Week Two

Week two ended yesterday, and wow I have to say that this job is sooo easy. I can't believe that I am getting paid to converse with people in English. My trainer in Vancouver told me that my first month in Japan was going to be hell because I would be spending all of my time preparing for classes. I don't know but either I'm doing everything wrong or I got the hang of it quickly. I would like to the latter.

Lets start from the beginning of the week. On Tuesday, I walked outside to get on my bike and go to work, only to find that my bike wasn't there. MY BIKE WAS STOLEN, or so I thought. Good thing I left early because I needed that extra time to walk. I arrived at work, sweaty pissed off, and down the money that I spent on the bike. I mean COME ON, I'm only in Japan for a week and my bike gets stolen. Well, to make another long story short my manager called around and found out that my bike wasn't stolen but in fact that I had parked it in a no-bike-parking-zone (who knew there where such places) and they had moved my bike down the street to another location. When I got home I went to the spot where they said my bike was and there is was. I was very relieved.

Wednesday, when I arrived to work I was told that someone was coming to the school to observe me. I was prepared for my classes pretty well, but I don't think they were good enough to be observed and the observer to think that I was a great teacher. The guy sat in on some of my classes and told me that he really liked what he saw. Even though I had received no training he said that my classes were well structured and that I the students felt very welcome and comfortable in my class. Wow, was I relieved.

The rest of the week was going pretty normal, or at least the way I expected it would go until Thursday night. I received an email for a old friend that I met at UCLA and he said that some people were getting together on Friday in Tokyo for a couple drinks. I jumped at the chance, wow people I know and Tokyo, I could imagine a better situation. Thus, after classes on Friday I took the 9 pm train from Oyama to Tokyo. It takes about an hour which isn't that bad, the only thing is that the last train from Tokyo to Oyama is around 10:30ish. So that meant that I was committed to stay the whole night, and then I had to be back in Oyama in the morning for work.

I arrived in Tokyo, found the bar, and had a couple drinks. Well... more then a couple drinks. I think that I was a little too excited to hang out with some old friends that I wasn't paying attention to how many drinks I had. Well, the night ended with me getting sick, and my wonderful friend Takashi taking care of me. He paid for a taxi back to his apartment and he let me sleep on his bed while he slept on the floor. I owe him. It's very comforting to know that I have friends like him in Japan. If I have a major problem or get in trouble I know that there are a couple people like him that will come to my rescue.

I took the 8am train back to Oyama, rode my bike home, took a shower, got ready, and went to work. When I arrived at work the manager told me that another people was coming to Oyama to observe me. Ahhhhh. I wasn't in the mood to be observed. Hangovers are not fun. So I went to the convenient store on first floor of my building and bought some energy drinks. Side note-- Japanese people have a whole different level of energy drinks. It's like drinking crack, the stuff works wonders. The day ended great, and may I quote the observer from her email, "I know that i gave you a lot of criticism/pointers in a very short time but I wanted to let you know that, overall, I am really impressed with how quickly you've settled in and gotten the ropes. You seem to teach with confidence but not with arrogance, which is so nice to see. I think that your teaching attitude is great and you will be a rock star in no time." Not to toot my own horn but hell ya. Maybe she was just trying to make me feel good but who cares. If I was able to give her that impression while being hung over I can't imagine what she would have said if I hadn't been.