I had a job interview this morning, and it went pretty well despite not a whole lot of sleep and a huge fucking distraction tossed in my lap yesterday. I'll probably write about the distraction in a day or two, but I'd like to process it for a bit and see if I can wrangle any more interesting conclusions out of it.
I'm most interested in a position teaching elementary schoolchildren as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). The job will allow me to interact with kids, which I like, and I'll be working in Japanese public schools, which will massively improve my Japanese. The work isn't difficult, and it sounds like I'll only be actually teaching for about 4 hours a day, while the rest of my time at work can be used to study Japanese and more or less relax. I'm also lining up work through a guy I know in western Tokyo (actually Kanagawa), and I may just ending up working for him full-time if he can get me enough work. It's looking more and more probable, though, that I'll have at least 2 or 3 jobs over the course of the next year. After my contract expires, in April 2010, I'm considering a move to Osaka, which is on the other side of the main island of Japan. I hear the people are more outgoing, which would be really nice. People in Tokyo often have a look on their face that I usually equate with having a 2x4 rammed painfully up the ass.
I have a Canadian friend coming to couchsurf with me for the next week or so. We met in S. Korea, and she's pretty cool, so it should be fun. I have to work a lot, but nothing new there...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Initiation.
Last weekend I had an experience that felt very oddly, and very precisely, like an initiation. I've been teaching at elementary schools through a guy who lives near my primary job. His name is D. On Saturday, I went to pick up my pay from the elementary work, and he invited me out for a drink. Then it got weird.
We went to his friend's house, whose name I cannot currently remember. Japanese names usually take at least two or three hearings for me to remember then, and it can be sketchy even then. Since he is an aikido master, I just ended up calling him sensei for most of the evening. Tragically, his girlfriend very recently killed herself and Duncan has been spending a lot of time with him, so part of our job there was to hang out with him. With a huge bottle of Japanese rice wine, or nihon-shu. You can call it sake, as well, if you'd like. There are many kinds, so nihon-shu is a general term.
We killed the bottle and then headed back into the city. We hit a sushi bar, where apparently sensei is well known. The wait-staff put on an epic ass-kissing, so I assume that he goes there a lot. We had more nihon-shu, served in traditional Japanese fashion. A shot glass of nihon-shu is placed on the corner of a bamboo drinking vessel, also full of booze, and sushi was served. This point felt particularly initiation-y, because Duncan and the sensei ordered sushi for me and didn't eat any themselves. When I tried to eat it with ohashi (chopsticks), the sensei rapped my knuckles and told me to eat it by hand. So, I did and it was frickin' sweet. I do love my sushi.
Anyway...things get a little fuzzy after that, thanks to all of the drinking, but it was a good time. Not the sort of thing you want to do every night, but...everything in moderation, including moderation. Especially moderation.
Did I mention that we barely spoke English all night? I didn't understand about 75% of what I was hearing, but that's down from 90% a couple of months ago. Things are moving along...
We went to his friend's house, whose name I cannot currently remember. Japanese names usually take at least two or three hearings for me to remember then, and it can be sketchy even then. Since he is an aikido master, I just ended up calling him sensei for most of the evening. Tragically, his girlfriend very recently killed herself and Duncan has been spending a lot of time with him, so part of our job there was to hang out with him. With a huge bottle of Japanese rice wine, or nihon-shu. You can call it sake, as well, if you'd like. There are many kinds, so nihon-shu is a general term.
We killed the bottle and then headed back into the city. We hit a sushi bar, where apparently sensei is well known. The wait-staff put on an epic ass-kissing, so I assume that he goes there a lot. We had more nihon-shu, served in traditional Japanese fashion. A shot glass of nihon-shu is placed on the corner of a bamboo drinking vessel, also full of booze, and sushi was served. This point felt particularly initiation-y, because Duncan and the sensei ordered sushi for me and didn't eat any themselves. When I tried to eat it with ohashi (chopsticks), the sensei rapped my knuckles and told me to eat it by hand. So, I did and it was frickin' sweet. I do love my sushi.
Anyway...things get a little fuzzy after that, thanks to all of the drinking, but it was a good time. Not the sort of thing you want to do every night, but...everything in moderation, including moderation. Especially moderation.
Did I mention that we barely spoke English all night? I didn't understand about 75% of what I was hearing, but that's down from 90% a couple of months ago. Things are moving along...
Monday, February 16, 2009
On the hunt again.
Well, it looks pretty clear that my boss isn't very competent, and I'm concerned about the school blowing up in my face. I'm sending out applications right at the moment, and we'll see where it takes me. I'm trying to line up something with a recruiter, and I have a few options with some local contacts, as well.
Sucks, but at least this job got me here and helped me float for a while.
Sucks, but at least this job got me here and helped me float for a while.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The future and what the dang thing holds.
I have altered my plans a bit, I think. There is still a significant amount of time involved and I don't know exactly how everything will pan out here and back in the States, but I have decided to extend my visit here by a year.
My logic is this: I have certain financial goals here that I would like to achieve before I return and start school again. I'd like to get my credit card debt from college reduced. I'd like to make full payments on my student loan. I'd also like to save money for a motorcycle trip when I return to the U.S.
For a long time, now, I have dreamed of a motorcycle trip from Oregon back to Iowa, and maybe beyond. I wouldn't mind sharing some of the trip with some good friends, but I want to take the bulk of the trip by myself. Just me and some camping gear and the open road. I'd like to take a month or so, I think, when I get back, and just carve my way across the United States. The trip from Oregon to Iowa would be definite, but after that...who knows? I haven't seen the East Coast, and I haven't seen the South, and I have friends in both places who would probably be willing to show me around, if not host me outright. Combine that with camping and couchsurfing across the States and it could be the adventure of a lifetime...again.
I may have developed an addiction to these: Adventure and living my dreams. Why not?
My logic is this: I have certain financial goals here that I would like to achieve before I return and start school again. I'd like to get my credit card debt from college reduced. I'd like to make full payments on my student loan. I'd also like to save money for a motorcycle trip when I return to the U.S.
For a long time, now, I have dreamed of a motorcycle trip from Oregon back to Iowa, and maybe beyond. I wouldn't mind sharing some of the trip with some good friends, but I want to take the bulk of the trip by myself. Just me and some camping gear and the open road. I'd like to take a month or so, I think, when I get back, and just carve my way across the United States. The trip from Oregon to Iowa would be definite, but after that...who knows? I haven't seen the East Coast, and I haven't seen the South, and I have friends in both places who would probably be willing to show me around, if not host me outright. Combine that with camping and couchsurfing across the States and it could be the adventure of a lifetime...again.
I may have developed an addiction to these: Adventure and living my dreams. Why not?
Monday, February 9, 2009
uncertainty.
So, I should probably rename this blog to Incredibly Epic Tales of Uncertainty and Hardship in Tokyo, because that seems to be an unfortunately common state for me here. My dad noted that life is a roller coaster, and it is true, true, true.
Saturday is a prime example. On Saturday, I received my paycheck for the month of January. I knew that it would be light, thanks to the week and a half national holiday, during which I did not work, but my boss decided to retroactively give all the employees at our company a pay cut. Thanks, boss, and fuck you. I'll be finding a new job directly. The end result is that I have a well sub-poverty paycheck for the month of February and mounting debts from school, credit cards, and other assorted sources. I am very, very seriously considering staying here another year so that I can stabilize my financial situation. I only have about 15 months before I had previously scheduled my return to the states...it's not much time to complete my financial goals. Ultimately, it's not enough time, thanks to the apparently fucking endless financial setbacks that I must suffer here.
Saturday evening, however, I DJed at a swanky little bar in a wealthy part of Tokyo. It was packed, and I played a nice set. My new friends in Tokyo made up a very significant portion of the attendees and my network here is growing stronger, for which I am grateful.
I've DJed for over 11 years, so I'm not unused to being the center of attention at the various events at which I have performed over the years, but the minor celebrity status that I experienced on Saturday was far, far beyond anything I've dealt with before. To say that the Japanese women in attendance were "interested" in my performance would be an incredibly massive understatement. It would have almost been uncomfortable if it hadn't been so fucking fun.
So, anyway. The roller coaster goes up, and the roller coaster goes down. So it goes. I'll be finding a new job soon, and moving soon, and everything will change again, for better or worse. As it does.
Saturday is a prime example. On Saturday, I received my paycheck for the month of January. I knew that it would be light, thanks to the week and a half national holiday, during which I did not work, but my boss decided to retroactively give all the employees at our company a pay cut. Thanks, boss, and fuck you. I'll be finding a new job directly. The end result is that I have a well sub-poverty paycheck for the month of February and mounting debts from school, credit cards, and other assorted sources. I am very, very seriously considering staying here another year so that I can stabilize my financial situation. I only have about 15 months before I had previously scheduled my return to the states...it's not much time to complete my financial goals. Ultimately, it's not enough time, thanks to the apparently fucking endless financial setbacks that I must suffer here.
Saturday evening, however, I DJed at a swanky little bar in a wealthy part of Tokyo. It was packed, and I played a nice set. My new friends in Tokyo made up a very significant portion of the attendees and my network here is growing stronger, for which I am grateful.
I've DJed for over 11 years, so I'm not unused to being the center of attention at the various events at which I have performed over the years, but the minor celebrity status that I experienced on Saturday was far, far beyond anything I've dealt with before. To say that the Japanese women in attendance were "interested" in my performance would be an incredibly massive understatement. It would have almost been uncomfortable if it hadn't been so fucking fun.
So, anyway. The roller coaster goes up, and the roller coaster goes down. So it goes. I'll be finding a new job soon, and moving soon, and everything will change again, for better or worse. As it does.
Monday, February 2, 2009
So, about Ichikawa.
I live in Ichikawa, which is in Chiba. Chiba is on the east side of Tokyo, and I work on the west side of Tokyo. Tokyo, of course, is the largest city in the world.
If I am lucky, I can make it to work in about 1 hour and 10 minutes, door to door. However, 3 nights a week I also commute from work to other locations, usually about an additional half hour of travel, on the light side. On those 3 days, my commute approaches a total of 4 hours.
Additionally, I've just started working a second job, also on the west side of Tokyo, and that adds anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours to the daily commute, depending on whether or not I am working at my other job on that day.
I am FUCKING moving. I'm on the verge of a major freakout. This shit is fucking ridiculous and I can't, I won't, do it any more. God. Damn. It. I have had it. I am outta here by March. Period.
If I am lucky, I can make it to work in about 1 hour and 10 minutes, door to door. However, 3 nights a week I also commute from work to other locations, usually about an additional half hour of travel, on the light side. On those 3 days, my commute approaches a total of 4 hours.
Additionally, I've just started working a second job, also on the west side of Tokyo, and that adds anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours to the daily commute, depending on whether or not I am working at my other job on that day.
I am FUCKING moving. I'm on the verge of a major freakout. This shit is fucking ridiculous and I can't, I won't, do it any more. God. Damn. It. I have had it. I am outta here by March. Period.
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