a history of me

I know how I've been stressing lately about how much I feel like I'm being kept in the dark about my brand new job, but things are starting to look up now that I've finally had a chance to meet some of the actual people I'm going to be working with. And despite the fact that I haven't met a single student yet, I've learned a few things about them which helps. A lot.

The directions Gary gave me on Wednesday were perfect and I actually made it to the BOE a full fifteen minutes early - a good way to start a new working relationship, especially in Japan. I met my other supervisor, whom I will dub Pat. Pat used to be an English teacher in the elementary schools but, in Japan, that doesn't necessitate an ability to speak English. However, Pat is definitely friendly so I was again put at ease at the efforts being made to introduce me to this new environment

Pat gave me an overall picture of the elementary schools in Hana Town. There are six of them, spread out over the area, which I will visit one at a time on varying days of the week (that is to say, I won't have to travel from one school to another in the same day). This is pretty good news because some of the schools are very small, which means those days will be especially light, teaching-wise. Also, since there are six schools but only five working days, that means I'll have plenty of time in-between each lesson to reflect on what happened, good or bad. The hardest task will probably be one school in particular which is quite large, so I'll be visiting it at least once every week, sometimes twice. This school also happens to be next to the BOE so after our discussion Pat and I walked over there to take a peek. It was lunchtime so I had the unenviable task of introducing myself to the entire office staff at once. In Japanese, of course. I kept things very simple and relied on the constant awe-factor surrounding everything I say and do to obscure my mistakes.

After the meetings were finished I went back home where Gary and a co-worker were waiting for me. They had come over to help me with a few things around the place, the first being my hot water problem. The solution was wonderfully, embarrassingly simple: I had neglected to turn on the gas heater, hence the complete lack of heat. I was happy to have the situation fixed but I felt pretty ridiculous. Gary and his buddy also used their telephone-powers to try and arrange for me to get internet and cable TV access. I've got an appointment for the internet "fiber installer" next Friday, but there's a catch. The guy who's coming wants to check some kind of "settings" on my computer and he, naturally, doesn't speak English. I can't imagine what he needs to figure out that a guy who works with computers won't be able to determine regardless of my English-language version of Windows. It's still Windows, after all, so I'm sure all the "settings" he needs are in the same exact place as they would be on a Japanese computer. In either case, Gary offered to come by at the same time to assist us. In the meantime, if anyone knows an easy way to switch XP into Japanese-mode (and back!) that might save me some trouble.

The lack of a phone number or internet access has been pretty exhausting. Since everyone (and that's not hyperbole, honest) has a cell phone in Japan now, public phones are increasingly rare. I don't believe there's a working one within a half mile of my apartment. Of course, then there's the matter of using it, which is so bizarrely expensive it boggles the mind. I'll put it to you simply: it costs approximately 50 Yen a minute to call home and it costs around 100 Yen a minute (!?!) to call Mako. How can this be? Between the costs and the relative unavailability of everyone I want to contact (Mako is working most of the day and everyone back home is asleep due to the time difference) it's extra-ordinarily difficult to get a handle on my new life here in Japan.

Fortunately, all that should change very soon. Gary is coming by again today to help me take care of more essentials, namely alien registration and my bank account, two things on which many other services rely upon. Once he's here I can again communicate with others and attempt to get things in order. Plus, this weekend should be filled with Mako time and she's going to help me get my mobile phone up and running. So by the time anyone reads this I should be well on my way to calling, e-mailing and blogging like normal.