Gone

Well Junes well and truly gone, actually that’s a slight bit of an under statement as it’s almost Christmas now and my date for leaving Japan was the 3rd August so I'm back in Blighty now.

It only seems like yesterday but was over three months ago, how time flies when you're having fun in Blackpool as the saying goes, for those of you that don't know I've managed to swap Tokyo for Blackpool, can't I make a good deals eh. Seriously though it will be good to get back and see everyone, like I say I’d got my date for leaving the land of the rising sun and had have got to get rid of the apartment and all the furniture in there, leave the apartment as it was when I took it on so to speak empty, hopefully there’ll be no deductions and I can get all or most of my deposit back.
I normally like to do things by myself as much as possible if can, I mean anyone can ask for help right. So although I knew a few people who could help me with translating and getting rid of things from the apartment thought I’d try and do as much myself as I could and ask for as little help as possible bearing in mind I was in deepest darkest Japan (Utsunomiya) which actually had been a great place to live.
Was actually going to miss my little apartment, when I’d first took it on had wondered if I would like living there but it was great and in a great location. I got my self set up with things like (Sky perfect TV) no relation to Sky over in Europe but basically the same thing, satellite TV. Don’t know about you lot but I like to have some noise on in the back ground when I get home, music or TV but at least something especially when you’re away by yourself, makes it feel more home like.

Like I say had to start winding down the apartment getting rid of stuff and closing things out like bills. Over here had the same bills as in the UK, Gas, Elect, Water, Internet and my TV, these were the things that I couldn’t handle myself as I couldn’t speak Japanese and you had to phone up to arrange a close down/final bill. So I decided what day I was leaving the apartment, I decided on the 29^th July and I’d move into a hotel for the final few days. System is great over here you phone up the utility company tell them when you are leaving they arrange to meet at a certain time on that day (this is Japan they give you a time and they’re there). They arrive take a meter reading and the gas or the electric is actually closed/shut off on that day and because the meter is electronic they can plug in a hand held and actually give you the final bill there and then, why can’t we do this in the UK I’ll never know.

This was all the bills sorted everything finished on the same day, while this had been going on I’d been getting rid of the furniture and stuff, so things I’d given away like the washing machine and fridge, the rest had to get taken away. Thought I would get some money for it especially as I’d paid over $600 just for my bed, but boy did I had a rude awakening cost me $100 to get everything taken away, It all had to go so there was nothing I could do about it. Actually don’t know how I got everything in the moving guys had to cut up my settee as they could not get it through the door, go figure, also I’m sure everyone says this but I don’t know how I had managed to get so much junk after only being there just over a year.

I’d also had to ship some of my cloths and stuff back to the UK as I’d accumulated quite a bit of stuff in the year or so I’d been here, fare to much to carry on the plane, don’t now where it had all come from but luckily I wasn’t paying to ship it back the company was.

I’d also had to clean up the apartment after everything was out before the final inspection by the estate agents, now as I didn’t know what this entailed but to make sure I got a much of the deposit back as possible did a thought clean. I mean I was down on my hands and knees with a bowl of water and a cloth cleaning for what seemed like hours, so I was a bit put out when the guy just came in and did a cursory look and said OK, don’t think I needed to bother cleaning and just needed to sweep up, but you live and learn.

So that’s me out of 903 Winds Sugi and into the EST house just across the road, the EST house is sort of a hotel come apartment block, you can hire rooms in for extended periods bit like a long stay hotel in the states. The EST house or EST1 to be precise was a bit run down but thought it would be OK for a few days, the German guys who had been working on site had stayed here so how bad could it be.
So that’s me almost out of Japan, it’s been a bit of an adventure and got to say I like Japan, there is still a lot of the place I need to see so I’ll be back at some point to do that.

Although I’ve been here for over a year for most of that I’ve been working 6 days a week and on the 7^th just wanted to rest as the good lord did. Had always though I would have time at the end of this project to do all the touristy things that I wanted too but it’s turned out I don’t/didn’t have time to do any of that that. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been here over a year so have done and seen quite a few things but there are still lots of things I want to do.

There are some great things about Japan probably the best thing being the people themselves, they are friendly, honest, and helpful, well that what I found anyway.

The other great thing is the punctuality from train to busses to appointments if they say it runs at that time then it does and If you’re not there then you’ve missed it, actually there are too many good things to list may do a bolg on the things I like/don’t like about Japan at some point who knows.

Couple of things I won’t miss though are the red tape and the slow driving not really huge problems or issues but It’s just not something you look forward too.