The night before

Well here I sit at the hotel in Chicago, pre-departure orientation is over.  All that is left is to do is get some sleep, wake up in the morning, get on the plane and fly to Tokyo!  

The orientation today was nice and all, but basically just covered all of the information we had all read and re-read in our email updates and handbooks.  Nothing new other than getting back our passports, visas, and tickets for tomorrow.

We had dinner up in the penthouse at the end of the shindig.  Pretty standard boring american food... chicken, beans, sausage and potatoes, that sort of thing.  We had a speech from the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago, a few others and the rest of the time was Q&A and meeting your fellow JETs from your prefecture.  

Everything is arranged for us tomorrow... 6:30 am breakfast, load bags in the cargo truck, hop on the chartered bus and leave for the airport at 9:15 am sharp.  That should leave us with three hours to check in and get through security before our plane departs.  Somehow I am thinking it will take us most of that time to get through things...there are a lot of us flying out tomorrow, and everyone has multiple large bags to check.  There is guaranteed to be lots of standing around in line.

After talking with the other JETs who are going to Nagasaki prefecture, I think I got a pretty sweet placement. First of all, many of them had only been contacted by their predecessors very recently... a day ago for one guy!   I have been in contact with both my predecessor as well as my main supervisor for over a month.   I also know my address, most of the others do not.

As far as the Nagasaki folks leaving from Chicago go, I am the only one heading off to an island. In fact, I am the only one at the hotel I've found so far who is placed on an island. I am sure there are more, but it seems to be a fairly rare placement.   I am pretty excited about that, I really think I am going to get some authentic Japanese experience out there. I know there will be drawbacks to it of course, but it is very much what I had hoped for when applying to this position. I didn't want go to Japan to live in the city and just hit up the bars after work every night... I could do that at home. That's not what this trip is about for me. 

Thats not to say I won't sample my share of sake when I have the chance...

Or make a winter visit to Sapporo for some beer... I'm looking your way on this one Dawkins if you are reading this!

Next post from Tokyo, take care everyone!

Ninja

Skyp'in it

Hey all,

I set up a skype account for calling to and from Japan.  I set up a US phone number that you can dial to get ahold of me in Japan.  It is: (763) 219-1980.

Basically you dial this number and it rings through on my laptop as long as I am connected to the internet.  If I am not connected or just don't answer the phone, you will get my voicemail and can leave me a message.

This will be a really nice thing to have because anyone calling me from the US does not have to pay international rates, and I can call any land line or cell phone in the US with it also.  Pretty sweet.

Later, Brett

Back in the midwest

I made it back to my parent's house today.  It has been a great trip, with awesome experiences along the way.  I have driven just over 4,000 miles in the last two weeks.  I'll be updating with more pictures and stories as soon as I get them sorted out on my computer.  

Also... just looked at the calendar.  11 days and I am flying to Japan!

Here is my address over there for those of you who'd like it:

Brett Rasmussen
1977-1-102 Fuefuki-go
Ojika-cho
Kitamatsuura-gun
Nagasaki-ken 857-4701
JAPAN

I'll probably be at that address starting around Aug. 1st

My trip out west

I am making this post from Missoula Montana!  Ill start with Photos of my bike before the drive down to the cities:

I was also wearing a stuffed-to-the-brim backpack

Here are some photos of the drive across Dakota and Montana:

Entering ND in Fargo

Yellow Flowers

Blue/Purple Flowers

Enchanted Highway

T. Roosevelt Nat. Park

This guy was bluff charging some idiot tourists that were trying to take pictures right up close to him.

Crossing into Montana

Cloudy skies over the Beartooth Mountains

More clouds over the Crazy Mountains

I drove through some intense thunderstorms in both mountain passes.  There was some amazingly intense and beautiful lightning, especially a cool double strike over the Paradise Valley with the bolts crisscrossing in mid air!

Now I am off to bike around Missoula a bit and then it sounds like we are going to an Osprey baseball game tonight.  They are the local minor league team.  I'll update again soon!

-Brett

Enjoying Duluth

Here are a couple of shots I took on one beautiful afternoon on one of my last days of work.  I biked down to the beach across the lift bridge after work and went for a swim.  These photos are from near the lakewalk on my way home.

Grandma's Weekend

OK, I am going to start this off with last weekend.  It was Grandma's Marathon weekend, so was busy as usual.  My friends Katie and Heidi and two of Katie's friends stayed at my house for the weekend.  Katie ran the full marathon, and the rest were up to cheer her on.

I got up early on Saturday morning to see the half, and it was a beautiful day right from the start.  I met up with Kate, April and Chris down near the Dunn Bros, and we watched most of the race from there.  After the half wrapped up, we went down to catch Ben at the finish.  From there we walked up to Nodin's shop and watched the full from there.  In Both the mens and womens the winner was clearly separated from the rest of the group.  Here are some shots from the morning:

Looking towards Lake Ave on Superior Street

Too much energy, should have run the full!

Kate and Me

Chris and Ben (Chris is flexing)

Kate is way more in to this than Ben...

Leader of the Men's Race going by

2nd and 3rd place Men

1st Place Woman

I think this might be the 2nd Place Woman

It ended up being a nice day for running... at least I thought so as I was standing on the sidewalk!

In the afternoon the crew of folks staying at my house and I went up to Gooseberry Falls.  I dont have any photos of this because I forgot my camera.   We got some quality rock skipping in though, trust me.  Also had some birch bark boat races.