While internet shopping for resources has been fun, finding summer clothes to take to the 30 degree Japanese summer heat required real leg work. I don't have a summer wardrobe, I never really have, except briefly when I lived in Perth and I ditched most of those clothes when I moved home. Finding summer clothing in Dunedin in winter is a big ask, especially clothing that fits me and falls within the limitations required but Japan-appropriate office/school attire (must have sleeves and have no chance of showing cleavage, bra straps or lower back when you move about or bend over). I have absolutely no problem with this style of clothing, but it's proved quite difficult to find...particularly since I did not want to spend a lot of money.
Fortunately, there is an answer: op-shopping! I like opshops. Sure there are a lot of aweful things in them, but there's also some gems and these aren't limited by the fashion of the day so you can usually find at least something in a colour you like that suits you. After spending a few days touring the various secondhand clothing stores around Dunedin (as well stores having sales) I emerged moderately triumphant. There must be a well dressed woman out there somewhere who is my size and who ditches a fair amount of nearly new and colourful yet office-worthy clothing at Presbyterian Support. For less than $30 I was able to furnish myself with five blouses, only two of which required minor alterations to fit me properly. Unfortunately a couple of the blouses need to have a singlet or something worn underneath to raise the neckline. Light summer ones of these I could only find in first-hand shops and so reluctantly paid as much for one of these as I paid for all five blouses. But they'll work, so I'm happy.
Between two more stores I was able to pick up two suit blazers for $26 for the pair to replace the one expensive blazer I've ever owned that unfortunately got savaged by my friend's kitten while I was in Wellington. On the upside these new ones are just as good quality (seriously, who ditches this stuff?) and don't have silver clasps like my old one, meaning they can go with both silver and gold jewellery...not that I'm planning on taking any, but I like to be versatile. I have had some trouble with dress pants, but I've got a couple that should work for now. Part of the problem is I lost over 10kgs on TA and my old pair of suit pants no longer fit (inconvenient but yay!).
Between the opshops, the warehouse and a few of the George Street clothing stores I managed to score enough summery clothing to cover school and spare time. In addition to this I'm taking one set of "active gear" (polo shirt and yoga pants) and one set of hiking gear (light, quick-dry gear)...or hope to be. The gear I wore on TA is worn out and far too baggy so I'm heading to Kathmandu armed with a voucher tomorrow to try my luck. I'm also intending to wear a pair of jeans; I know this will be hot, but I live in jeans no matter the weather as I find it very difficult to find other casual trousers I like (and I don't do shorts, except round the house).
So clothes are sorted. Next problem (and probably a more pressing one) was shoes. They don't sell size 10s in Japan so any shoes I want I'll have to take with me or get posted over. In addition to this, in Japan and at my schools you cannot wear your outdoor shoes inside, so you need one pair to walk to school and one to wear while in school. I've never had much luck with shoes in the past, cheap or expensive, as they have all worn out pretty quick, but this time was determined to by something that will go the distance. Cue a plea on Facebook for recommended shoe stores in Dunedin. Frames made the top of the very short list, so I headed down there to find they were having a sale, and there, on the sale table was a pair of plain black slip-on size 10s perfect for indoor shoes! I couldn't believe it and probably did an impression of Smeagol grabbing for the One Ring as I snatched them up off the table, tried them on, took an approving few steps and then tucked them safely under my arm for later purchasing. I was also in the market for some sneakers (dress shoes to go with my suit I already have covered) so I hunted around and on another sale table found a nice pair of blue sneakers, size 10. The sole may prove to be a bit soft, but they were comfortable and so I bought them. Now, all I needed was some smart-casuals to wear round town. Frames didn't have anything I like in my size, but on a chance pass-by I stopped in at Dowson's and managed to pick up a couple of pairs I liked. They're not as good quality so I don't expect I'll last, but between them and the sneakers hopefully I'll have shoe-options.
Unfortunately, all of this has to fit in my suitcase, even the shoes as, to save space and weight, I plan to wear my monster hiking boots on the plane (a hassle since I'll no doubt have to take them off to put through the security scanners but still--it means I can hit the ground hiking when I get to Niigata!).
Right so, omyiage--check. Resource--check. Clothes--check. Shoes--check. The only other things I need to pack are toiletries (I'm taking minimal ones of these), tech things (cameras, laptop etc...OMG the laptop! That's a tale for another blog but suffice to say my old one gave out a couple of weeks ago and I now have a shiny new one that I just love), and "Me" things. Josie had a great suggestion about my self introduction to my students: give them a bunch of objects to choose from that represent different aspects of your life and get them to ask you questions about them. But what things?!
I decided to do roughly five aspects of my life: being Kiwi, being a geologist, doing theatre, loving travel, and my friends and family. Being Kiwi is easily covered by any one of the NZ things I've collected. For being a geologist I've decided to take both my compass and my hand lens as both might prove handy for use as well as show-and-tell. For theatre I have a programme from Musical Theatre Dunedin's production of Phantom of the Opera (which I was lucky enough to be involved in--even got my name on the crew list in the programme!), and for loving travel I have a small model of a gargoyle I bought in Westminster Abbey (chosen because of all my various travel souvenirs it is tiny, weighs next to nothing, and should perplex the students enough to make things a little more interesting). If this proves too difficult I also have a charm I bought at Kinkaku-ji when I was in Japan which will be a lot more familiar but perhaps an unexpected item for me to have in my possession. Finally for friends and family I've got a set of laminated photographs of my friend Alyse standing in front of various Dunedin icons with signs spelling out "Will you be my bridesmaid?" (each of which I had to find on an amusing little treasure hunt and which should serve a dual purpose and sharing a little information about my friends as well as my home town). Also I've packed one (ok, two) of my favourite Christmas decorations. My family and I aren't religious at all, but we've adopted Christmas as the time to celebrate being a family and for us it is the most special day of the year. Again, this serves a dual purpose, to present as an aspect of foreign culture to the students, and for me to cry over this December when I will be spending my first ever Christmas away from home (yes, until now I've always managed to come home for Christmas--lucky!). Oh yes, and I'm a bit geeky so I'm also taking my Leaf of Lothlorien brooch, to bust out when I have the obligatory LOTR marathon at some point and who knows? Perhaps one of the sci-fi club members will recognise it?
So give or take a few things, that's what's got to fit into 1x 23kg checked bag and 1x 7kg backpack. Yeah....right...
It immediately became apparent that the textbooks are going to have to be posted (getting excess baggage on the JET group booking sounds like more of a headache than it's worth), but aside from that, after whittling down my list of "want to pack" to the things mentioned above, I've managed to pack everything up into my one checked bag, and one+ carry-on. There's actually room for more, especially in my carry-on back-pack, but I'm already in the red as far as weight is concerned, thanks to a DSLR and my laptop... but only by a little bit. So I'm hoping I might get away with it...fingers crossed!!!
 |
| My kit...everything I need to move to Japan! (I hope). It doesn't look much right? |
No comments:
Post a Comment