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The above title is not some kind of indication that things were going badly, but rather it’s the catch phrase of the now-former head teacher at my school. He and our assistant manager transferred to different schools in March, in turn giving us some co-workers/staff at the school to replace them. This is not including the first replacement assistant manager, actually a friend of mine who some of you know, since she came and went within just a few weeks. There were many reasons, but I think a bit part of it was the fact that Japanese staff at these schools work long hours, get paid terribly, and have pretty much the worst job. But ah well.

So it’s already Monday night, meaning that another weekend has come and gone. This past week was about as uneventful as can be, with the exception of the new co-workers starting. Luckily, they fit in well and things are going good. With the coming and going of teachers, as well as new kids classes starting to coincide with the new semester/year at real schools, my schedule has also been a bit changed. I teach a few extra classes a week, which overall isn’t that much of a pain but of course not too great. Of note are the two new kids classes I have to teach, both of which are middle elementary, meaning I think 3rd and 4th graders. Before this, the youngest kids I taught were 5th graders. Teaching the classes really aren’t that bad; in fact some of them are better/more fun than adult classes, and the kids are definitely better at making jokes. I also now teach Voyage, one of the lowest level classes at the school, which is a bit tough. When teaching people with English that low, you have to slow down to almost a ridiculous speed and also use a lot of gestures and stuff. Imagine Chris Tucker yelling at Jackie Chan in Rush Hour, only I’m the black guy in this situation.

On Saturday night after work we had a Farewell/Welcome party at an izakaya near Goi station, Yushun, which was my first experience of a big school party with a lot of students (over 50) there. It was overall a fun time and better than what I was expecting, even with the official ban on me using Japanese. I’ve gotten really good at hiding the fact that I understand Japanese in front of students. Some students were pretty tricky though and would ask me stuff quickly in Japanese and I would nod or answer in English, but they would know that I at least understood them. Part of this was done on purpose, because it got a pretty funny reaction. Also sometimes I would just tilt my head and be like “huh?” They’d love this because I would give a good few seconds pause before doing it. Sunday was another Sunday Open, which means that I got to spend my entire afternoon at work rather than doing what I would want to be doing on my day off (ie, sleeping). These Sundays Opens are definitely one of the most bogus parts of my job. If my calculations are correct, though, I shouldn’t really have to do these ever again. I wouldn’t be surprised if AEON tries to sneak attack me with one at some point during the summer, though.

Just a few more weeks until Golden Week, the national spring break! A full week to do absolutely nothing.

It’s been a busy past few weeks, although strangely full of nothing. I haven’t fully decided if time is going by fast or slow, since it seems to change depending on what I’m doing, either sitting at work bored, teaching several classes in a row, or sitting at home watching Seinfeld on my computer. Either way life is enjoyable. Speaking of the passage of time, it has come to my attention that I have finished half of my 1-year contract with AEON, meaning I’ve been here for over 6 months. It really doesn’t feel like I’ve been living here for that long, but 6 months is a lot of time. Things can change a lot. I, however, feel like the past 6 months haven’t changed me a whole lot. Again, not sure if this is good or bad, just pretty neutral overall. I try thinking about something substantial that I’ve accomplished over the past few months. I bought a Wii. I went on a sweet vacation to Kansai. I’ve met a lot of people. But that’s about it. Nothing super duper.

I think that was one of the main things that made me decide to not renew my contract with AEON. I don’t exactly mind working long days, or just working period. Yes, this job is pretty easy and my hours, co-workers, etc, are great. Actually, my co-workers are one of the main reasons I would consider staying because they’re pretty sweet and I get along well with all of them. But I don’t feel like I’m getting much fulfillment out of this job overall. There are no projects or goals. There’s very little reward or motivation for me. I suppose some people gain satisfaction from helping people learn or grow. Real teachers. I’m too selfish for that. I’m not myself for most of the day, specifically when I’m in the presence of almost any of my school’s students. I’m not as fake-cheery as I appear, I don’t care how your weekend was, and yes I can speak Japanese. Money and small contract details are another factor, although not as important as I would have thought. In short, I like this job and my overall situation more than I might have expected, but after my agreed upon 1 year is up, I’ll be ready for a change.

Well that was deeper than I was planning. Anyways yeah, I’m planning on finishing out the rest of the AEON contract then who knows what I’ll be doing afterwards. I don’t have a very solid idea of what type of job I’ll be doing next or even which side of the Pacific I’ll be on. I do, however, want a job where I can feel a sense of accomplishment. Being able to buy stuff like food is also a high priority. In one way I would really like to stay in Japan and work but at the same time it would be nice to be back in the US. I suppose it’s time to start looking for jobs again, and time to update the old resume.

In other news… what have I been doing these past few weeks? Last weekend I saw 2 movies at the Soga XYZ Theatre: どろろ (Dororo) and 龍が如く (Ryu ga Gotoku). The former was disappointing while the latter was awesome. Dororo (Apple trailers page) is a live-action movie based on a really old Tezuka comic. It’s about this guy who has to kill monsters to get his body parts back. His arms, before he gets them back, are swords. His sidekick is a thief named Dororo, played by super-hot Kou Shibasaki. Sounds sweet, right? Too bad they tried to fit too much story into what otherwise could have been a good fantasy-monster fighting movie. The last straw was when they would spend long scenes on boring dialogue, then only show clips of various fights. Just random fight scenes to music! You can’t do that! Montages were outlawed in movies back in 1990 I thought. Anyways yeah, the theme song and trailer was awesome but the movie was sub-par. I actually fell asleep a few times. Ryu ga Gotoku (official site, with trailer) is based on the PS2 video game series of the same name (called Yakuza in the US). It was directed by weirdo Japanese director Takeshi Miike, which automatically tells you that the movie will be amazing and/or super weird. This one was pretty much just amazing. Nothing super weird or strange. It was actually a hilarious action movie about a yakuza’s life. Lots of good fight scenes and a really good bad guy. I’ve never played the video games, but this movie really makes we want to.

This Wednesday is a national holiday, and since it doesn’t fall on a Monday, I actually get to take advantage of it. The “holiday” is 春分の日 (Shunbun no Hi), or “Spring Equinox Day.” Thank goodness these people love the seasons. I’m planning a day full of absolutely nothing but relaxing. Yay spring.

Just signed and turned in my paperwork for AEON regarding whether or not I would be renewing for another year. I’m looking for a new job starting at the end of September.

Wednesdays are one of my easiest days at work; very few classes, and the first one doesn’t even start until 5PM. This week was especially lucky since I ended up only teaching two classes all day; one a kids class and the other a low-level adult class that had speeches today, meaning that I could sit back and listen to people talk about their most embarrassing moment. And just for reference, I taught my students “crotch area” today and wrote it on the board for them. They eagerly scribbled it down in their books for future use. One of the guys needed it for his speech, so I had to tell them. I decided that would be a good phrase as opposed to “around the junk” or “down in my special place.”

During the 1-5PM spread that I had, there really wasn’t anything for me to do. Sure, I suppose I could have done stuff like plan the week’s lessons, help my school, clean stuff, or fill out counseling forms, but let’s be serious. Basically I spent a good 4 hours either talking to Matt about video games, walking around in circles, or using my cell phone to play on Gmail, Facebook, and Mixi. Those three are of course the top bookmarks on my phone’s browser. To be honest, I wasn’t completely useless during the first half of work; I managed to write some stuff down and also planned that kids class. Please note that by “planned that kids class,” I mean “printed out a lesson plan from the computer, and laminated a calendar.” It was a good morning overall, and a good change from Saturdays or Tuesdays, my two busiest days where I teach somewhere between 5 and 7 classes throughout the day and have very little time to check Facebook mobile to see who from high school got married, or to poke people back in never-ending poke wars.

At one point during the morning, I opened my top right desk drawer. I don’t remember what I was rummaging for. It might have been the calendar to see when my next vacation was (note: forever away), or it could have been a post-it note to doodle on. For some reason or another, I opened the drawer all the way and spotted at the back of it a familiar looking document; a post-card sized thing with Japanese written all over it as well as my name. Crap. It was my water bill. The one that was sent to me in January. I examined it, and also opened up the two other bills that were sitting at the front of the desk drawer, which I had received last week. The two new ones were water and sewage. The water bill was actually the second notice, with the first notice/regular bill being the one that was jammed in the back of the drawer. I panicked for a second, thinking I had forgotten this important document and I could either be stuck with a huge fine or would wake up the next morning and find out my apartment was as water-less as the Sahara.

I stroll into the staff room, where everyone was just hanging out because there were almost no classes in the early afternoon today. I ask one of my co-workers to double check the bills, confirming that I indeed had an unpaid bill and a second warning notice about said unpaid bill. To my surprise, he also informed me that in Japan, they won’t charge you any fines or anything for paying your bills late. As long as it’s not like a year or so late, you won’t get any fines for being a lazy jerk about paying your dues. I can’t imagine this ever happening in America, since every utility company would be out of business. Although Japan doesn’t charge any fines, I’m willing to bet that almost 90% of people pay their bills on time. Japanese people are just that good.

Well, most of them are. As my co-worker was telling me about the lack of fines, we strolled into his office/classroom and he pulls out of his briefcase a handful of bills. He started reading off the due dates, with most of them being earlier in the month. Oops! We later walked to 7-11 to get some lunch, each of us with a handful of bills to pay before we got our food. Remember? In Japan you can pay your bills with cash at the convenience store. I paid my water and sewage bills like a good citizen, and he only paid about half of them, because he didn’t have enough money. Anyways, for all you people living in Japan, it looks like you don’t have to worry about paying your bills on time. I haven’t 100% confirmed this, but a Japanese person’s word is good enough for me. Also note that I paid some bills late a few months ago, and never saw anything about fines or charges on my later bills. I think it must be true!

Back in December, a film crew came to my school to film some footage for use in an internal promotional video aimed at potential new Japanese staff recruits. There was a similar video for us foreign teachers when I had my AEON interview in Chicago last spring. I think they chose our school because we have a lot of kid students, and because we’re a small school. One of the other schools they shot for the video was the Ikebukuro school, which must just be massive. So, in contrast, we are the smaller, homey school. Or something.

Now, I am no video professional, and my skills and knowledge are mostly self-taught. However, I learned a thing or two working at IUSTV for 4 years, and think I can at least successfully lead a field shoot when need be. That brings me to the film crew that was taping my school back a in December. It was a three-man team; camera, director/leader, and a boom/gopher guy. I knew there were a lot of things I saw them doing that I thought didn’t look right, but I never said anything. Several reasons for this: I was working and maybe busy, I didn’t want to be a jerk, and most importantly, I care enough to complain about it later but not enough to help out. So I let them go about their business knowing the footage would look awful.

And guess what!? I was right!

We got the raw footage on DVD to watch, and while some of it was viewable, a lot of it looked preeeeeeetty bad. Specifically, the interviews they did looked terrible. Where to begin? Let’s see…OK. First, there was not a tripod in sight the entire day. For footage of kids running around and even some of the in-class shots, this works, but for the interviews it was noticeably bad. They also chose some really bad locations to do 2 of the interviews, one of which had my manager wearing white standing in front of a bunch of predominantly white posters. As if her blending in with the wall wasn’t bad enough, the cameraman also for some reason thought it would be good to kneel down a bit while the interviewee was standing up. Oh and yes, I almost forgot, they only used lighting for this interview (not on the other two), but they only had 1 light! There was a very noticeable shadow behind her. It looks absolutely awful. The result was that it looked like they were interviewing a giant who was telling scary stories at a campfire. It would have looked better without their crap light kit; the others looked somewhat decent with just the halogen ceiling lights.

Oh, and their footage all looked at a strange frame rate, maybe 24fps. I don’t know why this project would require that, but I have a feeling they have no clue either. Maybe they just encoded it weird when giving us the raw footage.

So yeah, I just wanted to complain. I guess there are really bad video crews out here in Japan. Maybe I should just start a freelance production business like that out here, but do it right.

Although my job isn’t bad, I would like to take some time to ramble on about how absolutely horrible Saturdays are for me. I suppose not necessarily because of the teaching or working part, but because I have to wake up so freaking early. As a rule of thumb, I generally try to set my alarm clock for 2 hours before I need to be at work. Almost every day, I have to be at work at 1PM, so I set my alarm clock for a healthy 11AM. This usually means I hit the snooze button a few times, and generally wake up “for real” by noon. I then check any AIM messages, e-mail, Facebook, mixi, all in that order. My routine is then to get in the shower by 12:15, out of the shower by 12:25, do post shower things (contacts, deodorant, hair gel) by 12:30, be dressed by 12:40, and out the door shortly after that. It takes approximately 3 minutes for me to get from my apartment to my school, and I am supposed to be at work at least 10 minutes early when students might be waiting, which is almost all the time. As you can see, I have my mornings finely tuned to near-OCD-levels of routine. My body likes this. I like this. I do not like surprises. I go to bed on average at 3AM, meaning I get around 8 hours of sleep every night. So nothing really goes and screws things up quite like…

THE DREADED SATURDAY MORNING WAKE UP ALARM

Since AEON has more students who want to come in on Saturdays, and I guess students are too preoccupied with the Japanese habit of maintaining social relationships (meaning they go out and get plastered) on weekend nights, AEON decided long ago that instead of the comfortable 12-9PM hours they keep every other day of the week, Saturdays are open from 10AM-7. My perfect system of waking up at 11 and snoozing in until almost noon is ruined by this once a week 8AM alarm clock. It seriously feels like death every Saturday morning, especially since after 5 days or more of sleeping at 3AM-ish, it is pretty hard to fall asleep early on Friday nights. And now that the new season of Tadano Hitoshi has started, I’m guaranteed to be up at least until 1ish. It is pretty inevitable that I will get around 5 hours of sleep on Friday nights, then feel like a zombie all Saturday.

I woke up this morning, feeling in pain as usual, but forced myself through my morning routine that is shifted 3 hours earlier than the rest of the week. Instead of the normal news, cooking, or Tamori shows on TV while I’m getting ready, I was greeted by Saturday morning cartoons. There was a crazy Megaman show where his arm talks to him, and then the gayest show I have ever seen, even for Japan. It was called Fairy Musketeers, and had a bunch of little anime kids running around and fighitng with +7 swords and maces and stuff like that. After getting out the door a little bit early, I decided to grab some Matsuya, the gyudon place, for breakfast. They have a 390 yen breakfast set, which has rice, miso soup, seaweed, an egg, a sausage, some cabbage salad, and your choice of a side. Although the natto was tempting because it is so delicious and doesn’t smell like a dead body, I decided to go with a small bowl of pork and onions as my side. Overall, it was a ton of food for way cheap, but I had to scarf it all down in about 5 minutes or so. Then I went to school and taught on a full stomach. I don’t really feel like going much into the actual details of school, but I probably will talk about AEON school in general at some point eventually.

Met up with Mike today, a fellow IES-alum but from the Fall semester after me, since he has recently moved into Goi and will be working at a Nova school up near Chiba somewhere. After work ended at 7, I went with him and Blanchard to JJ Club 100, this arcade/amusement place 2 stations away from Goi that one of my high school students had told me about. It is a pretty big place, with lots of random stuff to do. Kind of like a ghetto arcade/carnival/amusement park all rolled into 1 big building with a character mascot who looks like a cartoon sperm, or the mascot from the old Quisp cereal. You get a membership card, then are charged by the time you are in the facilities. It’s 105 yen per 15 minutes, so about a buck. After that you can pretty much do everything for free. The only things that seemed to cost money were some crane games and vending machines. They had a decent amount of arcade games, although nothing brand new (and some that were right ancient), miniature golf, ping pong, batting cages, billiards, karaoke, darts, slot machines that you don’t win anything on, and other random stuff. It was fun just because you could do a bunch of random activities that you probably wouldn’t do otherwise. For the record, I am the world’s worst batter, possibly equally terrible at DDR, but surprisingly not too bad at the shameful Para-Para Dancing motion sensing game. The horse racing game was also pretty fun, although tiring. I rode that horse hard.

They also had these ropes hooked up to zip lines, and you fly across a little alley into some padding. Although it looks stupid, it was way fun and I laughed like a little kid. JJ’s did provide some pretty good entertainment for the night, and it was good to do anything of entertainment value after waking up early to teach pretty much straight classes from 10-7. Tomorrow I think I am going to hit up the World Hobby Fair, a free games and stuff convention at Makuhari, and will likely blog about that at some point. I will also then fit in the Tokyo Auto Salon, which was a convention I went to at the Messe last week. It’s convenient that all these shows happen only 30 minutes away from me. I suspect there will be much ranting about nerds, because even at a car show there was a seriously high percentage of nerds taking pictures of booth girls.