Valentine's Day in Japan

Ok, first of all I want to apologize about my last post. There's nothing wrong about being a 30-something year old English conversational English teacher in Japan. I would much rather be teaching English here at 35 than doing just about any other job I've ever had - yes, even telemarketing - but I would maybe still do that paper route on the side, if I had the option.

Probably the only better job I had than the one I have now was the two months or so that I worked at Famous Players Silver City cinema while studying in Ontario. I lived directly across the street, ate popcorn all day, chatted with pleasant movie-goers, and the perks were incredible: Unlimited free movies in a 12-theatre cineplex. Furthermore, most of my co-workers were high school kids, so closer to my maturity-level, willing to sneak me free combos when I came in, and desperate to overtake all those shifts I didn't want (actually, I didn't want to work much at all, I was mostly in it for the free movies).

My worst job ever was a certain temp job that I did a few years back. It's hard to describe exactly what was so horrible about it, but it took place at small insurance office in Burnside (an industrial wasteland-suburb of Halifax) and involved filing files that were unfileable and being scolded by an angry, overweight secretary named Debbie. And the fact that it was my worst really says a lot since I've really been around as far as employment goes.

Anyway, this past week was fun. I went for an interview with an English tutoring company called ABCKARA. They said that I passed the interview and claim that they will find me some students to tutor for $25/hr "sometime soon", but still I haven't heard from them. I really wanted that money before today (payday is tomorrow) but I guess it will be nice in the future. I'm here using the internet on my last pocket change, I can't wait to get off these limited paycheques and actually get the opportunity to earn AND save some money.

I worked all day Saturday for a co-worker who was away snowboarding in Hokkaido. Now I have three of the five days of the last day of the month free. It seems all too exhausting to get a full week off here... I've just worked five straight 6-day weeks, I think.

Sunday I saw the movie "Jarhead", which just opened here this weekend. I already saw it back in the fall in Canada and loved it, though apparently I'm the only person who "got" it. It's a war movie but there are no actual battles. Ha ha. The Gulf War is funny. The music is great, too. The person I dragged to go see it with me hated it and a later discussion at an izakaya proved that all the people I had advised to go see it hated it too. I'm sorry, but I still want to both see it again and go to Iraq.

Sunday evening I went to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar, I'm not going to explain this again) with the Japanese/foreign group that I hung out with last week. My friend who introduced me to these Japanese people has since informed me that they're of a local breed known as "gaijin hunters" (foreigner hunters - they try to surround themselves only with foreigners). Although this is seen as a negative (maybe even verging on racist) ideal, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Not that I'm trying to vouch for these specific gaijin hunters, but I think it's ok to want to spend time with people from other countries (like my distaste for Canadians back home).

Today was Valentine's Day. I was a little disappointed. Valentine's Day in Japan is a bit different from back home... Only girls give gifts. They're supposed to give chocolate to the special men in their lives. This is later paid back in March on "White Day", when these men who received gifts are supposed to give mcuh better presents back. So all-in-all, it's a pretty good investment for girls. Anyway, I heard last week that some girls in voice had been discussing which teacher they thought would get the most chocolate and apparently one of them voted for me, so I was kind of expecting a pile of chocolate by the end of today, but it didn't happen. I even pushed the issue pretty hard for the past couple of days, letting all my female students know my chocolate preferences (mint chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, chocolate milk, etc.) in all of my classes, but nothing came of it. I got some of those alcoholic chocolates that I hated as a kid but taste alright now Sunday night from one of the gaijin hunters. I also got a rum-raisin chocolate bar from an older student of mine and the male teachers collectively got a big jar of chocolate from a student and some apple pie from a Japanese staff-member. Some of it was very delicious. Japan isn't too bad chocolate-wise, but it still sure could use some more mint and peanut butter. Take note, Japanese investors.

Time's up, I'll continue later.