Certificate of Eligibility

My CoE arrived in the mail the other day. YAAAAAAAAY!

Wait... What do I need that for?

Well, the CoE is the document that I need to bring to the embassy and basically exchange it for a work visa. The CoE won't let me into Japan to work; I had to fill out a form and have that sent to Japan on my behalf, wait for the CoE which arrived from Japan, and now I can take that (pretty fancy) piece of paper to the Japanese embassy in Los Angeles and say, "Hey, I qualify for a work visa. :D" This does mean handing over my passport for a few days, which is a little worrisome, but it shouldn't be an issue.

And I was going to do all of that today, and kill some time in Little Tokyo with a friend, but California decided that this weekend would be a great time to have heavy rain for four days. So it will have to wait until Monday.

Beyond that, I am waiting to get the green light to purchase my plane ticket. So far the only thing we know is that they want us at the Narita airport on the 11th of April. After that is the orientation where I can find out all sorts of information about being an AET, about Mito, about my apartment hopefully...

Still slowly going through my room and clearing things out, packing things in the suitcases that I don't need now but will need in Japan, deciding what to take to feel like home... So much to do, and a lot of it has to wait until I get info from the Orientation. :(