Cliodhna wrote:Electronics from the US will also work fine in Japan barring that you do not try to bring an alarm clock, or any kind of plug-in clock, with you. Flat irons, hair curlers, anything else like that, work fine. Japan is just one or two volts below america so the difference is insubstantial. You'll probably just be finding yourself turning the temperature up on things like hair styling items to make up for the slight difference. And again, you don't want to bring clocks because they will run slower and keep time badly due to the tiny voltage difference.
When you get a cell phone there, you can use it as an alarm clock. Or, if you want to bring along your american phone and use it as an alarm clock till you get your Japanese one that's useful too. Otherwise, american electronics that have two pronged plugs should work perfectly fine there.
on the subject of electronics that don't play well with Japanese voltage, i've heard that flat irons, curling irons, etc, sometimes
won't work, actually, though i didn't bring any with me ever so i have no personal experience. i have noticed, however, that my MacBook's clock is often fast by a few minutes, and i'm not really sure why that's happened... surely it can't be due to the voltage differences, right? weird...
ravens444 wrote:Hey guys! I'm fresh out of University, and I'm a short-lister heading to Japan! After reading a couple of posts, I was just curious as to how much money everyone is planning/hoping to bring with them for their first few weeks? I hear that we get our first paycheque mid-August, so we should have some funds to last us until then. Do you think 1500.00 is enough? Thoughts anyone?
this will depend primarily on your location and your personal spending habits. it may also depend on whether you'll be getting a furnished apartment or not, which will obviously cost more money. you will be given further details later, with a better idea of what you'll need to spend, but it can't hurt to save up in any case. personally i had to scrape together a bit of funds from my parents/grad gifts/etc, and came with under the recommended amount but i made due fine because i lived in a city and lived in a pre-lived-ing/-furnished apartment.
Kirari wrote:Trudi wrote:do we organise flights or do JET do it? if so who are we flying with? because airlines ahve diferent baggage restrictions from each other so i would be hesitant in buying bags until i know what the maximum size allowed is. also when do we found out who we asre flying with? also is it direct from edinburgh or via heathrow or schipol or somewhere? so many questions >_<....
JET organise flights!
It won't be direct from Edinburgh. We will find out the flight details after London orientation.
So yes, wait to buy a bag until then.
Chill!
My consulate's orientation is being held the day before we fly out to Japan. So unfortunately I can't wait until then to find out the airline. So, I've wasted a bit of time today finding out which airlines fly from my consulate's airport (Atlanta-Hartsfield) to Tokyo-Narita, departing on July 28th. Then I looked up the baggage requirements of each of those airlines. I've cut and pasted the results into a Google Doc for anyone who's interested:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RqKb9SJuRZLVjnxSsjtmuyJggb9D7WEBWWiwfFmS0Oc/edit (probably should have put it in a spreadsheet, but I didn't feel like it, lol)
Sendai_Momiji wrote:I saw somebody up thread mention pre-flight orientation meetings. Do any of our fabulous current JETs and ex-JETs remember when they had their meetings? I'm flying out of a different consulate than the one I interviewed in because I want to see my family before I go. I'll be in Indiana for the month before the departure date so I'm wondering if I'll need to leave early and spend a day or two in Chicago before we leave to attend pre-departure orientation or attend required meetings?
Yeah...I think that made sense?
your individual consulates will be working with a travel agency to book your flights. the flight will be paid for by JET, so you don't have to worry about paying for it, though you likely will be responsible for overweight fees if your baggage is overweight.
i think most consulates follow the general schedule of having an optional JETAA-organized orientation/meet up/information session with ex-JETs from your area sometime after you've received placement but before departure, then the pre-departure orientation which is the day before you leave. you will get your tickets and more info about the flight/seat assignment either during pre-departure or at the airport. however, you will be given some information about the day you'll be leaving, with which airline, and possibly given options to get frequent flyer miles sometime during the summer, depending on when the consulates finalize deals with the travel agencies. (i believe various agencies make bids or something each year and the consulates go with what makes the most sense in terms of price and other logistics.) last year Atlanta was with AA, btw, though it may not be the case again this year.
