Blue in Green

Its raining this morning -- first day in a long time that its been cold. The sky is covered by Chinese pollution and its very foggy.

The president was forced to step down today by the board of directors. A little too late. They should've done that when GEOS wanted to buy us. All branches are officially closed today. I suppose I won't have to call in sick next week.

The company is not bankrupt. It still has some assets and is asking the government for help. What's the expression again? Hmm... "A little too late." One can only hope that with the left over money Monkeyman gets his last month's pay check. Hate to see him kicked out of his penthouse.

Liquidate. I don't care. But before you do, let me get P's microwave. I went to the branch this morning to try to get the microwave. The doors were locked. I banged on the metal door and heard the phone ringing off the hook behind my clanging.

Nova was going under. We all knew it. The pessimists were right for once. It is a shame that Nova's death had to be done in such an underhanded way. Yesterday I left work figuring I'd be back today. I didn't say goodbye to the students. I didn't get to tell them they should take private lessons from me. I didn't get the numbers of my branch staff. I didn't get the emergency guidance numbers for foreigners. I didn't get the microwave.

All branches were closed quickly and quietly this morning with no notice. In some place, for some reason, an honorable man is committing seppuku. I do not think he is Monkeyman.

--E

Juelz Santana

Short post today. I am in the final legz of GRE preparation and I dont got a lot of (for my Japanese students -- "a-lodda") time to waste.

Its Tuesday 2.20 am. Sunday after work I went to the bar with my English boss D. The occasion was that our branch boss K was leaving. Me and D talked for an hour or so about the typical high felutant topics we both enjoy. Then came the Canadian A. Following her were 2 Japanese staff named Y and M. Then Australian P came. It was gts. Once Y and M arrived, we -- as in I -- had alodda fun trying to speak Japanese. All people E to Y at this point were roughly the same age, 21 - 23, so that was kool too. I am the youngest by 2 months. Hmm... story of my life. Then our boss K arrived. She stayed for a while. Everyone was lettin it back a little. I was jokin around with D, but he is a funny guy so u can joke even at work. But I was also joking with K which was very unusual. Usually she puts The Fear into me. I guess alcohol really is, as I have read, the release button on the pressure valve, and drinking allows you to transgress usual power boundaries to a degree.

And also, it was the first time I really got to talk to the staff. The only people who didnt come were 2 older teachers, and 1 Japanese staff. Small branch. Then A left followed by K, and then D. Me (E), P, and the J's Y and M left at 0 AM in time for the last train home.

I got a good amount of sleep, (7 hours), but the previous night I only got ~3. This is because I woke up to watch the rugby world cup finals cuz my roomate (almost typed in his real name there, prob not gonna do that, and think im gonna drop the letter thing now,) reeaally wanted my to.

So I was hecka tired at work on Monday (sort of today.) I was practically falling asleep in one 1-1 lesson, but the guy was weird and staring at his book so he didnt notice. Last night my boss D jokingly said I could ask the students out as long as he wasnt up there in the stall (classroom = stall) next to mine. This evening during my break I was walking down some small side street when someone grabbed my arm startling me. I turned around, and it was a cute college student that I teach. We chat in English for a couple minutes. I ask her if she would like to get a cup of coffee sometime and she says "i dont know..." (twice) which in Japanese means "no." Oh well, can't blame a guy for trying. It wasnt totally out of the blue tho, I did think she was sending me signals... :-P . Probably teach her Wed.

In other news, that same roomate cooked awesome tempura tonight. And the other roomate has gotten me into a cool game called tower defense. check out towerdefese.net or something.

Study study study gotta do the darn thing! 10 days away. Its the final countdown. And oh yea, the Nova situation is dece grim, but the melodrama is too complex to explain. Who knows wats gonna happen.

All in all, I just wrote more than I originally intended.

One1

The Final Countdown

The End is Nigh. The Final Days of Nova are upon us. And I am about to go to work...

THE GOC AND ME

"We're not in The GOC anymore" -- Wizard of Oz

It has become evident to me that I, like Dorothy, am no longer in The GOC. This is not a bad thing. Well, by all due respects, its a good thing. That's why I left The GOC. So that I would not be in it.

Well, actually I left it so that I would be in Japan. No offense 2 U All.

I have been slowly regaining contact with my GOC comrades. I intentionally have been avoiding that. I value certain members of The GOC as friends, definately. But to instant message them or whatever is to bring my new world closer to my old world. I don't want a blurry distinction. I don't want to live in Japan and have it be like last year. I don't want this to be an extension or a transition. I want this time in Japan to be a cold and hard break from the time before. Of course, I will ultimately keep in contact and do what I gotta do to stay friends, because stuff like that is important to me.

Which brings me to my next point. I've been pretty comfortable here. I live in a nice apartment with TV that I can watch English "24" on. My roommates are cool, and we talk in English. Teaching is easy; I like my colleauges and most of my students. In restaurants or beurocratic offices, I can get by with the Japanese speaking English. The weather feels like early spring. As I told a GOC friend on the phone: "I'm very comfortable...

"...and that's not good." I want an adventure in Japan and what is an adventure without conflict? I had poetic visions of a melancholy existence living in a single apartment trapped in my room with language books and literature, venturing out only to experience the lightning quick world of modern Japan, with necesary repreaves into the serenity of nature. Eventually, I would mellow out into a small circle of internationally-minded Japanese friends, with a few foreigners thrown in for good measure. Sure, that's probably asking alot, but why not? And then my friend told me "Going to Japan is an adventure in and of itself. I've never been outside the country. I'm sure you'll have conflict later." I realized she was right.

In the meantime, I have no freedom to carve out a desirable niche for myself. I am too busy studying physics. The Cribs are coming Oct 25 and I prob won't go see them, having to study instead. However, after November 3, I can hit the ground, and hopefully will start running.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy and glad I'm here. Moreover, my desire to turn my world upside down does not include a desire to be unemployed. Every day the situation with Nova seems to get bleaker. Japanese staff haven't been paid since sometime in September. And everyone was supposed to be paid today, but a fax came out saying we will have to wait until Friday. Thing is, they did this last month, too, and ended up paying 2 weeks late. Massive amounts of teachers are calling in "sick," in fact, one branch had NO teachers show up on Saturday. The students who came had to take lessons on this video-conferencing tool each branch has. I heard the Area Manager say on the phone "I suppose I'll just stick with it till the bitter end." When the boss of your boss thinks the company is going down the tubes, and says it in front of you... things aren't so good. The ship is sinking, but at my branch its business as usual. No staff has called in sick, and the students and teachers keep having good lessons. Will we survive? I hope so. Will I get a pay check? I hope so. How long will Nova be able to survive with teachers working merely on a hope they will get paid? I don't know.

L8

Holy Moley, Mackeral, and Manzanitas!

EMERGENCY BLOG UPDATE!

I interrupt my evening studies to bring you this urgent update. 2 citizens of 413 Lucida Katsutadai Chiba pref. Japan just experienced their first earthquake. It was not the third citizen of the apartment's first quake, as he has lived in Japan for the past 6 months.

One witnesses felt a mild trembling in the floor, comparable to someone shaking a table while writing furiously. Said the witness "I thought it was just me shaking the table by bobbing my leg." After he was informed of the earthquake, he halted his physics studying, and sat on the floor. He felt some mild periodic, lateral motion in the floor, about 4-8 waves per second. Too slow to be considered "vibration," it was also too mild to be considered "shaking." Wiggle your butt very slightly in your chair, and that is how it felt.

Said one witness, who hails from England: "When am I going to get a proper earthquake?"
Well, not a dangerous one, we hope. But one that at least feels like a hard shaking of the butt.

The earthquake scored a magnitude 150, on a certain units scale.

In other news, 2 Fast 2 Furious is on the T.V. and yet I am studying... will I ever see this movie that I love so much? :'''-(

To

Japanese Blog. Work date 5. 10. 7.. Sometimes I write the GOP date for the work date. Can't confuse the paperwork. Well, my paperwork isnt that important, anyways. This post is long, so I will divide it into Headers.

BEFORE WORK:
I suppose I might as well tell you what I do. Let me do that by describing a typical day. I wake up and go online. Usually in the morning I will download music. I drink coffee and if work starts late enough I have lunch. Here is my schedule:

Sunday = 10Am -- 5.20Am. Monday = off. Tuesday = off. Wednesday = 5.00Pm -- 9.00Pm. Thursday = 1.20Pm -- 5.40Pm. Friday = 1.20Pm -- 9.00 Pm. Saturday = 11.40Am -- 7.20 Pm.

It takes 3 minutes to walk to the train station and literally 4-5 minutes on the train to get to work. Of course, I might have to wait 12 minutes for a train, but you can plan these things on time. This isn't Italy. The trains run on time.

So you can see that I don't have to wake up early (usually,) and therefore can usually have lunch instead of toast breakfast. One more thing to mention, is that I need to wear a shirt and pants. Pants are no problem but shirts are often wrinkly. So I have a couple shirts that are not wrinkly right now and have been wearing those most of the time and then hanging them up and hoping they don't turn wrinkly overnight. If I can only find wrinkly shirts, I have to iron, which eats up time. In fact, due to reasons such as these and the fact that the trains don't run every 5 minutes only between the hours of 12.00Pm and 2.00Pm, I was "almost" late for my second and third days of work. "'almost'" because I probably wasnt late technically. Technically I showed up exactly on time, exactly on the bell (or 2 minutes before) for my first lesson. But, that is essentially late or borderline, as my boss explained to me during our first night drinking together.

WHAT I DO AT WORK:
I arrive about 10 - 20 minutes early to prepare my first few lessons. I look at the schedule and see who I am teaching. I locate their file by their assigned number, pull it out, and pick a lesson to teach based on what they and their classmates have done. I can pick anything for their speaking level, but I should avoid repeating lessons they have done recently. Repeating older lessons is fine, they often repeat lessons up to three times.

The lessons come neatly packaged for the instructor and I suppose the student. My book is twice as thick as the students', because opposite to each of their textbook pages, I have a fairly detailed plan of how the lesson should/can proceed. The lessons come in units based on topic, (which includes a language goal.) Some are: Problem Solving (talking about being lost in the wilderness,) Talking about Medicine, (traditional versus modern medicine, and skepticism.) Urban Renewal And Development. (Universally important topics ;) Telling funny stories. I havent done the last one yet, but I hear its hard. The Japanese don't get the GOC's humor. OK let's move on to the actual lesson! The lesson is 40 minutes long and broken down into a few parts.

TYPICAL LESSON:
Introduction/Assesment. Let's break the ice, warm you up, you can talk about how I'm from Boston. Please talk about how I'm from Boston, because I have nothing else to talk about except the weather today, and we talked about that yesterday...;). I also try to forshadow the lesson. "It's rainy out today. Do you get colds being in the rain? Should you use acupuncture to treat a cold... OK open your books to page E-13! we're talking about medicine"

Main Language. Look at the vocab. Go over things, ask for questions, listen and repeat, and stuff like that. ("So... I think that urban development is good, because they build a casino and there will be more money, and stuff like that" I love this one guy who uses GOC ~colloquialisms?~ to an absurdley large degree, he says "and stuff like that" every other sentence.)

Ok lets move on to the listening. I'll read them a dialogue test their understanding. Have them read a scentence and then show them how a native would say it. Ex: "What are you looking at" becomes "Wha are you looking at."

Activity. Important part of the lesson. Takes 10-15 mn. Do an activity, have them work in groups if more than one. To go over the structures and phrases we just learned.

And now let's do Applications! Applications are the wrap up, the most important thing, test the students' skillz, and let them practice using what they learned. I base the lesson around what App I do. (I could make it up, but usually I just choose one of the options given to the teacher.) An example of an App would be, in partners, one has an ailment and is seeking treatment. The other person offers what they think is the best line of treatment, then switch.

Bell rings, 4o minutes are up, and I quickly go over one mistake they did to correct them, tell them (and throughout the lesson,) that they are doing a good job, and then leave. I got 10- 15 minutes to see who Im teaching next, figure out how I'm going to run the lesson, and then go and do it all over again.

The easier ones to teach are the high level practically fluent ones. We have alot of those at this branch.

One other aspect of my job is Voice. Voice is basically you sit in a room with the students, and you speak English. They stay and go as they please all day (same price for them,) but usually they come and go and stay on regular class intervals. You don't have a lesson or anything. You just gotta keep em talking. You can elicit ideas based on a topic or play a game or just have a free conversation. First case, I had Voice today and had them each give me 3 emotions, which I wrote on the bored. Then I said to each in turn "please tell me about a time you were sad/happy/confused" etc. It ate up the 40 minutes so I was happy. For the second one, games similar to Peruvian Hat Game work... one of these days I'm gonna bust that out!

I had chibiko (preskoolers) training today. I might not ever do that, one girl at my branch doesnt, but sqrt(-1) still trained for it. If i do thats fine. I realized that being overjoyous and overenthusiastic might look sarcastic and feel incredibly uncomfortable in real life, but I can just pretend I'm acting, acting enthusiastic, and get the job done. Could be fun, "GREAT JOB! HIGH FIVE HIGH FIVE HIGH FIVE!!!" etc...


AFTER WORK:
After work I get home sometime in the evening. As my roomate Matt said, Nova messes with your schedule. So it is not abnormal to not start cooking dinner until 10 PM, and then maybe go to bed at 2. Simply cuz ur 2 tired 2 cook aftr gettin home till you have a rest surfin tha net.

I have been studying for the GREs alot, i feel not bad. Its about 5 -8 hours away so I am gonna try to take a couple days off and make my trip there into a long weekend/ vacation. (its in Kobe.) But I have not been getting much sleep staying up late (studying and watching 24) so I am very tired. I will try to update this blog every Moday (I got Mon off,) so stay tuned on Mondays. This post probably counts for my monday entry, so try again in 9 days, (or sooner, who knows what the future will bring?)

SOCIAL SITUATIONS:

2 happened recently. Last Sunday, in time for my first "weekend" me and my boss and 2 coworkers, in addition to my 2 roomates, went to a Japanese pub basically. You sit down (cool seats, you sit on the floor, but below the table is sunken in, so it feels like you are sitting on a chair) at a table and they serve both food and drinks. GTs. My boss is a nice guy. He's interested in physics philosophy and silversmithing which I can appreciate. He can slag witcha but you still gotta do your job proffesionally which I respect. My coworkers are chill and so are the roomies.

Sitch 2. Next day coworker (still wonderin if I should introduce names into this blog) who was at bar had a party at her apartment, well actually at the guys' next door who are also at Nova. That was a nice time, good amount/mix of people. The ubiquitous "cut -- it -- out" of Joey Gladstone was introduced. GTs.

And that's all he wrote.

Im not in the GOC anymore

Let us begin.

Japan (nihon) ni ikimashta (went to) last week (wakarimasen…). And now, I’m living here for t >= 1 year. I’m sorry for not updating this blog earlier. I probably should have, my first day’s impression of this land where the sun is always rising. But, perhaps due to this very strange solar phenomenon, my sleeping schedule has been a little off. For example, Friday night is going out night, right? Usually, it is. However, this Friday, I woke up at 6 am, went online for a little bit, and deciding I should get a little bit more sleep, closed my curtains and shut my eyes. I woke up to my roommate watching the T.V. and figure if he was up, I should get up. Long story short, it was dark out and 8 PM. Wow. Don’t know if I’ve ever slept until 8 pm. I guess I needed it, I was sleep. In any case, a lot of time, I’ve been too tired to write.

What the heck is this place like? Well, its hasn’t changed much in 1 year. That is a good thing. It is still busy, crowds are still pushy, people still stare constantly at their cell phone screens, (which do not look as advanced as American cell phones.) I’m sure it was the same before, but I have noticed particularly now the fashion of the Japanese. Every single girl here is uber fashionable by GOC (good old country) standards. Sometimes they try too hard, like the girl whose jeans were literally ripped in half on the leg, 360 degrees, and the bottom half only stayed up because they were tied there. But I didn’t bat two eyelids, because you half expect that. Basically, a girl dressing normal here is ultra-hip in America, idk. Guys are not as crazy actually. In terms of other descriptions for where I am living, its hard to describe, but everyone just seems extremely polite. Politeness is also mixed with goodnaturedness, which is probably slightly different from niceness, although related. For example, multiple occasions have Japanese noticed I was struggling with something – deciphering a menu, figuring out a map, whatever, and offered me concrete assistance. One guy poked me on the train, I turned around, and he asked me in English if I needed help. One woman spent 10 minutes trying to help me with a menu. Today, my day was made during the following interaction.

I ordered my favorite Japanese sweet – a pastry filled with cream – and asked where the train station was. Some Japanese woman said, “ishoni ikimasho” which means, “lets go together.” And I KNEW THAT!!! So I was like, “arigatoo gozaimasu.” And then we walked to the train station and had small talk IN JAPANESE!!! Where did she live – near the train station. Where was I from, etc. So she walked me to the train station and left, but she was hecka nice, and I SPOKE TO HER IN JAPANESE!!! Hopefully that was the first of thousands of more interactions like that.

Work. Hey, its not all small talk and games. Today I did it. Went to work. That wasn’t too bad. I won’t go into specifics because it does not entertain me to write about it, but I will say it wasn’t too bad. I am glad I took Publick Speaking in college, truly, because I have generally felt comfortable speaking in groups, I believe that class made me much more proficient at doing so. 2 hours after getting to work, (at 12.30, isn’t that so early??) I was already speaking in front of a group of students. A few hours later I was talking to them for 10 minutes and by the end of the day for 20 minutes. Tomorrow, I teach two full lessons for 40 minutes. Day after I teach 4 lessons. End of training. That is Wednesday. Friday I start work, full time, no supervisors. So, we were definitely tossed into the deep end but I’ll probably swim.

It’s weird, the job is better than I thought it’d be. But at the same time, it is somewhat scary thinking that I am actually going to LIVE here. This isn’t a vacation. It is highly intimidating to commit myself for a year, especially abroad. College was easy in that everything was decided for me except my schedule. Now I have to put in effort to decide the course of my future. I know I want to live in Japan, but will I feel the same in a year? Will I want to continue on and start the path towards a career? I would say no, 1 year isn’t enough, if the only factor were Japan. But the other factor is work, and work is scary. Much more scary than grad school. So those are just some initial hesitations I am thinking about.

(After my first day of work, I strongly doubt I can work happily in the traditional workforce with a regular boss and all that. Let’s hope this academia thing pans out in the future.)

But in the meantime, my job is fairly easy and fairly fun.

I have two roommates, Matt and Jack. Cool doods. I have the biggest room. It has tatami mat floors, big closet, connects to the balcony where you hang your clothes to dry. Tatami mats seem to make the mess look less messy. My room connects to the living room and the walls are extra thin in Japan compared to the GOC. The noise is a minor downside to trade for the space and tatami matts. Next Sunday after work my workmates are throwing a party for me. Should be GTs, (good times,) especially since I have Mondays and Tuesdays off. Gaijkokujin (Gaijin) crowd should be fun, no doubt, but the devil’s trap they are!

Goals: hangout with Japanese, perhaps this will be done at work with the Japanese staff.

Go to Karaoke and get plastered till the first trains start at 5 am, and then go to Sukiji fish market and get sushi.

Get Japanese girlfriend.

Get 990 on physics GRE.

Do the darn thing!

One1.