Good morning from the Future, Americans.
It's Saturday over here, and I have just set up my new fan, which is tiny like everything in Japan. I bought an iron the other day that's about a foot by a foot, and my coffee maker is only a foot tall as well. Even containers of shaving cream, soap, spaghetti sauce, everything is miniature here! For better or for worse....
I am almost finished with job training. This makes me excited not only because I start teaching on Wednesday, but also because I don't have to role-play as a 6 year old anymore during the other trainees' demos. Yea, it's weird, but that's how we practice before we do it for real. Go figure.
I'm still trying to squeeze my pennies (yennies?) since my first paycheck has about a 6 week delay, but it's hard in a country like this. Especially when your bosses and fellow staff invite you out for 200 yen ($2) beers after a long hard day. Work hard, play hard, that's how the Japanese do things.
Small size! Efficiency!
Speaking of small, I'm still a little freaked about doing kids classes but LUCKILY I only have one per week (I know people who've gotten 4 or 5) and I have a bunch of more advanced ones which makes me exceedingly happy. I can in fact hear a little girl yelling "
HIDOI! NEE NEEE!" ("No fair! Waaaahhh!") outside my window right now, hah. Anyway, what those advanced classes mean is that I can actually use all that crap I learned in college for my job! Who would have thought I'd be doing anything with an English Bachelors besides managing a Starbucks?
Y tu, brute?Speaking of money, I got an offer to get paid about $120 for 2 hours of proofreading and correcting an article from Japanese into English using an automatic translator. If you don't already know, automatic translators are incredibly flawed, especially with Western -> Eastern languages because the differences are incalculable. Asia is the place where my English knowledgde comes in incredibly handy.
That being said, I really ought to study more Japanese. I took two years and can speak OK, but there is so much written stuff I don't understand yet, and it's frustrating! Once I get into a routine, I will study everyday and get better!... Or just become another English teacher who gets comfortable and stops trying. One or the other.
What else what else.... nothing really. I'm going to enjoy my weekend by relaxing and resting my throbbing feet as much as possible. Walking miles in dress shoes and a full suit in the middle of Summer can really get to you. But first, I have to go to work for an hour. Yarg!
Until next time hombres
"Be bop a lou bop a wop shamoo and Domo Arigatoh
if I got to!" - Clutch
