Sunday, 11 March 2007

Renewing My Contract

In the last week or so I signed my new contract which basically means I'm in Japan for at least another year. Figured I've got a lot more to do here before I go such as travelling a lot more and start studying the language again.

I'll be starting my fourth year in Japan next month which means another ungodly trip to Immigration, waiting 8 hours for my ticket to get called and then get told that I've filled in the wrong forms. ;)

Me up with Yuri and Blair last night in Ueno and caught a glimpse of the Sakura trees in full bloom about a month before they're supposed to. Global Warming at work.

I like seeing the trees flowering as they're so damn pretty but it means that we may miss out on a Hanami party this year as it'll be too damn cold to sit outside.

Am thinking about stealing some of those plastic Sakura flowers that are decorating the grocery store down the road and throwing them around my apartment. Is it possible to have an indoor Hanami?

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Labels: japan, MLS, work

Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Got the kaze

Well yesterday started out well enough, woke up, had coffee and breakfast and headed into work but as I got off at my station I was unusually thirsty. The air's pretty dry in Japan in winter so I didn't think much of it. I bought a drink and headed into the studio and finished the bottle before my first 50 minute lesson was done.

Still nothing that unusual, but then the headaches started and my bones began to ache and my skin became massively sensitive to any movement I was doing.

As my second class started the fever hit and I felt like I was going to pass out. Luckily my assistant rocks and didn't mind singing a little louder for me. By the end of this class I knew I had caught the flu (kaze, which also means "wind" in Japanese) and called the office to tell them that I only had one more class in me.

This is when I really began to appreciate the MLS staff. When I was at NOVA, calling in sick would be such a stressful experience with noone believing you and the constant threat of losing your job as well as the massive salary fine for just one day off. But with MLS, they give you the benefit of the doubt. They actually ask you how you're feeling and what they can do to help. There's no "This might come up in your evaluation" bullshit.

So a big thank you to MLS. I may be feeling like my organs are shutting down but at least I'm not stressed about being unemployed.

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Labels: japan, MLS, NOVA