And so ends the game · 10:51am March 22nd
Today is my last day at school, and just about marks one year in Japan for me. So, what to say about it? So much has happened and so much has changed in a single year when, before, I felt static and stuck in a place I'd never wanted to be. In that case, let's start there.
2022: After the Biden administration began its long stream of fuck-ups that has yet to end, things were going down hill for me just all around. I didn't have quite the same money troubles that I do now, but I was living at home with my parents with no real idea of what my future looked like, nor any particular desire to figure that out. I'd been writing Star Overhead already but I was still in the early phases of it. Shortly after Volume 3 went out, I got rejected from the JET program and I was not feeling good. I still wanted to go to Japan, so I looked around until I found my current company and applied there and to a few other places. Didn't care where or when I went, I just wanted to go.
As restrictions were coming up in May, my hate for my job at fedex was rising, just as I got my confirmation from my current company. I had a new job to look forward to, but I needed about 5G and that was going to be hard to make over the course of 10 months. Not that it couldn't be done, but I learned a lot this year, and one of those things I learned was to be more responsible with my money. The halt of the school loans combined with the minimal expenses I incurred at my parents house left me with 'a lot' of disposable income. I could reasonably throw about $300 any way I wanted and still have money for gas and food. Fedex was hard on my body, but they paid well. This combined with my gunpla addiction led me to spending that on kits more often than not, paint, and supplies for painting. By the end of the year I'd say I got pretty good at it, but that didn't make it any less expensive.
Fighting my impulses and putting money away for this eventually got me what I needed, but that didn't last for very long, and I basically had nothing left after I got to Japan which would become a problem later.
For now, the preparations are stressful, I have to pack years worth of crap piled up around my room, and all my precious plastic needs to go into storage. I had to do this again a few weeks ago, and it was just as painful as the first time, except I had even more painted kits to put away. I scratched a few places on one of my favorites this time, and it's just plain tragic. I think I'll weather it and scratch it up, then get a new one to repaint later. Anyways, I only got so far with my packing and had to leave the last of it to my parents as the day of my flight had come, today, a year ago. The ride was 14 hours of pain sitting next to a bickering couple. I arrived, far too hot wearing too many clothes carrying too much crap, and everything I owned was buried in a pair of suitcases and a backpack. After being pushed around Haneda trying to register a bunch of stuff with the goverment and getting my prints taken for my new residence card, I was finally free... at 6PM after dark had settled. Very annoyed, and wet from the rain, I got in a taxi, drove a few minutes to my hotel, and set all my things down. I had a bit of time to walk to a 711 and explore around the hotel in the cold and dark, but that didn't last long. I had a couple onigiri and a water, then went to bed.
The first day was sort of magical as I came right at the start of cherry blossom season. Pink petals, green leaves, blue skies, and the Tokyo skyline all around me. the rain would come off and on that day, but it was fine with me. I got to try a Lemon Skashu (The soda naota drinks in FLCL), and I decided that I was going to go see the gundam in Odaiba since I had the chance. I was up way early though, it was close to 5AM, so it gave me time to kill. I wandered around, eventually figured out how to work the train, made my way to Odiaba, had flashbacks to the Digimon Adventure movie and series, took pictures with the gundam, and my plastic addiction would bite me in the ass after I bought my first kit in japan, an RG Unicorn perfect.
A big box in a bag added to my collection, the next day I took the train to Sendai where I was to send the rest of my year. I saw Gridman Universe in theaters, being the first of only two movies I've seen in Japanese theaters, and then meet some people I thought I might make friends with. Only, for a few days later, to be told that I would not be staying in Sendai. I wouldn't learn this until much later, but the way dispatch ALT companies work is that they compete for bids with the local municipalities to hire out native speakers to schools. Four of us had been over hired and had no job to go to, however, my company had under hired and offered to take us. Thus begins the west arc.
Four guys left in Sendai after training screw around for a few days. We're jostled to Fukuoka on a domestic flight, and I remember security being very unhappy that I had an entire PC set up in my backpack. They didn't do anything about it, just made me take everything out to look at the batteries and power blocks. The space on the domestic flight was also too little to accommodate my carry on, so I basically sat on that for two hours. The view was nice, and I managed to take a nap, but just like that, we were in Fukuoka.
We had four days to screw around here and exactly one appointment on the third day. There was yet another gundam statue here, so that was my goal. With one friend, we went to go see that, and I would later learn that the popup shop out beside the gundam was not the main shop that was hidden on the top floor of the mall, which I never visited and was very bitter about after I learned of it. Still, we visited Mandarake, a resale shop for anime and manga stuff, later and I found the statue's replica RG and added that to my collection. Another 7K yen down. Last day before we split up, we go get wings from an American style bar in Fukuoka, and then I take a series of trains to Matsue.
Finally here, I spent a week in a hotel while they figured out living arrangements for me. Needed to start work before they got my car to me, and ended up walking almost an hour in a suit two days because, as I would later learn, the busses are notoriously horrible here. Car acquired, and I begin the learning part of the job interspersed with wandering over the weekends. This goes on until the first break for summer really, the end of the first semester.
I think it was in this semester that I learned the most important thing I was ever told,
"If you're not having fun, no one else will be either." —Jordan Shanks.
I'd gotten a few horrible classes, a really good teacher, and a mediocre teacher. I had to live with all this, and being pissy and negative about it was no way to enjoy the japan journey I'd dreamed of since I was a child. This began a sense of optimism in me that got me through a lot of bad days and is still something I practice to this day. Another thing I learned here is that I really didn't get paid much and I had to adapt to that. That, and that my credit card could not be used to take out cash, or purchase things from certain stores that only accepted japan only services, which is fucking ridiculous, P-Bandai, why do you hate me?
*cough*
Ahem, summer came, (end of July, most of August) I got a nice big helpful handout from the city, and holy shit, was it too long of a break from work. I missed the kids, I missed my routine, I ruined my sleep schedule to hang out with my American friends at night, and I only had the money to really take one trip to Tottori with an ALT friend I made here. Toll roads are a pain in the ass, but that lesson wouldn't set in until later in November. Summer was alright, but next time, I'm going to be more proactive in doing stuff.
I'd made a Japanese friend by providence who helped me work on my japanese every week, and along with my few ALT friends, I spent very little time out of doors for that long, long month. I was happy to get back into school the next month, and I was a bit more serious about my job then. I tried to get ahead, look at the material before hand, and then quickly stopped doing that because what was the point where one class was decided was we went by the day, and another followed the rigid schedule of whatever T2 was working on that week. I would push for more freedom, and T1 would ask for my input as the semester would go on, so that was fun, but it never went anywhere on the other side. I wanted to go back to Fukuoka and made my wishes known before this point, but now, was when the rehire notices and transfers were being discussed with employees.
I'd had a great review from my teachers and I think I'm pretty good at my job generally since, as T1 would tell me, I really understand how to teach my language, and I actually give a shit. IMHO, the funniest part about all this is that I really don't have any other teaching experience. It's all about being able to convey ideas clearly which is definitely more of a writing skill than anything. Still, I wanted away from this place, and so that's what I asked for. I picked three places, didn't get any of them, and now I'm in one about half an hour away from my first choice, which is not bad I think.
The most unfortunate part about leaving is that, in my last semester, I really felt like I was helping the kids a lot. I'd seen significant improvement in their performance in the T1 class, and I was sad to have to go. Only, I get to the later half of the week and I'm like, yep, this is why I don't want to be here. I can' say if it was just the teacher or her and the kids that gave me such a great time at work, but I loved it there, and really wish it could've just been there. Still, that's not how it went so here we are.
Overall, I'd say it was a good year. I learned a lot, made friends, really improved my Japanese up to like, a basic conversational level, and by this time next year, I think I can move up or onward depending on how school goes for the next four months. My biggest wish is that my writing had kept up as well as it got toward the end of the year. By December, I started to hit my desired writing counts for each month, and I'm already way ahead on March. So long as I keep pace, I'll make my 365K words for the year. I want to release Volume 6 by May, and I'm working on building my own website with a friend of mine.
Next year will be better than this one.
Anyways, that's all from me.
Until Next Time~
—KCZ
You once asked me what company my sister works at, but I completely forgot to answer (mostly because I had to ask her before I could). But now I have that answer and remember that I need to give it, so: KinderKids International. My sister claims it's the best option for foreign teachers right now, but she is kinda sorta maybe biased after having worked there for over a decade.
...
I really need to get my hands on Volume 5 soon.
5773396
I'm not really interested in teaching preschool or elementary school, but thanks. The way forward is either direct hire, promotion (which I should be eligible for next year), or finding another job, likely in tech somewhere else in Japan. My bet is currently on the latter since I'm not sure what kind of contract has been decided in this city, and the tech centers in Japan are the biggest growing business here.
You should, It's my best work until Volume 6 comes out.
still need to finish writing it though... it's already longer than V5...I've been slack on reading your blog posts, I must admit, but here... I didn't realize until recently that it had been a year in Japan for you. Still, I hope that Matsue is an improvement for you, and that you'll be going higher up very soon.
Speaking of onigiri, the local 7-Elevens in the Philippines have that. They taste nice for the low price they have.
5773645
I left Matsue, but yeah.
My favorite Onigiri are Pickled Plum and Shrimp Mayo. 711 has the best onigiri out of all the convenis as far as I'm concerned.