Under Pressure...
I guess I’ve been using the three China posts as justification to stay away from blogging. I’ll do my best to fill in what’s been happening.
So, I finally finished my elementary school visits. That means no more elementary schools in Japan anymore. At first I was a little bummed but now that I have wasted almost a whole week in Junior High, I see why some people like the down time. First of all I’m not in charge for planning lessons, I don’t have to be the main teacher, and at the most I’ll teach three classes a day. It has been my first week in Junior High and so far I have taught a total of 5 lessons this week and I had enough time to finish, “China the Movie.”
It’s been pretty stressful recently. It seems like millions of things happened since we got back from China. I just assumed that it would be smooth sailing but I was wrong. Anyway the first thing was my Dad and William’s visit to Japan. My Dad wants to come again because he really wanted to see Japan but got side tracked by my Mom and sister. They were here for about two weeks but only got to go to Kyoto and Osaka. Well we had to work and there was a trip to Korea in the middle of it so I guess I can understand why we didn’t get to see all of Japan. Anyway he’s coming again and this time we’ll really take him around. We’re thinking of going south to Shimonoseki and going all the way up to Tokyo, maybe further. But then William was planning a summer trip to Japan and Korea. It would have been cool taking everyone around but at the last minute William couldn’t get the last week off to come to Japan. And it just so happened that that last week was when we would be out of Kyoto. We planned to move out of our apartment right when we would go traveling so we wouldn’t have to pay another month’s pay for staying longer. Trying to communicate with William in California and my Dad in Hawaii was a little hard. We’re also trying to get some JR Rail Passes so we can all take the bullet train, but technically we’re not eligible to use the passes since we still have a working visa in Japan and the pass is only for foreign visitors. But hopefully, when we got to validate the pass they don’t look too carefully at our passports so we can get away with using the bullet train. So that was that…
Then there’s the whole Disneyland thing. WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!! In China, Lisa, Krystal, and I decided that we would go to Disneyland with the last few paid leaves we have left. So after coming back to Kyoto we went to the travel agency and booked three reservations at a Disneyland hotel and purchased a three day passport. Everything was going smoothly when something really unexpected happened. The successor of head seat in Krystal’s religion had passed away. We got an unexpected call from Hawaii saying that Himegami-Sama had passed away. We were one week away from going to Disneyland and this tragedy happens. Anyway Krystal finds out that the funeral service will be on the Thursday we were planning on going to Disneyland. Krystal says she can’t got to Disneyland so it seems like we need to cancel the whole reservation. But the thing is that we were so close to the departure date the we were certain that there was going to be some kind of cancellation fee or something. And we needed to tell Lisa that the Disneyland trip was canceled. But then we remembered that Lisa had bought plane tickets instead of the bullet train tickets. She had probably bought them already and it would much harder to get a reimbursement just days before the departure date. STRESSED!
The next morning at school I was frantically trying to get in touch with Lisa to tell what happened and what we were going to do. After a 30 minute conversation with Lisa about what we should do she decided that she wanted to go even if she was going to go by herself. Then I tried franticly to call Krystal and tell her that we needed to change the dates of the trip if possible. So we went back to the travel agency and tried to get everything settled, again, and some how keep the cancellation fees to a minimum. After about an hour, we had finally fixed everything and although we were going to be there one day shorter the plan was roughly the same. You would think that it ends there…
Right after going to the travel agency we meant out to dinner to eat our stress away. It turned out that because we only changed the dates of the trip we had the chance that we wouldn’t pay a cancellation fee or at least a much smaller fee. But as we were eating dinner it occurred to us that the new reservations we made were wrong! Because we told her that we didn’t want to change anything in our reservation except the dates we were in Disneyland she kept everything else the same. Originally we had made reservations for 4 days but because of the new date change we could only make it a 3 day weekend. As we walked out the travel agency we were amazed that the cost was relatively the same and applauded our last minute efforts only to figure out that it should have been a few hundred dollars cheaper for knocking off one more day. To make matters worst, when we left the travel agency they were just about to close and if we were to change something we would have to come back on Saturday. This was looking really bad because if the reservation went through we would have to make ANOTHER cancellation and that would be another set of cancellation fees. We were pretty stressed. Not to mention Krystal was already feeling stressed out over the recently deceased religion head. Does the madness ends? Not yet…
So if you haven’t heard our contract in Kyoto is slowly coming to an end. That means that have all of sudden become a hot spot for visitors, mainly Krystal’s siblings. Anyway originally we had everyone accounted for a scheduled for the specific weekend they would be in Kyoto. But because of the unfortunate passing of Himegami Sama, everything became mixed up. So originally the two boys Kenneth, Knewton, and #4 Kandace were supposed to come on July 7th. But due to the funeral everyone that was planning on coming to Japan later came earlier. So now #4 Kandace and #6 Karen are coming in June while the two boys will come later in July. To make matters a little more hectic Kenneth is doing a medical school exchange here in Japan and wanted to come and visit us in Kyoto. But the thing is that he also has 4 of his med school friends and they also want to visit Kyoto. And because Krystal and Kenneth can’t say “NO” they all seem to be staying over at our place. So that second week in July, we’ll be packed with 6 people in our tiny apartment. I just hope that all goes well and everything works out for the better.
Did I tell you that we were a little stressed out? Well Krystal left to attend the funeral yesterday and that means I have four days all to myself. There are still a lot of things we need to do like pack, clean, and start clearing some of the stuff out of our apartment. Luckily the rainy season just started giving me a reason to stay home and get the chores done.
So, I finally finished my elementary school visits. That means no more elementary schools in Japan anymore. At first I was a little bummed but now that I have wasted almost a whole week in Junior High, I see why some people like the down time. First of all I’m not in charge for planning lessons, I don’t have to be the main teacher, and at the most I’ll teach three classes a day. It has been my first week in Junior High and so far I have taught a total of 5 lessons this week and I had enough time to finish, “China the Movie.”
It’s been pretty stressful recently. It seems like millions of things happened since we got back from China. I just assumed that it would be smooth sailing but I was wrong. Anyway the first thing was my Dad and William’s visit to Japan. My Dad wants to come again because he really wanted to see Japan but got side tracked by my Mom and sister. They were here for about two weeks but only got to go to Kyoto and Osaka. Well we had to work and there was a trip to Korea in the middle of it so I guess I can understand why we didn’t get to see all of Japan. Anyway he’s coming again and this time we’ll really take him around. We’re thinking of going south to Shimonoseki and going all the way up to Tokyo, maybe further. But then William was planning a summer trip to Japan and Korea. It would have been cool taking everyone around but at the last minute William couldn’t get the last week off to come to Japan. And it just so happened that that last week was when we would be out of Kyoto. We planned to move out of our apartment right when we would go traveling so we wouldn’t have to pay another month’s pay for staying longer. Trying to communicate with William in California and my Dad in Hawaii was a little hard. We’re also trying to get some JR Rail Passes so we can all take the bullet train, but technically we’re not eligible to use the passes since we still have a working visa in Japan and the pass is only for foreign visitors. But hopefully, when we got to validate the pass they don’t look too carefully at our passports so we can get away with using the bullet train. So that was that…
Then there’s the whole Disneyland thing. WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!! In China, Lisa, Krystal, and I decided that we would go to Disneyland with the last few paid leaves we have left. So after coming back to Kyoto we went to the travel agency and booked three reservations at a Disneyland hotel and purchased a three day passport. Everything was going smoothly when something really unexpected happened. The successor of head seat in Krystal’s religion had passed away. We got an unexpected call from Hawaii saying that Himegami-Sama had passed away. We were one week away from going to Disneyland and this tragedy happens. Anyway Krystal finds out that the funeral service will be on the Thursday we were planning on going to Disneyland. Krystal says she can’t got to Disneyland so it seems like we need to cancel the whole reservation. But the thing is that we were so close to the departure date the we were certain that there was going to be some kind of cancellation fee or something. And we needed to tell Lisa that the Disneyland trip was canceled. But then we remembered that Lisa had bought plane tickets instead of the bullet train tickets. She had probably bought them already and it would much harder to get a reimbursement just days before the departure date. STRESSED!
The next morning at school I was frantically trying to get in touch with Lisa to tell what happened and what we were going to do. After a 30 minute conversation with Lisa about what we should do she decided that she wanted to go even if she was going to go by herself. Then I tried franticly to call Krystal and tell her that we needed to change the dates of the trip if possible. So we went back to the travel agency and tried to get everything settled, again, and some how keep the cancellation fees to a minimum. After about an hour, we had finally fixed everything and although we were going to be there one day shorter the plan was roughly the same. You would think that it ends there…
Right after going to the travel agency we meant out to dinner to eat our stress away. It turned out that because we only changed the dates of the trip we had the chance that we wouldn’t pay a cancellation fee or at least a much smaller fee. But as we were eating dinner it occurred to us that the new reservations we made were wrong! Because we told her that we didn’t want to change anything in our reservation except the dates we were in Disneyland she kept everything else the same. Originally we had made reservations for 4 days but because of the new date change we could only make it a 3 day weekend. As we walked out the travel agency we were amazed that the cost was relatively the same and applauded our last minute efforts only to figure out that it should have been a few hundred dollars cheaper for knocking off one more day. To make matters worst, when we left the travel agency they were just about to close and if we were to change something we would have to come back on Saturday. This was looking really bad because if the reservation went through we would have to make ANOTHER cancellation and that would be another set of cancellation fees. We were pretty stressed. Not to mention Krystal was already feeling stressed out over the recently deceased religion head. Does the madness ends? Not yet…
So if you haven’t heard our contract in Kyoto is slowly coming to an end. That means that have all of sudden become a hot spot for visitors, mainly Krystal’s siblings. Anyway originally we had everyone accounted for a scheduled for the specific weekend they would be in Kyoto. But because of the unfortunate passing of Himegami Sama, everything became mixed up. So originally the two boys Kenneth, Knewton, and #4 Kandace were supposed to come on July 7th. But due to the funeral everyone that was planning on coming to Japan later came earlier. So now #4 Kandace and #6 Karen are coming in June while the two boys will come later in July. To make matters a little more hectic Kenneth is doing a medical school exchange here in Japan and wanted to come and visit us in Kyoto. But the thing is that he also has 4 of his med school friends and they also want to visit Kyoto. And because Krystal and Kenneth can’t say “NO” they all seem to be staying over at our place. So that second week in July, we’ll be packed with 6 people in our tiny apartment. I just hope that all goes well and everything works out for the better.
Did I tell you that we were a little stressed out? Well Krystal left to attend the funeral yesterday and that means I have four days all to myself. There are still a lot of things we need to do like pack, clean, and start clearing some of the stuff out of our apartment. Luckily the rainy season just started giving me a reason to stay home and get the chores done.
posted by Chris at 8:43 PM
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