First Job Interview

Had my first job interview today. I thought it might have been good and it offered 250,000 yen a month. With a company called Kids International.

Was greeted at the door by a mid-20s Japanese girl who spoke unbelievably good english, and she told me to sit and wait. Then an older, balding Japanese man came and sat down and in a thick American accent said "Naaaiiice to meeetcha!" And then he gave me the spiel.

Basically the jist is this. I don't TEACH them anything per se, instead I would be "providing an international environment for 0.5 to 12 year olds". Eat with them, take them to the toilet, wipe their bums as well probably. Sigh. Furthermore if i were to start, first I'd have to do a 4 hour unpaid trial. Then 3 days of 1000 yen per hour trial. Then go on reduced pay (230,000 yen per month) for 3 months. THEN go on full pay (250k/month) from then. Holidays? Well you accumulate 1 day per month. But you can't take any till your 7th month. So in the 7th month, you can take 7 days, but (and i quote) "you can't take them all at once!". Also sick days come out of holidays.

Anyway they were exceptionally nice. They understood that I am "in the recruiting stage at a lot of places" so I have till Monday to get back to them. Honestly, I don't think I'll take it. Sure it looks mega easy but it looks like a big pain in the freshly-wiped 0.5 year old bum. And I want my month of paid holidays like all the school-based teaching companies are offering.

Oh well, regardless, it WAS fun walking through the streets of Gotanda, Tokyo in my suit, although my new shoes gave me blisters on my heels god damn it! It's funny, when Japanese see a whitey, they give them a stare. But when they see a whitey in a suit with a tie and everything (helps if you're wearing sunglasses too), they give a long stare, like they're trying to perceive you from every different angle. Very strange and very noticable.

So, now I'm just chilling out in my windowless basement guesthouse, using my neighbour's computer like he said I could. Still have to find a map of this area so I can find the supermarket - everyone else who lives here or HAS lived here keeps saying there are no supermarkets nearby, but it's cheaper just to eat out at any one of the little food shops that dot the street between here and the station and around. And that's probably true - hell I went to 7-11 for dinner tonight and brought home a big plate of noodles and chicken nugget type things for 368 yen (~AU$4).

Aiight, wizz out.

Some more stuff...

Ok I am borrowing my new neighbour's computer at the moment, so it affords me a few moments to update my blog and stuff!

So, what's new... well, I moved into this place yesterday and then today i went to a shop called Nitori (which is like the Japanese IKEA) and bought $50 worth of stuff. But $50 goes a long way at Nitori! That was a cushion for my chair, two lamps and a set of bedsheets!

Furthermore, when I got home I looked behind this mysterious door (I was just exploring) and found a treasure trove of furniture! Must be left overs from the renovation that happened to this place last year or something. Anyway, using a combination of what i bought and what i "found", my room is looking pretty schmick! Below are some photos.

Also tomorrow I have a job interview for an english-teaching kind of job, except that it's more like babysitting I fear. I mean, the students are between 2 and 8 or something. 2?!?? What am i going to teach them? how to say "poo poo's and wee wee's"? "duck! cow! quack! moo!". All the meanwhile there are security cameras on us so over-protective parents can log in on the net and check what their little diddumses are up to. Give me a break. So anyway, I intend tomorrow to tell them "Thanks for the offer, I actually have a few other offers that I am considering at the moment..." and see what they do. I mean basically I want paid holidays, the ability to take some holidays whenever I want, and to not have to work weekends or public holidays. Is that too much to ask? Seemingly not, since every other company offers it...

Anyway, next time I come on here I'll undoubtedly have news. So until then, enjoy these photos of my room (and my dinner).







(This meal cost me 398 yen. Dirt cheap but tasty!)

You know what i love?

Shinkansen!

Found a place!

Well, I'm moving out of Saitama tomorrow and into Naka-itabashi! Found a great place there - large room, free electricity and internet, clean and renovated building, should be great! All for only 61,000 yen a month and that's INCLUDING utilities :)

So, until i get a computer this blog may not be updated so much, but I'll see what i can do. I'll try and get some photos up at some stage so until then, just know that I am happily making my new life in Tokyo in a cool new place just minutes from the city!

Until next time, then!

UPDATE: Here's the link for the place. I am in room B-08. Also it seems there IS a PC in the common area - well, according to this website anyway - so until I start working that'll be useful.

Only in Japan...

Found some rather amusing items at everyone's favourite store, Don Quixote...

UNIQLO

I forgot to mention that I bought some jeans from UNIQLO, possibly the best store in the entire world. You know how people say Japan is expensive? Well, sure, rent is a bit much and owning a car is practically impossible for anyone who's not a millionaire (because of exhorbitant parking fees and taxes), but food and clothes are DIRT CHEAP! While I was in Shibuya I stumbled across one of these fabulous stores and found a completely cool looking pair of jeans (which, in Australia would most definitely be close to $90 or $100) for 3990 yen or AU$43.56.

I can't remember the last time I found clothes of this quality for such a low price. AND if you're lucky, you can stumble into this store during a clearance and get the same stuff for half price! As for food, well, after buying my jeans I went to a noodle restaurant - you know one of those ones with the wooden bar and the stools - and got a giant bowl of soup noodles with what could only be described as half a pig's worth of pork floating in it, AND a bowl of rice, for 600 yen (AU$6.50).

Seriously, this rocks.

Photos from Shibuya

Went exploring all by myself for the first time today, and decided to go and visit Shibuya, just one of Tokyo's main shopping districts. Check out the lights and signs on the buildings and also, the amazing number of people crossing the road at this busy intersection in the photo with HMV in the background.

(photos still crap - is it the camera phone? or am I just shaking it around or something!?!)

Tokyo is a three-dimensional city!


Q-Front building with giant screen


Honestly, there must be 1000 people crossing this intersection every 30 seconds...


Bright lights in the street malls of Shibuya


Some pretty lights

Response!

Got a response from one of the three jobs I applied for yesterday, saying that I have passed the initial screening process and now have to fill in some email questionnaires and whatnot.

Check it out here.

I told you guys it wouldn't take long! Check out the pay, 250-280k yen a month, that's like between AU$2690 and $3013 per month. Cool!

Cold, cold, cold

Cold and windy today... nothing much occurring.

Applied for 3 jobs today and sent email inquiries about two places to live, so hopefully I'll hear from some of them in the next few days.

Haven't really done anything - except go to the supermarket and eat tsuna-mayo o-nigiri (tuna and mayonnaise rice balls wrapped in seaweed), but soon we might go to this hamburger family-restaurant type of place called "Bikkuri Donkey".

Great!

Got the photos

Ok they are a bit blurry but here are the ones I took in Akihabara. Remember i'm just trying to work out this phone so i obviously didn't have it on night mode or anything. Oh well, let's just say... "the quality will increase".

Akihabara

Went to Akihabara today and actually, took some pictures on my phone. But until I find the damn CD for the computer I can't actually download them. So, when i work it out, i'll post some of the cool photos of it.

Anyway, we explored Yodobashi Camera, a massive camera/electronics store with about 8 levels. On one of the floor we found a whole range of BB guns, like full-on shotguns and assault rifles just hanging there on the wall, hehe.

Went to McDonald's and got (for the three of us) one big mac set, one teriyaki burger set, two chicken burgers and two cheeseburgers - all for 1570 yen! Haha although Japanese McDonald's is still oily - I can feel the oil leaking out of the skin on my face as I am typing hehe.

Oh well, that's it. You can probably expect photos soon. As soon as i work this crap out anyway.

Keitai Denwa!

Went to Akabane and bought a mobile phone today on the AU network - free with a $50 a month plan or something (actually my friend did all the talking for me so she worked out a good deal). These phones can do everything - email, watch tv, play music with headphones, AND you can also use it at the train stations and convenience stores - you put money on it and can just wave it at the turnstiles to catch trains and stuff! Convenient, ne? And i got to pick my own number - well, the final four digits anyway - so you know what I chose?

1 3 3 7 :)

Awesome.

Don Quixote

Went to a shop at about 2am last night called Don Quixote, not far from where I'm staying in Saitama. This shop was absolutely amazing - it's like a variety store, but it sells literally EVERYTHING. AND! It's open till 5am every day! Want a $2500 television at 3 in the morning? No problemo! Clothes, bags, jewellery, all sorts of food (it has a supermarket section), vacuum cleaners, stereos, hell, it's even got Rolex watches. Basically, if it's not in this shop, it doesn't exist.

Need a new electric massage wand at 4:30am? Don Quixote to the rescue!

Registered.

Went to the City Office today and registered as an alien. Despite being forewarned that the non-english speaking staff and the bureaucratic methods by which they check, and check, and check again for the legitimacy of a foreigner's visa etc., the process was actually rather easy and took no longer than twenty minutes!

So, stage 1 is complete, onto stage 2, getting a mobile phone! I think for this one I might need some "native assistance".

Exploring.

Caught the Saikyou-line to Shinjuku today, that's just one of the many big places full of bright neon signs that has a sort of "entertainment-district" (restaurants and arcades and bars and whatnot), but nearby is also a business district full of some unbelievably enormous buildings. One of them, the Tokyo Government Building, has an observation deck on the 45th floor. Amazing night views!! And Tokyo just has this really amazing three-dimensional feel about it - you'll be on ground level, but the streets will be suspended above you, or you'll go down some stairs to some massive underground shopping plazas. It's just so massive, so awe-inspiring. It just "smells like money."

Anyway we just came back and ate japanese curry for dinner, which was good because after walking around town for just a few hours we were starving! So, now we're just going to drink some beers and probably have a slightly earlier night than we did last night (6am, lol!).

Tomorrow i plan to write my resume, but also i have to go and get a foreigner registration card, and perhaps a bank account too...

Ok, enough for now. Seeya!

Arrival

well, it's 9:50pm Japan time and i finally made it. I am now in Saitama, one station out of Tokyo! It's about 6 degrees and I'm about to go ride to the shops and get some beers. God knows, that after lugging a suitcase through the streets of tokyo, changing trains and whatnot, one deserves a 500ml can of the good stuff.

So, more to come...

Moving 40gb of data to an iPod...

... has taken close to two hours.

On another note, packing for a move overseas is utterly shit.

3 sleeps to go!

4 sleeps to go!

Well, here it comes! Only 4 sleeps until I fly to Tokyo. I plan to be there approximately 10 months - from the 24th of February to the 15th of December - and it is still unconfirmed whether I will return for more after that. I am doing a working holiday, so the first thing I have to do once I arrive (apart from find my own place) is find a job! I guess it will be English teaching for now, as I have a degree and a working holiday visa, which should put me a cut above most of the other foreigners there, also it pays anywhere between 230,000-300,000 yen/month.

So much to do before I leave though! Cancel/transfer internet/phone, buy stuff (like gravox which apparently they don't have in Japan), empty my computer onto my ipod, update my resume etc. Crazy times.

I am looking forward to buying a digital camera in Japan and updating this blog with actually interesting stuff for all my fans to read! So, look forward to that I guess... At the very least this way I won't have to write a thousand emails to you all... hehe.

Another!

Oops!

i forgot to post the previous song as well. This one was sort of accidental, but i like it anyway.

bizarre!

Piano music

A new song - this time a long (5m55s - too long?) piano piece.

Actually, I wrote this long ago before I was even able to record (before I had the program, or the keyboard), and just remembered it for like, 3 years until now.

So, finally i keyed it in. Actually by the end of it i was so god damn frustrated, which is ironic because according to the 2 people who have heard it so far, it is quite relaxing (read: boring?). You be the judge.

Chillax!