Busy busy day at Kawasaki NOVA with a pile of new teachers. I did a bunch of paperwork today, submitting vacation requests and a transfer request.
(2014 Update) My original post didn’t really capture the huge decision that I made regarding the transfer request. At this point I had spent 7 months in Japan, and was starting to really enjoy life there. I was about to get full time hours, I had a girlfriend, and was expecting two waves of visitors during the summer. One year in Japan simply was not going to be long enough.
On a NOVA transfer request you can list up to 3 different schools that you would like to transfer to. The Penpal was living in Numazu, so I wanted to find a school in the area. After consulting a NOVA school list and the internet, I found that the closest schools were in Numazu, Mishima and Fuji. All 3 were much smaller than Kawasaki NOVA, and close to Mt. Fuji. I consulted the area manager, and learned that NOVA divided Japan into West and East regions. Kawasaki was in the East, and the 3 schools I requested were in the West. A transfer from one school to a nearby school in the same area could be processed quickly. Transferring from East to West was expected to take a few months, but I was happy to wait.
With the submission of one piece of paper, I had just increased my commitment to both my Japan adventure and to The Penpal. It was a bit scary, but looking back I am VERY happy with my decision.
Drinking in Japan 