What They Never Told Me About Predecessors
I lived in five different apartments in college, one of which was in Tokyo, so I get it: moving is hard. But what they didn’t tell me about what may happen with your predecessor is that they may not move their stuff out at all.
I don’t know if anyone else had this experience (even my fellow town JETs and my BOE was gagged), but it seems that my pred just packed up his essentials and left everything else behind. There was a room that I could not walk from one end to the other because he had left behind so much. Everything had (and some still has) a layer of dust, grime, and mold. I had to pitch appliances and shelving that were beyond repair. Granted, it was nice to have some things like a table, a desk, etc, but there were more things that were dirty or broken that I had to spend days on days just sorting through and throwing out. I was already so overwhelmed from the flight, the orientation, my new life, that walking into a home that was supposed to be mine looked like someone was currently living in it made me weep on sight. There were still clothes in the drawers, for God’s sake!
This post is just letting others know that this could happen. I had no idea— I thought I was just going to move into a space that other JETs had used before me, but it would be like moving into a newly rented apartment like I had done five times over in the past four years. And for those leaving, I know there’s so much to do. But please think of your successors and how much they’ve gone through already when they arrive in your previous home. I’ve been here two weeks and while the cleaning is about 75% done, I still have an unusable room of all the things I still have to take to the dump. There’s mold in places I just can’t clean.
I’m also curious— is this normal? Have other JETs had this experience?