The House/The Contract

Well we got a packet of information from Ichinohe. It was my contract, a brochure about the town (in Japanese), and some other information about the house. After a moment of reading, you know the other party was good at English, but they aren't a native speaker. In the part about the house it said, "Your place contains the following items:Everything (Furniture, Appliances, Cooking ware, etc)." Everything? Everything leaves a lot of room to interpenetrate. Does everything include heaters? Yes. Does everything include towels? Maybe.
What I am more worried about: does everything include piles of junk accumulated by former Teachers who lived there? Answer: probably things that were to big to take home and not big enough to sell. I'm told that between the three ALT houses there is a large collection of books. That is the kind of stuff that is good to know is there. The good thing about what Samantha and I are doing is that I'm going first so if there is anything I forget that we just have to have she can bring it.

The things I know I have to bring are gifts for 75 teachers that can be small. Prizes and teaching aides suitable for middle and elementary students. A nice gift for my boss. Professional/winter clothes for me and money. The many generous wedding gifts that we received will help with all that.
There are many other things to get done before we leave. I will need to make a power point about my life in America. We have to get our visas to enter Japan which we applied for.

There was a little hiccup with Samantha's ticket. We bought her ticket when we believed she would be changing her name. Now, for various passport-related reasons, she has to keep her maiden name for a while longer. 10 years ago, this might have been a simple fix. In a post 9-11 world though this name change is treated with all the severity of a TERRORIST THREAT. An hour and a half on the phone with Orbitz (somewhat) fixed the problem. Hopefully this whole escapade doesn't backfire somewhere in Chicago airport.