Monthly Update
Oh, it looks like it's about time for my monthly update. Time has really flown by and it's recently occurred to me that my teaching job at Nova is already the longest-standing job I've ever held. With my extensive resumé of summer temp jobs and on-the-side part-time jobs, I've never quite made it to the five-month mark before, so this is a bit of a milestone. And to those scrutinizing historians out there who are planning on bringing up my three-year stint as a paper carrier, well that wasn't a real a job, claims the Chronicle Herald. Paying a 12-year-old $25/week to get up at 4:30am every morning and ruin their adolescence is better described as child slavery.
So, as I was saying, time has flown by at work and I had my "six-month evaluation" last week. For this, the head teacher at my branch (school) furtively sat in on one of my lessons and took notes on my teaching progress since my last evaluation (early-January). Thursday evening I get the results, though the constructive criticism has already started flowing... I'm not worried about it, though. I get a lot of positive feedback from the students, have never been late for work (!), have never called in sick and am one of the few teachers at my branch who actually wears a suit to work everyday; those, I hear, are Nova's main concerns. Not that I'd really care if I were fired, anyway.
Moving along, I had a list of topics to cover as "things I've been doing" to update you on, but looking back at it now, most of it is outdated, so I'll just scrap that and talk about what I've been doing in general over the past month. It's going to be fairly disorganized, so brace yourself.
I've stopped doing whatever I used to do to pass my days (and can no longer remember what that was). Yes, I've picked up some new hobbies.
"Konami"
First of all, I finally joined the neighbourhood gym, Konami. If you recall my posts from about five months ago, this is the first gym that I checked out when I arrived in Osaka. It was late-November and I think I laughed in their faces when they told me their monthly price (something like $90). Well, it now turns out that that's actually a good deal for Japan and I'm now happy to pay it.
I think at the time I had been expecting a similar thing to occur as when I inquired about signing up for a gym called "California Fitness" in Hong Kong two years ago. The hard-headed sales agent wouldn't let me step out the door without a commitment. I think the quote sign-up price halved twice and she kept trying to throw in more deals and physically grabbing me by the arm. "I have to take one for the team! Please let me take one for the team!" she pleaded (foreigners really have trouble with the meaning behind those types of expressions). I ended up signing up with Califronia Fitness for lower than what I would pay in Canada. Not with Japanese gyms, though. The Japanese are so much less rascally than the Chinese and bargaining here would be offensive.
Gyms in Japan appear very strange to us foreigners for many, many reasons. Here are a few:
-Every day as I enter the gym, by the facility's rules, I have to take off my sneakers and carry them in my hands to the changeroom before putting them on again. Walking that twenty meters in my sock feet really makes us all feel at home.
-While undressed in the changeroom, it is not uncommon for an old woman to walk over, greet me enthusiastically in Japanese, then proceed to clean my surroundings.
-While attempting to use the pool, I was interrupted three times in the first five minutes by the lifeguard for (a) not wearing a bathing cap (he made me rent one from him), (b) swimming in a designated walking lane, and (c) swimming too fast in a designated medium-speed lane. I quickly got out and moved on to the cardio room.
-There is a room equipt only with coin-operated leg-massaging machines.
-Although there are only three shower stalls, there are about fifteen small chairs against the wall where people undress, sit down and wash themselves.
-The gym is annoyingly not open on Tuesdays.
-There is an outrageously high "new member fee" that is constantly waived to make people feel like they're getting a really good deal when they're signing up.
"The Daily Yomimuri"
Next, I've started reading the newspaper. It's fantastic. I hadn't followed any news in my first 4+ months here. In fact, I'm too embarassed to teach lessons at Nova concerning recent events or new topics because I really have no idea what the students are talking about. But I've started buying a daily English newspaper, "The Daily Yomimuri", and it's made me very, very intelligent.
I had stopped reading the newspaper last year because I was really sick of all the local filler I had to put up with. I had forgotten how interesting expatriate newspapers are. They keep things short, maybe just ten pages, and only talk about actual world issues that are of some consequence in the world.
"Coffee"
I've started drinking coffee. I had been avoiding it as far back as I can remember, but I'm finally discovering what's been missing in my life all these years. It has the drug capacity of cola without the jittery sugar, for a nice, smooth caffeine high. Why didn't anyone ever tell me? There's a Starbuck and a Dotour near my house that get visited daily when I get up every afternoon.
And it's great for my business ideas. I used to sit around and struggle to come up with good ideas, but I have completely filled notebook after notebook while just sitting around and taking it easy. Actually, the hobby of creating elaborate business reports definitely deserves its own section, but I want to keep that top secret because I'm scared someone will try to steal my notebooks.
"Private Students"
I've been building up my list of private students. My original private student, Naomi, is going onto her seventh weekly lesson tomorrow. She will learn about planning and booking a vacation. I have a few other private students that will be starting on lessons in the next few weeks. They happily pay me $25/hour. Actually, the industry standard price is even a little higher but 2500 yen is fine for me.
"A Second Job?"
Thursday I have an interview with another language school which a very different teaching mentality. It seems really interesting to me and I'm hoping to work with them only for a few hours a week, at least at first. I'll tell you more about it after the interview.
"Losing a Roommate"
Last week I went for revolving sushi with Will, my Californian roommate (you may remember him from such incidents as the burning mattress and his hallucinogenic drug habit). Will is leaving this weekend to go on a trip across Asia before heading back to the States and then England for graduate school this fall.
With Will gone, I have seniority over the apartment. This means I get the big bedroom, which is Japanese-style (sliding doors), attaches to the balcony and is at least the size of the other two put together. My other roommate (British Adam) and I have agreed to make a massive clean sweep of our apartment. Our incoming new roommate, England's own "Jeetendra", won't ever realize what a mess things were before he arrived. I tried to explain to Adam that he doesn't realize how drastically things improved before he arrived, but he doesn't believe me. We can actually touch various parts of the apartment now.
"Monbukagakusho Scholarship Application"
I'm having an exhausting time trying to organize the necessary documents for my scholarship application, due in about a month. I'm applying to do a two-year research degree in business on scholarship here in Japan, starting next April. Has anyone ever noticed how uncooperative most university administrators are? They keep requesting fees from me for menial tasks and when they don't have an answer to my question they often just don't respond. Back in Canada I was able to call them to pester them on a daily basis or even stop in at their offices, but from Japan that's next to impossible. I'm lucky I got started on this so early (February!) or else there's no way I'd have been able to get any of this done.
"Passport!"
I officially reported my passport as missing to the Osaka police. They wrote up a report. I visited the Canadian consulate yesterday and am hoping to have my application ready to be witnessed there tomorrow. Does anyone want to be one of my references? (I need four)
"Poker"
Monday has become the weekly poker night for Adam, Mark, Mike and I (all teacheres living in my building). I generally win everything every week. Actually, we've probably played about seven times and I only lost once. They're getting a bit annoyed, but are in denial: they're still insisting its just luck. This is kind of nice.
"Easter"
Happy Easter. It came and went without me realizing it. It's not celebrated at all here and the students that I had asked had never heard about it.
"Eating in Kobe"
As part of my Sunday evening routine, I've started meeting some friends in Kobe for dinner. I'm not sure if you know this, but Kobe has long been Japan's establish foreign community centre. Thus, the foreign food is delicious. I've had Indian and American, next week we're planning on Jamaican.
"April's Goals"
My goals for April were as follows:
JAPANESE: Finish my textbook (a lesson every two nights).
GYM: Go to the gym four times per week.
MONBUKAGAKUSHO: Have my application finished and ready to go by April 30th.
FINANCE: Keep thorough track of where my money's going.
"Japanese"
As part of my bid for the Monbukagakusho scholarship, I'm trying to master (well, not really master) Japanese. I'm now on lesson 24 out of 30 and have started on kanji (chinese characters that are incorporated into the language). It makes me sleepy but I'm slowly starting to understand some of what these people are saying.
"Gym"
I already covered this but should note that I've only been making in three times per week. I'm full of disappointments.
"Finance"
If you ever want to keep yourself in check for anything (spending habits, eating habits, etc.), feel free to use the following self-recording method that I invented (VERY practical).
I have been writing down EVERYTHING I spend money on. It's shocking when I glance over it at the end of the day and really shows me where I've been wasting your money. I did the same thing a few years ago with any food consumed when I was trying to lose weight and it was shocking to see how much food was going into me that I'd usually forget about.
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It has just occured to me that this whole post has been basically me talking about nothing, so I'm going to end off with a quick photographic journal on what's gone on in Japan over the past few days.
Brunch is enjoyed at the Hilton Umeda. I never realized breakfast could be this delicious or expensive.
Ryan pays a visit to Osaka's Canadian Consulate.
The trees of my neighbourhood burst with cherry blossoms.
I take an evening stroll to the Kobe train station.
A man passes out on the seats of Awaji station tonight.
My clothes hang out to dry (what, did you think you were done with this picture last week?)
The sun sets of Shin-Osaka.
Japanese people gather on various trains, watched over by the Nova Usagi.
Talk to you soon,
Ryan
P.S. How much fun do you think a bongo drum version of "Dance Dance Revolution USA" would be? According to Japan: very. This game is currently on its 8th version:
posted by Ryan @ 3:05 PM
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