Posts Tagged packing
November 14, 2006 – Goodbye Playstation
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers on May 11, 2018
As someone who has moved several times in both Canada and Japan, I have developed a rule of thumb about how long it packing will take.
- Take a look around and determine how much stuff needs to be packed
- Estimate how long packing might take, assuming breaks, interruptions, and time spent looking for tape and boxes
- Multiply your guess from the previous step by 5. Congratulations – it’s going to take longer than that.
In addition to packing and cleaning, I also got out of the house to run a few errands. First, I picked up a few souvenirs for anyone I hadn’t already gotten something for. Next, I went to a bank machine to transfer all of my remaining money back to Canada. Finally I went to Vodafone and cancelled my phone service. Giving up the phone service was hard – after 3 years of having my phone with me at all times, I felt completely naked without it.
Just before cancelling my phone, I had made arrangements with Christopher Cross to sell my Playstation 2 and all of the games. My Playstation got a lot of use both as a game system and a DVD player over the past few years. Time spent in front of my PS2 meant less time and money spent at izakayas. This allowed me to pay off some student loans, and probably saved some additional damage to my liver. My PS2 was one of the best investments I made during my entire time in Japan!
Christopher and I took all of the gear to his apartment, then went out for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. I had never eaten Indian before. Christopher was British, so he knew his way around the menu and made sure that everything we ordered was delicious. This would be the last dinner I ate in Japan, and it was a good one.
I eventually found my way home and finished up a bit more packing. I can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow!!
November 11, 2006 – Packing sucks
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on April 25, 2018
Packing sucks.
Packing with a hangover also sucks.
November 8, 2006 – Goodbye Trailer Park Boys marathons
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers on April 21, 2018
I can’t believe there is only one week left before I leave Japan and move back to Canada! I decided that I should probably start doing some serious packing during the day.
Fighting procrastination as hard as I could, I actually made some progress during the day. It’s important to reward yourself for hard work, so I spent my evening enjoying a Trailer Park Boys marathon with Super Dave. Before we started, we walked to the nearby Don Quixote to stock up on beer, cheese, and salty snacks. Good times!
November 1, 2006 – Preparing to leave
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth on April 14, 2018
Now that I am done work and have a few weeks left in the country, I finally started my preparations for leaving.
During the day I started going through my room to decide what I would bring home to Canada and what would stay in Japan. I had brought quite a bit of stuff from Canada when I had moved to Japan, and over the past 3 years I had accumulated books, clothes, games, electronics, and other miscellaneous things. There was no way that everything would be leaving the country with me.
After some painful decisions, I followed the lead of many teachers before me and made a sign for my leaving sale to be hung up at the office. I also paid my city taxes and did some research on how much it would cost to ship boxes to Canada.
My reward for a productive day was an evening of pizza and video games with Azeroth. Good times!
January 4, 2005 – Last night in Canada (again)
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Canada on January 4, 2015
Today started with a great breakfast at the Wright Spot with my dad. I then went for a haircut, appreciating the fact that I could communicate properly with the stylist. After that, I finished my packing and my family took me back to Winnipeg.
We had a nice dinner together at Earl’s, and then I got dropped off at a hotel near the airport. My flight to Minneapolis is at 7:30am tomorrow, so it’s convenient to be near the airport. Compared to most of the rest of my visit home, it was an early night. I can’t believe how quickly my return to Canada went by. I will miss my family and friends again, but I will not miss the crazy winter weather.
See you soon Japan!
December 19, 2004 – Last work day of 2004
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Shizuoka, Teaching English on December 19, 2014
Today was my last work day of 2004! In every lesson I told my students about my holiday plans, whether they wanted to hear it or not. I also had my first ever kids demo lesson. I have done demo lessons before, but never for kids classes. I was worried because teaching kids is still the hardest part of the job for me. My demo student was a 3 year old girl with no knowledge of English at all. Somehow everything worked out, and the parents signed up for lessons.
After work I made a brief appearance at the Mishima NOVA teacher and staff Christmas party before heading home in the icy cold rain. I know I should be packing now, but instead I am updating my blog instead. Not smart. At least I already bought my train tickets to get to the airport tomorrow. I made the purchase all in Japanese, which I am pretty happy about.
Must start packing!
December 16, 2004 – Refusing to catch a cold
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on December 16, 2014
I actually started packing! Also, I can feel myself starting to get a cold that is going around. However, I simply refuse to catch a cold before I get on the plane in a few days.
October 31, 2004 – Packing all night on Halloween
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Hello House, Life in Japan on October 31, 2014
Zoe, me, and Okonomi at Halloween. My costume was “English teacher”
Today is Halloween! It was also my last day living and working in Kawasaki. After work I went out for a final beer at Kiosk with Anzac. I thanked him for all the good advice he gave me as a teacher and wished him the best. It was good to have one last Kiosk beer, but it only served to start my packing later.
Every time I move I realize just how much crap a person can accumulate. I spent a few hours packing by myself, then Okonomi joined me. We packed and worked on a bottle of shuchu. In retrospect, the shochu probably didn’t help productivity very much. The end result of packing was:
- 2 large suitcases
- 8 moving boxes
- a computer
- one futon mattress
- a TV
- my awesome floor couch
I also made some donations to the dozo table of things I just had no room or reason to bring with me. By the end I got two and a half hours of sleep. I hate packing!
October 26, 2004 – Packing
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on October 26, 2014
With less than a week to go before my move, I finally started packing.
I hate packing.
June 6, 2004 pt2 – Lost plane tickets
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Hello House, Team Awesome Sauce on June 19, 2014
The guys are leaving tomorrow, so after returning from our rainy day in Kamakura, everyone slowly started packing. We also watched the hockey game on the Hello House TV (Calgary lost again) and tried to finish any leftover alcohol from Canada.
All of the guys booked their flights through a travel agent in Green’s home town in northern Alberta. The travel agent was a friend of Green’s father. For some unknown reason, the travel agent booked all of the tickets from Winnipeg to Chicago to Tokyo instead of the faster, easier Winnipeg to Vancouver to Tokyo. Also, not everyone was on the same flight home. Flounder was flying solo at 2:00pm, while Green, Code Red and Hippie were on a 4:00pm flight.
During the packing, Hippie couldn’t find his ticket. He carefully checked all of his bags and still couldn’t find it. We searched my room that Hippie and I had been staying in from top to bottom – no ticket. Flounder, Code Red and Green searched through their room and suitcases carefully – still no ticket. After about an hour of careful searching, we took to the phone.
Due to the time, we couldn’t get in touch with the airlines. Green called the travel agent and someone in the office answered the phone. Green explained that he and his friends were in Japan, leaving tomorrow, and one of them lost a ticket. The travel agent told Green that they were closed and hung up on him. Hippie then turned to his last resort – calling his parents for help.
We got a call back at 4:30am from Hippie’s father who had just talked to United Airlines. Hippie could show up at the airport with ID and fill out a lost ticket form. He would receive a new ticket in exchange for $100 US dollars. Hippie was not thrilled about having to pay, but was happy that we would be able to go home.
It turns out that Hippie losing his ticket was a good thing for the whole group, but we didn’t find out until we got to the airport…
(2014 Update) It’s hard to imagine that only 10 years ago it was that difficult to get in touch with an airline.
Drinking in Japan 
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