Initial Greetings

Amidst the various calls, texts, and emails I have going today as I try to coordinate the sale of more than half my apartment goods, I checked my mail and discovered a nice surprise:  a letter from my school in Japan!

Each teacher and some of the students sent me a short note welcoming me to the school and expressing their excitement for my arrival.  I'm so happy with the card and very pleased they were nice enough to send it to me.  They sound like a great group of people which I can't wait to meet!

As the incoming teacher, we are encouraged to send a "letter of introduction" to our school location.  Not much is given in the way of guidance - introduce yourself, your background and interests, while showing how eager you are to come to Japan and work.  For a former auditor and current financial accountant, with a detailed and task-based mindset... these are practically worthless instructions.  So, of course, I'm considering a bunch of questions:  What about format? length? formal versus casual?  Email or handwritten letter?

This whole thing about a "letter of introduction" is foreign to me and I thought it might be a formal custom in Japanese companies.  I'm still not sure if it is, as I ran the idea by one of my co-workers who is from Japan and she hadn't heard of this....  So, I went with writing a business-style letter - typed, address headers, and all.  Sigh.  I was definitely thinking too hard about this.  Still uncertain, I sent it to my recruiter asking for feedback.  All she recommended is to write it by hand on a card or personal stationary.  That made me regret writing so much!  Trying to fit one page typed into a small card or on how many pages of stationary?  Ugh... I wasn't looking forward to it.  Also, since there were no comments to the content, I wasn't sure if it was good or not.  Now that I've received this card from the school, I've scrapped the whole letter!

Receiving this card from my school made me so happy and excited for what was to come.  Each message is thoughtful and encouraging.  I've blurred them above to respect the privacy of the school and people, but let me know if you want to see it.  It's really great and I could sense the warm welcome from the people at the school.  While on my "happy-high," I decided I needed to respond in kind and write a new letter.

This time, I dug out some cute stationary I was planning to sell and was now glad I hadn't; it's from Suzy's Zoo and features an orange cat.  My mother had purchased the set (it comes with envelopes and stickers to match) years ago and I never got around to using it.  Anyways, I sat at my coffee table which would be picked up in two hours by a local buyer off Craigslist and put pen to paper.  Without planning the content, 2 pages were quickly written.  As I signed it off, I didn't have much interest in redrafting the letter and was quite pleased with it.  Before I could change my mind, I put it in the enveloped and sealed it!  I'm much happier with this letter than the first (it was so stuffy and formal).  This one is more casual and fun, showing my love of cats right off the bat.  :) I think the students and staff will be more interested in this letter and hopefully continue to look forward to my arrival.

I plan to mail it out on Monday.