From the Wonderful World of Employment

Those of you who have been with me from the beginning will remember my memorable tale of merriment and melancholy when I attempted to interview for a position at Baltimore's Museum of Industry. If you don't remember, here is the actual post. The other day I had a job interview in Tokyo just as memorable, both in the merriment and melancholy categories.

A man I will call H.M. contacted me about the possibility of employing me as a teacher with his company. H.M. does not own said company, which we will call C.E.R., but runs one of the branches and asked me to come in to meet with both him and his boss. After getting over my initial fear that I would be sliced to death with my own resume and left for dead by some psycho anti-gaijin, I put on my nicest "employ me or die" outfit and headed out.

Firstly, this place is in the Ota ward of Tokyo and a good hour and a half from my parent's house. I made it the entire way without getting lost, although I did get confused in Yokohama station and literally stood on the platform staring blankly at my train for a full minute trying to figure out if it was actually my train. The train waits for no one and closed it's doors to roll off down the line and leave me staring stupidly behind it. I did eventually regain my senses and ended up getting to the correct station on time instead of early.

One of the first things H.M. said to me when he met me at the train station was that he does not like Japanese people. Odder still, the owner of C.E.R. (a Japanese man), also declared that he does not like Japanese people. Also, that his goal is to have every Japanese person speaking English. Oh yeah, and the school is named after a condo he owns in the mid-west of America. Who owns vacation condos in the mid-west?

So they asked me to come back the next day, which I did, and teach two classes, which I also did, then told me that I will come back next Friday and teach the same classes, which I will. They'll try and process my information for a working visa and the pay would be awesome if I could get full time hours. So this is good, but I'll still apply for some positions on base (which will give me more vacation time and eventually may allow me free housing) and see if I can't get one of those.