Still Waiting

Although there isn't much still going on on my end, I figured I would do a quick book review, since I mentioned I was reading them in my previous post.

Both books covered a lot of the same material about finding housing, health insurance, common problems, culture shock, etc., and they both had a lot of the same websites. There are also pro's and con's about each book. The book by ACCJ I found to be a joy to read. The writing was humorous while covering informational material (which isn't easy to do). The book all together was longer than the book by Moon and all together better organized. Some of the links in the book were non-existant or severely outdated as well (and this book was published last year). Another con (which I found to be true about the Moon book also) is that they both primarily focused on finding things in Tokyo (housing, furniture, etc.). I suppose that is good to most business people heading to Japan, but not really myself.

Both books do have a huge section at the end of the books to talk about the different regions though. The book written by Moon was like reading a history book (which was fine for me because I love history, but would probably just be boring for most). The first "chapter" was about the history of Japan and how it relates to nuances in Japanese society. I put chapter in quotes because I really hate the way the book is sectioned off. It had a lot of repeating information from one section to the next because it was poorly organized. The one thing I really did like about the book is that it had all of the urls, terminology, phrases, etc. in the back in a nice little section that was easy to find. The ACCJ book just had links at the end of eachchapter.

The bottom line is I wouldn't recommend one book over the other. So I suppose that is my book review... on another note, I was sent another letter from Interac giving me a general update. The letter introduced me to the staff and let me know they are processing my paperwork for my Certificate of Eligibility. As soon as that goes through, I will be contacted by someone in regards to placement. Right now, I'm hoping to be placed either near Nagoya, Niigata, or maybe even Utsunomiya. I'm hoping to be placed an hour or so outside a large city so I could do major shopping on weekends. I know it's ideal, but I really don't want to have to drive a car and I love Japanese public transportation. :D

I've also started reading two other books:

The Japan Health Handbook

Etiquette Guide to Japan by Boye Lafayette de Mente: