...4 months later

So it's been 4 months since ending my JET life, and I can't say I have much to show for it.

After the great debate of whether to pursue a job in Tokyo or just come home, I eventually settled on coming home and getting started on my truly intended career path: healthcare.

Except, what I didn't expect was that I'd be greeted by a failing-further-by-the-day economy, a 7.7% unemployment rate in the Bay Area, and a hiring-freeze that seems to have affected every imaginable industry.

Compared to my former employed-lifestyle, I now spend most of my days playing with my nephew, looking for jobs, studying Japanese (I'll get to that in a second), or catching up on movies/TV shows that i've been deprived of for 2 years.

After a solid 1.5-2 months of job searching, i finally landed a part time job down in Los Altos. I now work for a doctor with a small-but-growing practice who specializes in helping unfertile women. He uses a combination of both western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine (like acupuncture and herbs). I actually feel very lucky i found this job at all... Still thinking that i want to go into nursing, this is the best first step i can take . I was looking for a medical assistant job, and it just so happened that this doctor was willing to train a part-time medical assistant (as opposed to most places who want someone who has medical assistant certification). Also, at one point, i toyed with the idea of studying acupuncture, so i get 2 experiences in 1.

However, i was ideally looking to land a full time job with medical and dental benefits. That search continues. If i find nothing by the end of January, i'm heading back to school to take the last few classes i need to apply to nursing school, although i suspect applying next year is going to be rough considering everyone will probably be fed up with being jobless and go back to school as well =(

The last month, however, i started to study Japanese intensely again. I foolishly thought that I stood a chance of passing level 1 of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) this year, but i doubt that's going to happen. The test was yesterday, and needless to say, it was horrendous. I failed all the practice tests I took and I didn't expect much better on the real thing, but i'm glad i didn't chicken out. I'll be more prepared next year.

A few people have asked me how I like being home and just about the most common question I've gotten is: What do you miss most about Japan?

The first time someone asked me, I literaly stood there frozen for about a minute thinking super hard (granted, i had been drinking, but still). In the end, i couldn't produce an answer. To be honest, i think the thing i miss most is taking care of myself. Having my own apartment, complete with its mess, upkeep, bills, laundry, etc... was actually a great joy for me. I've never really lived on my own or had my own space, and it was refreshing to not have to rely on anyone. I miss my daily cooking experiments, baking under my kotatsu in winter, lying in the draft of my AC... but i certainly DONT miss waking up to the sound of koreans outside my window going for an early morning hike EVERY morning, my students heckling and following me outside of school, the fear of pit vipers or centipedes jumping out and biting me, or the general lack of privacy.

Also, now that i can enjoy central heating, sleeping in a spring-loaded bed, chairs, and hot water at every sink, I find it harder and harder to believe that I lived so long with out them. I dont think I could live in Japan on the long term like that again. It was an AMAZING experience for so many reasons, but the western luxuries I've become so used to are just so hard to live without.

One last thing: people have told me for so long that this and that is sooo sweet in america, and i never really believed it because i'm a total sugar addict. since everything is only moderately sweetened in japan, now that i'm back, everything tastes intensely sweet to me. damn japan for making me so sensitive! i guess i've at least warded off the diabetes for another couple of years of my life =P