Entries this day: Dream Most_packed_train_so_far The_gaba_interview bye_nova hakisakjack

Dream

~4:05am JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

Was witnessing a tremendous storm or flood or some such, sitting in a truck (Dad's green Eddie Bauer Explorer) on the edge of a parking lot overloking a big valley thing with a fence in front of us, and the water cascading down the other side of the valley wither forom the ocean or a big storm. I wondered about getting closer and remaining sfe; wondered if the concrete pilings of the fence would be safe to tie myself to, for water was beginning to splash up on this side. The girl I was with stayed in the truck while I inspected things. I got out, with my towel, and got up on one of the pilings, facing down along the valley, as a wave cycle was at its lowpoint, and considered ting myself to it with my towel and to the iron fence and I heard someone desperately screaming my name from the right. I waved them off; I could see what waves were coming and I knew I was safe, but then they screamed again, like they couldn't see that I could see, or maybe they could see *more* than I could see, so I was like, fine and got down from the piling and woke up.

I lay in bed for a bit, kinda mad that I woke up from a cool dream, but wondering if there was a reason I needed to wake up. I inspected all my inner processes and everything seemed in order. It was still dark outside, so I didn't need to be awake for my interview; I went back to sleep.

7:13am JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

Dude woke up a tad earlier than me and we were happy we had chosen to go to bed early, and we checked our phones to see what time he had sent me the "go to bed" email the previous night and I thought it was just 30 minutes after he had gone to bed, and he thought it was a few hours after he had gone to bed, and it turns out it was about 2.5 hours after he had gone to bed, according to the timestamps of the messages on the phone.

Right now I'm going to get up for my interview, but I'll mention that I recently had a dream where I said, "I suspect I'm dreaming" and I jumped to test, and sure enough, I was and I flew. Fun.

Most packed train so far

9:11am JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

Weird: I am certain the sign on the platform said the train was an express, but the train was a local. These are realtime signs, and the train wasn't late. Weird.

At Jyugaoka, I switched over to the actual express train (and wondered if maybe the colors for express vs local have been switched) and the train was packed.

I was the last person on, and had three (3) pushers working to get me on the train. I was holding my backpack and there was no way it was fitting at thigh level, so I lifted it up above my head as they were saying "naninani ashi kudasai," and I'm like, oh, 'leg please' and I pulled my leg in as the doors were trying to close on/against my arm and finally all my parts were pushed in and the doors closed.

My bag was still above my head and since I was crushed against the door, my arm was pressed back in toward the center of the train by the video display above the door at an uncomfortable angle, but there was no way I could put it down; it would just end up on peoples' shoulders at face level. So I bent my arm and put my bag on my head. Two more train stations until Nakameguro, where the crowd dumps out, I thought.

I found that if I stood on tip toe, the pressure was less; I got my hips above the next guys hips. Ahh. that's better.

At the next station, the doors on the other side of the train opened. Usually they open right up like, "[whoop]; we're open!" but so many bodies pressing against them made it like, "[eerrgg ggrind shove] excuseme can we just open please?" and they opened and *no one* got out. As expected. Fortunately no one got in.

As the doors closed, a pusher (or two?) had to push back in those body parts that had escaped, and I could feel the pressure increase again.

My legs started shaking after some minutes of tip toe standing but only one more station to go. Next station = Nakameguro. We turned a corner and the mass of humanity squashed even harder against me. I had to try it. For an instant, I lifted my toes off the floor. Just for an instant. That's how tight we were.

Arrival at Nakameguro. But I had been wrong; no one got off. No one got on, either, so that was cool. I had lifted my toes. That was cooler. My bag was still on my head. Cool? I dunno; but it's true.

At Shibuya, I watched the doors again to confirm they opened more slowly than normal. They did. Slowly squeezing past all the bodies. Most packed train eva.

Then the door opened on my side (I was prepared for this) and I was the first in the carbonated spam burst.

The gaba interview

10:01am JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

Hmm. On first glance, it appears I might be able to transition slowly into working at Gaba. Schedules are flexible; contracts are four months at a time. With short contracts, I wonder if they hook up visas for us. With flexible schedules, I wonder if I can work at Nova and at Gaba part time and see which I like better.

There is a computer in each gaba cubicle thing. And I am connected via airport here in the cube. I just filled out the pre-screening application thing.

11:40am

The orientation went swimmingly; the rumors that we have to wear a Gaba Suit are erroneous; the rumors that we have to make sales are errorneous. The rumors that we can hang out with students are erroneous as well; I wonder how strictly that is enforced.

On one level, who fuckin' cares; I've got "plenty" of student, er Japanese friends now via Nova.

The schedule is uber flexible so I can just work a few lessons per week to start and see how I like it.

I was offered a followup interview; I imagine everyone was, but who can tell.

Oh! There was a _something_ being filmed in the classroom area; a Japanese woman and American man bumping into each other and dropping books and "excuse me; I am sorry. I did not mean to.." "no, I'm sorry; it's my fault," over and over about 5 times,, and I'm like, wow, cause it makes me think *I* could be that cat being filmed; baby I'm a star!

- - - -

So, um, oh - student progress is tracked on computer during last five minutes the lesson is reviewed and summarized good and bad points and vocabulary learned (which the student can look up later, including pronunciation) next suggested topics, etc; and I'm like, "wow."

The students can look up all of their lessons, what they learned and what they need to work on, etc, ... students can and "are encouraged to" provide feedback, and for every perfect lesson 5 of 5 on content, 5 of 5 on me, I get 1000 extra yen. That is money, money dude.

3.5 days training is paid after my 200th lesson taught. Interesting..

Ummmmmmmm they don't hook up my visa unless I sign a year contract; they don't hook up my housing; they don't pay for train passes.

Unbooked lessons are not paid, but no-show lessons are paid. Lessons are quiet during the day and packed on nights and weekends; "there is plenty to go around on nights and weekends."

Christine says she chose Gaba for the professionalism (that she didn't find at Nova). I didn't ask her at which branch she taught, but she was trained at Kawasaki 3.5 years ago.

- - - -

My next followup interview with Marvin is at 12:15. 11:51am now.

1:35pm JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

Wow.

I'm pumped. I'm thrilled! I'm likely to have my training next week (Monday through Thursday), which means I'll need to bang out some shift swaps. I'll tell Neil straight up that I'm rocking the fuck out of Nova. The more I think about it, the more sure I become. I just need to get new housing and I'm golden.

What was the turning point? Meeting Marvin somehow locked everything in place. Was it his demeanor? Did he say something? Did he make a calculated sale on me that I didn't notice? Or is it because he invited me to join his radio show "anytime" on Sundays from 1-5?? Fuckin' hell that is sweet; this job at Gaba may give me an in to radio in Japan.

Was it that he said, "we'll hook up your visa no problem; you have to sign a year contract, but we're not gonna.... you set your own hours."

Was it the "aight peace" and three way handshake out the door? Man; I was floating out of the office.

I called Yuuko; I called Morag; I emailed Dan.

I'm goin'; that's all there is to it; I'm fuckin' goin'

- - - -

Hmmm; have a shift swap I'm supposed to cover for Carla on the 25th. I think the schedule will look like me sliding off the Nova schedule. I'll shift swap to get a couple days next week (for the training) and work weekends only maybe for February. I wonder if that would let me still work at KQ with Morag and Ali. That would be sweet.

- - - -

He said, "we're growing; we need teachers right now. The sooner the better." and "and if down the line you think you want to get back into computers, we have openings in our IT department; just let your manager know." and "if you wanna work in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Yokohama - these branches are really busy [and you'll likely have few non-booked (non paid) lessons]."

bye nova

3:24pm JST Tuesday 10 February 2004

So I now have a meeting scheduled with Neil. I called him a bit ago and told him the Gaba interview was money and I'm out. He was like, "how much notice are you going to give?" and I go "I don't know," meaning I'll talk to him soon and give him the details. I'm requesting two days off next week: Monday and Thursday and if he can't help me get them, then I'll give less notice. If he helps me get them off, or at least says anything except something like, "I'm sorry, but if you had given more notice..." then I'll be more likely to keep working weekends for 30 days, etc and make them legit shift swaps.

5:26pm

That went well. Neil was quite helpful; even knew I had 2 paid holidays available and I'll be able to use them to take the days off. Sweet. I said bye to the peeps in the teachers room and to some of the cool students who I saw. HS Miki, Takuya, Yuki.

I wasn't able to give to Yuki Bryn's email address like I wanted; Yuki is going to London the day after tomorrow.

Filled out four forms: Cancel insurance, Cancel housing, Cancel job, Holiday request for Monday and Thursday. I trust they will all go through no problems.

I was a bit surprised at the support I got from people around the place. Guy and Ali were like, "good job {Rob | snoops}" and Rich especially was like, "I'm really glad for you; I'm glad you had the balls to do it. I've got a little bit of jealously that I didn't do it when I had only been here a year. Now I can't do it; the paycut would just kill me." He's got a wife and kid now, too.

I'm on the train toward home to tell Dan all about it and then go back and say HI to Yuuko.

hakisakjack

1:59am JST Wednesday 11 February 2004

I went to Kawasaki to meet Yuuko after her Nova lessons. We went to Starbucks for a drink and then to her house to get her car and she drove me home. I taught her the difference between "I'm going home" and "I'm going home with you."

Dan and I couldn't find Jack the hackey sack, so Yuuko and I walked to the convenience store to buy another, but the free sack with a coke promotion was over. Boo. Came back home and Dan found Jack behind the trash cans.

We played and made a game combining hackey sack and push ups and imaginary gold coins in the bank. When we do well, we get a gold coin. When we do poorly, we have to do pushups or spend some of our gold coins. We ended the day with 8 gold coins in the bank, a lot of pushups completed (we're saving money), and 4 kicks minimum before pushups are required. One pushup for each kick less than 4. 8 kicks deposits a gold coin. 18 kicks is our new world record.

I made a bed for Jack to use until we start kicking him again.