I've always had a fascination by Japan and visiting the place but I never thought that I'd actually consider doing it. But, get a guy to work in the same crappy job and live in the same old place for long enough and he begins to think some crazy shit. And have that same guy think about crazy shit for long enough and you never know, he may actually do it. Just take a look at Michael Jackson's face and you get the picture.
If the title of this story is anything to go by then you'll probably think that what you're about to read is a tale of love, lust, excess, discover and the consumption of cured Albanian foodstuffs at a downtown yakitori bar. Please read on and make your own assumptions.
My name is Lisa, and I'm from Vancouver. Pretty much on a lark, I decided I wanted to move to Japan and gave myself one year to save as much as I could (very hard to do when you live in the city). I was interested in teaching English because the pay looked good, the jobs seemed plentiful, and I really was interested in teaching. I figured it was a great way to work and travel.
Even before I left England for Japan my brothers warned me about Nova, so I expected the worst. However, my first impressions of the company were good. They took the time to pick me up from the airport and escort me to my impressive, expensive apartment. It was three days later at orientation when the alarm bells started to ring.
Oddly enough, Agent 13-57 arrived as he departed. Well, maybe a couple of imperceptible moments later. But you've got to admit that that's a pretty good trick, and in the Big Sky, quite a bit better than breaking even.
"Hey! Hey you!" the bus driver called. Chris grabbed me by the collar and spun me around. "You forgot to pay your fare. Pay the man." "I did, I put a thousand yen in that box and got my change back." Chris smiled. "It's just a change machine. It doesn't collect fares. You took your money and ran." "Oh," I blushed, turning to the bus driver, "Sorry." Not 12 hours on the ground and my first newbie mistake in public.
So you want to be a teacher? You figure you want to be a certified ESL/EFL teacher and use it to travel around the world teaching English? You can do it, of course if you have the correct credentials. You'd think working at one of these big schools in Japan, you'd get them. However, the only training you get is in-house, with in-house developed training material.
If you have a fear of being met at the airport and being overwhelmed by the representative from Nova whose knowledge of Japan should be immense compared to your own then please continue reading.
About one month before I was to leave for Japan, I received a "Welcome to our School" card from the staff of the GEOS school I was being sent to.
It had greetings from all of the staff, a floor plan of the apartment I would stay in and a bunch of other miscellaneous information about Odawara, the city where I was to make my new home. One of the staff had even scribbled "Go Canucks!" in the card. I was looking forward to my stay in Japan.
The white Hyundai Pony of Doom rolled to a noisy stop outside my house. The door slammed shut with it's characteristic crusty sound. I walked out to the street and met John by the car. We were soon hurtling down 104th avenue. The floor of the car was covered with the shards of broken cassette boxes. The covers of various Black Sabbath tapes were mashed into the floor and smeared with shoe prints.
Fairies were wearing boots in Ozzie's world. On the back seat of the car were cassettes and empty beer cans. The car smelled like cigarette smoke and gasoline.
