The Japan thread

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

I loved it. Hours everyday were spent in solitude with my Walkman and booze walking from job to job through rice fields and I knew several little spots where I could sit next to the sea and nobody ever once came walking by. I found two abandoned temples that I would could easily enter. I spent hours in there listening to Coltrane. One had part of the roof missing from a typhoon I figured and I could lay in there and watch the sky. I had an ALT / JET gig and they didn’t give a **** what I did. I’d just say I’m off to such and such elementary school. Drop by and give some kids a high five and then roll off. They were paying me to nomad around these tiny villages. At first they offered to drive me everywhere but I always refused.


One time for some reason I had to stay a week in a mid size city when I had that job. There were like 7 other ALT/JETs who had to do it too. We had private hotel rooms like a quarter mile from the office we had to meet in. All we had to do was check in, do whatever we wanted all day, and then check out. We could leave or just hang out there in a room just for us reading and bull****ting. And this one American girl actually chewed out our boss and told him she refused to check in and out. I tried to talk to her. I told her it was just a bureaucracy. He was told by his boss we had to be there. If we refused he got in trouble and it was a real job for him. She still said **** that no matter how good something is you should try to make it better. I understand the girl was bothered by the lack of rhyme and reason to the situation but it was like seriously we’re getting paid to say good morning and goodnight. I mean ****. I ****ing loved it though. I sat around and read books all day that week. The other English teachers all hated me. They would whisper lunch plans and not invite me. I didn’t know why but I didn’t give a **** either. I didn’t eat one meal or go for drinks with any of them once.

^ That's a very interesting insight into an earlier OH. I love the made-for-movie stuff about rice fields, the sea and Coltrane on the headphones in forgotten temples. Sometimes life delivers these unexpected gifts of special time, and you have conjured one up really well. I almost wish I was there myself, learning to love the sidewalks and enjoying the unstructured time in an exotic location.
That girl bleating about clocking in didn't know how lucky she was and the teachers who didn't invite you along didn't know what they were missing, imho.

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

That girl bleating about clocking in didn't know how lucky she was and the teachers who didn't invite you along didn't know what they were missing, imho.

OH says he smells so they probably made the right choice.

[Zhanteimi]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

and enjoying the unstructured time in an exotic location.

Blech. It's lame.

[OccultHawk]

Originally Posted by Zhanteimi

Blech. It's lame.

There were times when I hated the **** out of the place tbh

What got you there in the first place Mord?

[Zhanteimi]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

What got you there in the first place Mord?

Honestly? I was about to graduate university with a useless liberal arts degree, and I was mildly wondering what I wanted to do with my life (I'm not the kind of guy who ever really worries about anything, just take what's put in front of me). I was also about to marry the girl of my dreams, and she, having grown up in Rome and Tokyo, suggested leaving the country and seeing what the rest of the world had to offer. "After all, teaching English in Japan is an easy start."

So off we went. We graduated on a Monday. That Friday we were married (this was all planned months in advance, not some kind of shotgun wedding). The next day we were on a plane to Japan. I started teaching my wife's parents private classes while they were on furlough for the summer, and that gave my wife and me three months to find steady jobs of our own. We found teaching jobs no problem.

Working in a cram school wasn't what I wanted to do, though, because it's second shift, and I was starting a family. So I went back to school and got my Master's so that I could teach at the university level. Got my first uni gig in 2001 and have been doing that ever since.

Also, while I was working the night cram school, a coworker who just happened to be Christian (a rare thing here) asked me if I wanted his wedding officiant job. I was perplexed, but he explained it to me and offered me his job because I was also a man of faith and he didn't want to give the job to someone who wasn't a believer. I took that job and worked it freelance for a while, but I wasn't getting as much work as I could.

So I joined a wedding company who specializes in that sort of thing. All of a sudden, my number of weddings (and thus my pay) increased, and just this year, it has doubled, so I'm very happy about my promotion.

In the end, I decided at about the seven-year mark to stay in Japan for as long as my kids are living with me because the health care is top-notch. All children's health care, no matter what, is free until the age of 16. The other draw was the fact that Japan doesn't give a shit about me or my kids. I can educate them however I like, I can believe whatever I want, and no one is going to interfere. That bubble was attractive to me, and my kids are turning out happy, healthy, and educated. My three oldest who have made / are making plans for their lives, have left / will be leaving Japan behind.

Japan uses me, I use it right back, and when I've had this negative-population-growth country foot the bill for the raising of my children, my wife and I will leave and go...wherever.