging and motivated me to re-evaluate myself as a teacher. I want to do well, and this week has helped me to feel like I might be able to do it. Of course, that was after a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Or something similar. Continue reading →

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Travel

New City: Yokohama, Japan

Shoppers!

While I only have one day left here in Yokohama, it still feels like home already. Yoko-san has been so wonderful by taking care of me. She treats me like family and we have fun together. Not to mention, she is hysterical! I also practice my Japanese with her, and it has improved immensely since arriving. A lot of what I learned in college is returning and I am learning some other useful things (like jishin meaning earthquake). Speaking of! My first earthquake! I was asleep during the 4.0 in San Francisco last week, so this was the first earthquake I was aware of. It was kind of terrifying for this Florida girl. Mostly because it woke me up in the middle of the night and I could hear the entire structure moving. Continue reading →

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Travel

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Wow, what a ride. The last week and a half has been such a whirlwind! Please accept my sincerest apologies, I have not forgotten about you. Between GDC and moving to Japan, I don’t know which way is up anymore. Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long post! I promise to update more often from now on. My goal is a minimum of 2 posts per week. So, with that in mind, the only place to go is forward.

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Travel

New City: San Francisco

The fog was just beginning to lift as I drove past downtown Orlando on the way to the airport.

After a heart-wrenching two days of goodbyes, I’ve finally left Orlando.

So many people came to visit me the day before I left, I am truly a very lucky girl. I got to see almost all of my closest friends, those who would be top of my list to see before leaving. I was treated to breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. I couldn’t have asked for more. Yesterday morning at the airport was certainly very sad. My family is going to try to visit me, but it was sad saying goodbye not knowing exactly when I will get to see them next. I am very excited and happy about my move to Japan, but there is a lot of heart-ache that is going with this decision. Of course, everyone seems to agree, I’m not going to regret it. Aside from looking like a mess all day yesterday, I just spent a lot of time in airports and on planes.  Continue reading →

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Preparation

Things I am Going to Miss

The pin is Sakai-machi, Ibaraki. The city in the south is Tokyo!

This one has been stewing for a while. It’s a list of everything I am going to miss, and then another of things I am looking forward to. But before I get started, I have a bit of news!

For anyone who follows my twitter, Facebook, or has talked to me recently, you will know that I finally got placement! The phone call had to come on a Thursday night when I was just about to go downtown for one last girls night. We were already enjoy hard cider, but luckily, I had barely drank any of mine when a phone call from Japan came through to my cell. I guess I made a face and said a vulgar word before running off with my ringing phone. Later the girls told me that it was either something bad, or I got my placement phone call. Well, the latter was true! I’ll be living in Sakai-machi, Ibaraki. It’s a small town north of Tokyo, and it’s rural enough for me to need a car. That said, it’s exceptionally close to the big city and it’s not rural by American standards, it’s just sparsely populated for Japan. I was secretly hoping for a car, and I wanted to be close to Tokyo. Both of my wishes came true! I can’t wait! Continue reading →

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Preparation

Officially Unemployed

My coworker, Dan, with a Skyrim dragon on his head. Get to work, Dan!

Monday was my last day on the job as a Senior Game Advisor at GameStop. It feels so strange to be unemployed after always working at least two jobs. Looking back, it was a pretty fun time. I met a ton of people (some who will certainly be reading this). I’m so glad GameStop decided to hire me on that job hunt than Kay Jewelers or Chik-Fil-A. Not that those are terrible companies, I just love video games. The discount was minimal at GameStop, and most of my paycheck went to the purchase of games, but I always had  a fun time talking to customers about games and being silly at work. Gamers like having fun, and I’m sure it showed if you ever waltzed into our store.

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Preparation

Your Placement is…. Pending!

Queen's Square and the Cosmo Clock 21 in Yokohama as seen from Google Maps

My company told me not to panic if I didn’t hear about placement until February 14th. Well, it’s now February 16th and still no word. I’m trying not to freak out but it is very, very hard. Everyday, I see people posting on the Facebook group for my company about where they got placed. Of course, most of them are getting placed where I want to be, in Kanagawa-ku. That’s making everything better. I already called to see what was happening, but of course, the answer was “they are behind.” Yes, but I am dying over here.

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German Beers, Vlogs and Nothing but Time

The King's Feast

I’m going to tell you honestly- I was putting off this post because I don’t have a whole lot to say. My life these days has been nothing shy of uneventful. That said, this weekend (aside from going to work) was pretty fun. My dad just finished another trip around the sun, and we decided to celebrate his birthday by going to the Willow Tree Cafe in Sanford. Translation: we went to a noisy, entertaining German beer garden where we ate lots of carbs and drank lots of them too. Continue reading →

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