Not leaving 'the box' for a whole day, as I have affectionately named our apartment, (short for shoe box, of course, what were you thinking??) was a bad idea. So far, my usual routine is to get up and have breakfast with Chris before he goes to work then do a couple hours of Japanese or writing or online stalking. I usually have lunch at home and then go out for the afternoon. I like to walk around and try and find a different garden or shrine area to explore or some weird shops to check out. Come home at about 5 or 6pm and then watch some TV or cook dinner or head out to meet up with Chris & his mates.
The box floor plan, its actually a decent sized apartment by Tokyo standards.
But, yesterday, as my mind wandered away from the undecipherable Japanese lesson in front of me, I started to ponder what the hell I was going to do with all my spare hours. It suddenly hit me that I wasn't on holidays, this wasn't going to be a short term adventure, I am here till at least December, possibly longer, this is going to be my life for at least another 8 months.What was I going to do with myself? Eventually, I was going to run out of touristy stuff to do and there is only so much of my blogging that the world can take. I started to have a minor freak out. Ok, maybe a semi major one.
I can't get a working visa unless we get married, de-facto relationships are not recognised by the Japanese government. (Neither are same sex marriages in case you were wondering). If we did decide to get married for the sake of a visa, it would mean going home to Australia and hitting up the registry office. After avoiding marriage for the past 10 years, I am not really inspired to go through all the rigmarole just so I can work part time. Nor am I willing to cop all the flak from people who have been listening to my anti-wedding rants for so long. Even on a dependant spouse visa I can only work limited hours and only if I apply for permission and organise a work permit through an employer. Grrr.
After a few hours of pacing around the box, eating a bag of Haribo gummy bears and singing mournful ballads to myself, I realised I was sinking into a ball of self pity. Everything was suddenly all too hard; the language barrier seemed insurmountable, the imported Tim Tams were rubbish, I was tired of having no-one to talk to all day, I had no friends, no money of my own. (Yes, all first world problems...whinge, whinge) Not having a job had really hit me harder than I expected. It was not the work itself I was missing, who would actually miss work?! But I was missing the social contact and the cash flow. And having a sense of purpose to my day/week/life.
Rubbish tim tams imported from Indonesia:
While I am definitely getting plenty of social contact on the ski trips and through Chris and his work mates' activities in the evenings, I really need to get out there and try and navigate my way towards some social connections during the long daytime hours. After belting out one last round of 'All by myself' I looked up volunteering options in Tokyo. Surely, if I wasn't allowed to do paid work, I could find some volunteer work to occupy my time?
Two options caught my eye - 'Hands on Tokyo' and 'Second Harvest Japan'. They seemed to be the best bet for a non-Japanese speaker. The appeal of Hands on Tokyo is that their head office is based 5 minutes from our apartment and you can sign up for one off events, no locked in commitment required. Downside is that all the activities on weekdays seem to have already filled their volunteer quota for the next 2 months. Guess there are plenty of ladies of leisure in this area!
Had to laugh at some of their sign up requirements too.In order to volunteer at a group birthday party at an orphanage you have to be over the age of 15 and have participated in a Balloon Art Seminar. Hmmm... not even sure what balloon art is...Volunteering at one of the high schools requires you to be able to play basketball, that counts me out too!
This is what pops up when you google balloon art, yep definitely beyond my skill level!
So that left me with Second Harvest Japan, who are a food bank providing hot meals to the homeless on weekends and food supplies to welfare agencies, shelters and orphanages. I volunteered on a food van back when I was a uni student, so at least I have some experience with this type of work. I have just sent them off an enquiry email, fingers crossed they can find something for a non-Japanese speaking lady of leisure to do! Otherwise, its back to the power ballads and the gummy bears.....
Second Harvest Japan - https://2hj.org/english/about/
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