Gaijin Girl

Wow, I’m just not sure where to start. I originally intended to write something here every day. It looks like it’s been almost two months since my last entry, so now you all know how hard I work to achieve my goals. Ha ha.
Well, I had lots more fun experiences in Gifu after my last entry, including getting drunk at U.S. Mart with some good friends. That’s right, in U.S. Mart, there is a giant arcade. You can buy refreshments at the store and then play any game you want upstairs for a fee. There are pool tables, ping pong tables, air hockey tables, and several video games, including Dance Dance Revolution. It was quite hilarious. In U.S. Mart they also have fishing in the basement. I’m not kidding; you can pay to fish for a predetermined amount of time. U.S. Mart really does have everything. Sadly the night ended with one of my students getting sick in our bathroom, but, hey, it was a lot of fun before that.

There were also several parties organized by some of the students at my branch for teachers who were quitting Nova in September and October. These were great fun; I really enjoyed getting to know some of my students better. I went to an art gallery with one student to look at work displayed by another of our students. This was a really fun experience; I really enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful photographs and sculptures on display. Other students delighted in giving Josh and me gifts of food, tea, and even Christmas decorations as appreciation for teaching them English.

During the last two months, I became quite close with one of the Japanese staff members at my work named Mami. She and I socialized a bit outside of work, mostly through the aid of her trusty Japanese-English computer dictionary that she carried everywhere with her. I was able to practice my rusty Japanese, and she practiced her English with me as we sipped cocktails and coffee and she smoked endless packs of cigarettes sold in pink boxes with appliquéd rhinestones. I’m serious; everything in Japan is available in “cute.”

I also became close with my Japanese teacher Izumi. She invited Josh and me to several festivals, amusement parks, and restaurants. Sadly time and money constraints kept us from getting to know this kind lady better. When we left Gifu, she met us at the train station with a bag of fruits from her garden in hand. I was glad to be able to say goodbye to her as we rushed off to our new lives in Tokyo.

So clearly we moved to Tokyo–well to Ageo-shi, which is just outside of Tokyo. In October Nova didn’t pay any of its employees nor provide an accurate timeline of exactly when anyone could expect to be paid. Most of the teachers started to strike at that point, including me. However, on my strike day, I realized that I only needed a few more hours with Nova for my practicum to be complete. As I had applied to several other jobs and now was just waiting for them to call me back and demand to hire me, I figured that I might as well wait at Nova–while accruing practicum hours. While it was difficult for me to break the strike line, I swallowed my convictions and did was best for me financially and logistically. Working during those days was actually sort of fun because the students were so grateful to be able to attend lessons and were really supportive. Many of them offered financial assistance–could they take me out to lunch, or could they pay me to teach their daughter private lessons?

After about a week of this, Josh and I procured some interviews in the Tokyo area. Although we only planned to be in Tokyo on our days off, just before we left Gifu to attend our interviews, Nova announced that it was closing its doors indefinitely. The company declared reconstructive bankruptcy and proclaimed that if no other company bought it after two weeks, that it would declare permanent bankruptcy. However, if another company bought Nova, the new sponsor could restructure the company and eventually reopen at least some of the schools. All instructors and staff were asked to wait at home until the fate of Nova was announced. Hmm, we thought. Let’s just use this extra time to hang out in Tokyo.

So off we went, and it’s a good thing that we planned to stay some extra days because other companies called while we were there and wanted to set up interviews with us as well. Soon we each had four days of interviews lined up. Luckily, with our new flexible schedule since we couldn’t work even if we wanted to, we were able to stay in Tokyo to attend second interviews with a few companies before we chose our new employers.

I ended up returning to Gifu alone and packing up our place because Josh had more interviews, and my new employer wanted me to move to Tokyo and start working immediately. I was extremely glad when Josh joined me in our new home last week.

Unfortunately we missed celebrating Halloween and Day of the Dead because of all of the job hunting and moving tasks. However, we did make time to visit the Labor Office in Nagoya, where we learned that if Nova goes bankrupt or the new sponsor refuses to pay back wages for Nova employees, the government will pay us 80% of our unpaid wages. This process could take anywhere from one month to one year. If Nova finds a new sponsor and they do decide to pay us, the process could take even longer.

Not quite reassured by this news–or rather lack thereof–we headed off to our new lives. Now we are in the tiniest apartment in which I’ve ever lived. It’s really cute though, with a big bay window and hardwood floors. It’s amazingly Western in style, especially compared to our apartment in Gifu. However, my boss, who set up the apartment for me, failed to tell me that the apartment was advertised for only one person or to tell my landlord that two people would be moving in. This, along with some confusion about which day trash collectors pick up cardboard (we never imagined our faulty translation of the garbage schedule would be such a costly mistake!) prompted a call from our landlord (who only speaks Japanese) to my boss (who speaks both Japanese and English). To make a long story short, Josh has to move out of our new apartment by February. Of course I will go with him, but our landlord can’t know this or he would probably request that we leave sooner. We are unable to leave sooner because we have to prepare for a deposit (which is about three months’ rent in Japan!) plus key money, which is more like a nonrefundable gift to the landlord just for letting you pay him rent.

Anyway, despite all the chaos, Josh and I are surprisingly doing really well, and we both like our new jobs. I really like my students, and the director at my school is very involved and approachable, something I’m not really used to in a principal! It is quite different teaching rich kids at a private school, and I really miss my old students, but I’m sure there are great lessons to be learned here that I can carry back to my future classrooms in the United States.

Today has been a day of nothing but homework and research, and Josh and I are both sick, but it’s windy and gray outside, so staying inside and accomplishing things has been satisfying in a way. I am still behind with my schoolwork, which I guess is understandable after all the changes we’ve been through recently. I’m just glad to have my practicum hours finally completed!

This experience has been a lot more challenging than I originally expected so far, but I am not giving up yet. I feel that there are fun and adventures right around the corner, and I’m sure that I will learn a lot from both the positive and negative processes with which I’m faced in this part of my life.

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