Dual Realities

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Dual Realities

Working as an ALT so far has been a blast. It's been hectic, they've changed schedules around on me, I've had to wake up around 6 every day I've had to work, and at times I've come within an inch of complete and utter panic mode, but overall, once I'm actually in the classroom, we have fun, the kids enjoy my lessons, and the other teachers are apparently satisfied.

But it hasn't been like that for all involved, and that concerns me a little. My friend Xiao also started working with Interac at the same time as me, and her experience has been a little different. She worked at a Jr. High the other day, and had to prepare a worksheet for class wtih very little information to go on, and the Japanese teacher wasn't impressed. Less than impressed, actually, even more so by her lack of knowledge as to what a 'gerund' is, which I'm guessing 95% of the general English speaking population doesn't know either (a noun ending in -ing, e.g. skiing, or making lunch). But this bothered the teacher enough to complain about her to Interac, and so now she's involved in trying to cover her rear to our boss, Jason, who is calling into question her knowledge of grammar, which I think is...ya.

What I see in this is clearly a case of a Japanese teacher with a bone to pick with the idea of native English speakers waltzing into Japanese schools and teaching their students with what they perceive as basically no formal training whatsoever, and was on a mission to prove just that. See, things like gerunds or type II conditionals are things that every speaker of English knows, but, much like psychology, don't know the name for. Non-native speakers of English however, learn the titles for all these things because 1) if you've got a name for it it's easy to refer to when learning/explaining and 2) they don't know it's the kind of thing that native speakers never, ever say and probably don't know. Not the actual grammatical concept, mind you, but the word for it.

So now she's got an angry school and an angry boss, a boss who, to me, has been supportive and easy to talk to for the most part, however mildly dismissive when it comes to my overblown concerns. Which is probably good cause it teaches me what they think is important and how better to work for the company. But all the same, it's just weird, to think that all this time I'm out there in schools worrying, but still enjoying myself, and now there's another person, who I at least think is just as qualified to be here as my, who is experiencing what will probably be a lot of negativity until things have either blown over or other people put her in a more positive light.

Now, things to take into consideration here are that she was teaching at a Jr. High School, which I haven't done, and consider to be really really hard, since teachers are going over hard grammar points, things which are considered to be the most important parts of English as far as Japanese schools are concerned. Which, I'll admit, are important, but the ALT's job is to provide an opportunity for native English communication in a safe supportive environment, the Japanese teacher's job is to go over hard grammar. But, I digress. It was also her first day at that school, we really only receive training for elementary school classes, and she hasn't been in Japan that long(something like 4 months).

I'm just as worried about going to Jr. High schools. I have no idea how to do that stuff. Thankfully, I don't have to until February, assuming my schedule stays the same. But even then I don't know that I'll be ready to go in there, especially because then the school and the company will consider me to be an experienced teacher, and they'll probably pull the same kind of crap when I get there that they did with her.

But this brings up my long standing gripe about the role of native English teachers in schools. We're sold to the schools, and the understanding is or should be, that we're not there to go over the hard grammar points of English, though a knowledge of such things greater than the average guy on the street is good and I think should be required to some extent. We're there, as far as I can see, to encourage a healthy relationship with students, such that they see English as something that is not intimidating or impossible, and, much, much, much more importantly, to dispel the long standing xenophobia inherent to Japanese culture. The more we're in there, and the better students get to know us filthy criminal gaijin, the more we can start to drop those adjectives and change that racial slur to something much more neutral, like gaikokujin. Gaijin are the entire rest of the universe, and Japan is innately biased against them. If all I do in all my time as a teacher is instill the idea that foreigners are real, living breathing, and as potentially worthwhile valid individuals and members of society as Japanese themselves, then I will have accomplished far more than anyone could have ever hoped towards improving Japanese society.

I could care less if they still don't get the idea of the definite and indefinite article. Learning another language makes you less racist. TADAAA the world's a better place.

So, I hope that when it comes time for me to step up into a Jr. High School I can do something meaningful when I'm there. But, more so, I hope that Xiao manages to find a way to improve her image and step up the quality of her teaching, because I want her to enjoy her time here. So far it's been nothing but misery, and that makes me so sad, so see someone in the same country, doing the same job as me, have such a completely opposite view of their time here. I went through all this too, and I survived, but she's been here for far less time than I, so, all she has are bad times, none of the good stuff I've been through to make it all worth it.

I hate seeing people give up on Japan. Sometimes I want to, but, I realize that it's no different from any other place. The names of the problems change, but they're all still there. Don't like how racist Japan is? Never would live there because of the open discrimination? Lol. Look at your own life. You're just bitching cause here, you're on the receiving end. Or, if you're already discriminated against at home, I don't see why you wouldn't feel better off here, since it's not just your demographic they don't like, it's everyone. At least here you're not singled out.

Anyway, the lesson here is that there are people in the world who are out on a mission to prove that who you are and what you do are worthless. Part of making it in life is learning not only that there are such people, but how to work around them. Not necessarily to change their minds, because without them, we would have no motivation to be good enough to get past them. Even if it means being such a good people person that they look past your not knowing what a superlative is, you're still better off knowing how to get around them. Adaptation is the name of the game. Even in Japan, the land of repetition for the sake of repetition and repetitive identical failures because change admits a bigger failure.

Happy New Year 2008!

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Happy New Year 2008!

Well, first off, Happy New Year to all, I hope that this year brings not only myself but all of you all that you have hoped for and more. More importantly, what you need, but don't realize.

This year has gotten off to a pretty good start. My Christmas and New Years celebrations were pretty crazy, involving more than one strange Japanese girl, an American living in Kazakhstan, an unnatural quantity of alcohol, and Megatron.

What I didn't mention about Greg's party but should have was that I got a Megatron Transformer for Christmas on top of a stack of much needed cash. It's sick, I love the thing. Also, Jeannine, a gal from America living and working as a teacher in Kazakhstan was there visiting Greg, which turned out to be quite the irritant for his Japanese girlfriend Miki, who would occasionally flip out and get all emotional because it completely violates traditional Japanese relationship norms to have a girl stay with you, regardless of the nature of your relationship, which, if you knew them, you'd know what completely platonic.

For New Years, Bryan Andy Ty Dave and I started off at Saizeriya for a couple magnums of red wine before heading out to Kashiwa to meet up with Greg and Miki, and as it turns out Maya and Asami, Miki's make-out friendly friends, and Moses and Ben, two very nice guys from Nigeria. Oh, and Nathan too, who I worked with in Kanamachi for a time, who shares a love of a particular massively multiplayer online role playing game with me. The night basically turned out to be Asami making out with anyone she could, and Maya throwing herself all over me and me having to dodge her attempts to make out with/fondle/etc me. Saki was out with her friends that night, though I wish she were there with me, because she could have helped fend off Maya. Then again, I would have had to deal with Saki dealing with Maya throwing herself all over me, which would have been equally unenjoyable.

We would up at karaoke, but not before Bryan drank himself sick and had to be taken home by Fumi, who showed up just in the nick of time to do so. Karaoke was fun, but expensive, as we missed our train to go to Shin Matsudo to do it there and had to go to Shidax, the world's most expensive anything. That was fun too. Highlights include losing the ball of my eyebrow piercing to Miki trying to put it back on for me, having to change seats multiple times to avoid Maya actively trying to grab me any time I wasn't actively removing her hands, Jeannine being tired and grumpy, Miki crying, Asami making out some more, and a lot of singing. Went to bed around 7.

Then on Thursday, Bryan and I went to the Hub again to meet Greg and Jeannine for her last night in Japan, where Greg started talking to some random middle-aged Japanese woman sitting next to us, who joined us upon Greg's request, and stayed well after his departure. Amanda Nikki and Sachiyo showed up out of nowhere and they joined us too, and the 6 of us not including Greg and Jeannine but including strange Japanese woman Reiko, made our way to Shin Matsudo via last train to go sing some karaoke. We're pretty sure Reiko is a hostess or a snack bar girl, from the way she acted, and she certainly knew her stuff when it came to that karaoke bar. Our drinks were slow and she was all over them, we got our stuff in record time, and it turned out to be surprisingly cheap, much more so than our New Years excursion, which, for the record, was not the most expensive of all time, but still way up there. Got back home and went to bed around 3.

Yesterday I met up with Saki at Moraju of all places, to help her pick out some glasses. It's fun doing little mundane things with her, it's kind of a hint at what's to come in the future, and it reassures me to know that we do those things well and enjoy them.

Being in Moraju was weird though, and we walked by Nova to find it wasn't there anymore. A wall had been erected where the entrance once was, and when we peeked in from outside through the edges of the pull-down curtains, we discovered that everything, I mean everything had been demolished and removed. The whole place was just empty drywall and spackle. Very odd. Very odd indeed to look at the place where you spent two years of your life working and see absolutely nothing to remind you that it was ever there. Not the first time in history that's ever happened, but still an odd experience nonetheless. Odd for Saki too, as the place where we met, and the whole reason we know each other in the first place no longer exists, not only in the fact that particular Nova isn't there anymore, but that I'm no longer a Nova teacher and she's no longer a student. Kinda makes me glad we met when we did. But, I'm always glad for that, regardless of Nova's plight.

After that we drove back to Kita Kashiwa to drop off her car, and I gave her the choice of going somewhere local, or going to my secret place, which I had picked out but wouldn't tell her, only that it was kinda far. After the great equalizer, rock paper scissors, we decided to go to my secret place. Let me just say this now that the Japanese have RPS down to a science, so much so that they can win or lose games at their leisure. I know for a fact, despite not know how, that she threw that game. I wish I understood it, but I think I'd have to have grown up here to have that kind of skill. It's like jinx I guess, when two people say something at the same time. Or calling shotgun.

So we got on the train and headed into Tokyo to my secret place, which turned out to be the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, where yes, I know, I took Melissa back in the day, but it's such a nice place, and well worth going to again, especially for a nice classy evening with a little fun added in. We went to the aquarium and saw the dolphin show, and the sea lion show, both of which I missed last time, and the Amusing Sunfish was sleeping, which was oddly amusing in and of itself, despite being completely uninteresting. Sleeping fish. Weird. Doesn't help that the dang thing is like the size of a car, and bobbing around upside down in a tank. Also doesn't help that Sunfish are just the weirdest looking things ever.

Anyway, after that we hopped on the roller coaster they have there, and then made our way to the 39th floor for some cocktails and a nice view of Tokyo. We had a great conversation up there, telling stories and going back and forth sharing tidbits of our lives we had previously left out. We discovered, not surprisingly as we get along so well, but surprisingly enough, that we both have what seem to be very interesting pasts, which had given us a great deal of experience in life, yet somehow haven't really jaded us much. I was surprised by how well balanced Saki is, I've always been able to see it, but, the more I get to know her, the more I realize just how little I have to worry about her.

We made our way back, and went to bed back at my place, and lounged around the house all day today before I took her to the station so I could mess around a little bit and relax before having to get up early tomorrow morning to go to a meeting for work in Iidabashi at Interac HQ.

K that's all for now, as if that's not enough. Happy New Year all!

Beginnings and Ends

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Beginnings and Ends

Wow, things are changing pretty fast.

I finished a lot of things, and a lot of things have begun.

For example, I finished my training with Interac on Friday of last week, and discovered that I will be working mainly in Higashi Jyujyo, which is in Kita-ku, which is kinda near Ikebukuro. Additionally I will be subbing at schools in the Shinagawa school district, so those days I'll be getting up earlier. But, oddly enough, for these first three months, almost if not more than half of my days scheduled I don't have a school, which means I'm on a kind of standby, where I'd have to go in to Iidabashi by 7am (YUCK) in case someone calls in sick, in which case I'd head out to their school for the day. There's extra pay involved in that, regardless of whether I end up going to a school that day or not. Greg seems to think it's because they don't want me getting too attached to a school for April, when he thinks they're going to move me somewhere else, like where he is. Which would be fantastic. We'll see how it goes. I'm very excited for it, and I think it'll be a good step for me.

Thursday of this week was my last day at Nova. I'm officially no longer a Nova, or GComm, or whatever Eikaiwa instructor. My days of booths and level checks and Voice lessons are finally over. My last day was pretty anticlimactic, to be honest, there was nothing really special about it, except at the end of the day, I bowed, said "Otsukaresama deshita" and went home as usual. It's weird thinking that 95% of my friends here are no longer my coworkers, and just friends, and I hope I'll stay in contact with them all. I know from experience how quickly people fall out of social circles once they change jobs, and while I'm not really afraid of it, it would kinda suck not to see the people who have shaped my experience here so much anymore. Then again, it will certainly be nice not to have to deal with the ...'s I've come to know and hate working with, and be associated with via a company of notoriously ill repute.

I drank myself silly with Ty and Dave that night. It was good fun.

I went to a Christmas party at Greg's house on, gasp, Christmas, which was also fun. He got me Megatron, the Transformer, the original 1983 series toy that's 1 year younger than me. I was so stoked when I opened that package. I mention the party for documentation purposes, and to mention that I didn't have enough money to get home when I got to his place. I asked Greg if I could borrow some money, he asked how much? 3? 4? 5? I said 5, thinkin, 5,000 yen would be enough to get my by until my advance from Interac comes through. He hands my 50,000, and I felt a little like weeping. Thank you, Greg.

I had originally planned to use the money I had saved up in my room to get back. See, I've had this massive pile of 1 yen coins since forever, an entire drawer of them in the little jewelry stand I have on top of my bookcase, and I finally took them with me to work to deposit now that I had reached a point of destitution great enough to warrant sorting out change. Empowered by my recently opened postal savings account and the memory from a long while back of an old woman depositing a massive amount of change at my local Post Office one day, I walked in Christmas morning to give myself a little present. And what a little present it turned out to be. 1,516 yen. Which isn't bad considering I had that many 1 yen coins saved up, but not really enough to withdraw and use to get by for a while. So I just let it be.

But I went by the ATM today after I dropped Saki off at the station and checked my account to see if my Interac money had shown up, and lo and behold it had. Double heck ya. So, now I'm basically set financially because this will get me by easily till the 15th when i should get my GComm paycheck, and that combined with everything else, including my massive coinage deposit, should get me by until my first Interac paycheck at the end of February. So, this is the end of the panic regarding my finances and the beginning of, though far from the meat, of financial security, something which might be of sudden and massive importance.

Fun Fun.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Fun Fun.

I'm two days into training for Interac now, and it's wonderful. I'm having a really nice time, and I haven't been stressed out about it at all. I'm increasingly happy that I'm making this switch in career, especially now that I can see all the people I shortly will have used to work with, and how eager they are to go right back to doing what they were before at Nova. I can already feel the distance I will put between myself and them. Two days. Funny how that works.

An Interview, A Resignation and A Low Blow

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

An Interview, A Resignation and A Low Blow

Wow, for once I didn't immediately update after some potentially life changing event. Huh. Weird.

Well, anyway, I got the job. I got a call three days later while I was at 'work' at Nova in Kanamachi congratulating me and offering my a job with Interac. I was surprised and delighted to hear from them so soon, and with that answer.

Oh, speaking of 'work', man, that's been a joke and a half. On Tuesday of last week, I went to my mini Voice type thing in Kashiwa at Mos Burger and chatted with the ladies for about an hour and forty five minutes, and raked in a whopping 15,000 yen. $150 for that long? And all I did was sit there and chat? Amazing. Gotta love this country sometimes.

But there was something odd about that morning as well. Even before I went in for my little lucrative chat, I was stopped on the street walking past the rotting corpse of the Nova building, by a Kashiwa student, asking me in what appeared to be a panic, if the Kashiwa branch was open. I had heard that it was scheduled to open the following day (it didn't, it's still closed), so I relayed the information to what appeared to be relief. Great relief. At the chat itself, a lot of the conversation revolved around Nova and the reopening of branches. They were all, each and every one of them, itching to get back into Nova, which had basically screwed them out of a LOT of money.

Also, as they're to find out, they're going to be able to use their tickets, but they have to pay 25% of their value to use them. And they're all gonna do it. Weird. Way to pay to use tickets you've already bought.

Anyway, I got to Kanamachi after I finished up in Kashiwa to find the doors locked and Dara waiting out front. So, when all of us had congregated out front, we decided to go into a coffee shop next door to sign the paperwork. Here's the deal we were given:
1) Start work immediately and go on standby if your assigned branch isn't open yet, receiving 100% of your pay regardless of whether you actually go in. Get paid on the 5th of Dec. and the 5th of Jan. and so on. Option to take a 50,000 yen advance on your December paycheck.
2) Start work on Jan. 10th, and get paid 150,000 yen to be unemployed until that date, due to having far too many teachers for what's actually needed. First actual paycheck Feb. 5th.

I chose option 1. So, of course, the next day Kanamachi opened up and I've been going to 'work' ever since. Why scare quotes, you ask? Because so far it's been a joke. We literally sat around all day doing nothing, nothing nothing nothing, all last week. I mean, sure we cleaned up the office, and made Christmas decorations, and so on, but really, it's been us playing poker in the break room and playing all sorts of creative word games, such as, a personal favorite of mine, "pick a word out of the dictionary, define it, and see who can guess the word first". So, yea, not too bad really.

Today I actually taught a lesson, gasp. Only one though, so not so bad. But it's amazing how quickly one can forget how to properly teach a lesson. Oh well. It comes back just as fast. Really it's just been a lot of stand up comedy, as Nova more or less always has been for me, but there's nothing wrong with that, as long as the students are involved, I rather enjoy it. To be honest, I'm going to miss it now that I'm leaving.

Right now, I'm reveling in the joy that is having just handed in a resignation. I'm sure I've written about this as some point before, but there really is something amazing about the feeling you get knowing that you're a lame duck. Work just gets fun after that, nothing can hurt you. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I already have another job. If they fire me I just get a vacation before starting up again. Big whoop. I mean, it hurts where it counts, the pocketbook, but it's not gonna happen. Who's going to fire someone who's already quit? So from here on in it's just me having fun at Nova. Biiiiig deal. My resignation was as follows:
As I have been offered a position at another company, I hereby tender this, my resignation. I have greatly enjoyed working here, and I wish you all success in your endeavors. Thank you.

So now, it's just a matter of time. I've got some more paperwork to do for Interac before my training comes up on the 18th, but it's no big deal. Oh, yea, I've got training from the 18th-21st of December. I'm taking unpaid holidays to go, which were instantly approved, cause, well, we're overstaffed, so anyone who wants vacation days gets them by default, Dara just signs the thing, makes an note of it, and it's done. Sweet.

Oh, ya, the interview, forgot about that. The interview itself was pretty much what I expected. The obligatory introductions, the long ass video about why Interac is good and what they do as a company, so on and so forth, yada yada yada. I say that because during this whole time I had to pee like no other, so I wasn't really paying attention. Thankfully, I was not asked to regurgitate any of the information presented.

But, much to my surprise, when they were introducing the recruitment staff, in walks Vinny 'Vincenzo' Birch, a buddy of mine from Nova, who was promoted to AT about 6 months ago. Funny stuff, you shoulda seen the look on his face, or more, probably the look on mine. Priceless stuff, talking to each other as if we're not not only well acquainted but haven't gone drinking and gotten piss ass drunk on a number of occasions.

After a much needed potty break, we got down to actually doing some work, which involved the obligatory grammar/spelling check that weeds out, man, I dunno, mongoloids who somehow managed to make it past the first screening. I never know what that stuff is about. I mean seriously. I hope they give tests like those to relax you, you know, by acing the thing and thinking, "shit, if this is as hard as it gets, I'm golden" so you don't just ham everything else. But, the interesting twist was that the longest quiz I took was the Kiersey Temperament Sorter, something with which, as a psych major, I'm intimately familiar with. Apparently, thanks to an X, I'm either a Rationalist or an Idealist, my choice. Being Japan and all, I'm surprised they didn't just ask our blood type and leave it at that.

After the group part, we took a break before starting on the individual interviews. This is where I get to size up the competition, so to speak. Which, incidentally, is always in my favor, because, well, it just is. I happen to interview well, and other people's A Game is generally contrived to begin with. So as soon as we go on break, is when you get to see what kind of people they all really are, and I was not in the least surprised to discover that most, despite their experience, were either clueless or lacked genuine desire to have the job. Or, I dunno, they just didn't meet my standards. I wouldn't have hired them. Listening to their video lesson presentations from the other side of the dividers didn't do anything to change my impressions.

Lesson 1 I've learned when it comes to other foreigners: Other people's Japanese sucks. Seriously. Wa taaashi wa Bu ra yan dessssss. Oh man, I just can't do it justice. I mean, at least they try, but, shit. I speak better Japanese in my sleep. How these people function in Japan without even the most basic ability to introduce one's self is beyond me. Their lessons weren't that sparkling either. I knew as soon as I heard two or three other people's lessons that I was a shoe-in. I had the job as soon as I walked in, even if I hammed the thing myself.

Now, that's a lot of really cocky talk right there, but really, I think I have the right to talk like that. I've earned it through preparation and time spent making sure I can walk into a place that has no idea who I am and leave knowing they liked what they saw. If you give me 5 minutes on camera to impress a group of total strangers, fine, you got it. I get the feeling these people thought about their presentations as one would a book report, something you prepared for the sole purpose of getting it over with, or at least having something to do at all to fill 5 minutes and get out of there. For me it was just stupid, it's 5 minutes of something I do every day; make an ass out of myself so that other people can enjoy whatever it is I'm talking about. What on Earth is there to be nervous about there? I was more nervous about screwing up my Japanese than I was my lesson. My leg was shaking as I introduced myself, but as soon as some color cards came out of my pocket it was as good as over.

Some day, I hope, secretly, and halfheartedly, to attend an interview where I'm surrounded by people I'm genuinely worried are not only more qualified but better fit to a position I really want than me. Just to see how I react. My record of never having applied for a job I didn't get stands. I guess I'm not applying for the right jobs. Hmm. I'll have to think about that.

Anyway, the presentation went fine, and the interview did too. I interviewed with Denis, who is the Recruitment Manager for Interac, and is basically the 2nd highest person in the foreign side of the whole company. We got along fine, and I closed it with my ever-successful, "when given a chance to ask questions at the end, not only ALWAYS ask questions, but ask personal ones and get them to talk to you as a normal person" strategy. It's amazing what you can get out of a person when you take it to them instead of having them be someone feared by would-be future employees. When they open it up to you and you just fire one at them about if they like the company, and what do they get out of it, and how long they've been around etc etc it shows them so many things if they're thinking about it, like, "hey, this guy isn't intimidated by me" and "wow, he might actually be relaxed enough to care about who I am", but if they're not thinking about it, all the better because all of a sudden they realize they're opening up to this person they've never met and yammering on forever, huh, that's strange, must be something about him.

Anyway, so ya, got that job. Wrote them an email after I got home thanking them for their time, remembering Denis' comment that he loves when he gets a call from people afterwards just to say thanks. Speaking of which I should give him a call tomorrow and do just that, since emails don't really count, ya?

So, here I am, with a month left at what's now my old job, and I start work for Interac not in April, but first thing in January.

The problem is this: I start work in January, which means I can't go home in February as planned. And, the job's in Shinagawa, which is pretty far from where I live now. Which means I'll either be moving, or I'm gonna be getting up at 5:30am or so every day to go to work. Either way, I'm gonna be getting up ass early every day to go to work, since it starts at 8am regardless of where I am. Yuck. So, I've been thinking about moving, and where I would should I.

Actually, the other part of that is, with who. Living by myself would be fine, I'd rather live by myself than with unknown roommates at this point, I'm tired of living with other people I don't know. But, actually, odd as it is, I'm thinking of asking Saki if she wants to move in with me if I move. Ya. I know. I just said that.

But, I'd like to. I would live with her. I've spent a lot of time with her lately, she came over Saturday night after going to a wedding, she was all dolled up and waking up next to her, I could really get used to that. She came over last night for dinner too, and she actually cooked a bit for me for once. Before then I've always cooked for her, so it was nice to see her make something. It was pretty good too, this salad involving green onion, mushrooms, bamboo, boiled chicken, sesame oil and salt.

Anyway, I'd love to live with Saki. It's a strange feeling for me, but I would. Sitting on the couch with her last night, it was perfect, we just watched TV and joked around, but mostly enjoyed just relaxing and being close to each other. She looked so beautiful sitting there with me. It really amazes me.

So yea, might be askin her about that soon. I mentioned in an email when she complained that if I lived in Shinagawa that it would be harder to see each other in our spare time that it would be nice if we lived together, to which she replied that ya, it would. So, I think she's open to the idea. More on that later I guess, as that's a pretty huge thing too.

K, lemme read back over this and see if there's anything I forgot. Nope, ya, I think that covers it. Stay warm out there all, it's freaking cold.

It's All In The Execution

Sunday, November 25, 2007

It's All In The Execution

Tomorrow morning is my job interview with Interac. Kind of odd how quickly a month went by. Much faster than the two or three weeks it took them to get back to me in the first place and set up the interview. I went and got my hair cut today to look nice for it, and ran into a bunch of the mall employees I always used to talk to, so that was nice. The people at Brave, where I get my hair cut, were very friendly, and all of them mentioned that my Japanese has improved a lot since they last saw me. I think that's because I actually spoke, and my nods and smiles actually corresponded with tag questions or yes/no ones, instead of open ones which kinda end conversations in their tracks, as I should well know, being an English teacher and experiencing them on a regular basis.

Anyway, I started preparing for my interview a little while back, thinking about what I'm going to do for my little 5 minute video presentation, but when I was reviewing the information they gave me on Saturday I discovered that they want me to bring my diploma with me, something I, as I would assume most people, don't have on them at any given time. It's sitting on my wall in America, in a nice frame, a monument to the shit I had to do to get here. Well, that's not exactly true anymore, it's probably in an envelope speeding its way across the ocean soon to arrive at my door, but that's beside the point. I had my dad scan it and send me a high res copy, which I printed out this evening. Not exactly official, but at least they'll see that one exists, theoretically. I called Greg when I discovered this, and he told me he didn't have his either when he went in for his interview, and that it didn't turn out to be such a problem. But, there will be a few more people at mine, and the circumstances are different, and I'm afraid they're using it as red-tape filtering. Oh well, too late to worry about that now.

So I focused my energy practicing my stuff, and it's come together pretty nicely, basically it's exactly 5 minutes, and could be pretty fun, if all goes well. The rest of the interview I'm not really worried about so much, it's the standard stuff, which I'm pretty good at. Question and answer section, grammar test, informational speech, etc. Not that I'm not thinking about it, but, there's only so much one can prepare for those things, and at least with that part, I've got experience under my belt to help me out.

It was kind of fun, cutting out little flashcards and downloading stuff, and printing stuff out while preparing my presentation. It was I think the first time that the stress turned into something enjoyable. While I was cutting, and printing, and hacking through mistakes, I never felt nervous, I felt excited. My confidence built, and to be honest I'm not worried about it at all right now. That'll probably change tomorrow morning when I go into controlled panic mode, but, at least for now it's good to be this close to something important and not worried that my sitting here writing in my blog is taking away from my preparedness. More on that when I get home tomorrow, I'm sure.

Also, I start work with zombie neo-Nova on Tuesday in Kanamachi. I got the call from Cerie when I was plastered with Greg up in Moriya on Friday. I think I managed to maintain pretty well, but who knows. Oh well. I'm happy that I have something right now, some kind of promise of future pay while I wait around for the government to pick up the rest of my back paychecks. Money's gonna start getting reallllly tight pretty soon here, but for now I'm going to enjoy this time for what it is. Heh, today was the last day of my month long vacation from work.

In other, other news, Saki came over last night and she was just the cutest thing. It's strange, I'm starting to understand a lot more about how the Japanese, and some other Asian cultures, work regarding public vs. private selves. Saki is a very cool, relaxed, chill girl when we're out and about, she's witty, sarcastic at times, etc etc she's great. But then at home, when we're alone, she's different, but still her. She's a lot cuter, she tells me more about her feelings, the real cutesy shit comes out, and I like that too, but what I'm coming to understand is that that's how things work out here. Not that it hasn't been said a million times over, but there really is a public and private reality here.

This is what I think really confuses foreigners, namely Westerners, when they come here and get into relationships with the locals. They meet someone who seems very put together, or fun, or non-possessive, or loves their music, and that's all very well true, for their public persona. But when they become comfortable enough to show their private side, invariable it's things that those foreigners don't like. And then boom, the relationship crashes, and all you hear are stories about how this Japanese chick was cool for a while, and then as soon as things settled or got serious, "they just completely changed overnight into someone I couldn't stand to be around."

Funny that this country breeds people to split their personalities, even though it's ok here because that's what's expected, and thinks that's not going to cause relationship problems. Or maybe, it doesn't so much because the guys here all know it's coming. But that would also explain why old people here are so completely different from young ones, because their personalities have melded again, and they've stopped giving a shit about putting on appearances and just hate gaijin openly, or whatever. It's an interesting system, and I'll have to spend some more time considering the ramifications. See what other questions and observations that clears up.

Kk, time for me to rehearse once or twice more, and then get some good rest so I can just crush my interview tomorrow.

Footprints

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Footprints

I went a little nuts today and cleaned again. This morning, before I went to work, I was brushing my teeth and I just kinda grabbed the scrubber and went to town on the sink. The whole time I was thinking, "I'm doing this, but I know it's not the end of it."

After I got off work today, I went to the grocery store and spent about 10 minutes, perusing the cleaning aisle, and eventually purchased some ridiculous cleaning spray, a steel wool scrubber/sponge, a large scrubber-on-a-stick type thing, and a new laundry rack thing for my clothes, seeing as the old one is in complete disrepair, missing several clips, and the hanger has long since broken, forcing me to use to hangers to ingeniously suspend it from the bar or wherever. Oh, and a new light bulb for the light over the kitchen sink, which has been burnt out for the last, I dunno, three months or so.

So, I got home, changed the bulb, marvelled at the brightness that filled the cooking area, and started taking apart the toilet/bathroom to give it a thorough scrub down. I busted out some hard core scrubbing, and, to my satisfaction, it turned out ok. Some of what was there was, how should I say, something akin to a stelagmite, crystaline in nature and more or less molecularly fused with the seat itself, but I did the best I could.

I think what triggered it this time around was noticing the footprint in the bathroom. There should never be a footprint in the bathroom.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Soup Is Delicious

That's about all I have to say about that.

I mean, I could go on about how filling and warm and enjoyable it is, but, we all already know that, don't we? I hardly need to explain the satisfaction of a hot bowl of soup to you, the reader, or myself: it goes without saying.

So instead I leave you with this: if given the choice between a hot bowl of the soup of your choice, at a time and place of your choosing, or its equivalent monetary value, which would you choose?

Soup I say. Soup.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I Need a Hobby

I just had one of those moments, certainly neither the first nor last, where I sat here at the helm and went back and forth between my usual sets of websites, looking for something new, where I knew there would be nothing. I click through MySpace, Facebook, Christy's journal, and The Superficial basically every time I sit down at the computer, and tonight, around 8pm I just got so thoroughly bored playing games that I just flipped through each of them over and over knowing full well there would be nothing new.

Damned internet's turning into the fridge, where I do the same thing, going into the kitchen, opening the fridge, opening my cupboard, looking around, and knowing the whole time there's nothing in there to eat, or that I feel like cooking.

What's with that? I need more to do.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Kyoto

I'm back from Kyoto. I'm pretty much exhausted. I haven't walked that much since Italy, I don't think. I stink. I feel bad for the guy who had to sit next to me on the bus ride home, if not because I had my shoes off then because I had to keep throwing my legs up in the air to stretch my knees out, which for the record hurt like all hell. But it's OK because he straight up farted in his sleep. Probably to get back at me.

I took 200 photos, used all three of my memory cards, and would have taken more had I had space. I visited 17 shrines/temples/famous sights, spoke a good deal of Japanese, met an olympic gold medalist (2002 women's skeleton) at my hostel, and got mobbedd by hordes of Japanese elementary school students, and overall had a pretty nice time.

It was drizzly the first day, cloudy the next, and sunny and gorgeous the last, so all in all it was decent weather. I'm glad it was how it was and not reversed. The weather couldn't have been better for all the hiking I did yesterday.

I saw almost everything I wanted to see, the notable exception being Saiho-ji, or Kokedera, the Moss Garden, which you need to have made a reservation for by mail in advance, which I blanked on and have only myself to blame for. Was it worth all the effort? Yes. Was it more or less expensive than I thought? About what I figured. Whole trip total cost me about 39,500 yen.

On my big list of things do in in life, I can now check off Kyoto as done. I still wanna see Kokedera, but, I'll live if I don't. The picture I took of Kyoto from the Shinkansen platform in 2003 has finally come full circle. I should have known then it was To-ji, but now I have pics standing in front of it, instead of admiring it from a distance. Go me.

Was I lonely? Not really.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Of Course It's Full

What's new? Hmm. Ok, so, I sent in my tax stuff, now that's taken care of. Woot.

I've been hungover for like a week now, due to a party at Christian's place, then Sammy showing back up in town for a night or two, going out with her and a group two nights in a row, then pulling an all nighter on Saturday night in Mito after Bryan, Richard and Nathan's show, then getting no real sleep and going on a date with Saki Sunday night.

Oh, yea, I went on a date with Saki. We met up in Kashiwa and I took her to Bora Bora for dinner, but come to discover that there was a wedding party going on, just my luck, so we played pool instead, which I would have wanted to do anyway, and talked and enjoyed playing pool. I ended up giving her some pointers since she, like most girls, doesn't really play pool. Funny how even outside of work once you've established a teacher/student type of relationship how it kind of permeates whatever you end up doing together.
Anyway, after we played pool for a few hours we decided to go grab something to eat, so I took her to my favorite Korean restaurant which was, of course, completely full, so we wound up going to Wara Wara instead. Which was fine, really, we just wanted to do some drinking and eat something and talk some more. We had some good conversation, joked around a lot, and tried to work our way through the language barrier as best we could.
It's a lot easier to communicate with someone who's level 6 when you can just speak Japanese when you need to.
I didn't end up getting home until 1:30am or so from a 7pm date, so that much was a success, neither of us really wanted to go home any earlier than we had to. Except that when I got home I realized that I had to be at work in Kashiwa at 10:50 the next morning and I knew that was gonna suck.

It wasn't as bad as I thought though, work. I just had a throbbing headache most of the day. Mayumi, the ever sarcastic level 2 who I love so much, gave me her card and asked me if I wanted to take Japanese lessons from her, which I do. So, I'll give her a call and see what I can do about starting to study Japanese again finally, and hopefully get better.

K, off to work. Just wanted to say I went out on a date really, and hopefully there will be more of these entries to come. Cool.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Wewt

I just got an email from SinHae confirming that I can stay at her place while I'm in Seoul next month. Sweet. That totally saves me from having to find a hotel, or worry about I dunno, 75% of the things I would have to worry about while travelling overseas. Now I just have to worry about arranging my days off.

Actually, speaking of which I still need to arrange my days off for my trip to Kyoto this month, and I have to do it fast because my only days I can swap are my next weekend, so I have to arrange that pronto. I picked up my return bus ticket the other day too, so everything's all set for that trip. I just need to do some more research about where I wanna go, and perhaps start calling places to reserve spots to come. Many of the gardens in Kyoto you must first call to see if there will be open spots. Interesting.

I picked up three days of O.T. this month, since I don't have to do a ton of swaps, but I made sure to leave my Sundays open because, well, they're better than Mondays to have off, and it makes my O.T. much later in the day, as opposed to 10:50am which I hate doing. I signed up for it as soon as it came out, because I knew if I didn't do it then I would never sign up for it, but I knew when I did it that I would of course hate myself for it, and here I am, Monday morning, getting ready to go to work, and I'm hating myself.

It's not that I really would have done much with this day off, it just seems like I am forever going to work. And the money I'll make never seems like that much. I get paid, I pay my bills, and I try to conserve money as best I can for the rest of the month. At the end of the month, I rarely have anything left over regardless of if I worked O.T., so it feels like I'm no better off for having done it. But I know that's not true. I need every penny I can earn this year with all my travel, and when I am in Seoul I will appreciate having worked the extra hours, because the three days will pay me more twice as much as my plane ticket over there, perhaps even the entire trip, if I spend wisely and don't get robbed.

ACK! Hey look, another entry about finances. What were the odds? Ugh. Anyway, it's a halfway decent day out, overcast, neither warm nor cold. Hopefully today will go by quickly.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Spring Cleaning

I just cleaned the everliving shit out of the kitchen and dining room. I cleaned things I think have never been cleaned. It took me the better part of 2 hours, but it's not even noon now and I'm pretty much finished, so it feels good that I got something that significant done with so much left in the day. I might cruise out to Ueno to check out the cherry blossoms if I can be bothered getting dressed and heading out there, or if I don't get sucked in to cleaning more of the house.

Cleaning is infectious to me, once I start in on something, I can't just leave some parts undone. Cleaning one thing highlights all the rest of the stuff that's filthy, so I just kinda end up doing everything. Cleaning the kitchen made me look at my room, which was ransacked and sterilized not even a week ago and think how dirty it's getting, I suppose I'll be doing some straightening of that later too.

The weather today is fantastic, it's sunny and warm, and I can feel that spring is really here, summer and the oppressive heat isn't too far off if this kind of day keeps up. After all these cold nights, it's weird, I know my body is adjusted to it, even though in my mind I can't wait for it to be stupid hot all the time. Right now, this weather, exactly how it is, I think is the perfect weather. I can leave all the windows and doors open, I don't have to adjust my clothes at all, and there aren't 8,000,000,000 insects trying to make homes of every nook and cranny and square inch of open air.

Having the house to myself like this, I should be having company. It would be the perfect time to housebreak a girl, if on there were, ya know, a girl for me to housebreak. Saki's waiting for me to make a move, that much is clear, and now that she's moved back to Kashiwa, well, I think it's time for me to just man up and do something about it. That'll be fun.

K, I gotta call Jenn and finish cleaning.

Contractual Agreements

Contractual Agreements

It's official people, I've put my name down on my new contract, effective Oct. 28th, 2006, through Oct. 27th, 2007. I went in on Monday, my day off mind you, to the Matsudo branch, and got that all taken care of. Kinda takes a load off my mind, but at the same time, puts an entire other, somewhat more immediate and pressing set of obligations on my plate.

See, in the next couple days I have to go down to the Chiba Immigration Office (CIO, for short) and apply to get a new Visa. Not the credit card, folks, the 'you have permission to be here as long as you're not a complete screw-up and do some kind of socially acceptable work' kind of Visa. But the office opens at 9am and gets busy quickly, so I basically have to be there when it opens, which means I have to haul some ass down there early one day to take care of it, and that's either going to be tomorrow (not gonna happen) or Friday, the more likely of the two. But, I'll have to go to work straight away, so all in all it's going to be fun.

Kerry (the boss) gave me a lot of paperwork to do something or other with but honestly as soon as she started talking about it my ears shut off and I have no idea what to do. Eh, I guess I'll flip that packet again and get stuff figured out. It's kinda too important to really slack too much on.

OH. And that reminds me, this also means it's been about a year since I came here, and as such, a year since I got my phone. Wchich means I can get a new one cheaper. And a new phone shall I get. A supermegauberbadass phone, the battery of which won't die after two hours like mine, being a year old, has begun to. My phone is more or less falling apart, as I've noticed all phones do after a year. Or, at least ones I own. Every cell phone I've ever owned (4 to be exact) has made itself completely and utterly worthless after a year, with the exception of my Sony-Ericson T616, which even now still holds a battery charge, after a year of not being used, sitting around my room. But towards the end of my using it, it was startin to get a little slow.

Ok, anyway, yea. New contract. No raise, and I applied to have my days off shifted to Sunday and Monday. Kerry said she'd get back to me about that on Wednesday, so hopefully that will work out. Other than that, life is good.

Calling It Quits

Calling It Quits

For the record, on Sunday, Sept. 10 I quit smoking. I was at Nijyu Maru with Natascha after work and I mentioned that I hate being tired all the time, cause when we get together after work I'm always tired, and so is she, and I always feel bad that I'm so drained hanging out with her instead of being my normal, er, sort of, peppy occasionally manic self. I said I ought to quit smoking. She said why don't you, and I said I dunno. She said, "so quit." And I said ok. I quit. And that was that.

This has been a long time coming I guess in my ongoing quest to reclaim having any energy at all ever. For what must be 5 or 6 years I've been drained and have had no energy to really do anything. My vitamin supplements helped a little, and my mineral supplements helped even more, which reminds me I need to buy more of, but smoking I know has been the primary insidious factor leeching my energy/will to live for the 4 years I've been doing it.

I miss smoking though, I really like it. Not for the nicotine so much as that I actually just enjoy the act of smoking. The places I always go to smoke are meaningless to me now, and that makes me sad. And bored. I read a lot more now though. But there are so many times when i would normally be smoking and it's a constant reminder of how much smoking was a part of my everyday routine. Oh well. I can go up stairs without being winded. I don't constantly feel like I need to lay down and rest. I can drink more without feeling sick to my stomach.

Quitting was a good thing, and I'll keep it up. It won't be the last cigarette I ever smoke, but it'll be a long time before I have another. I will prevail. My goal though is not to develop a hatred of smoking or resentment towards those that do. I can already feel it brewing as I develop psychological barriers to justify quitting, and I want to avoid that. It's just something I don't want to do anymore. That'll be the hard part, I think.

I've come to the harsh realization that I enjoy teaching lessons at branches other than my own more than my own. This is, most likely, because I have fun teaching lessons at other schools, and the students at my branch largely have problems communicating and participating in what should otherwise be easy activities.

This, much to my chagrin, is most likely because I've failed to teach them in such a way that they are prepared and able to handle such activities. I'm being forced to re-evaluate my teaching methods.

Or, it could be just a fluke. But who knows.

I notice that recently I haven't been updating as often as I once had, and I'm at a loss as for why. Lots of things have been happening, but I haven't had the desire really to update this journal with any frequency.
Let's see, Melissa and I hashed out our differences, had a long talk at Saizeriya and worked out the nature of our misunderstanding, and things are better now, with hickeys to show for it. Hopefully things will continue in this direction.
Tyler will be here in a week, something about which I am very excited, though now I have to actually start planning things for us and him to do, which is hard and requires more effort than I seem to be willing to put forth.
I've decided it may well be time for me to pony up and get a gym membership, though forcing myself to make time to go to the gym is pretty much the antithesis of what I stand for, so we'll see how that goes.
I called the fam today, and got to speak to all of them, which is weird, thinking that my mother, father, and brother all were home at the same time, though it's pretty certain what they were all doing. Mom was on the computer or on the phone with some counselor or other, getting advice about God knows what, and dad and Owen were sitting watching (read: falling asleep) in front of the TV after one too many Manhattans or some other drink Owen fashioned that's neither properly mixed or consumed by normal, rational drinkers. Not that there are many normal, rational drinkers out there, otherwise they wouldn't be drinking. Apparently they're all doing reasonably well.

A large group of my friends graduated over the weekend, so I made a few phone calls and sent some messages out congratulating them on their managing not to flunk or drop out. It's weird to think it's been two years since my own graduation, even though technically I graduated in September of last year. But we won't talk about that.

I got a letter from the IRS today telling me they unsuccessfully tried to direct deposit my refund into my account, and will be mailing me a check, here to Japan, which I will have to endorse and mail to the US for deposit into my account back home. The State's refund however was successfully deposited into my bank account today, showing me once again that a Federal Government run my Republicans is good for only one thing: postponing the disbursement of money for as long as humanly or inhumanly possible to earn interest as long as it possibly can, i.e. screw me and not them. Present value of money, blah blah blah fucking morons.

It's humid here, the weather is hot yet not sunny, and I'm running out of ways to entertain myself mindlessly here at home, despite the World Cup. I suppose that means I'll be updating this journal a little more than I have been in recent weeks. We'll see how that pans out.

Well Travelled?

Well Travelled?

I was thinking today about how a lot of people from Europe and other countries tend to think of Americans as poorly travelled, and haven't seen much of the world. So I got to doing some number crunching, as I tend to like to do (thanks, Dad), and came to an interesting conclusion.

The U.S., since us Americans are being compared to countries that use that godawful metric system, is just over 9.7 million sq. kilometers. I've been to every state in the U.S. except Alaska.
The continent of Europe is approximately the same size. Australia is a little smaller.

That means, for any Aussie or European that wants to call me, or any other American like me, poorly travelled, or more closely, less well travelled than they, they would have had to have traversed the entirety of their own continent and then some.

Japan is 377,835 sq. km. California is 410,000 sq. km. I've driven I-5 from Canada to Tijuana, in pieces, on numerous occasions. Starting to get the picture here?
The average American puts 13,000 miles on their car each year. That's enough mileage to drive from New York to Paris 3.5 times, from New York to Tokyo twice.

If an American visits 10 states in his or her life, they've covered more distance than most Europeans that have been to 6 or 7 other countries. The only difference is the American hasn't left the country.

In my life, I've been to 49/50 states, England, (at the time West) Germany, Italy, and Japan. All countries, for the record, that fought against the U.S. in one war or another. By the time I move home I plan to have visited Australia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Micronesia and Indonesia. Maybe even Russia and China. I've been to 3 of 7 continents.

Please, don't go around thinking Americans aren't well travelled. We've got a whole lot of country to see right at home.

Sonar Ping

Sonar Ping

I got a call from Hillary earlier today, looking for Ty because he hadn't shown up for work today. I explained the situation.

I got another call from her asking me to call her boss, who wanted to help look for him. Together, she called the police and started the process of filing a proper missing persons report. She called back later to ask me to come to the Nagareyama Police Station tomorrow to give a detailed description.

I got another call later from Ty's boss asking me to come with them today, since it had been so long since he was last seen, but while I was in the shower I missed a call, and come to find out it was an Officer from the Harajuku Police Station, informing me that my presence was required as part of an investigation concerning the arrest of one Ty W. So I called back, and found out that shortly after I parted ways with Ty on the train he assaulted a Japanese person and was arrested shortly afterwards.

I have to go down to the station tomorrow with the aid of an interpreter to give a formal statement regarding the case. It seems he's been arrested for Assault, and well, I don't know the laws concerning assault in this country, but I'm sure they are not beyond deporting him back to the States. For this I am concerned, but, fundamentally I'm relieved because he's alive and that's the most important thing.

So, tomorrow I will go down and give a statement about what I remember and do my best to leave a good impression on the Legal System of Japan, but, having said that, I don't know what the best approach is to do this without unintentionally making his situation worse. Anybody out here intimately familiar with the Japanese legal system?

Phone Calls and Crossed Fingers

Phone Calls and Crossed Fingers

I called the Embassy today and reported Ty missing. Due to the rules of the Privacy Act though, no information about his whereabouts may be revealed to me, nor any message passed to him via the Consulate. The most they can do is relay to him that he is being searched for and to urge him to contact us as soon as possible.

The worst part is that the lady on the phone more or less implied that the search is a passive process, rather than an active one. After providing my information, she neither asked where he was last seen or where he lives now other than the prefecture and city. She said that they will keep an eye out for any information that pops up with his name on it, which means arrests and hospitalizations, which require the notification of the Consulate. They didn't even ask me how long he had been missing, I volunteered it.

So, needless to say, I'm once again a little unimpressed by the willingness of the United States Government to help its citizens on an individual level, but I hope that now he will at least be located. If he's located, I can figure out if he's alive, and that's really all that matters.

Shame

Shame

I can't get over this feeling like Ty's being missing is entirely my fault. Things wouldn't be this way had I stayed with him. I argue this with myself over and over, that had I left when he asked me to, or had I caught my train in the first place, would any of this have happened?

I stayed with him for hours, trying to talk him down and keep him out of trouble, and in the end, I left because there was nothing I could do any longer to hold him back. Or was there? Could I have tried harder? Is this my fault?

Every time I think about it now my hands turn to fists and I want to punch through the walls when I look at the empty bedroom that's remained untouched and unused for three straight days. I look for him when I am going to work, every time I hear someone on the stairs I think it's him, and for a moment my heart lightens, but I know it's not him. I'm afraid to turn the handle on the house when I get home because I know when I do it will be locked as it was when I last left it. And when I turn the key and feel the deadbolt slide as well I feel whatever hope I had slide with it away, hidden somewhere inside that door until I lock it again, hoping it will have unlocked itself by the time I return.

Ty, I need you to come home. Because I'm worried about you, and selfishly because I couldn't forgive myself if something happened because I didn't try harder to help you.