I’m here now…
This is the first time I’ve written any kind of blog entry about coming here since I got here. I got here on the 25th of March, and now it’s the 29th of May. Obviously a lot of stuff has happened.
I don’t really feel like I have it in me to write any kind of detailed account of everything that leads up to right now, but I’ll try to bring you back up to date.
I left Boise, and flew to LA and stayed for about 5 days. Then I flew to Japan. I have a small fear of/thing about puking. My seat on the plane was the aisle seat, and the girl across the aisle from me was nearly overdosing on motion sickness medicines before we even took off, so I knew I was in for a treat of a flight. Just before takeoff, when she went to the bathroom and came back carrying 3 empty barf bags, I knew this would be an important time in my life.
I / she made it the whole flight without actually puking as far as I know, but then I guess the landing was a little too topsy turvy for her because she tried to get up as the plane was still taxiing on the runway and the stewardess shook her head and told her she needed to stay seated. The girl opened her barf bag and puked right across from me in full view of everyone. I was plugging my ears and looking the other direction, looking out the windows and pretending nothing was happening while everybody else was staring at the girl puking.
I got to the airport, went through immigration, baggage check, etc. etc., and got out to the other side. I bought my ticket for the Narita Express train that would take me straight to the area I needed to go to. After buying my ticket I went to a payphone to call my company to tell them what time I’d arrive at the station, so that they could meet me there to take me to the hotel and help me with all my baggage, which is what they said they’d do. They told me they had nobody to meet me, and could I possibly just find my way on my own?
I didn’t have time to flip out on the phone at them because my train was about to leave so I hung up on them and dragged my luggage to the platform and jumped on just in time. Then, I rode that train for about an hour and a half and made it to Yokohama station. From there, I had to use my Japanese skills and a lot of willpower and muscle power to make my way to my next, smaller train station. It was a nightmare, especially after a long flight.
I made it, and just as I walked out of the station towards the hotel (or at least where I thought the hotel was), it started raining. It was already night in Japan, too. I walked underneath an overpass where a bunch of bums were sleeping. I saw two giant rats wrestling each other in some bushes. I asked a bunch of people directions.
I made it to the hotel, got checked in (it was a miracle that the company had even gotten my hotel reservation set up correctly…), and met two girls who were also there with the same company up on the 8th floor where I was staying, as I was lugging my luggage into my room.
After that, I was in my room the rest of the night, and didn’t come back out until the next morning.
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The next few days, a group of us foreigners banded together and spent a lot of times meeting up in the lobby of the hotel and embarking out to take care of the things the company said they’d help us take care of. Like getting our Foreigner Registration Cards and buying cell phones and setting up bank accounts. I amazed myself with how productive I was. I had almost everything done within two days. I had landed in Japan, and within 3 days I had a bank account, was on my way to having my Foreigner Registration Card, and had a working cell phone under my name. I’m sure there was other crap I did too that I had to do, but I can’t remember all of that stuff right now.
It was nice to already have an installed base of foreigners that I could network with. We helped each other to get things done, and it helped to keep me from feeling completely lost.
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After a few days in the hotel (which seemed like a very long time), I got escorted to my new apartment that I had picked out while still in LA, by some volunteer woman. It was only a short cab ride from the hotel.
The apartment was on the 7th floor of an apartment building right next to an elevated freeway. The lightbulb in the bathroom didn’t work, and neither that woman or I could figure out how to open the wall panel outside to get in and turn on the gas. My cell phone also stopped working altogether. The woman acted like she was in a big hurry and she ditched me there after a guy from the gas company came to turn the gas on.
I felt awful and laid on the floor of my tiny empty apartment and wanted to die or go home. I couldn’t go anywhere because there was supposed to be a delivery of my furniture (a Japanese futon bed, an electric cooking hot plate, a table, a chair, a little fridge, and curtains) at some unknown point in the day. It was raining again.
I decided I absolutely needed to be able to have some kind of contact with the world in case something didn’t stop going wrong, so I left the apartment and went to the nearest Softbank store and asked why my phone didn’t work. Apparently it was just a crappy pre-paid phone that is buggy, and the girl at the counter just turned the phone off and turned it back on, which got it working. I felt stupid. A few weeks later I ditched that crappy pre-paid phone and signed up for a real-deal contract with a new, better phone.
I went back to the apartment and waited until about 8:00 at night when the furniture finally came. I went to the nearby Mos Burger and had dinner with the Jamaican girl who also came to Japan at the same time with the same company, who lives in the same building as me.
The next day was the first day of training. Training lasted a week.It was basically the first time I had ever worn a suit for more than two or three days in a row. I’m an old pro at it by now.
Training was OK. Nothing spectacular to report. Met a lot of fellow English teachers.
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The week after training, there was a ceremony where us teachers were introduced individually on stage, and then met up with the head English teachers from the schools we’d be teaching at. Sort of nervous to find out where I’d end up.
Met the three people and didn’t know what to think. The job started the following day, and I had to be at one of the schools at 8:30 AM.
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So my job started. I teach at two elementary schools every week. The third school is brand new to having an English program, so they are still developing their curriculum. I don’t start there until July.
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One of my schools is awful. The atmosphere is like a morgue. The teachers are basically indifferent to my presence and are a little bit unfriendly. The head English teacher gives me busy work and is one of those crotchety old women that everyone wants to slap across the face for being such a nasty old woman. She’s one of those old people that likes to pick on young people just to pick on young people and to see them sweat. Thinks she’s earned some kind of right to be a jerk just because she’s old. I could go on and on about the stories of negativity from that school, but I’ll just leave it at that. Leave it at the fact that there are enough such stories to prove what kind of place it is. Luckily, it’s in a very beautiful area of Yokohama with sort of a small-town feel to it, and lots of nature. Every day at lunch when I go out for a walk I can feel my stress melting away.
The second school is in the same area. It’s excellent. I love going to the second school. It’s the Good School. The teachers are all extremely friendly, it’s bright there, and everyone is lively and happy. The kids are a lot of fun, and they love me like crazy. That’s true of the Bad School, too, though. The kids are easily the best part of this job. I didn’t even really know I liked kids this much until I actually started the job.
I chose this job as a way to get to Japan, not to be around kids and have fun. But every day when I wake up feeling like crap, thinking the world hates me, and I go to the school and start my first lesson and the kids are all pumped up and excited and so happy to see me, it makes me feel so good. I’m not the kind of guy to say cheesy stuff, but the kids truly brighten my day up a lot. At both schools, I get along with the kids better than the adults. I think it’s because I’m still basically a kid. A few weeks ago, I got in trouble WITH the kids at the Bad School. We were in the hallway and they were writing some kind of commentaries on their fellow students’ paintings hanging outside the classroom in the hall, and some of the kids were joking with me and testing my might by hanging on my arms and doing things like that. I didn’t realize it was supposed to be quiet time so I was joking around back with them, when the teacher came back from the bathroom or wherever she was, and reprimanded the kids and yelled at them and told them to silently do their work and be quiet. Just before entering the classroom door, she turned around and said to me in Japanese, “Sean, don’t you be screwing around either OK?”
I was a little stunned and also thought it was funny at the same time. Same reaction I’ve had since I was a 5th grader just like the kids. All I could do was look at the kids who were already looking at me and grinning that, “You got in trouble too” grin at me, and grin back at them. “I got yelled at!”
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Anyway, now that we’re sort of up-to-date, I imagine I’ll start updating a little more frequently and maybe sprinkled throughout my future updates will be some more details and stories that I skipped over on the way here. Obviously there is a lot to talk about since it’s been over two months already.
I can’t really say that I’ve done all that much, though. I still haven’t really made any good Japanese friends since coming here. Made a few good British, American, Australian, New Zealander, and Canadian friends, though. Maybe not GOOD, but I’ve met some people and we’ve hung out together in groups. Actually, my not-making-any-Japanese-friends thing is sort of a big theme in my life right now. Call it culture shock or whatever you want, but I’m bummed out about finding out what a bunch of cold, unfriendly, robotic robots the Japanese seem to be in general. I’m sure there will be more to come on this topic in future entries, so I won’t get into it here…
As far as things I’m actually interested in and things I think I’ll remember as big events in the future when I’m out of this country, I think the only things I’ve really done lately have been two shows. I went to see one of my favorite bands ever, Merry, at the Yokohama Bunka Taikukan. That was awesome, even though my seat was so far back I could hardly see anything. The next friday night I went to see this Japanese band I have been crazy about for a while called The Studs. That was a great show. They played at the Liquid Room in Tokyo in Ebisu. Since then, I haven’t gone to any shows even though there have been some I wanted to go to. The reason is that even for a band like The Studs, which is hardly famous in any sense in Japan, a ticket costs at least $40 when translated to dollars. And then you also have to pay for a $5 drink ticket when you get into the venue. Add in the transportation on the train and you’re looking at about $50 just to go to a show. That really bums me out. I love going to shows and I want to go to more, but at that price…
I think that’s a lot of writing for one entry. The little box on the right says I’m up to 2552 words right now. I know this entry might be a little boring since there are no pictures yet. I have a fair amount of pictures I can share.
But it’s friday night, I’m sitting in my apartment on a rainy night all alone, feeling pretty bummed out, and I’m sort of dizzy from not eating right enough and not sleeping well enough. So I’m gonna call it quits for the day. I’ll update later with more stuff, and put in some pictures, too. Please come and check in from time to time. It’d be nice to know that there are people that notice I’m alive, so please comment if you can.
Thanks!
Until next time.
