So just an update, my email did indeed arrive. I guess they just wanted to wait a day because they knew I could appreciate the hilarity of the email being sent on Christmas Eve. This makes two years running that Japan has given me a nasty surprise on Christmas Eve. I must remain here for one more year just to prove to myself that it is in fact possible to have a nice Christmas Eve in Japan!
Haha, that is a bit tongue-in-cheek though, because I am in fact having a great Christmas Eve and this email was rather expected, so not truly a surprise. I am optimist through and through and refuse to let anything ruin my favorite holiday! (^_^)v
Merry Christmas everyone!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Merry Christmas, Corporate Style!
Yesterday, our generous benefactors (G Communications, not to be confused with the Combine), sent out an email to some of the former NOVA teachers who had received a promise that they would be rehired on January 10, 2008.
I have reproduced the email according to what is revealed in a post at www.letsjapan.org/forum because thankfully, I didn't receive one myself.
December 21, 2007
Information regarding Re-employment with G.education
Thank you for requesting re-employment with G.education. Since taking over operations at Nova we have put all our efforts into proceeding with the reopening of branches. As a result, we expect to have approximately 130 branches offering Nova lessons during December 2007.
At the same time, the Trustees in Bankruptcy are making progress with dissolving Nova Corporation. At present they have started proceeding sequentially with terminating leases of properties which will not be taken over by G.education and the problem of unpaid wages. With the cooperation of property owners, we have managed to rapidly reopen many branches but now intend to more closely align branch reopenings with the current business situation. The process of opening the Ekimae Ryugaku branches and restarting lessons requires a lot of time, personnel and expense. To enable us to offer lessons even more quickly to students who still have unused lesson points, we will shift the focus of development from the branches to expanding Ochanoma Ryugaku lessons with a view to even opening new Multimedia Center facilities overseas.
In the current business situation, it is only possible for G.education to employ a limited number of instructors in January and while we appreciate your request for re-employment from January 10, 2008, it is with great regret that we inform you that we are not able to offer you a position at G.education at this time.
While the current business situation makes this decision unavoidable, we hope to be able to contact you and ask you for your assistance if possible once business operations allow.
In our endeavor to continue Novafs business, we are constantly forced to make difficult decisions and, while our aim is to be able to have as many students as possible return to the branches and as many instructors as possible continue employment, it is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you of this decision and ask for your understanding.
We wish you all the best with your future endeavors.
Takashi Ono
Chief Executive Officer
G.education Co. Ltd.
The words speak for themselves; the new NOVA company is no improvement, as they basically immediately are going back on their word to several thousand former employees. Apparently there was some randomly selected employees that they decided to keep, and I appear to be one of them... at least so far. There could be a second wave of emails, including one with my name on it.
To be honest, I wasn't so sure about this new company to begin with and have still been actively job hunting, so this doesn't in particular surprise or worry me. If they extend an offer of employment, come the 10th, then all's well. If not, I will make do until I can land a job elsewhere. I have a lot more going for me than most of the former NOVA employees seeing as how I have been here a bit over a year, and can claim basically a year's worth of experience. For those who have only been in Japan a few months, things are looking quite grim.
Anyways, at least I can say I lived in interesting times. This entire trip to Japan has been quite the "growing up" experience that I imagined it would be, but in entirely unexpected ways!
At the forum where I obtained the copy of the email (whose contents I have confirmed through friends who also received one of these Dear Gaijin emails) there are a lot of people who are basically blaming the NOVA employees who took it on good faith that this company's promise would be kept. While I agree that I personally didn't particularly believe the company would rehire all the employees, I dislike any attitude which shifts the blame away from the true culprit; regardless of if its just business or whatever other excuse you want to make, the fact of the matter is that this company made a misleading promise and then broke it.
Once upon a time, this behavior would not be acceptable in good society. Maybe that's the problem; good society is now the minority and so many people are just out to get their own and screw anyone they can while doing so. Regardless, for many NOVA teachers, this is the first real world job they have had; they don't know better than to trust the promises of a faceless corporation. That was one of my biggest complaints, back in the days when I actually worked at NOVA; everyone acted like it was such a terrible job and the conditions were awful and blah blah blah, when in reality we were all getting paid sick money for doing the easiest job I've ever had!
In any case, my heart goes out to all my friends and former co-workers who had this bitter announcement delivered to them days before Christmas. For all I know, I am in your same position, but I hope nobody begrudges me if I find myself among the lucky* few who will find a place at Neo NOVA.
* - If conditions are the same or worse than they were with the old company, the word lucky might be a tongue-in-cheek joke. Time will tell, though this recent event certainly doesn't bode well for our new benefactors...
I have reproduced the email according to what is revealed in a post at www.letsjapan.org/forum because thankfully, I didn't receive one myself.
December 21, 2007
Information regarding Re-employment with G.education
Thank you for requesting re-employment with G.education. Since taking over operations at Nova we have put all our efforts into proceeding with the reopening of branches. As a result, we expect to have approximately 130 branches offering Nova lessons during December 2007.
At the same time, the Trustees in Bankruptcy are making progress with dissolving Nova Corporation. At present they have started proceeding sequentially with terminating leases of properties which will not be taken over by G.education and the problem of unpaid wages. With the cooperation of property owners, we have managed to rapidly reopen many branches but now intend to more closely align branch reopenings with the current business situation. The process of opening the Ekimae Ryugaku branches and restarting lessons requires a lot of time, personnel and expense. To enable us to offer lessons even more quickly to students who still have unused lesson points, we will shift the focus of development from the branches to expanding Ochanoma Ryugaku lessons with a view to even opening new Multimedia Center facilities overseas.
In the current business situation, it is only possible for G.education to employ a limited number of instructors in January and while we appreciate your request for re-employment from January 10, 2008, it is with great regret that we inform you that we are not able to offer you a position at G.education at this time.
While the current business situation makes this decision unavoidable, we hope to be able to contact you and ask you for your assistance if possible once business operations allow.
In our endeavor to continue Novafs business, we are constantly forced to make difficult decisions and, while our aim is to be able to have as many students as possible return to the branches and as many instructors as possible continue employment, it is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you of this decision and ask for your understanding.
We wish you all the best with your future endeavors.
Takashi Ono
Chief Executive Officer
G.education Co. Ltd.
The words speak for themselves; the new NOVA company is no improvement, as they basically immediately are going back on their word to several thousand former employees. Apparently there was some randomly selected employees that they decided to keep, and I appear to be one of them... at least so far. There could be a second wave of emails, including one with my name on it.
To be honest, I wasn't so sure about this new company to begin with and have still been actively job hunting, so this doesn't in particular surprise or worry me. If they extend an offer of employment, come the 10th, then all's well. If not, I will make do until I can land a job elsewhere. I have a lot more going for me than most of the former NOVA employees seeing as how I have been here a bit over a year, and can claim basically a year's worth of experience. For those who have only been in Japan a few months, things are looking quite grim.
Anyways, at least I can say I lived in interesting times. This entire trip to Japan has been quite the "growing up" experience that I imagined it would be, but in entirely unexpected ways!
At the forum where I obtained the copy of the email (whose contents I have confirmed through friends who also received one of these Dear Gaijin emails) there are a lot of people who are basically blaming the NOVA employees who took it on good faith that this company's promise would be kept. While I agree that I personally didn't particularly believe the company would rehire all the employees, I dislike any attitude which shifts the blame away from the true culprit; regardless of if its just business or whatever other excuse you want to make, the fact of the matter is that this company made a misleading promise and then broke it.
Once upon a time, this behavior would not be acceptable in good society. Maybe that's the problem; good society is now the minority and so many people are just out to get their own and screw anyone they can while doing so. Regardless, for many NOVA teachers, this is the first real world job they have had; they don't know better than to trust the promises of a faceless corporation. That was one of my biggest complaints, back in the days when I actually worked at NOVA; everyone acted like it was such a terrible job and the conditions were awful and blah blah blah, when in reality we were all getting paid sick money for doing the easiest job I've ever had!
In any case, my heart goes out to all my friends and former co-workers who had this bitter announcement delivered to them days before Christmas. For all I know, I am in your same position, but I hope nobody begrudges me if I find myself among the lucky* few who will find a place at Neo NOVA.
* - If conditions are the same or worse than they were with the old company, the word lucky might be a tongue-in-cheek joke. Time will tell, though this recent event certainly doesn't bode well for our new benefactors...
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Morning Musings
I woke up early today and decided to take a bike ride through downtown Osaka since I'm basically never awake during the morning commuter rush, and wanted to see what it was like. There is a TON of folks in Osaka! Apparently the city's population is around 2 and a half million at night time, but during the day another million commuters come to the city to work.
While riding my bicycle, I passed a coffee shop called "Ko Hi Kan", spelled out in romaji. (That's what they call the English alphabet here.) Being a sophisticated expat, I was able to use my powers of deduction to figure out it was a coffee shop because I knew that coffee is pronounced "co-he", or phonetically in kana "ko-hi", and I seem to recall that "kan" is used to describe a hot drink or something like that, though I could be wrong. Also, there was a big picture of a cup of steaming coffee on the window, which I was able to utilize in my scientific deductions.
I am often surprised at the "gambare" work ethic of the Japanese people. It is a noticeable cultural difference when you interact with staff at minimum wage jobs, especially. (Note: I'm not saying this to offend anyone who does in fact try their darnedest even at minimum wage. This is a stereotypical example and I would say that you would be an exception to the rule, at least in my own experiences in America. End of disclaimer.)
At McDonald's, for example, the Japanese people are extremely friendly, smiley, and polite. Everyone, at every McDonald's, without exception. I remember going to a floating McDonald's in St. Louis, built out of an old ferry boat or some such, and being particularly unimpressed with the service and outright hostility of the staff working there. This type of situation is basically impossible to find in Japan, due to it being a matter-of-fact cultural difference; it is unfathomable that someone wouldn't try their best, especially in a service industry.
A shame that it isn't similarly unthinkable that a guy might cop a feel off a middle school student in a crowded subway...
Japan can be pervy. The Japanese view on sexuality is quite different from the Christian-influenced culture of America. In some ways I find it kind of refreshing; a lot less hypocritical nonsense. In other ways I find it quite disturbing, as the lack of restraint can manifest itself in molesting middle school students on crowded subways. After inquiring around, I was surprised that most of the girls I know, gaijin and Japanese alike, get groped or fight off an attempted grope at least once a month.
Of course this isn't to say that the average Japanese man is a sex offender; bear in mind, what I'm describing is a depraved minority... but they are able to operate with a lot more freedom than would be tolerated in America, due to the cultural differences. Japan is a very "don't make waves" society, so it tends to leave victims feeling powerless to inform an authority that someone is perving out on them.
Thankfully, there have been campaigns recently to empower women to report the chikans (train molesters) and the climate is definitely changing. Depraved perverts everywhere are wistfully remembering the good old days while crying into their sake.
And now I think it is time for me to take a nap.
While riding my bicycle, I passed a coffee shop called "Ko Hi Kan", spelled out in romaji. (That's what they call the English alphabet here.) Being a sophisticated expat, I was able to use my powers of deduction to figure out it was a coffee shop because I knew that coffee is pronounced "co-he", or phonetically in kana "ko-hi", and I seem to recall that "kan" is used to describe a hot drink or something like that, though I could be wrong. Also, there was a big picture of a cup of steaming coffee on the window, which I was able to utilize in my scientific deductions.
I am often surprised at the "gambare" work ethic of the Japanese people. It is a noticeable cultural difference when you interact with staff at minimum wage jobs, especially. (Note: I'm not saying this to offend anyone who does in fact try their darnedest even at minimum wage. This is a stereotypical example and I would say that you would be an exception to the rule, at least in my own experiences in America. End of disclaimer.)
At McDonald's, for example, the Japanese people are extremely friendly, smiley, and polite. Everyone, at every McDonald's, without exception. I remember going to a floating McDonald's in St. Louis, built out of an old ferry boat or some such, and being particularly unimpressed with the service and outright hostility of the staff working there. This type of situation is basically impossible to find in Japan, due to it being a matter-of-fact cultural difference; it is unfathomable that someone wouldn't try their best, especially in a service industry.
A shame that it isn't similarly unthinkable that a guy might cop a feel off a middle school student in a crowded subway...
Japan can be pervy. The Japanese view on sexuality is quite different from the Christian-influenced culture of America. In some ways I find it kind of refreshing; a lot less hypocritical nonsense. In other ways I find it quite disturbing, as the lack of restraint can manifest itself in molesting middle school students on crowded subways. After inquiring around, I was surprised that most of the girls I know, gaijin and Japanese alike, get groped or fight off an attempted grope at least once a month.
Of course this isn't to say that the average Japanese man is a sex offender; bear in mind, what I'm describing is a depraved minority... but they are able to operate with a lot more freedom than would be tolerated in America, due to the cultural differences. Japan is a very "don't make waves" society, so it tends to leave victims feeling powerless to inform an authority that someone is perving out on them.
Thankfully, there have been campaigns recently to empower women to report the chikans (train molesters) and the climate is definitely changing. Depraved perverts everywhere are wistfully remembering the good old days while crying into their sake.
And now I think it is time for me to take a nap.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Observation of the Japanese Government
Since I've been living in Japan (a little bit over a year now), I have often seen political and industrial scandals being reported in the news. This is a very common occurrence, much more common than I recall seeing in America.
One of the main similarities that I've noticed in the Japanese scandals is that in cases where there are people who were victimized, they are pretty much always abandoned. The responsible parties rarely faces anything beyond losing their career, in spite of literally ruining the lives of hundreds or even thousands of people.
A good example is a recent Hepatitis C scandal in which as many as 10,000 innocent people were infected with the disease during medical treatment in Japanese hospitals. The government seems to always dodge responsibility when confronted with problems like these, and it often results in the people having no help and no options.
It could be that I just have forgotten the frequency of similar situations in America, but I can't seem to recall this type of disgrace being a common event back home. I've heard people say that basically this is also why there are a ton of homeless folks in Japan; an earthquake or fire destroys someone's house or livelihood, and for some reason they can't receive an insurance payout or didn't have insurance at the time, for example because their company had just gone bankrupt.
Without any help from the government, they are forced to make due and continue living as best as they can manage. Myself, I'm living in Japan by choice; it is a privilege to live here and worst case scenario, I return home and move back in with my parents while I get back on my feet. However, if I didn't have that support group and was a Japanese citizen with nowhere to go, I could very easily be homeless now.
This whole experience has been a very valuable lesson on having backup plans and emergency savings, and has really made me appreciate my friends and family all the more knowing that I have people who would help me should I ever really need it.
About a month ago, my meager savings had ran dry. (This is aside from the cash I refuse to spend in case I just end up having to buy a ticket home.) I no longer was pulling in any income aside from a few private students, but the experience showed me just how cheaply one can live in Japan. Not having to pay our rent for the past few months has been integral to my ability to get by on a nonexistent income, and I basically could only afford to buy the groceries that I ate.
Luckily, I already own a bunch of great video games and as such, I didn't have to spend any money to have fun. However, my internet bill was due soon and I didn't think I would be able to afford to pay it... luckily, our company's new benefactors have seen fit to pay me a small gift in order to help ease my unemployment status until they can make full use of me come January 10th. So financially, I'm solid again! (Yay!)
Yes, folks, that's the day I'm no longer going to be unemployed. I dread it like I used to dread the end of summer. But I suppose it will be good to have a paycheck every month, and I'm excited to see how well my newfound knowledge of cheap-living will be able to replenish my savings.
Until next time, remember to put some extra cash in your emergency savings!
One of the main similarities that I've noticed in the Japanese scandals is that in cases where there are people who were victimized, they are pretty much always abandoned. The responsible parties rarely faces anything beyond losing their career, in spite of literally ruining the lives of hundreds or even thousands of people.
A good example is a recent Hepatitis C scandal in which as many as 10,000 innocent people were infected with the disease during medical treatment in Japanese hospitals. The government seems to always dodge responsibility when confronted with problems like these, and it often results in the people having no help and no options.
It could be that I just have forgotten the frequency of similar situations in America, but I can't seem to recall this type of disgrace being a common event back home. I've heard people say that basically this is also why there are a ton of homeless folks in Japan; an earthquake or fire destroys someone's house or livelihood, and for some reason they can't receive an insurance payout or didn't have insurance at the time, for example because their company had just gone bankrupt.
Without any help from the government, they are forced to make due and continue living as best as they can manage. Myself, I'm living in Japan by choice; it is a privilege to live here and worst case scenario, I return home and move back in with my parents while I get back on my feet. However, if I didn't have that support group and was a Japanese citizen with nowhere to go, I could very easily be homeless now.
This whole experience has been a very valuable lesson on having backup plans and emergency savings, and has really made me appreciate my friends and family all the more knowing that I have people who would help me should I ever really need it.
About a month ago, my meager savings had ran dry. (This is aside from the cash I refuse to spend in case I just end up having to buy a ticket home.) I no longer was pulling in any income aside from a few private students, but the experience showed me just how cheaply one can live in Japan. Not having to pay our rent for the past few months has been integral to my ability to get by on a nonexistent income, and I basically could only afford to buy the groceries that I ate.
Luckily, I already own a bunch of great video games and as such, I didn't have to spend any money to have fun. However, my internet bill was due soon and I didn't think I would be able to afford to pay it... luckily, our company's new benefactors have seen fit to pay me a small gift in order to help ease my unemployment status until they can make full use of me come January 10th. So financially, I'm solid again! (Yay!)
Yes, folks, that's the day I'm no longer going to be unemployed. I dread it like I used to dread the end of summer. But I suppose it will be good to have a paycheck every month, and I'm excited to see how well my newfound knowledge of cheap-living will be able to replenish my savings.
Until next time, remember to put some extra cash in your emergency savings!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Disjointed Rambles...
In general, Japanese people have no real opinion on American politics, aside from the consensus that nobody likes President Bush. As far as Japanese politics, my experiences in asking folks seems to reveal that there's a lot of political apathy, just like in America.
Speaking of American politics, I was quite surprised at how many misconceptions foreign native English-speakers had about America's political process. And then I realized that I had basically no knowledge whatsoever of the other English speaking nations' political processes either, before coming here and making friends with other countries' citizens. Its funny how we all consider ourselves "Democracies" at least in the layman's use of the term, and yet our various governments' political processes are so vastly different.
Christmas time in Japan is quite similar to Christmas time in America; Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas specials, holiday music (in English) piped through the store radios, and the staff more often than not are wearing reindeer and Santa hats. It is very festive and helps me not get too homesick during the holiday season.
When my company went bankrupt, we were very concerned about our apartment. It was a company apartment, and we didn't have enough money to make the deposit, first month's rent, and last month's rent on a new apartment. Not to mention "key money", an archaic tradition in Japan where you give basically a monetary gift to your landlord, which once upon a time was someone you lived *with* and not a faceless corporation.
Well, turns out that if you know the right people, even faceless corporations are pretty good guys. (Valuable life lesson: always do your best to know the right people.) I may have mentioned before, (or maybe not?) that our neighborhood has a little hole-in-the-wall bar ran by a guy who spent 2 years backpacking across Europe and Asia. During his travels he picked up pretty good English and as such, we really enjoy hanging out in his bar and talking with him. "We" being myself and my roommate Eddy, who has become my best mate in Japan. ("Mate" is the Aussie and British way of saying friend.)
So the bartender of the little "tachinomimonoya" (literally "standing bar", which means there's no room for seats or tables, just a bar which everyone stands around) knows one of the managers in the company that owns my building, and he put in a good word for us. After that, we meet with the manager of our particular building, and he lets us stay in the apartment without having to bother with moving, gave us an extra month free, and then set up our payment so that it would be at the end of the month rather than the beginning, which is what everyone else has to do. All of this because he understood our situation and that we wouldn't be coming into money for several months. Additionally, he waived the key money and isn't requiring a deposit.
In other words, we got the hook up yo!
Shortly after this deal transpired, our former neighbors, fellow gaijin English teachers, realized that their new apartment was going to be too expensive for them to stay in. We had a spare room so we offered to let them crash here for a few months, providing they pay rent, and they agreed. So now its a regular full house with two guys and two girls (the girls sharing a room), and although the kitchen is now a permanent war-zone I have to say that having a female's touch on the house decor has been rather refreshing.
Concurrently, as they moved in, we cleaned house... the battle of two young men against 10 years of NOVA teachers trashing this apartment. We took heavy casualties, but have declared VF day! (Victory over Filth!)
Speaking of American politics, I was quite surprised at how many misconceptions foreign native English-speakers had about America's political process. And then I realized that I had basically no knowledge whatsoever of the other English speaking nations' political processes either, before coming here and making friends with other countries' citizens. Its funny how we all consider ourselves "Democracies" at least in the layman's use of the term, and yet our various governments' political processes are so vastly different.
Christmas time in Japan is quite similar to Christmas time in America; Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas specials, holiday music (in English) piped through the store radios, and the staff more often than not are wearing reindeer and Santa hats. It is very festive and helps me not get too homesick during the holiday season.
When my company went bankrupt, we were very concerned about our apartment. It was a company apartment, and we didn't have enough money to make the deposit, first month's rent, and last month's rent on a new apartment. Not to mention "key money", an archaic tradition in Japan where you give basically a monetary gift to your landlord, which once upon a time was someone you lived *with* and not a faceless corporation.
Well, turns out that if you know the right people, even faceless corporations are pretty good guys. (Valuable life lesson: always do your best to know the right people.) I may have mentioned before, (or maybe not?) that our neighborhood has a little hole-in-the-wall bar ran by a guy who spent 2 years backpacking across Europe and Asia. During his travels he picked up pretty good English and as such, we really enjoy hanging out in his bar and talking with him. "We" being myself and my roommate Eddy, who has become my best mate in Japan. ("Mate" is the Aussie and British way of saying friend.)
So the bartender of the little "tachinomimonoya" (literally "standing bar", which means there's no room for seats or tables, just a bar which everyone stands around) knows one of the managers in the company that owns my building, and he put in a good word for us. After that, we meet with the manager of our particular building, and he lets us stay in the apartment without having to bother with moving, gave us an extra month free, and then set up our payment so that it would be at the end of the month rather than the beginning, which is what everyone else has to do. All of this because he understood our situation and that we wouldn't be coming into money for several months. Additionally, he waived the key money and isn't requiring a deposit.
In other words, we got the hook up yo!
Shortly after this deal transpired, our former neighbors, fellow gaijin English teachers, realized that their new apartment was going to be too expensive for them to stay in. We had a spare room so we offered to let them crash here for a few months, providing they pay rent, and they agreed. So now its a regular full house with two guys and two girls (the girls sharing a room), and although the kitchen is now a permanent war-zone I have to say that having a female's touch on the house decor has been rather refreshing.
Concurrently, as they moved in, we cleaned house... the battle of two young men against 10 years of NOVA teachers trashing this apartment. We took heavy casualties, but have declared VF day! (Victory over Filth!)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Battle Report
Time: 19:35
Date: 3rd December, 2007
Location: Maruyama Heights #402
After-battle report for the Bathroom Region: heavy casualties taken in action in the sink sector, but in spite of this we have completely secured the area. Awards and medals are expected for the exceptional performance seen by the forces that engaged the enemy in this sector; the fighting was fierce but we are able to declare total victory in this sector.
Forces are currently mopping up the shower sector, with small pockets of enemy resistance still holding out. For the most part, however, the shower sector is secure. Advise caution when patrolling the bathtub area; still receiving reports of enemy activity but our forces are stretched too thin to secure it completely.
Forces have begun to advance into the toilet sector; enemy contact has been heavy, with casualties on both sides already rising. Expecting further word after combat has ceased.
Date: 3rd December, 2007
Location: Maruyama Heights #402
After-battle report for the Bathroom Region: heavy casualties taken in action in the sink sector, but in spite of this we have completely secured the area. Awards and medals are expected for the exceptional performance seen by the forces that engaged the enemy in this sector; the fighting was fierce but we are able to declare total victory in this sector.
Forces are currently mopping up the shower sector, with small pockets of enemy resistance still holding out. For the most part, however, the shower sector is secure. Advise caution when patrolling the bathtub area; still receiving reports of enemy activity but our forces are stretched too thin to secure it completely.
Forces have begun to advance into the toilet sector; enemy contact has been heavy, with casualties on both sides already rising. Expecting further word after combat has ceased.
Friday, November 9, 2007
NOVA in the News
In lieu of a typical post, I just thought I'd link some stories talking about the situation as it comes to light regarding my former company. They are in no particular order, but some reveal the source of my new-found optimism towards my employment status:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071109TDY02306.htm
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h25DO_2O_UNwdQdgDz1ayCy2-NxA
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009092771
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1681727,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10474346
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3129679.ece
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071108p2a00m0na011000c.html
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/face/news/20071109p2g00m0dm004000c.html
Note, the last article is partly inaccurate; the infamous NOVA mascot, as seen here, was in fact developed by and subsequently stolen from a NOVA instructor, who never saw any sort of bonus or reimbursement for his billion-yen-doodle.
In any case, optimistically I'll be seeing a paycheck as early as the 20th. All in all, in spite of having a very bad reputation for one of its schools in northern Japan, our treatment so far by our new-found benefactor has been exemplary.
Hopefully I will be gainfully employed this time next month!
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071109TDY02306.htm
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h25DO_2O_UNwdQdgDz1ayCy2-NxA
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009092771
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1681727,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10474346
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3129679.ece
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071108p2a00m0na011000c.html
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/face/news/20071109p2g00m0dm004000c.html
Note, the last article is partly inaccurate; the infamous NOVA mascot, as seen here, was in fact developed by and subsequently stolen from a NOVA instructor, who never saw any sort of bonus or reimbursement for his billion-yen-doodle.
In any case, optimistically I'll be seeing a paycheck as early as the 20th. All in all, in spite of having a very bad reputation for one of its schools in northern Japan, our treatment so far by our new-found benefactor has been exemplary.
Hopefully I will be gainfully employed this time next month!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Election Season in Japan
Japan is in many ways a strange place for someone from European heritage.
Take, for example, the process of democratic elections in Japan. Every morning, starting as early as 7am, vans will troll the city streets, even in little crappy residential nowheres such as where I live, and loudly announce their representatives' campaign promises and election strategies. This is VERY LOUD, mind, and at 7am I generally haven't been asleep for very long.
It blows my mind that in a nation where people are elected into office, this process of bombarding people with noise pollution hasn't seen a negative impact through votes against the perpetrators. Heck, I'm honestly surprised that this type of campaigning (if it can even be called that...) is legal!
To be fair, it is apparently illegal for this to be done by a recording. In fact, it must always be a person. And as any Japanese will tell you, if you need someone to broadcast a message to the general populace (or to bring you a beverage on your airplane), there is simply no choice: women are preferred.
So they have these (invariably cute) women, dressed up in some ridiculously over-the-top uniforms (which is to say, a typical Japanese uniform), riding in the back of vans (generally in teams of two or three since one of them must be shouting at us to vote for whoever at any given moment), while all involved do their best to look charming and attractive and wave at everyone they see. (Even gaijin!) In this fashion do the politicians get votes in Japan.
And honestly, aside from the 7am wakeup calls, this method wins out against seeing Mr. Manchin waving at me from the side of the road, holding up his name and trying his best to look less-than-miserable in the sub-arctic wind. (Needless to say, the typical Japanese election girl is much nicer to look at than Mr. Manchin, and generally much friendlier looking as well.)
Almost all Japanese would agree with me that girls are better suited to public roles where the goal is to look friendly and gain support for something. Apparently, men aren't "nice enough" to perform jobs involving interaction with the general public. This is a very commonly held opinion among Japanese, and both genders tend to agree on this point.
Fair enough, I say. My experiences of interaction with the typical Japanese male and female has lent itself to concur with their opinion, though I daresay this is a result of cultural norms rather than some sort of irrevocable human/gender nature. Japanese men tend to be quite grumpy, sharp, and downright rude. Not to say that there aren't tons of exceptions, but this would be the typical expected behavior of a middle-aged Japanese man. Gender roles in Japan are much more rigid and tend to conform to expected stereotypes much more readily than what I've seen and experienced in America. ("The nail that stands out..")
Japan, at least from my feminist-sympathizing American perspective, is a very sexist country. The roles and expectations of women and man are vastly different. Women tend to do everything possible to maximize their femininity; schoolgirls as young as elementary school are wearing skirts (sometimes miniskirts) as part of their required school uniforms. Females in any job role requiring them to wear uniforms often have to wear uniforms incorporating skirts, as opposed to any male coworkers who wear pants as their uniform. Including police officers.
Many jobs won't even hire men, preferring women for whatever duty they require of their workers. (A good example of this is the many bakery/cafes; aside from Starbucks, they generally will not hire men.) Meanwhile, in the professional world, women are rare amongst the office workers in any role other than secretary. Of the two female professionals whom I know, both are the only female in their offices, working beside ten or more men.
All of this illustrates the difference between parity for women and men in Japan. Things are changing, but there is no unified and concerted effort of women fighting for equality... nothing akin to the Womens' Rights movements we saw fifty-some years ago.
Whenever I'm with my host family, this gender role makes itself clearly seen. The husband may be closest to the kitchen, but if wants a drink from the fridge, he will request it of his wife, who will then go get one. If his wife isn't in the room, he will request it from his daughter, regardless of if his son is in the kitchen at the time. And this is not an atypical example as far as my many experiences have indicated.
One of the key things ingrained in me by my professors when preparing me for cultural studies is to try my best to reserve judgment; I cannot hope to truly observe and study a foreign culture if I am constantly passing judgment on it in comparison to my own cultural values. As such, I am not trying to comment on this being "wrong", but rather just demonstrate how shocking it can be to live in a foreign culture.
Coming from America, which I daresay isn't the world's leader in gender equality, it is still quite shocking to see how rigid and vast the differences are between genders here in Japan. In many ways it feels like I've traveled through time and arrived in the 1950s, least of all because the Japanese attitude towards smoking is perfectly identical to 1950s America. Basically since I've come to Japan, I've taken to smoking two packs a day - all through second-hand smoke.
In any case, it is definitely an experience to live and work in a foreign country, and I would highly recommend Japan to anyone looking to really experience something different from their own culture.
Take, for example, the process of democratic elections in Japan. Every morning, starting as early as 7am, vans will troll the city streets, even in little crappy residential nowheres such as where I live, and loudly announce their representatives' campaign promises and election strategies. This is VERY LOUD, mind, and at 7am I generally haven't been asleep for very long.
It blows my mind that in a nation where people are elected into office, this process of bombarding people with noise pollution hasn't seen a negative impact through votes against the perpetrators. Heck, I'm honestly surprised that this type of campaigning (if it can even be called that...) is legal!
To be fair, it is apparently illegal for this to be done by a recording. In fact, it must always be a person. And as any Japanese will tell you, if you need someone to broadcast a message to the general populace (or to bring you a beverage on your airplane), there is simply no choice: women are preferred.
So they have these (invariably cute) women, dressed up in some ridiculously over-the-top uniforms (which is to say, a typical Japanese uniform), riding in the back of vans (generally in teams of two or three since one of them must be shouting at us to vote for whoever at any given moment), while all involved do their best to look charming and attractive and wave at everyone they see. (Even gaijin!) In this fashion do the politicians get votes in Japan.
And honestly, aside from the 7am wakeup calls, this method wins out against seeing Mr. Manchin waving at me from the side of the road, holding up his name and trying his best to look less-than-miserable in the sub-arctic wind. (Needless to say, the typical Japanese election girl is much nicer to look at than Mr. Manchin, and generally much friendlier looking as well.)
Almost all Japanese would agree with me that girls are better suited to public roles where the goal is to look friendly and gain support for something. Apparently, men aren't "nice enough" to perform jobs involving interaction with the general public. This is a very commonly held opinion among Japanese, and both genders tend to agree on this point.
Fair enough, I say. My experiences of interaction with the typical Japanese male and female has lent itself to concur with their opinion, though I daresay this is a result of cultural norms rather than some sort of irrevocable human/gender nature. Japanese men tend to be quite grumpy, sharp, and downright rude. Not to say that there aren't tons of exceptions, but this would be the typical expected behavior of a middle-aged Japanese man. Gender roles in Japan are much more rigid and tend to conform to expected stereotypes much more readily than what I've seen and experienced in America. ("The nail that stands out..")
Japan, at least from my feminist-sympathizing American perspective, is a very sexist country. The roles and expectations of women and man are vastly different. Women tend to do everything possible to maximize their femininity; schoolgirls as young as elementary school are wearing skirts (sometimes miniskirts) as part of their required school uniforms. Females in any job role requiring them to wear uniforms often have to wear uniforms incorporating skirts, as opposed to any male coworkers who wear pants as their uniform. Including police officers.
Many jobs won't even hire men, preferring women for whatever duty they require of their workers. (A good example of this is the many bakery/cafes; aside from Starbucks, they generally will not hire men.) Meanwhile, in the professional world, women are rare amongst the office workers in any role other than secretary. Of the two female professionals whom I know, both are the only female in their offices, working beside ten or more men.
All of this illustrates the difference between parity for women and men in Japan. Things are changing, but there is no unified and concerted effort of women fighting for equality... nothing akin to the Womens' Rights movements we saw fifty-some years ago.
Whenever I'm with my host family, this gender role makes itself clearly seen. The husband may be closest to the kitchen, but if wants a drink from the fridge, he will request it of his wife, who will then go get one. If his wife isn't in the room, he will request it from his daughter, regardless of if his son is in the kitchen at the time. And this is not an atypical example as far as my many experiences have indicated.
One of the key things ingrained in me by my professors when preparing me for cultural studies is to try my best to reserve judgment; I cannot hope to truly observe and study a foreign culture if I am constantly passing judgment on it in comparison to my own cultural values. As such, I am not trying to comment on this being "wrong", but rather just demonstrate how shocking it can be to live in a foreign culture.
Coming from America, which I daresay isn't the world's leader in gender equality, it is still quite shocking to see how rigid and vast the differences are between genders here in Japan. In many ways it feels like I've traveled through time and arrived in the 1950s, least of all because the Japanese attitude towards smoking is perfectly identical to 1950s America. Basically since I've come to Japan, I've taken to smoking two packs a day - all through second-hand smoke.
In any case, it is definitely an experience to live and work in a foreign country, and I would highly recommend Japan to anyone looking to really experience something different from their own culture.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
So my company went bankrupt...
The past few months has been hectic with the impending implosion of my company, the largest English school in Japan. I've been to protests when our bosses' and the Japanese staff's pay started being delivered late, and finally ended up getting no pay for over fifteen days which would have gone on indefinitely had it not been for the board of directors having an emergency usurping of our hapless president.
He has mismanaged the company for over a decade and has been MIA for at least a few weeks, most likely already living off the company's profits in some tax haven with anti-extradition laws. It was nice for some of the snakes in the upper management to at least do the decent thing (for once) and declare bankruptcy.
So now I'm on two weeks unpaid vacation (job hunting all the while), but the good news is I got my visa extension (barely) before the company collapsed and it is being processed. Hopefully my company being bankrupt won't throw any wrench into the processing (which supposedly won't matter since I began the process before it all hit the fan).
So in other news, our apartment owner seems keen on letting us just take over the lease from our company, which is good except that we have no jobs and income, so we're basically trying to stall for time. Supposedly our contract is safe for at least another month, if you believe what our company says, so we shouldn't be kicked to the streets anytime soon.
Still, it will be nice if one of the better jobs I've applied for hires me. It is a difficult situation because the market is quite glutted and this leaves very little room for a guy to get a job teaching English. Were I female, I'd have another job already, but it isn't as bad as my Asian roommate has it, who basically can't even get past the bare minimum screening.
Apparently English teachers should have a "look" that is "exotic and foreign", which in this neck of the woods means non-Asian. Gambatte, Eddie-kun!
Eddie is my roommate, by the way. We get along swell, are great friends, and very compatible at living together; don't get on each others nerves. Hopefully we can both get jobs soon and then we'll be set to continue our Japanese adventure. Our Japaventure!
In other news, my host family is still taking me to festivals and whatnot and in fact I'm going to their son's birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully I'll still be around to see their daughter's first-born come February!
I might finally have some time to make up for the lack of posts on this blog. There's plenty of interesting things to tell folks about, and I hope I can remember even half of it.
Till next time,
"Will Teach English for Beer".
He has mismanaged the company for over a decade and has been MIA for at least a few weeks, most likely already living off the company's profits in some tax haven with anti-extradition laws. It was nice for some of the snakes in the upper management to at least do the decent thing (for once) and declare bankruptcy.
So now I'm on two weeks unpaid vacation (job hunting all the while), but the good news is I got my visa extension (barely) before the company collapsed and it is being processed. Hopefully my company being bankrupt won't throw any wrench into the processing (which supposedly won't matter since I began the process before it all hit the fan).
So in other news, our apartment owner seems keen on letting us just take over the lease from our company, which is good except that we have no jobs and income, so we're basically trying to stall for time. Supposedly our contract is safe for at least another month, if you believe what our company says, so we shouldn't be kicked to the streets anytime soon.
Still, it will be nice if one of the better jobs I've applied for hires me. It is a difficult situation because the market is quite glutted and this leaves very little room for a guy to get a job teaching English. Were I female, I'd have another job already, but it isn't as bad as my Asian roommate has it, who basically can't even get past the bare minimum screening.
Apparently English teachers should have a "look" that is "exotic and foreign", which in this neck of the woods means non-Asian. Gambatte, Eddie-kun!
Eddie is my roommate, by the way. We get along swell, are great friends, and very compatible at living together; don't get on each others nerves. Hopefully we can both get jobs soon and then we'll be set to continue our Japanese adventure. Our Japaventure!
In other news, my host family is still taking me to festivals and whatnot and in fact I'm going to their son's birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully I'll still be around to see their daughter's first-born come February!
I might finally have some time to make up for the lack of posts on this blog. There's plenty of interesting things to tell folks about, and I hope I can remember even half of it.
Till next time,
"Will Teach English for Beer".
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Making an impression as a Gaijin
So on one of my trips to the host family's house, the weather was nice and there were a lot of kids playing outside in the street. Since Osaka has massive urban sprawl there aren't a lot of large open spaces, so its quite normal for kids to play out in the side streets that have very light traffic.
So anyways, it became apparent that we were all going to go out and play around outside, and interact with all the neighborhood kids who quickly gathered round me, as having a real live Gaijin at play is by far a unique experience for most of them. My heart grew happy to think of the wonderful impression I could make for all Gaijin kind on these impressionable young minds, who would always remember their friendly Gaijin playmate when they were 8 years old or whatever. World peace and all that.
Imagine how my heart fell when the father of my host family invites me to play a little catch with their baseball.
Let's just say, I'm not the most sports-inclined person to ever grace the green Earth, and while I gave it an honest try, I learned just how badly I suck at throwing baseball. Something I'm already practicing on remedying so that in the future I won't embarrass myself in front of a neighborhood full of international children looking at me as an example of all America, and quite possibly all of the European countries to boot.
(My sincerest apologies to all the Gaijin whose image will suffer for my ineptitude at sports.)
I'll try to start posting more regularly, as there's tons of stuff I keep thinking would make a great and interesting post, but then I completely forget about and only can remember when I'm not at home.
Frustrating, that.
Fondest wishes to the Western World. Eat some nachos for me, okay?!
So anyways, it became apparent that we were all going to go out and play around outside, and interact with all the neighborhood kids who quickly gathered round me, as having a real live Gaijin at play is by far a unique experience for most of them. My heart grew happy to think of the wonderful impression I could make for all Gaijin kind on these impressionable young minds, who would always remember their friendly Gaijin playmate when they were 8 years old or whatever. World peace and all that.
Imagine how my heart fell when the father of my host family invites me to play a little catch with their baseball.
Let's just say, I'm not the most sports-inclined person to ever grace the green Earth, and while I gave it an honest try, I learned just how badly I suck at throwing baseball. Something I'm already practicing on remedying so that in the future I won't embarrass myself in front of a neighborhood full of international children looking at me as an example of all America, and quite possibly all of the European countries to boot.
(My sincerest apologies to all the Gaijin whose image will suffer for my ineptitude at sports.)
I'll try to start posting more regularly, as there's tons of stuff I keep thinking would make a great and interesting post, but then I completely forget about and only can remember when I'm not at home.
Frustrating, that.
Fondest wishes to the Western World. Eat some nachos for me, okay?!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Long time no post!
Let me start off by saying that I'm terribly lazy, and that the longer I have lived in Japan, the more people I meet and hang out with. This leaves me very jealous of what precious little free time I have, and in turn I tend to post less.
Now I will beg your forgiveness, faithful readers, and regale you with tales of my famous exploits in Japan.
Although, perhaps, "infamous" would be more apt...
You see, I've recently been adopted by a Japanese family. They are very kind to me, and have truly enriched my experience in Japan.
I met them through a Japanese friend. Originally, they were looking for some sort of tutor for their son, who just finished middle school this year. After an "interview" of sorts, in which I tutored him a bit and the parents watched, they invited me to come over to their house before work one day.
I didn't understand quite what was going on, but the emails were very insistent on a particular day; I'd have preferred to visit on my day off rather than before work, but I wasn't going to argue since I could always use some extra scratch.
Well, I get there only to find out that it isn't a tutoring session at all, but in fact is their son's middle school's Sports Festival! If you'll allow me to explain:
In Japan, the schools all hold a sports festival once a (semester? year?) and it is a pretty big deal. All the students are divided into two teams, the red team and the white team (Japan's national colors, of course), and compete in a ton of group-oriented competition.
Japan is very big on the idea of "group", much more so than Western cultures. It all goes back to the days when my ancestors were farming wheat and Japan's ancestors were farming rice; wheat, as a crop, is not very calorie-intensive to grow. In other words, the amount of calories it takes to grow wheat is significantly less than the amount of calories it provides. There is a surplus of calories from the wheat crop, which allows for selfishness among the people growing it.
On the other hand, rice is a very calorie-intensive crop; the calories required to grow it are very nearly the same calories it provides. So back in the day, in rice-crop cultures, it took the entire village working together to grow enough rice for the entire village. Thus, selfishness was not tolerated.
This significant difference has had a lasting impact on the formation of East-Asian culture compared to European culture. I am self-centric; individualistic, if you will. Our culture cherishes and praises its individualism. East-Asia is exactly the opposite; it is a mark of pride to be a conformist, not someone who causes waves in society.
There's a saying in Japan: "The nail that sticks out will get hammered down." This is used in reference to the public educational system and how it consciously destroys individualism. One might say that the days of food shortage are a thing of the past, but let me assure you that Japan's population density tends to dictate that everyone still be very respectful of their neighbors.
Regardless, I got wayyyyy off topic. All I wanted to say was that the Sports Festival was a super fun experience and I would have gladly paid money to attend! In any case, I was so surprised and happy to find out what was going on and had a wonderful time.
Keep in mind, nobody in my adopted family speaks any English; their son, who is about to enter high school, is by far the best English speaker.
Anyways, this was his last Sports Festival since they only have it in junior high school, and he sent me the most precious email thanking me for coming. It was such a heart-warming experience, and after that, I have been regularly invited to their house and never asked to teach English. Sometimes I try to teach, but the son always wants to play Nintendo DS instead. (We both love Tetris DS, and his father enjoys it as well.)
All in all, my Japan experience has been super enriched by the inclusion of an adopted host family, so I would suggest to anyone living in a foreign country, try to get yourself one.
I will have to wait until next time to tell some rather funny stories about my adventures with said family, because I'm tired of typing. And yes, the part about "infamous" will be explained, all in due time.
(Bwahahaha, going out on a cliff-hanger!)
Now I will beg your forgiveness, faithful readers, and regale you with tales of my famous exploits in Japan.
Although, perhaps, "infamous" would be more apt...
You see, I've recently been adopted by a Japanese family. They are very kind to me, and have truly enriched my experience in Japan.
I met them through a Japanese friend. Originally, they were looking for some sort of tutor for their son, who just finished middle school this year. After an "interview" of sorts, in which I tutored him a bit and the parents watched, they invited me to come over to their house before work one day.
I didn't understand quite what was going on, but the emails were very insistent on a particular day; I'd have preferred to visit on my day off rather than before work, but I wasn't going to argue since I could always use some extra scratch.
Well, I get there only to find out that it isn't a tutoring session at all, but in fact is their son's middle school's Sports Festival! If you'll allow me to explain:
In Japan, the schools all hold a sports festival once a (semester? year?) and it is a pretty big deal. All the students are divided into two teams, the red team and the white team (Japan's national colors, of course), and compete in a ton of group-oriented competition.
Japan is very big on the idea of "group", much more so than Western cultures. It all goes back to the days when my ancestors were farming wheat and Japan's ancestors were farming rice; wheat, as a crop, is not very calorie-intensive to grow. In other words, the amount of calories it takes to grow wheat is significantly less than the amount of calories it provides. There is a surplus of calories from the wheat crop, which allows for selfishness among the people growing it.
On the other hand, rice is a very calorie-intensive crop; the calories required to grow it are very nearly the same calories it provides. So back in the day, in rice-crop cultures, it took the entire village working together to grow enough rice for the entire village. Thus, selfishness was not tolerated.
This significant difference has had a lasting impact on the formation of East-Asian culture compared to European culture. I am self-centric; individualistic, if you will. Our culture cherishes and praises its individualism. East-Asia is exactly the opposite; it is a mark of pride to be a conformist, not someone who causes waves in society.
There's a saying in Japan: "The nail that sticks out will get hammered down." This is used in reference to the public educational system and how it consciously destroys individualism. One might say that the days of food shortage are a thing of the past, but let me assure you that Japan's population density tends to dictate that everyone still be very respectful of their neighbors.
Regardless, I got wayyyyy off topic. All I wanted to say was that the Sports Festival was a super fun experience and I would have gladly paid money to attend! In any case, I was so surprised and happy to find out what was going on and had a wonderful time.
Keep in mind, nobody in my adopted family speaks any English; their son, who is about to enter high school, is by far the best English speaker.
Anyways, this was his last Sports Festival since they only have it in junior high school, and he sent me the most precious email thanking me for coming. It was such a heart-warming experience, and after that, I have been regularly invited to their house and never asked to teach English. Sometimes I try to teach, but the son always wants to play Nintendo DS instead. (We both love Tetris DS, and his father enjoys it as well.)
All in all, my Japan experience has been super enriched by the inclusion of an adopted host family, so I would suggest to anyone living in a foreign country, try to get yourself one.
I will have to wait until next time to tell some rather funny stories about my adventures with said family, because I'm tired of typing. And yes, the part about "infamous" will be explained, all in due time.
(Bwahahaha, going out on a cliff-hanger!)
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
A day in the life...
I've been meaning to do a post that would basically give anyone curious a typical day in the life of a Nova Employee.
First of all, let me draw a bit of a background; when you first arrive in Japan, if you come through employment by Nova, you are given accommodation immediately; it is here waiting for you. Saves a lot of the hassle of moving to a foreign country! So anyways, Nova has two options for potential employees; "branch" and "Multimedia Center". I went for the Multimedia Center because there was no way I could get stuck in the middle of nowhere; I desperately wanted to experience living in a big city.
So on to a typical day: I wake up between noon and one, surf the internet a bit, at the very least checking my email and the news, and possibly playing some computer games for an hour or so, depending on how much time I have... After that I quickly take a shower and shave, throw on my work clothes (business professional), then go out to the elevator, hit the call button and descend four floors, go out and hop on my bike, and spend the next 25 minutes navigating a sea of people and vehicles as I alternate between sidewalks and main streets. I usually arrive between ten and fifteen minutes before the start of my shift; it is good to have a bit of lead time because at the beginning of your shift, you immediately are teaching a lesson, so in reality you need at least five or so minutes to review the student(s) and prepare accordingly. Once I arrive at my own little skyscraper, I go inside and hit the call button, then hit "15th floor" (which is our "stand by room" aka - the room where we clock in and out, where our lockers* are, and where the management offices are located, as well as customer reception... lots of stuff on the 15th floor!)
*-Lockers only in the loosest sense; there is no lock involved.
Once there, I go up to the clock-in spot, grab my time card, clock in, then go to my locker and slip into my slippers, and grab my headset. You see, in Japan it is perfectly acceptable to wear slippers at work, and I take full advantage of this comfortable fact. My headset is headphones and a microphone, which I plug into the cubicle(s) I will use. On any given day, I switch cubles at least three times. Sometimes I am lucky and stay in one cubicle all day, other days I switch literally every lesson. Lessons are taught for fourty minutes, and range from almost-native-speakers to people who literally have no communicative ability in English. My favorite are the latter, because they make so much progress in any given lesson.
After clocking in, I trudge down one flight of stairs (much quicker than going to the elevator banks and waiting for one to arrive at the 15th of 20 floors), then use my ID badge to buzz a door on the one of the "teaching floors", aka 13th, 14th, and 16th. Out of the five or so months I've been an employee, I've been on 16 one time (for overtime) and 13 twice but both times on normal workdays. So in other words, my "home floor" is the 14th, and I almost always go somewhere on that floor. I check the monitor display on the 15th to see what booth number I'll be assigned after clocking in, which additionally shows what type of lesson I will be teaching, and then head to said cubicle. (Note: cubicle and booth are used interchangeably.) At that point, I log into a computer running Windows XP, but which looks nothing like the computer you're undoubtedly reading this from due to in-house software taking control of the operating system.
So after logging onto my schedule, I can take a closer gander at the various lessons assigned to me (generally 8 lessons with a one-period break for lunch, although I have two "half days" consisting of 5 lessons and no break), as well as the booth numbers assigned to me for said lessons. The reason for switching booths is that different booths are capable of connecting to different parts of Japan, so on a bad day it can get frusteratingly common to get up and move all of one booth over.
After logging on, I put up my "segueway" which is a picture welcoming the students to the online lesson, and showing my name and picture. (My picture is horrid, and I regret that I can't somehow change it for a more flattering one... my only solace is that the resolution on our "ginganet" machines is absolute mud, so they can't really see what I look like regardless.) I often choose the soundfile "ocean shore", consisting of waves and birds, to play in the background as the students (who often log in early) wait for the lesson to start, as I find it relaxing and pleasant to hear.
Meanwhile I am browsing my student records, in regards to their past lesson performance (including any weaknesses or strengths I can tailor the lesson towards) as well as personal information, such as anything I should avoid (family deaths, etc) or that I should direct the lesson towards (if they are a doctor and our lesson is about "visiting the doctor"). Occassionaly, my fellow Nova instructors (who range from outstanding people to the dregs of society) will leave terribly disparaging comments about the students in the "information" file, which doesn't record who makes changes to it. I tend to remove anything particularly appalling, but deleting the comments does nothing for my opinion on humanity.
As the time for the lesson arrives, bells will chime both in the room and over our headphones, and the lesson begins. It follows a carefully formatted structure which I completely ignore unless I'm being observed (we get two observations a year after we're off probation; 6 month evaluation and contract renewal observation), and after forty minutes, say goodbye and move on to the next lesson.
At the end of my shift, it is not uncommon for me to meet my fellow Nova employees for a beer or two at the local watering hole, a very trendy and relatively cheap bar called "Spats" located all of a five minute walk from work. Then my twenty-five minute bike ride home, and four or so hours of gaming before I sleep, rinse and repeat. (We get 10 minute breaks between each lesson.)
My half days start at 6:40, my normal days start at 3:10, and both end at 10:40, all in the PM. I work a half day on Monday, have Tuesday and Wednesday off, work a full day on Thursday, half day on Friday, and two full days on Saturday and Sunday. I get paid far too much for what I do, but at the same time understand how they'd have to pay us this much to live in Japan for any amount of time, given how freakin' expensive this place can get.
Till next time, "Oyasumi Nasai!"
First of all, let me draw a bit of a background; when you first arrive in Japan, if you come through employment by Nova, you are given accommodation immediately; it is here waiting for you. Saves a lot of the hassle of moving to a foreign country! So anyways, Nova has two options for potential employees; "branch" and "Multimedia Center". I went for the Multimedia Center because there was no way I could get stuck in the middle of nowhere; I desperately wanted to experience living in a big city.
So on to a typical day: I wake up between noon and one, surf the internet a bit, at the very least checking my email and the news, and possibly playing some computer games for an hour or so, depending on how much time I have... After that I quickly take a shower and shave, throw on my work clothes (business professional), then go out to the elevator, hit the call button and descend four floors, go out and hop on my bike, and spend the next 25 minutes navigating a sea of people and vehicles as I alternate between sidewalks and main streets. I usually arrive between ten and fifteen minutes before the start of my shift; it is good to have a bit of lead time because at the beginning of your shift, you immediately are teaching a lesson, so in reality you need at least five or so minutes to review the student(s) and prepare accordingly. Once I arrive at my own little skyscraper, I go inside and hit the call button, then hit "15th floor" (which is our "stand by room" aka - the room where we clock in and out, where our lockers* are, and where the management offices are located, as well as customer reception... lots of stuff on the 15th floor!)
*-Lockers only in the loosest sense; there is no lock involved.
Once there, I go up to the clock-in spot, grab my time card, clock in, then go to my locker and slip into my slippers, and grab my headset. You see, in Japan it is perfectly acceptable to wear slippers at work, and I take full advantage of this comfortable fact. My headset is headphones and a microphone, which I plug into the cubicle(s) I will use. On any given day, I switch cubles at least three times. Sometimes I am lucky and stay in one cubicle all day, other days I switch literally every lesson. Lessons are taught for fourty minutes, and range from almost-native-speakers to people who literally have no communicative ability in English. My favorite are the latter, because they make so much progress in any given lesson.
After clocking in, I trudge down one flight of stairs (much quicker than going to the elevator banks and waiting for one to arrive at the 15th of 20 floors), then use my ID badge to buzz a door on the one of the "teaching floors", aka 13th, 14th, and 16th. Out of the five or so months I've been an employee, I've been on 16 one time (for overtime) and 13 twice but both times on normal workdays. So in other words, my "home floor" is the 14th, and I almost always go somewhere on that floor. I check the monitor display on the 15th to see what booth number I'll be assigned after clocking in, which additionally shows what type of lesson I will be teaching, and then head to said cubicle. (Note: cubicle and booth are used interchangeably.) At that point, I log into a computer running Windows XP, but which looks nothing like the computer you're undoubtedly reading this from due to in-house software taking control of the operating system.
So after logging onto my schedule, I can take a closer gander at the various lessons assigned to me (generally 8 lessons with a one-period break for lunch, although I have two "half days" consisting of 5 lessons and no break), as well as the booth numbers assigned to me for said lessons. The reason for switching booths is that different booths are capable of connecting to different parts of Japan, so on a bad day it can get frusteratingly common to get up and move all of one booth over.
After logging on, I put up my "segueway" which is a picture welcoming the students to the online lesson, and showing my name and picture. (My picture is horrid, and I regret that I can't somehow change it for a more flattering one... my only solace is that the resolution on our "ginganet" machines is absolute mud, so they can't really see what I look like regardless.) I often choose the soundfile "ocean shore", consisting of waves and birds, to play in the background as the students (who often log in early) wait for the lesson to start, as I find it relaxing and pleasant to hear.
Meanwhile I am browsing my student records, in regards to their past lesson performance (including any weaknesses or strengths I can tailor the lesson towards) as well as personal information, such as anything I should avoid (family deaths, etc) or that I should direct the lesson towards (if they are a doctor and our lesson is about "visiting the doctor"). Occassionaly, my fellow Nova instructors (who range from outstanding people to the dregs of society) will leave terribly disparaging comments about the students in the "information" file, which doesn't record who makes changes to it. I tend to remove anything particularly appalling, but deleting the comments does nothing for my opinion on humanity.
As the time for the lesson arrives, bells will chime both in the room and over our headphones, and the lesson begins. It follows a carefully formatted structure which I completely ignore unless I'm being observed (we get two observations a year after we're off probation; 6 month evaluation and contract renewal observation), and after forty minutes, say goodbye and move on to the next lesson.
At the end of my shift, it is not uncommon for me to meet my fellow Nova employees for a beer or two at the local watering hole, a very trendy and relatively cheap bar called "Spats" located all of a five minute walk from work. Then my twenty-five minute bike ride home, and four or so hours of gaming before I sleep, rinse and repeat. (We get 10 minute breaks between each lesson.)
My half days start at 6:40, my normal days start at 3:10, and both end at 10:40, all in the PM. I work a half day on Monday, have Tuesday and Wednesday off, work a full day on Thursday, half day on Friday, and two full days on Saturday and Sunday. I get paid far too much for what I do, but at the same time understand how they'd have to pay us this much to live in Japan for any amount of time, given how freakin' expensive this place can get.
Till next time, "Oyasumi Nasai!"
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Japan's internet services aren't exactly up to par...
In Japan, after you sign up with a company and request the internet, it takes an average of six weeks to finally *get* said internet installed at your house.
Very frusterating.
So anyways, Japan has this reputation for being a place of high technology. And coming from my American perspective, when I first got here I felt that such a reputation was severely undeserved. Many of the public bathrooms are quite literally holes in the ground, no toilet to sit on; you just sort of have to squat above the hole. A cultural difference, sure, but it makes a sound argument against high technology if you ignore the cultural influences. And just about nowhere accepts my debit card; Japan's firmly entrenched as a cash-based economy.
But the thing is, Japan truly does have some amazing technologies... they're just not flashy like flying cars or giant robots or what-have-you. But at the same time, I wonder why the heck doesn't America have this stuff? For example: how often have you gone to open up a carbonated beverage, and it fizzs up and over the bottle, and you desperately make a mad dive for the sink or trashcan and make a huge mess, or barely avoid doing so?
In Japan, and don't ask me how, they have the compression explode with a loud popping noise, and all that built up gas quickly leaves the bottle as soon as you open it... leaving your beverage completely untouched. But it's not flat, so don't get confused; it's still fizzy! Fizzy but won't explode! This is the type of technology America should have stolen by now. I've contacted
various US government branches and am waiting to here back on getting a part-time job as a spy of sorts.
Also, the toilets... well, let's just say Japan is a land of stark contrasts. We go from literally "hole in the ground that you squat over" to "super high tech throne toilet". The thrones at my workplace have *everything*!! That French thing that shoots water at your posterior, a "noise maker" on the female toilets so that the noise of peeing doesn't bother other ladies, (that one I'm taking a friend's word on, still not quite sure if that isn't some sort of practical joke at my expense...), heated seat to sit on, and so on and so forth! I mean it is ridiculous! Stuff like that is crazy, and why Japan has such a good reputation for technology.
During my lack-of-internet hiatus, I went to Vietnam, and this experience made me realize something profound about Japan that I definately do not like; in both countries, you definately have a very different physical appearance if you're non-Asian, and stand out very much in crowds. People often stare at foreigners, both in Vietnam and in Japan... but in Japan, when you notice someone staring at you and you look in their direction, they immediately shift their gaze away, and in no subtle manner. They aren't concerned that you saw them rudely staring at you so much as they want to avoid making eye-contact at all costs. As soon as you look away their stare returns, much like the Eye of Sauron's gaze, burning through your patience and "cultural differences" good will. In Vietnam, on the other hand, I would notice people staring at me and when I turned to look back, they would make eye contact, smile, and even wave! It was so refreshing, and has given me some perspective on Japanese society.
All in all, I am still having a wonderful time in Japan and really enjoying myself, but it can certainly be an alienating experience to be a Gaijin in Japan. I would implore anyone reading this to consider how hard it is to be a foreigner, and be a bit more lenient or friendly the next time (first time?) you come across an obvious foreigner in your own country. Maybe even buy them a beer or some nachos? I think that would be a nice gesture, myself. :D
Very frusterating.
So anyways, Japan has this reputation for being a place of high technology. And coming from my American perspective, when I first got here I felt that such a reputation was severely undeserved. Many of the public bathrooms are quite literally holes in the ground, no toilet to sit on; you just sort of have to squat above the hole. A cultural difference, sure, but it makes a sound argument against high technology if you ignore the cultural influences. And just about nowhere accepts my debit card; Japan's firmly entrenched as a cash-based economy.
But the thing is, Japan truly does have some amazing technologies... they're just not flashy like flying cars or giant robots or what-have-you. But at the same time, I wonder why the heck doesn't America have this stuff? For example: how often have you gone to open up a carbonated beverage, and it fizzs up and over the bottle, and you desperately make a mad dive for the sink or trashcan and make a huge mess, or barely avoid doing so?
In Japan, and don't ask me how, they have the compression explode with a loud popping noise, and all that built up gas quickly leaves the bottle as soon as you open it... leaving your beverage completely untouched. But it's not flat, so don't get confused; it's still fizzy! Fizzy but won't explode! This is the type of technology America should have stolen by now. I've contacted
various US government branches and am waiting to here back on getting a part-time job as a spy of sorts.
Also, the toilets... well, let's just say Japan is a land of stark contrasts. We go from literally "hole in the ground that you squat over" to "super high tech throne toilet". The thrones at my workplace have *everything*!! That French thing that shoots water at your posterior, a "noise maker" on the female toilets so that the noise of peeing doesn't bother other ladies, (that one I'm taking a friend's word on, still not quite sure if that isn't some sort of practical joke at my expense...), heated seat to sit on, and so on and so forth! I mean it is ridiculous! Stuff like that is crazy, and why Japan has such a good reputation for technology.
During my lack-of-internet hiatus, I went to Vietnam, and this experience made me realize something profound about Japan that I definately do not like; in both countries, you definately have a very different physical appearance if you're non-Asian, and stand out very much in crowds. People often stare at foreigners, both in Vietnam and in Japan... but in Japan, when you notice someone staring at you and you look in their direction, they immediately shift their gaze away, and in no subtle manner. They aren't concerned that you saw them rudely staring at you so much as they want to avoid making eye-contact at all costs. As soon as you look away their stare returns, much like the Eye of Sauron's gaze, burning through your patience and "cultural differences" good will. In Vietnam, on the other hand, I would notice people staring at me and when I turned to look back, they would make eye contact, smile, and even wave! It was so refreshing, and has given me some perspective on Japanese society.
All in all, I am still having a wonderful time in Japan and really enjoying myself, but it can certainly be an alienating experience to be a Gaijin in Japan. I would implore anyone reading this to consider how hard it is to be a foreigner, and be a bit more lenient or friendly the next time (first time?) you come across an obvious foreigner in your own country. Maybe even buy them a beer or some nachos? I think that would be a nice gesture, myself. :D
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Every day is surreal, but only in the little ways.
It isn't the big things that get me. All in all, the big things are similar to any large city in the world. One of my favorite college professors believes that there is an emerging global culture, such that in 50 years or so, the differences between being Japanese or Russian or American will be more like the differences between being West Virginian or Californian or from New York... (New Yorkian?).
I disagree with his theory, although I can completely understand where it comes from; truly, all the large cities of the world are so very similar, or so say people who have been to many. I've seen NYC and Osaka City to any detail, and can attest that said similarities do abound.
In any case, as I was saying, waking up in Osaka is just a place; it is like waking up in West Virginia now, in so much as it is my current abode and I have grown accustomed to it.
There are no waterfountains in Japan. Absolutely none. Vending machines, however, are EVERYWHERE, and offer a large selection of both heated and chilled beverages. Trashcans are very difficult to find in public places, and often only allow the disposal of plastic and aluminum bottles/cans.
The ladies' sense of fashion can be over the top, at times. My Vietnamese-American friend and co-worker was telling me about the cultural differences between East-Asians and how blunt they can be with criticism of physical appearance, especially family members talking to/about each other, so I can sort of understand why girls strive so hard to be trendy and flawless.
Still, as I said, from an American perspective, it exhausts me (mentally) to just walk down the street because my mind plays through each outfit, the amount of shopping and the hours of preparation necessary for various women to meet for a brief lunch or whatever.
The other day, while waiting for my turn to play Gundam in the arcade, an adult man walked by wearing a pink "fairy god-mother" costume, complete with wig and wand. This was met with absolutely no reaction from anyone save myself. I was with two fellow Gaijin friends. Japan changes people, and I am afraid... afraid that someday I too will fail to react upon seeing this unusual site in a public venue.*
Of course, to be fair, arcades are not the children's playgrounds of America. Nor are they ancient and uninspired.
The Gundam game, for instance, involves climbing into an actual pod (valued at $100,000 per pod) complete with individual controls for both of your hands and both of your feet, along with an IMAX-like view that fully replicates the feeling of being inside of a giant robot. When signing up for a round (approximately $5 for two rounds of 500 seconds worth of battle, being fought against other gamers at other arcades), you must approach a man (an adult, mind you) who is fully dressed up in the (ridiculous) costume of the Gundam officers. Apparently it is inspired from a cartoon or vice versa, but regardless, there is canon which is adhered to.
I was the youngest person waiting in line, aside from a fellow Gaijin who is 22. Our allies, as it were: businessmen every one. "Salarymen" in Japanese-English, whose meaning can be described as "corporate wage slave". Japanese-English is actually quite common. "Pah-tay" for "party, "barry" for "very", "bai-bai" for "bye-bye", and so on. These businessmen do not even bother returning home after work for a quick shower or a bite to eat; all of them still wearing their suits, still holding briefcases and laptops.
All in all, the effect leaves one feeling somewhat awed by the idea that somewhere in the world is a country full of men who, much like myself, have no problem embracing the boyhood desire of controlling giant robots through the means of modern technology and a decent amount of disposable income.
*-I went with a friend to grab a drink at a local bar (near work, that is) before I caught my last train. While sitting at the bar, someone behind me began massaging me. I naturally assumed it was another friend from work, who I didn't see enter. Turned out, after I enjoyed a good five minutes of massage, to be a 40-year-old Japanese man with dyed blonde hair and beard. He was the owner of the bar. We had never met before, nor had we as yet spoken other than a brief introduction from the friend who brought me.
This experience failed to startle me at all, as this type of unexpected and ludicrous event is somewhat par for the course of living in this country... And this is what I fear, my slow acceptance of insanity.
I disagree with his theory, although I can completely understand where it comes from; truly, all the large cities of the world are so very similar, or so say people who have been to many. I've seen NYC and Osaka City to any detail, and can attest that said similarities do abound.
In any case, as I was saying, waking up in Osaka is just a place; it is like waking up in West Virginia now, in so much as it is my current abode and I have grown accustomed to it.
There are no waterfountains in Japan. Absolutely none. Vending machines, however, are EVERYWHERE, and offer a large selection of both heated and chilled beverages. Trashcans are very difficult to find in public places, and often only allow the disposal of plastic and aluminum bottles/cans.
The ladies' sense of fashion can be over the top, at times. My Vietnamese-American friend and co-worker was telling me about the cultural differences between East-Asians and how blunt they can be with criticism of physical appearance, especially family members talking to/about each other, so I can sort of understand why girls strive so hard to be trendy and flawless.
Still, as I said, from an American perspective, it exhausts me (mentally) to just walk down the street because my mind plays through each outfit, the amount of shopping and the hours of preparation necessary for various women to meet for a brief lunch or whatever.
The other day, while waiting for my turn to play Gundam in the arcade, an adult man walked by wearing a pink "fairy god-mother" costume, complete with wig and wand. This was met with absolutely no reaction from anyone save myself. I was with two fellow Gaijin friends. Japan changes people, and I am afraid... afraid that someday I too will fail to react upon seeing this unusual site in a public venue.*
Of course, to be fair, arcades are not the children's playgrounds of America. Nor are they ancient and uninspired.
The Gundam game, for instance, involves climbing into an actual pod (valued at $100,000 per pod) complete with individual controls for both of your hands and both of your feet, along with an IMAX-like view that fully replicates the feeling of being inside of a giant robot. When signing up for a round (approximately $5 for two rounds of 500 seconds worth of battle, being fought against other gamers at other arcades), you must approach a man (an adult, mind you) who is fully dressed up in the (ridiculous) costume of the Gundam officers. Apparently it is inspired from a cartoon or vice versa, but regardless, there is canon which is adhered to.
I was the youngest person waiting in line, aside from a fellow Gaijin who is 22. Our allies, as it were: businessmen every one. "Salarymen" in Japanese-English, whose meaning can be described as "corporate wage slave". Japanese-English is actually quite common. "Pah-tay" for "party, "barry" for "very", "bai-bai" for "bye-bye", and so on. These businessmen do not even bother returning home after work for a quick shower or a bite to eat; all of them still wearing their suits, still holding briefcases and laptops.
All in all, the effect leaves one feeling somewhat awed by the idea that somewhere in the world is a country full of men who, much like myself, have no problem embracing the boyhood desire of controlling giant robots through the means of modern technology and a decent amount of disposable income.
*-I went with a friend to grab a drink at a local bar (near work, that is) before I caught my last train. While sitting at the bar, someone behind me began massaging me. I naturally assumed it was another friend from work, who I didn't see enter. Turned out, after I enjoyed a good five minutes of massage, to be a 40-year-old Japanese man with dyed blonde hair and beard. He was the owner of the bar. We had never met before, nor had we as yet spoken other than a brief introduction from the friend who brought me.
This experience failed to startle me at all, as this type of unexpected and ludicrous event is somewhat par for the course of living in this country... And this is what I fear, my slow acceptance of insanity.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Just a small town boy, living in a BIG world!
Japan can be tricksy and false, at times.
You see, a lot of times, you'll see something that you think is the same as back home. A 7/11, for example. Lots of 7/11s in Japan, and they do indeed offer the same style of horrible tasting snacks and whatnot, but here's the catch: in Japan, it is a 7/11 and Holdings. Yes, through what was undoubtedly an error in translation, the 7/11s of Japan also act as a bank. I'm still not sure how this works, exactly, but that is a perfect example of how you see something and think "oh, that's familiar", and then WHAM. Culture Shock, welcome to Japan.
In reality, though, the "culture shock" has been almost completely nonexistant. I've heard from others who spent a few years living abroad that the true culture shock happens when you return home. We'll see.
Until last night, I assumed that I worked "down town". Until last night, I thought I had a vague notion of the size and scope of the city that I live in, or even what a "big city" is like. Last night, one of my friends was going to pick up another friend who just arrived in Osaka. They are both going to South Korea for a shopping trip, and have been best friends since high school. The friend offered for me to join her for the drive to the train station, and I accepted.
First of all, driving in Osaka is just like driving in New York City; something that I doubt I will ever have the courage to do. It is pure crazy. Secondly, it was a totally unique experience to get on the driver's side, front seat, and not have a steering wheel. Such a fun point of view, and yet something so simple. I was getting freaked out at first; my brain unable to cope with the idea of driving on the opposite side of the street, I kept wanting to scream and grab the wheel and put things right.
So after my mind adjusted to the opposite of what I've known since I was 15 years old, I began to really enjoy myself. The sights of the city are amazing, so much more so from a car than the trains and sidewalks. It is just, really, I can't put it into words, but the city is HUGE. There is simply no way I will ever experience even a tenth of the things to do, places to see, etc... It just amazes me, to see what humans have built. The sheer enormity of it all was quite the experience, and I realize that what I thought of as "down town" is really nothing compared to the real deal.
Next time I'll have to share about the best meal I've had since I've come to Japan. Until then, seriously: go out to Rio, order that queso dip, and say "this is for Sam".
You see, a lot of times, you'll see something that you think is the same as back home. A 7/11, for example. Lots of 7/11s in Japan, and they do indeed offer the same style of horrible tasting snacks and whatnot, but here's the catch: in Japan, it is a 7/11 and Holdings. Yes, through what was undoubtedly an error in translation, the 7/11s of Japan also act as a bank. I'm still not sure how this works, exactly, but that is a perfect example of how you see something and think "oh, that's familiar", and then WHAM. Culture Shock, welcome to Japan.
In reality, though, the "culture shock" has been almost completely nonexistant. I've heard from others who spent a few years living abroad that the true culture shock happens when you return home. We'll see.
Until last night, I assumed that I worked "down town". Until last night, I thought I had a vague notion of the size and scope of the city that I live in, or even what a "big city" is like. Last night, one of my friends was going to pick up another friend who just arrived in Osaka. They are both going to South Korea for a shopping trip, and have been best friends since high school. The friend offered for me to join her for the drive to the train station, and I accepted.
First of all, driving in Osaka is just like driving in New York City; something that I doubt I will ever have the courage to do. It is pure crazy. Secondly, it was a totally unique experience to get on the driver's side, front seat, and not have a steering wheel. Such a fun point of view, and yet something so simple. I was getting freaked out at first; my brain unable to cope with the idea of driving on the opposite side of the street, I kept wanting to scream and grab the wheel and put things right.
So after my mind adjusted to the opposite of what I've known since I was 15 years old, I began to really enjoy myself. The sights of the city are amazing, so much more so from a car than the trains and sidewalks. It is just, really, I can't put it into words, but the city is HUGE. There is simply no way I will ever experience even a tenth of the things to do, places to see, etc... It just amazes me, to see what humans have built. The sheer enormity of it all was quite the experience, and I realize that what I thought of as "down town" is really nothing compared to the real deal.
Next time I'll have to share about the best meal I've had since I've come to Japan. Until then, seriously: go out to Rio, order that queso dip, and say "this is for Sam".
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Nintendo Wii
I met a new friend a few weeks ago, named Taisei. He is into video games and other "geeky" pursuits similar to me. He is an acupuncturist and lives all of five minutes walk from my house, so we've become fast friends. He has a Nintendo Wii, and brought it over to our house one night to play it. It is FUN! Truly innovative gameplay, a really good time. I won't bore you further, just let me say if you're a gamer, you need to get one.
Anyways, in a generous move, Taisei said he wanted us to borrow it for a few weeks. Talk about a wonderful welcome! He has proved to be a really good friend already, showing me various places downtown that I would never have found on my own before. (Haha, this statement is totally true; I've actually been within ten feet of one of the places he showed me, a massively huge bookstore, without ever realizing that it was there!)
All in all, I justed wanted to post and say that I'm still having an absolute blast, but tend towards the busy side. Not often do I even find the time for video games, sadly... But hopefully this upcoming "weekend" (I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off) can be devoted towards gaming.
Until then, eat some Rio Grande for me, ne?
Anyways, in a generous move, Taisei said he wanted us to borrow it for a few weeks. Talk about a wonderful welcome! He has proved to be a really good friend already, showing me various places downtown that I would never have found on my own before. (Haha, this statement is totally true; I've actually been within ten feet of one of the places he showed me, a massively huge bookstore, without ever realizing that it was there!)
All in all, I justed wanted to post and say that I'm still having an absolute blast, but tend towards the busy side. Not often do I even find the time for video games, sadly... But hopefully this upcoming "weekend" (I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off) can be devoted towards gaming.
Until then, eat some Rio Grande for me, ne?
Friday, January 26, 2007
Being a foreign minority
I have never before in my life felt like I was a minority, until Japan. It is an interesting experience, and I think that it speaks a lot about Japanese culture. You see, being foreign, you get a lot of stares. And for a nation that produced ninjas, Japan has a lot to learn about being subtle.
I had fully researched the pros and cons of living in Japan. I actually expected the stares and such to be much worse. I generally do not even notice it, and it never has bothered me, but last night I went out with some friends after work and my friends were venting about how tired they were of the stares and whispers and pointing. Given that I usually don't pay attention, it took her pointing out a specific table before I noticed how blatantly rude some Japanese people were being.
It is interesting to me, that for a culture that places so much emphasis on politeness, that they can be so incredibly rude. Granted, it is stupid to put any large group of people into a category and be surprised when there are some who don't conform to that category, but it is my impression that Japanese people "lose face" if they are rude. That it is shameful. I was trying to bridge my understanding with the fact that these Japanese people were being extremely rude, and I came up with two possibilities:
Perhaps they were just drunk. It was 11pm on a friday night, and Japanese generally love their alchohol. Another possibility occurred to me, however: maybe the "rules" of Japanese society only apply to Japanese people. Perhaps it is totally acceptable to be rude to foreigners? It certainly would make sense given some of the outright rudeness I have experienced. However, and it says alot about such a homogenous nation, that the rudeness I've experienced (noticed?) has been the vast minority compared to the Japanese people who have been extremely kind to me. I have had many experiences of complete strangers going out of their way to help me or show me kindness, and this has helped my enjoyment of Japan immensely. Just knowing that there are some people, just like everywhere else, that are kind and giving... its nice.
It seems that being awed by foreigners isn't merely racism or xenophobia, but rather, it is a facet of being Japanese. By being completely awestruck by someone that is different, that is not Japanese, they are reinforcing what it means to be Japanese. I think that Japanese culture has long prided itself on how it was different, special, unique. The modern xenophobia that is so prevalent in Japan is simply a manifestation of how Japanese are still so desperate to be different. (And I bet most Japanese wouldn't stop at different, but would say "superior".)
Now, this might sound like an overly critical observation, but I would like to state that this is all (at least, attempting to be) from a detatched, scholarly point of view. I daresay that arrogance and the idea of superiority is by far a bigger problem in the West. I think every culture, every group of people, wants to think of itself as the best. Nothing new there, and ironically, nothing unique.
All in all, Japan is definately a foreign culture, far more foreign than I had ever before realized. The glimmers of understanding that I thought I had gained in college are actually just the tip of the iceberg. So now I sail onward, into the unknown future, and hopefully find a gradschool scholarship at the end of my voyage... I just have to watch out for those icebergs.
I had fully researched the pros and cons of living in Japan. I actually expected the stares and such to be much worse. I generally do not even notice it, and it never has bothered me, but last night I went out with some friends after work and my friends were venting about how tired they were of the stares and whispers and pointing. Given that I usually don't pay attention, it took her pointing out a specific table before I noticed how blatantly rude some Japanese people were being.
It is interesting to me, that for a culture that places so much emphasis on politeness, that they can be so incredibly rude. Granted, it is stupid to put any large group of people into a category and be surprised when there are some who don't conform to that category, but it is my impression that Japanese people "lose face" if they are rude. That it is shameful. I was trying to bridge my understanding with the fact that these Japanese people were being extremely rude, and I came up with two possibilities:
Perhaps they were just drunk. It was 11pm on a friday night, and Japanese generally love their alchohol. Another possibility occurred to me, however: maybe the "rules" of Japanese society only apply to Japanese people. Perhaps it is totally acceptable to be rude to foreigners? It certainly would make sense given some of the outright rudeness I have experienced. However, and it says alot about such a homogenous nation, that the rudeness I've experienced (noticed?) has been the vast minority compared to the Japanese people who have been extremely kind to me. I have had many experiences of complete strangers going out of their way to help me or show me kindness, and this has helped my enjoyment of Japan immensely. Just knowing that there are some people, just like everywhere else, that are kind and giving... its nice.
It seems that being awed by foreigners isn't merely racism or xenophobia, but rather, it is a facet of being Japanese. By being completely awestruck by someone that is different, that is not Japanese, they are reinforcing what it means to be Japanese. I think that Japanese culture has long prided itself on how it was different, special, unique. The modern xenophobia that is so prevalent in Japan is simply a manifestation of how Japanese are still so desperate to be different. (And I bet most Japanese wouldn't stop at different, but would say "superior".)
Now, this might sound like an overly critical observation, but I would like to state that this is all (at least, attempting to be) from a detatched, scholarly point of view. I daresay that arrogance and the idea of superiority is by far a bigger problem in the West. I think every culture, every group of people, wants to think of itself as the best. Nothing new there, and ironically, nothing unique.
All in all, Japan is definately a foreign culture, far more foreign than I had ever before realized. The glimmers of understanding that I thought I had gained in college are actually just the tip of the iceberg. So now I sail onward, into the unknown future, and hopefully find a gradschool scholarship at the end of my voyage... I just have to watch out for those icebergs.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Getting a haircut... in Japan
So today, I only worked a half-day. That means I go in to work at 6:40 instead of 3:10. Today in particular, I decided to go get my haircut after I went out for lunch. I had biked to a ramen shop in my neighborhood, and knew of a barber I had been wanting to try out on my way home; it was a small barbershop, husband and wife type of place, and I pass it all the time as its on one of the routes I take to the station. Today, however, he was closed! I had never seen him closed before and wasn't sure what was up, but I figured I could find another barbershop somewhere close.
I biked through my neighborhood passing another barbershop that was closed, and I began wondering if all barbarshops close early or something, even though I knew I had seen some open later. I pass a third and fourth that are closed, and decide to head to my friend TK's clothing store to ask about it. (TK is a Japanese guy who spent two years living in America while studying. He completely immersed himself in the culture, lived with American roommates, and as a result he speaks very natural, very excellent English.)
Anyways, on the way to his store, I pass yet another barbershop I knew of, and it too was closed. At this point I am wondering if there is some sort of holiday, (there are a TON of holidays in Japan), but no other store seems to be closed. "Maybe its some sort of whacky barber-only holiday?", I think to myself.
I get to TK's store, and as I walk in he laughs.
"Good timing, I just got back."
"Where from?"
"Getting a haircut."
I laugh and explain how I was on my way to get a haircut, but I couldn't find any that are open. I jokingly ask if there is some sort of barber holiday, and alas... there is! Apparently every Monday, most barbers close up shop and take a day off. I knew of at least one place that might still be open today, since I didn't want to pay the equivalent of $20 for my haircut. (That is what TK paid at the hair stylist he went to.) So I continue on to the station, which, like most big stations, doubles as a sort of minimall. Sure enough, the super high tech "10 minutes, $10" haircut place was open today! "Sugoi!", I thought to myself. (This means "wonderful!")
I walk in and the it was totally empty, save for the three barbers, who all welcome me to the store. I look at them expectantly, and they look back at me equally expectantly. Keep in mind, my Japanese is mostly nonexistant at this point. I keep waiting for someone to gesture to one of the empty chairs and say "Dozo" (which in this case would mean, "take a seat", and generally means something along the lines of "here you go" modified by context), but instead he gestured behind me. I look behind me and see a bench and think he means for me to take off my jacket, so I do so, and then walk up to the chair. Again, he is gesturing behind me, and saying "ticket".
I look around and notice a big machine that has lots of lights and Japanese characters on it, but I recognize the "1000 yen" part near what looks like a hole used to insert money, and it finally clicks. This is one of the crazy places that operates on "tickets". Keep in mind, that Japan is a very small place where space is at a premium. I could understand a set up like this if it were, say, a sprawling empire of a barbershop, but it is about as big as the room you are reading this from, if not smaller. There are restaurants that have the same principle. Its like, you walk in and walk up to the ticket machine, insert your money, and press the buttons for your order. It just doesn't seem to make sense, aside from perhaps being a security measure to protect the cash profits? Still seems a little overkill, in my opinion, especially in a country with such little crime.
Anyhoo, I get a ticket and he takes it from me, then opens up the mirror like a door, revealing a closet for my jacket. I sit down, and notice that directly below the mirror, still a part of the door, is a flatscreen display monitor showing the latest news headlines. This place is HIGH TECH! All the hair styling instruments are in what look like a microwave oven, which apparently somehow desanitizes the hair styling things in between use. At the end of my haircut, he pulls out a sweeper from the cabinet above the microwave thing, and uses it to effectively get all of the stray hairs from my haircut. And finally he uses some sort of... like a toothbrush without bristles, I guess, and rubs it in my ears and it collects all of the stray hairs that fell in them.
All in all, this story pretty much sums up the majority of my experiences thus far; even something so mundane as getting your haircut can be quite an adventure!!!
I biked through my neighborhood passing another barbershop that was closed, and I began wondering if all barbarshops close early or something, even though I knew I had seen some open later. I pass a third and fourth that are closed, and decide to head to my friend TK's clothing store to ask about it. (TK is a Japanese guy who spent two years living in America while studying. He completely immersed himself in the culture, lived with American roommates, and as a result he speaks very natural, very excellent English.)
Anyways, on the way to his store, I pass yet another barbershop I knew of, and it too was closed. At this point I am wondering if there is some sort of holiday, (there are a TON of holidays in Japan), but no other store seems to be closed. "Maybe its some sort of whacky barber-only holiday?", I think to myself.
I get to TK's store, and as I walk in he laughs.
"Good timing, I just got back."
"Where from?"
"Getting a haircut."
I laugh and explain how I was on my way to get a haircut, but I couldn't find any that are open. I jokingly ask if there is some sort of barber holiday, and alas... there is! Apparently every Monday, most barbers close up shop and take a day off. I knew of at least one place that might still be open today, since I didn't want to pay the equivalent of $20 for my haircut. (That is what TK paid at the hair stylist he went to.) So I continue on to the station, which, like most big stations, doubles as a sort of minimall. Sure enough, the super high tech "10 minutes, $10" haircut place was open today! "Sugoi!", I thought to myself. (This means "wonderful!")
I walk in and the it was totally empty, save for the three barbers, who all welcome me to the store. I look at them expectantly, and they look back at me equally expectantly. Keep in mind, my Japanese is mostly nonexistant at this point. I keep waiting for someone to gesture to one of the empty chairs and say "Dozo" (which in this case would mean, "take a seat", and generally means something along the lines of "here you go" modified by context), but instead he gestured behind me. I look behind me and see a bench and think he means for me to take off my jacket, so I do so, and then walk up to the chair. Again, he is gesturing behind me, and saying "ticket".
I look around and notice a big machine that has lots of lights and Japanese characters on it, but I recognize the "1000 yen" part near what looks like a hole used to insert money, and it finally clicks. This is one of the crazy places that operates on "tickets". Keep in mind, that Japan is a very small place where space is at a premium. I could understand a set up like this if it were, say, a sprawling empire of a barbershop, but it is about as big as the room you are reading this from, if not smaller. There are restaurants that have the same principle. Its like, you walk in and walk up to the ticket machine, insert your money, and press the buttons for your order. It just doesn't seem to make sense, aside from perhaps being a security measure to protect the cash profits? Still seems a little overkill, in my opinion, especially in a country with such little crime.
Anyhoo, I get a ticket and he takes it from me, then opens up the mirror like a door, revealing a closet for my jacket. I sit down, and notice that directly below the mirror, still a part of the door, is a flatscreen display monitor showing the latest news headlines. This place is HIGH TECH! All the hair styling instruments are in what look like a microwave oven, which apparently somehow desanitizes the hair styling things in between use. At the end of my haircut, he pulls out a sweeper from the cabinet above the microwave thing, and uses it to effectively get all of the stray hairs from my haircut. And finally he uses some sort of... like a toothbrush without bristles, I guess, and rubs it in my ears and it collects all of the stray hairs that fell in them.
All in all, this story pretty much sums up the majority of my experiences thus far; even something so mundane as getting your haircut can be quite an adventure!!!
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