Thursday, 28 October 2004

Sorted

Deliberately did almost nothing in my two days off. Need to save money until my next payday after buying my ticket home. Suprisingly I've still got about 200,00 YEN to last me until the 15th of Nov.

I did manage to organise my travel plans for next year. Got Beijing booked in for Chinese New Year in Feb, Singapore in March, Europe in June, Russia via Hokaido in Aug, New York in Nov (nice in winter) and Australia in Dec for Christmas. I'll be fitting in numerous Japan trips within that time (Okinawa next month!) and will have Jan - March 2006 before my contract runs out. If I get the option, I think I'll get it renewed a second time for 2006 just in case. ;)

Man, it's getting cold now!

Monday, 25 October 2004

Still shaking, still coughing!

Well I think we've had over 30 or so aftershocks in the past few days. Had a pretty big one at midnight last night and apparently there was a HUGE one this morning at around 5am but I slept through it (doh!). Earthquakes are pretty relaxing at our place. Being three floors up our building develops a gentle rocking / swaying motion. Really soothing!

p.s. Still coughing. Am thinking of a law suit now!

Saturday, 23 October 2004

COUGH!

It's now been a week and while I can speak again (that was only for 24 hours) I am still coughing constantly. I'm not sick, I feel fine, but me throat must be dry or something because I just can't stop coughing!!!

Shake, Shake, Shake!

It's an exciting time right now! Japan has been rocked by massive earthquakes and aftershocks (still feeling one now!) for the past 2 hours measuring from 4 to 6+ on the Japanese scale of 1 - 7, 1 being the biggest (I think).

I was on the train, coming back home from an early shift with James, who I ran into at Shin Koshigaya, when our train stopped at Koshigaya station for a good 20 minutes. We didn't know why, until the announcement mentioned an earthquake. When we got to Sengendai station our train started rocking uncontrolably. Pretty exciting really.

It took me an hour and a half to get home (it normally takes.... another aftershock right now!.... it normally takes me 15 minutes!).

I'm alright (so far) though a bullet train has been derailed and there have been reports of avalanches and landslides!

Sunday, 17 October 2004

Speachless

Well, I've lost my voice! Apparently it's a pretty common occurence for English teachers in Japan. In my first few weeks here I'd heard stories of about 10 or so different teachers who had lost their voice. In fact one guy had to move back to Australia, and 2 months later he still hadn't gotten his voice back!

Anyway, yesterday afternoon, I mentioned to a few teachers that my throat was dry and a little hoarse, then after work we went out for a teachers farewell party at a karaoke place in Shin Koshigaya. After 2 hours of singing, I really couldn't sing any more. My throat was so dry, I was constantly drinking liquids.

This morning I couldn't speak at all. All I could do was make grunt-like noises. Tim called in sick for me and the staff at Foriegn Personel ask to speak to me, even after he had told them I couldn't speak! Eventually they asked him to tell me to ring them this afternoon. I just did then and all I got was a sarcastic "Wow, your voice is all better NOW". I couldn't believe it! I was sincerely sick, there's no way I could have worked and I get accused of faking it! The last sick day I had must have been at least 2 months ago. I've only had 3 in the six months I've been here. What's more, my voice is obviously still croaky and hurts when I talk. I told her that I rang up to confirm that I really was sick this morning and I got a really fake phrase of concern "Yeah, the polution's really bad here isn't it?".

I've got half a mind to speak to her manager about this.

The karaoke party went well though. We all had a great time!

Friday, 15 October 2004

Or so I thought...

Well, turns out my flight wasn't as reserved as I thought. When I showed up today to pay for it, I was told that all the flights were sold out and I was on the "waiting list"!!! Talk about incompetence!!! She gave me several different flights, even suggesting that "Try this one. It stops over in Hong Kong!" to which I replied "But I want to stopover in SINGAPORE".

I was constantly recommended to stay on the waiting list UNTIL the departure date which is rediculous as if it didn't become avaliable I'd have no flight AT ALL. The travel agent couldn't really get her head around this fact.

Eventually I told her I'd just take the direct flight with Qantas. It'll be faster and cheaper too! Complete return ticket is: Y109,310. Not bad! No stopover in Singapore though.

Wednesday, 13 October 2004

Plane Ticket Reserved!

After hours of stressing out with the Singapore Air website finding that tickets for December were up in the AU$6000 range, I resorted to one of the budget ads in an English Japanese magazine that I get once a month, where it was advertising flights for AU$550. I did some research to find the safest and most confortable airline other than Singapore Air and chose ANA (only one crash in 1971!) but it turns out that ANA doesn't go to Australia. The woman on the phone then said Singapore Air had openings for 123,000 YEN (about AU$150,000) which was pretty amazing! I jumped at it, customised it so I can get a direct flight from Narita to Sydney (no stopover cutting off about 4 hours!) and a 3 day stopover in Singapore for my return flight.

My holidays are going to be longer than I expected due to most of the flights being booked out so here's the info for my Aussie family and friends:

Narita - Sydney: 16th Dec 2004
Sydney - Singapore: 3rd Jan 2005
Singapore - Narita: 5th Jan 2005

In retrospect, I guess I should have thrown the Singapore trip in before Australia, but it works either way.

Final price of ticket: YEN 123,000 (Right now AU$1,534.27) Pretty good for a return, a stopover in Singapore for 3 days and in peak season! Plus I'm adding up my flyer points so I should be able to get a free flight when I get back!!!

P.S. Added some more music to my Radio Blog.

Damn Howard!

Well, Howard's in again! No idea how that happened as I havn't met one teacher here who voted for him! I didn't vote at all so I guess I shouldn't be complaining but the guy lied to use TWICE.

Anyway, went out drinking last night, hungover this morning, couldn't meet a friend to hang out, he thinks I made my hang over up (he has trust issues apparently), and I'm now chatting with a great gal from back home and a groovy guy here in Japan.

It's my day off today and I did absolutely NOTHING. I feel so proud of me. :D

Sunday, 10 October 2004

Typhoon!

I completely forgot to mention the insane typhoon we had last night! Normally when the Japanese say there's a typhoon it's usually just a little rain (you honestly can't tell the difference!), but last night it really hit. It was raining normally all day but when I came down stairs to clock out from work I was hit by rain blowing 90 degrees and a wind that almost blew my umbrella out of my hand!!! It was crazy, I could barely walk!

Random thought: This morning while on my train ride, I saw two kids playing baseball IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 5 LANE HIGHWAY!!! I'm not talking about them playing on the sidewalk, I'm talking about them standing right IN THE MIDDLE of the road!!!

Anyway... the train station shelter wasn't doing anything. Everyone was simply lining down the stair well... well there were a few businessmen standing point blank in the wind and rain completely emotionless trying to look oh so cool with their clothes and bags being completely drenched.

When I got to Sengendai station, one side was completely flooded! It was a crack up watching full grown men and women scream and jump into 30cm high water! Strangely enough, there was a bridge of sorts made of sand bags, but that didn't start for about 5 metres out from the station steps!

Happy New Year!

Just heading off for work now, but remembered something that I thought of yesterday and I'm pretty excited about! Chinese New Year in.... China! It's in Feb sometime and I should easily be able to get the money for it! Sounds like fun!

Saturday, 9 October 2004

Gym? Oh... GYM!

Finally joined up with a gym today in Sengendai! It's only a 2 week membership however as next month a brand new, 4 storey gym openings in Kita Koshigaya!!!! Anyway, the Sengendai gym was small but great. I feel so much better now after doing 2 hours of weights! My arms were getting rediulously thin!

Thursday, 7 October 2004

Full Circle

Well things have definitly come full circle now! Tonight I was assigned with the task to welcome a new teacher to Japan! I met him at Shin Koshigaya station (where I was met when I first arrived!) and walk him to his appartement in Takesato (same town!). Pretty cool guy. Paul's his name. Doesn't know what branch he's working at but I'm assuming mine (Shin Koshigaya) as 3 teachers are leaving or have already left.

Am seriously looking for my own place to live. I'm paying 90,000 Yen per month for this place where the average rate is 30,000 for this area. Nova is making a fortune with their appartements!

Tuesday, 5 October 2004

Short is Sweet

Did a shift swap with a part timer so I only had to work 4 hours tonight! Great day! Got to work in the new Kita Koshigaya branch and a girl, Joanne from my training in Ikebukura was there, so we caught up. She'll be leaving in about 3 weeks. Seems a lot of people are. A guy from work didn't get is contract renewed (not his choice and a very long story which I think is extremely unjust and utter Bull$hit) and Eric is heading back to the US (offered a higher paying job apparently).

Monday, 4 October 2004

We All Look The Same

Well it's been pretty slow these last couple of days so I'll share a little incident that happened a few weeks ago that I forgot to write about.

After finishing my shift, I was walking down the stairwell to clock out when I saw a regular student in front of me. I said "Hey" and she responded with "Hey, I'll make sure to check out your website with your Hokaido pictures!". I was pretty confused and told her "I've never been to Hokaido". She was convinced I was joking. Even her friend that I was with thought I was joking.

I asked her if she had me confused with someone else. She, naturally said, "No. You're Edgar, right?". I said "No, I'm BRAD."

She refused to accept that I wasn't Edgar and went on to explain that I had just taught her in class (I hadn't, Edgar did). All the while she was standing inches from my face, inspecting me. She honestly couldn't tell the difference, even after just finishing a 45 minute lesson with Edgar! He friend had a sudden realisation "Hey, I don't think that's him!".

I joked that "I guess we all look the same to you, don't we?". She appologised but she was still observing my face to see if it was a trick.

Insane. We look nothing alike, besides the fact that we're both blonds.

Friday, 1 October 2004

3 day recap

Been a busy few days. Turns out me missing a day isn't that big a deal afterall though I won't get paid for that day (fair enough) and I get a 4 hour pay deduction from my monthly salary.

Mark had his last day on Wednesday so we went out for drinks at an okay Japanese place in Shin Koshigaya. Pretty much talked until 3am, and I had to work on Thursday. Was a little hung over but nothing too serious. Had a great night with the guys. We should do it more often. It's very easy to develope a habit of finishing work and going straight home here.

Worked overtime on Tues and Wed so even with the deductions this month I should be getting paid extra. Looking forward to it.

I'm really thinking of taking a holiday somewhere before Christmas. It's only Y20,000 for a return to Hong Kong (about AU$200). If I have enough cash after buying my Sydney-Singapore ticket I'll try a quick flight somewhere. Maybe Okinawa or Hokaido.