Missing Post

Yea, I deleted a post. I was requested to make some changes by the editor, but I couldn't make them satisfactory enough, so I just deleted it. But I'll forward Marcia's comment onto the editor. She was asking me if I could ask my HR aunt.

Keeping a job

I don't know what's so hard about keeping a job, but this week, 1 person at my language college job, and 2 people at my part time job quit without notice. I don't know what's going on, but is it really that hard? Shouldn't you know what your getting into before you start? Shouldn't you know whether or not you have the time for it?

The guy at my college job, I'll call him J, no.. how about -eremy? What the hell... His name is Jeremy, and he's from Eugene Oregon, and if you know him, tell him I said he has no spine. He told the administration that he would be gone for 2 weeks starting in Golden Week, but after one week, he called (or probably sent an email, it takes less spine) and said that he was not coming back. Is it just my misunderstanding or does signing a one year contract not mean that you intend to work somewhere for one year? Both the contract (and I think national law) say that you have to give 30 days notice before you quit a job. So now we're left one teacher short, which is requiring some classes to be doubled up, and some teachers to take on extra classes. Now I know he was just a Nova teacher, but it's really not a hard job, and he students are really pretty fun. What's up with leaving 3 weeks into the school year? Too bad work history doesn't add up like a credit history, he wouldn't be able to get a good job for a long time after this one. Apparently, after being home for a week, he decided he didn't want to go back. I don't know how he's going to get all his stuff back, and even if he does, he's going to loose half the property and savings he has.

At my other job, teaching a high school class two afternoons a week, two teachers quit after the first day. There was one girl from Australia who I didn't like from the start after she was bitching about having to walk up and down an extra flight of stairs or two when the head teacher was lost in the new building. She could use the extra exercise anyway. The other guy seemed okay, but when I came for the second day of class last week, they had both left the country, and there were two replacement teachers (one of whom they seemed to already be having problems with). The other guy seems pretty cool though. He's half Japanese, born in the US and has been living in Japan for the last eight years. He's been working for this company for seven years, more than just about everyone at the company.

Today I spent a few hours at the immigration office. It's always an interesting experience. The immigration offices are never air-conditioned, and they have what seems like the old furniture from other government offices that was taken out in the last remodel. It's always pretty dirty, and there are always screaming kids wandering around destroying things.

The purpose of my visit was to renew my residence permit. I got a one year work permit when I came here last year, and that expires May 28th. This time, I'm trying to get a 3 year one, mostly so I wont have to worry about visa deadlines and stuff for two more years. That was one of the main reasons I couldn't spend more time looking for a non-teaching job this year. The renewal process isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. You don't actually need a company to sponsor your visa anymore. All you need is a contract or two showing that you will be making over a certain amount, and papers showing that you have paid your taxes for the previous year. In two weeks or so, they will send a post card saying that your papers are ready, and you come back to get a sticker in your passport. Even if you have he work permit, you can't leave the country since it's not a visa, so you have to get a re-entry permit too. So next time I go, I will have to pay about $40 for my new residence permit, and $60 for a multiple re-entry permit. So hopefully, I'll soon be a new legal three year resident.

Survived Golden week!

I've only had to work two days since last friday because it is golden week. Beginning with last friday, was green day, Emperor Showa's birthday. Tuesday was Constitution Day (or National Foundation Day, maybe both) , and Thursday was Children's Day. Back to work tomorrow for one day, before the weekend. Most people are taking both Monday and Friday off and making a 9 day holiday of it. Therefore, Tokyo is empty. Not sure where they all went, but somewhere, there are 10 million too many people.

The week started off bad, (don't ask) then I almost make a emergency trip with Ai to Fukui, on the other side of Japan, but there were no seats on any form or transportation that would get us there. On Saturday, we are having a party at a bar near my house with my coworkers, and I might try to go sailing on Sunday.

Still no internet, so I've been eating at McDonald's far too much. I hope they come to set it up sometime soon.

That's it. Boring week. Happy Mother's Day to my mother and the other mothers.

My Apartment

V4010034
Originally uploaded by noexit.

V4010033
Originally uploaded by noexit.

Here are some pictures of the inside of my new apartment finally. I don't have internet yet, so right now I'm at Ai's school using the computer lab while she's in class. I just got hte bed in hte loft last night. My bed was about 5mm too wide to fit up there, so I had to borrow a plane from Ai's uncle and shave a bit off.

I really like the location of this new apartment. It isn't at close to the station as the last place was, but the station itself is closer to everything. My monthly train pass from home to work is only 5600 yen, and on the way is Shinjuku. It's also on the way home from school for Ai, so it's much eaiser to see eachother. Very close to my house is a great import and specialty food shop that has rootbeer and tons of other things.

I'd write more but this computer is driving me nuts. Everything I type appears on the screen about ten seconds after I hit the keys. I can type at a normal speed, but I can't see what I'm typing, so there's going to be some mistakes.

So now mom and dad need to get their passports, because I know they haven't yet, and start planning their trip this summer.

I'm all moved in! I went back to my old apartment yesterday and cleaned it. I only have to go back down there one more time to return the key on Sunday. It's so far! Now I have a train pass that lets me get on or off at any station between my home and work, and half way between home and work is Shinjuku, the hub of Tokyo. This means that the train is pretty crowded in the morning, when the doors of the train open, there's no where to put your feet, but you have to get on anyway. But I live only four stops for work, two stops on one line, then a transfer and two more stops. It's a pretty great area, but I'm still exploring. I just found the grocery store yesterday.

Moving in

Taking a quick dinner break from packing now.

This morning I went to Shinjuku at 10am to meet my real estate agent. Not really sure why since all he did is give me a map to the agency that manages the property. So then I headed off to that agency and spent an hour going through papers and signing and stamping them with my seal. At about 12 I got my key and headed off to my apartment. I didn't have anything but my brief case with me so I only stuck around long enough to turn the power on and call the gas company to turn on the gas tomorrow so I'll be able to have a hot shower.

Yesterday, after contacting everyone I knew to see if someone would drive for me, I decided to stop by the police station to ask if I could use my international driver's permit. I'd read that the law was changed and that it was only valid for 90 days after you enter Japan, but the cop said I was fine to drive until the 23rd, so I stopped by the car rental place and reserved a large van.

I also needed a navigator, and Ai might be busy tomorrow, so I called my friend Keiko, who lives at the next station. Turns out she was planning on meeting her friends in Tokyo tomorrow afternoon, so I offered to drive her up there and buy lunch in exchange for her help navigating.

So tomorrow I pick up the van at 9am, and hope to have it loaded and be off to Koenji by 11am. Lot of packing to go...

I'm approved

My Apartment
Originally uploaded by noexit.

I got a call from my real estate agent today, so I met I for coffee after work, and went to the agents office. I got it! Now all I have to do is wait for the paperwork from the dentist to get to the agent, then I can go to the contract signing. I think that the land lord will also be there for a sort of interview or something. Most landlords are very very careful about renting to foreigners. There is a reputation or fear that foreigners will leave the country without paying their rent or something. But I really think that it's an unfounded reputation. I'm sure there are more pad Japanese renters in Japan than bad foreign renters.

So now I'm trying to find someone who can drive for me. I can rent a truck that is big enough for about $65, but I don't think I'm legal to drive it.

I found an apartment!!!

Apartment hunting is really crazy here. Basically, you have to go to a real estate agent to even find what's on the market. Landlords almost ever rent directly, they always go through a real estate company. So you go to a real estate company, usually chosen by the sampling of apartment floor plans they have out front, although one agent said that some agencies will put our fake ones to attract customers, so pretty much any big one will do. There are two types of agencies; small local ones that the landlords list with, and then other agencies that collect thousands of floor plans from the smaller agencies. Since it's usually harder for the smaller agencies to find tenants, and harder for prospective tenants to find the apartment they are looking for, the secondary agencies are more convenient.

The thing that delayed me from looking before was that I didn't have a guarantor. In Japan, everyone has to have someone to cosign the lease. There are not background or credit checks that can exempt you from this requirement in japan, though there are a few, very rare landlords that will rent to someone without a guarantor, but the rents are generally higher.

Last week, while at my last lesson with the Dentist and his daughter, I told them about my new job, and and how I needed to start looking for an apartment, but that I didn't have a guarantor, and he agreed to be my guarantor. (Yeah!) So on Thursday, the very next day, I headed up to Kitijoji to start apartment hunting. I spent a few hours in one place, whose site I had searched on the web, and flipped through their books. I had expected them to be different; since I was able to search through what they had on the web, I expected that they'd have everything organized electronically, but they were no different from the rest. When you walk in, someone will sit you down, have you fill out a registration sheet with details about yourself and what you are looking for in an apartment. Then they pull out a book of copies of floor plans and you start flipping. I probably flipped through an entire box of paper in the three agencies that I went to. Meanwhile, the agent uses some other resources that they have to find other apartments that fit your description that they don't have in their files yet. If you find some that you are interested in, then they will take you to see them. The agency in Kichijoji had a car, so they drove me to each place, but the Shnjuku agency didn't have a car, (after all, it's Shinjuku, so it would have taken 2 hours to navigate the traffic to where the apartments were) so we took the train (20 minutes).

The first agency I went to was able to find one apartment that I was looking for, and it was really great except that it was a half hour walk to the train station. The second agency hadn't found anything as of yesterday afternoon, but the Shinjuku agency was really on the ball, and found a couple by yesterday morning, so I canceled my appointments with the first two and went to look at apartments.

The ones were not to my liking and I was about ready to lower my standards when we hit the last one. This is the one I decided to get. It was about $20 a month over the budget I had set for myself, but I think it will be worth it. It's in a reinforced concrete building which will be less susceptible to earth quake damage than the wood construction that most buildings are made of. It also has the bath and toilet separate, which was one of my main requirements, and the biggest obstacle to finding an apartment in my price range. People who haven't been to Japan may not understand the "bath toilet separate concept. Basically, the bathroom is just that; a bathroom. The toilet is in a separate room. You may not understand unless you see it, but it's just so much better. The apartment also has a large loft, which was the other difficult requirement I had. My image was to put my bed in the loft, and use the main room for living. This loft may just be just too small for my bed though; my bed it 120cm wide, and the loft is 119.5 cm wide. The difference is so small that I'm just going to shave that much off the side of my be to make it work. I think that from about 5cm off the floor, it's a full 120cm, so I'll just bevel the feet and it should work.

The apartment is also in a great town. Koenji is only 20 minutes from work, and 160yen! Where I live now, it costs at least 190 yen to get to a station that is even half the size of Koenji. I'll also have a train pass that will take me to Shinjuku to work and Shinjuku for free since my school will pay for it. Yea!!!

It's going to be much different living up there. I wont have cherry blossom petals falling past my window for a week during the spring (as they are now), but the apartment is far enough from the station that I wont hear trains all day. I'll also be much closer to shops and food (lots of food!) and spend so much less on transportation that it will probably pay for itself.

I'll get a floor plan up as soon as I can get them to fax it to me.

Apartment Hunting

Heading off to see a couple apartments. Hopefully I'll get the one good one that I saw last night. More later.

Giving up on Driving

I had the third attempt at the driving test today, and I have given up.
This is just ridiculous. The first time, I made a clear mistake, and
failing was plainly my fault. The second time was picky, and I can
understand one of the things that I did wrong, not why I lost more than
30 points, but I accepted that I would have to do it at least one more
time. But this time, I was stopped half way through the test after
flawlessly navigating a narrow hair pin curve, and told that I had
failed. The explained to me after I returned what I had done. She said
that I need to drive slowly enough around a certain corner so that I
can stop immediately if necessary, which I believe I was doing. She did
not explain to me what I had done wrong any where else, or where the 30
points were lost. It's plainly ridiculous. I've had a driver's license
for about 8 years, and there is no reason that I should have to take a
test like that more than once. They apparently don't fail people
because they don't drive well, otherwise I would have passed on the
second time. Maybe they want money, maybe they just want to make it as
hard as possible just to mess with us.

English, Australians, Germans, Canadians, and a few others don't even
have to take a driving test. Each of these countries have provided
Japan with statistics of their drivers, including things such as
accident rates as requested by the Japanese government, so license
holders from these countries are exempt from taking the driving test.
But when the US tried to submit these statistics, the Japanese
government said that they had to get separate statistics from each
state, effectively treating each state as a separate country. This
doesn't mean that people from states who have completely the necessary
requirements can be exempt however, because it still all has to go
through the national government.

So for right now, I'm giving up. Possibly, after I move to Tokyo, I
will try again. I have to have time though. Lots of it... I've already
used almost 4 full days trying it in Kanagawa. I have heard that
Kanagawa's test is the worst, so hopefully Tokyo will be better. In the
mean time I will go to a local police station to find out if I am legal
to drive with my international drivers license so that I can move.
Otherwise I might have to pay for some professional movers to do it...
Ugh.

Off to another Job interview. I only have 4 more this week. Ugh!