A year on

I've updated the photo link on my last post so it should work now, there were problems of having to register/log in etc. so if someone can try it then send me a message letting me know if it works or not that would be nice. If it does I'll go back and sort the others out, if it doesn't then its back to the proverbial internet drawing board.

I've just passed my 1 year mark in Tokyo, which should probably lead me to summarize my time in some sort of clever analysis of Japanese society and people and perhaps my plan for the next year. I have neither to hand though so you'll have to make do with my usual shallow post but with much more rambling.

• I got a new work visa and was quite surprised that I got a 3 year one (used to be quite common but getting more rare I've been told, much more likely to get a 1 year) not sure I'll actually use it to its full extent but its nice to have the flexibility of a long visa and not having to traipse to the immigration centre each year.
  
  
• Following that I booked a flight to the UK for Christmas. I'll be back on the 23rd December and will leave on the 2nd January if I remember rightly. I'll then pop to Thailand for 4 days or so before I return to Japan. This little jaunt has used about half of the money I've saved in my year here so I'd like a warm welcome please! :-)

Today is bullet point day, so I'll continue the theme with two new pieces of information about Japan I learnt this week.

• In japan you pay to go to a wedding then receive a gift from the couple getting married, this also applies for funerals....although I guess its the deceased's family rather than the deceased themselves who give you a present. (lots of potential grammatical errors there, can 'deceased' be used with an 's' to indicate possession? and if its a deceased person whose gender is unknown do I use themself/theirself/themselves?)

• Lots of families who have a bit of money or are a bit posh hire private investigators to check out their childrens' partners before it gets serious to see if their suitable for marriage.

Despite the lack of a coherent plan for the future I'll share spew the contents of my mind today, be glad that you don't have to put up with this in all of my blog posts!!

When I first came to Japan and to this day students often asked me why I chose Japan to come and teach, unlike most people who come here after a lifetime of being fascinated by the country, have an unhealthy interest in Japanese anime and manga, or are socially inept and so come to a society where the westerner is seen as an interesting, cool, or just different creature and in turn making the standard geek seem more interesting and exotic seen in the 'Charisma Man' cartoon) I didn't have a solid reason. It just seemed to be closer to Western society than most Asian countries so an easier to adjust to and in part due to this offered more money for travelling so made a good base for the area. In return I tended to ask what they liked about Tokyo, after a moment or two of deliberation most said that it's 'convenient'. Convenience does not really sound like a good base for choosing a place to base your life but as the year has progressed this reason for living in the city has slowly crept into my life.

A couple of friends who came out here and worked for a few years really liked the city but I don't think I share their feelings. There's nothing I love about Tokyo, but similarly I don't think there's much I hate or even don't like. Here come the bullet points again...

• On the negative side there's the difficult language, the general anonymity of the city (think of a big city anywhere in the world then x2 for the fact it's in Japan and people aren't very forthcoming, then x2 again because you're a 'gaijin' or foreigner), the long hours of work, the high cost of living, a lack of labour regulation and security in an industry that pays less every year and seems to be getting more volatile (in Japan anyway - recent news about Nova the biggest school in the country with sponsorship deals coming out of its big rabbit ears and a school in ever town with more than 20 people being fined for misleading students, not paying teachers on time and closing a number of schools)
  

• On the plus side despite my relatively low wages and the high cost of living I earn more than most Japanese workers in mundane jobs like shop work, waitressing, and receptionists. I enjoy my work (the first time i've ever said that in my life, not that i've had that many jobs), on a good day I teach a few points of grammar, chat about the last week, and discuss politics/history etc., on a bad day I have to teach some boisterous kids for an hour or two who are still ridiculously well behaved compare to the majority in the UK and then I don't see them again for a week. The anonymity can be a blessing, outside of work If I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone I can spend all day surrounded by people but never utter a word. Similarly my basic understanding of Japanese means that whilst I imagine there are inane conversations around me all the time unless I concentrate really hard to pick out the words I know I can block it all out as background noise. If you don't like your own company then its a nightmare but I don't fall into that category.
  

Everything is here if you want it - parties, international food and culture, the latest technology - or not if you want to ignore it. It's an easy city to live in when you don't know what you're doing next and dangerous for the same reason, too many people stay here for 5-6 years or longer just thinking about the next week and not realising how much time has passed. I'm aware of the dangers of this thinking but I'm yet to find a solution. Maybe the occasional pondering of TEFL job websites will give me inspiration for my next move, or perhaps the time at home at Christmas will give my thoughts some clarity.

Festival season

The Shane system of 'standby' reared its ugly head again this week. Not sure if I've explained this before but it will help me vent my spleen so here goes anyway - My contract has 13 extra days of work written into it, some are used in training and the others are to support the standby and cover systems. This is to cover days that teachers take as holidays, take off sick, or to cover days when teachers decide they've had enough and leave with little or no notice. If the head office know someone won't be able to teach then another teacher is informed in advance that they'll need to teach that day (cover). This doesn't solve the sick absences and runaways though, so each month a list of teachers and days is put on display in the schools, if you're on the list then on your specified day you have to phone at 10am and check if you're needed to cover a teachers shift for that day.

So you can't really plan anything for that day just in case you've got to work, you can't have a lie in, and you don't get paid any extra whether you're needed or not. Questions have been raised over the legality of having people on call by their employer and not being paid for the service but nothing has really been done about it. The worst case scenario is that a number of people are sick in a different area and you're sent there rather than within the normal district you teach in. This is what happened to me, I was sent to the middle of nowhere which took me just over an hour each way and consequently had to cancel a couple of plans I had for the day. GRRRRRRRR.

Anyway, that aside, the last month has been pretty good. I've been to a few festivals involving dancing (Koenji Awadori festival), fireworks (Seibu Yuenji hanabi festival), and religious shrines (Hatanodi Matsuri festival). I even took part in the Matsuri, helping to carry a Mikoshi. I've renewed my work visa and against the odds got a 3 year one (not as common as they used to be, most teachers just get 1 year) which means i don't have to pay again each year if i do stay that long, and can travel around and come back and get a job with no problems - just more flexibility all round. And I've changed my contract from five to four days a week, obviously less money but I think they've made a mistake and agreed to give me more than I should get, which is nice!

The website I use for my photos is closing, I've transfered them all to another site and updated the old posts, however I have a feeling its not working too well so I might have to switch to another site if you can't see them. Here's a short video!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaOHDls3cN2LjQ