The Debut of Professional Collin...well, kind of

I took the next couple weeks to pretty much relax. I didn’t feel like doing a whole lot on the weekends, partially due to fatigue, partially due to the weather, so there ended up being a lot of movie watching and taco making with Jon and Sarah. One of those movies happened to be Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, which according to Jon is the epitome of blacksploitation and horrible 70s martial arts films, and almost as awesome (read: awesomely bad) as Only the Strong. And boy was he right. The movie had some truly ridiculous moments, and some of the most cliché writing and heinous acting I’ve ever seen. That being said, it was worth the viewing, and I’d probably watch it again, if only to see the reaction of whoever I’m watching it with.

We also made a trip to Nagoya one Saturday so that Sarah, too, could experience the amazingness that is spicy miso garlic butter ramen. She was an instant fan, and Jon, now having a better grasp on the ramen scene, appreciated it even more, making the bold claim that it is the best meal he has eaten in his 26 years on this planet. I’d say that’s a pretty rave review. We did some shopping; or rather Jon did, picking up a snazzy new 1 TB external hard drive. We also stopped by the clothing store Zara, where my friend Aki works. She had break time in the middle of the afternoon, so we went across the street and chatted over shakes. My pineapple shake was rather refreshing. Already being in Nagoya, I took the opportunity to head to the Nagoya branch’s capoeira practice (same instructor) in the evening, and let John and Sarah have a nice dinner at Flour (my favorite Italian place in Nagoya). Sadly, I was still sore from practice the previous night and wasn’t really feeling it that night.

At some point, on one of the Wednesdays somewhere in here, we decided to play Boggle. Sarah was talking some smack about her skillz (yes, with a “z”), and I remember doing all right when I played with my mom and sisters, so I talked some game right back…and then got completely shamed. Sarah whooped up on us every round, the gap only closing during rounds where there simply weren’t many words to be seen. Otherwise, we were no match for her sheer speed. I started to step it up at the end, and considered it a win when I at least came close (i.e. withing 10) to writing down as many words as her. And apparently Sarah always lost to her grandma. Damn, granny’s got game.
During this time I also received a request from Erin at the prefectural government office to help out with a training seminar for Japanese people on how to give local area tours in English. This is in preparation for a rather large meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economoic Cooperative(APEC) to be held in Gifu this October. These occurred on Feb. 11th and 19th. The 11th was technically a day off for us, but I really just wanted to do something different for a change, so I signed up. The first day ended up being miserable, not due to anyone’s fault but mother nature’s. It was colder than usual and raining the entire time. It would have been that bad, but the majority of the tour is outside, and it’s rather hard to keep people’s attention while they are huddled underneath umbrellas, cursing the weather. Okay, well maybe they weren’t cursing, but I sure felt like it. There were four groups total, each with two CIRs assigned as leaders. I’m not sure whose brilliant idea it was, but they decided to pair me up with Irish Colin. So yeah, the group’s leaders were Collin and Colin, that’s not confusing at all. We ended up having them call us by our last name. And I was certainly pleased with the pairing as Colin is an all around cool guy (must be something about the name). The dyanamic duo at work:

We headed to our buses, gave a little introduction, and stopped at Gifu Park, where the tour begins. The basic format was: 1) Stop at point of interest 2) Give explanation 3) Answer questions the group has. Colin and I decided to give the explanations of the first two points of interest, to basically give them an example of how it is supposed to go. After that, the idea was to get volunteers to do the explanations for the rest of the tour, while Colin and I play the part of the foreign tourist and ask questions in English. Here's me, coordinating international relations like you wouldn't believe! (Actually, pleading for someone to volunteer)

We had real trouble getting folks to volunteer, but thankfully some older guy just up and started talking (not the dude in the picture above, who was actually cool). The only problem is, he did this for a number of the points and started dominating things. When we got to the museum, Colin and I changed the formula a bit, so that instead of designating a “tour guide” to explain a point, we just started asking questions to random people to give everyone a chance to speak a bit. That seemed to work pretty well and brought a couple of the shy people out of their shell, once they realized we were actually nice and wouldn’t bite their heads off if they made a mistake. We continued on to Kawara-machi, a little district near Nagara River where the cormorant fishing takes place. I had never been there, and it’s a charming area with shops, cafes, restaurants, and old buildings with traditional style architecture. I’d really like to come back when it isn’t pouring cold rain. The people in my group were all quite nice. One older dude gave pointed a place in the district that was a hot spring bathhouse, and he highly suggested it. Duly noted. That will be happening at some point. We had sort of a reference text for the event, and aside from all of the touristy sights, it also just had one line about random, but semi fancy-looking Italian restaurant. That may also get put on the list of things to do. Stopping in front of the bathhouse, though, triggered a debate about onsen. Someone thought this place was better than Gero, and in general she didn’t think Gero was nearly as magnificent as everyone makes it out to be. This apparently rubbed the old dude who volunteered to speak from before the wrong way, and he made a beeline over to her, knocking several people’s umbrellas in the process, to let her know just how mistaken she was. Nobody in the group said anything, but looking at their faces, they were all annoyed with this clown. All right, dude, settle down. It’s cold and rainy and nobody wants to listen to your shit. One of thing of note was that the bathhouse actually had a little spring water hand bath outside. I’d heard of the foot baths before (and experienced their awesomness in Gero), but this was the first hand bath I’d come across. I would’ve given it a shot, but I feared how cold my hands would be once the water started stealing my body heat to evaporate.
Below, the rare specimen "Professional Collin"

Finally we got back onto the bus and headed back to the International Center to close the training session. I forgot to mention that this training session was organized with help from the volunteer tourism promotion group. We had a couple of their members in our group, and the leader of the GGG (the group's unfortunate acronym) led the opening and closing sections of the session. I will henceforth refer to her as Diva, as she was wearing one of the most ridiculous flamboyant outfits I’ve seen in awhile. And you know she thought she looked like a million bucks. Anyway, Diva wanted us all to go up and say a couple things about the day. Then Erin prompted us to “say something about the day that was good and something that was difficult.” Okay, I can do that. And so I did. “I learned a lot from everyone, but we didn’t have enough time.” I elaborated a little more than that, but didn’t get into too much detail, and kept it all warm and fuzzy. The next couple CIRs also kept it short and sweet, but there were a couple at the end who ended up giving over 5 minutes worth of advice/criticism. Granted, the stuff they were saying was for the most part valid, it was the way in which they said it (as if they are professional interpreters themselves) and the audience they were saying it to (this was volunteer training). Also, we weren’t told to give a long, drawn-out, self-important speech picking apart every little thing they could improve on. After this finished, Diva gave us some money to hit up a café on our way back. Now, Diva is apparently a somewhat infamous person in the international event circle within Gifu. I had been warned about her by my friend Naomi from capoeira. She is always calling up the International Affairs Division of city hall and asking them for favors, etc. Diva apparently also asks Irish Colin to volunteer for different events all the time, and Naomi advised me that it would be best to keep my distance lest I end up getting badgered to give up my weekends for events all the time. Always looking out for me, thanks Naomi!

We all headed out and stopped at a café near Gifu station. I looked at the menus and there was some sort of cocoa-esque drink that looked really thick, essentially drinking chocolate, or at least that’s what I had built it up to be in my head. I thought it had to be special given that the size of the cup was tiny and it still cost $4.50. Nope, I was wrong. The viscosity was all together disappointing, as it was as pourable as regular hot cocoa. For hot chocolate, it was pretty good- nice, rich and semisweet. I was expecting more than hot chocolate, though, whereas what I got didn’t really surpass what I could get at Starbucks, or hell, even College Library back at UW-Madison (where, for a little over a buck, you got one hell of a sugar boost for studying…tasty and a great value).

The females in the group were heading to a ladies’ night gathering, which left Irish Colin and I to fend for ourselves. Colin wanted to head to this Mexican restaurant, but after making the walk we found it to be closed, seeing as it was technically a holiday that day. We grabbed dinner at Erich’s Curry instead, followed by dessert at Mister Donut.

That Saturday I pretty much lazed around and then hung out with Jon for some solid gaming. It had been quite awhile, so long, in fact, that my skills were suffering severely, but it was good to bust out the fighting games again. Sarah was out of town, so Jon and I gave her a hard time by insinuating we were at a snack bar via texts. For the uninitiated, a “snack bar” is another way to refer to a “hostess club,” basically a place where you go to horrendously overpay for alcohol while talking to pretty women in nice dresses who are paid to pour your drink, light your cigarette, and laugh at your shitty jokes. Basically, you get your ego stroked…and if you head to a really sketchy looking one, maybe something else, too. It is a business model that would never really fly in the States, especially given that nothing sexual goes on at the vast majority of them. In reality, Jon and I were sending these texts from his apartment, in between bouts of Tekken 6, but we really just wanted to give Sarah some crap.

The next day was Valentine’s Day, and to celebrate I did absolutely nothing related to VD (wow, that’s an unfortunate abbreviation). Instead I had plans to participate in an English speaking event partially put on by Naomi’s office, and a long time ago she had asked if I could volunteer as a native speaker. So I headed over to Gifu where the event was going to be taking place. There were five or so tables, with two native speakers assigned to a table. We talked with the Japanese participants about any old thing, although we had topic cards (music, sports, etc.) in case the conversation stilted. After 30 minutes, the Japanese folks picked a card that told them which table to move to. Most of the participants were rather old, in their 50s or above, and it seems a number of them took up English conversation as something to do in their retirement. Some of them were too nervous to speak up much, but I was definitely surprised at the proficiency of some of the older folks. One older lady mentioned in her introduction that she does tea ceremony and is looking to learn how to teach/explain it in English. I’ve long been interested in taking tea ceremony lessons, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The other native speaker at the table was also interested, so we exchanged info with her and set up a date for the next week. This is why I tell myself I need to continue volunteering for these sorts of events and whatnot. Every once in awhile providence steps in and you meet someone with a mutual interest. One of the other native speakers was from Australia and owned a bar called Tree House, and the plan was to head over there for food and drink afterward. The guy was really “in your face” about everything and just rubbed me the wrong way, but Naomi and another guy from capoeira, Tomohiro, were going, so I headed over with them and we grabbed our own little section. Once in awhile I joined, or rather was addressed and pulled into, conversations with other people at the bar, but being me I’d much rather stick to talking to people who I know aren’t going to annoy me, and quickly returned to my own table’s conversation. I was soon vindicated in my decision when a Japanese lady, probably in her mid-upper 40s, commented on how I looked like Harry Potter (fair enough, I get that a lot over here), but then also proceeded to say that I should get naked and dance. All I could do was hope and pray that she was referring to Daniel Radcliffe’s role on stage where he had to appear naked, and thus thought that might be a semi-appropriate thing to say. In reality, though, I doubt that was an attempt on her part to make an obscure reference, and the only other obvious motivation for that comment creeped me the fuck out, so I made sure to not even come close to facing her direction the rest of the time. I turned back to Naomi, who was getting out some chocolate-marshmallow-nut dessert she had made since it was Valentine’s Day. It was really tasty. Again, I can’t stress this enough, but Naomi=awesomeness. Then a couple of random foreigners came in and sat at the bar directly across from our table, so we ended up talking with them a bit. This also ended up being rather awkward. The one guy, Jacob, kept taking to me about whatever rap artist was being played in the background, so I pretended to know/care what he was talking about. He was also apparently looking for some dude named Marcel. When this guy showed up, Jacob jumped out of his chair, ran over, and then turns back to me and says “I’m gonna fight this guy. He’s gonna beat the crap out of me.” WTF?! Jacob did already have some bruising around his one eye, so maybe the dude rocks it Fight Club style, who knows? But still, I just met you, why are you telling me this? I gave him the thumbs up with really fake smile. Jacob soon left to hang with Marcel and attempting to get his friend Michael to go along, but Michael decided to stay at the bar, and I certainly understood his desire to do so. Given this decision, I thought maybe Michael was of sound mind and maybe someone I could get along with. Apparently, though, Michael is completely socially incompetent…that or just really boring. I found out he is from Minnesota, and tried to use the Midwest as a bit of a conversation starter…nope, nothing. I found out he lives in Ogaki, too. Seeing as there are only so many foreigners in the area I thought hey, someone new to potentially hang out with. So I asked what he does in his spare time, he replied with “running.” Fair enough, but more than a one word answer would be nice. Even when I asked if he liked video games…or even just movies, he they were “hit or miss.” At this point, I gave up.

Eventually the three of us from capoeira left to go grab some ramen, since the chicken roll w. fries I had at the bar was underwhelming to say the least. Naomi knows I like ramen a lot, and had a couple of places she wanted to show me in Gifu, so we stopped at one of her recommended ramen joints on the way back to the station. And as per usual, she knows what she’s talking about. I had some black sesame ramen, and it was scrumptious. The broth itself was jet black, which just looks badass, and then it tasted amazing to boot. I’d put it in my top three, I think. For sure in the top five. Then again, I also just love black sesame flavor, so I might be biased.

Office Space, minus the TPS reports

I have been here for about 6 months and I realize I haven’t really talked directly about work much. That might be due to the fact that it generally isn't a smart idea to talk about work on your blog (especially when it doesn't require a password), but none of my co-workers, or anyone in Gifu Prefecture for that matter, is going to read this, so what the hey, why not? Although not nearly as entertaining as the antics at Dunder-Mifflin, there are a couple folks with odd quirks, and so I present to you The Office: Japanese Edition (not to be confused with the SNL skit featuring Steve Carrell).

Job Description/Place of Employment: I work at a conglomerate of schools, both of which are referred to with the same abbreviation, I then A then M then A then S. (Now my blog won't show up on search queries for the school. If you search the acronym properly though, they have an English website where you can get a better idea of what type of school it is). There is a two-year vocational/technical school, and a two-year Master’s Degree track graduate school. The schools are technically separate entities, with separate admissions and rules, etc. They are both, however, run by the same administrative division, of which there are two offices, the General Affairs Office and the Educational Affairs Office. My desk is in the Educational Affairs Office, but I receive work from both offices, along with the Center for Media Culture, and random professors. Most of my job involves translating from Japanese to English, although sometimes the reverse is necessary. Thus far I have translated everything from employment contracts to student project descriptions to any number of mail correspondences and school announcements. I also interpret for one of the foreign professors at faculty meetings and during major project presentations by students. Apparently, come April when the new school year starts, I’ll also be interpreting for the weekly “information design” class that professor will be teaching, so that should be an interesting change of pace.
Up until this year, the school employed two CIRs, but due to budget restraints was cut to a single position. So I was expecting to be swamped, essentially doing two people’s work. Not so. Apparently before it was just two people doing one person’s work. And even then, most days I don’t have enough work to keep just me occupied. To be fair, the work comes in waves, and I've certainly had days where I'm swamped. But for those slow days, what do I do all day?

A Typical Day: I arrive at my desk, wake up the computer, and connect to the network. I check my gmail and then my work mail to see if anyone has sent a translation request since the day before. If I have something to do, I’ll give it a once over and let it mull around in my head for a bit. At some point, I check facebook, and generally leave it logged in all day, so I can check for updates periodically when I’m super bored. I also ended up chatting with Maria and/or Alaina (a friend who is a CIR up in Nagano Prefecture) on gchat, or with any number of random people on facebook. Another major method of killing time that I used up until early December was to study kanji for the level 1 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). I preferred this method since it was still an activity that was beneficial for doing my job. It was technically “training” and improving my language skill, so I didn’t feel guilty about it. However, there is only so long one can continuously stare at different kanji before one’s brain turns to mush, so I mixed it up by checking Japan and U.S news sites in an attempt to stay somewhat abreast of current events. I was getting quite sick of kanji, though, so once the JLPT was over, I put kanji on the back burner. What I have been doing lately to pass downtime is…what I’m doing right now, writing blog entries! The past few entries have also mainly been written while at work. So basically, I’d say average, my work day is about 30% work-ish like behavior and 70% killing time. This is pretty much what I would say has been the biggest disappointment. I rarely feel like I’m truly having to use my head, and a lack of challenge translates into a lack of motivation. I’ve accepted the job for what it is, though, and it could be a lot worse, I could have pissy co-workers, for example. Thankfully, although not without their quirks, they are mainly chill folk who let me do my thing. For the sake of anonymity, and just to amuse myself, I’m going to give each of my co-workers nicknames. Japanese offices are organized into little clusters of desks. My office has two clusters, one of which is far from full. My cluster, however, is at full occupancy.

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Mouse Drama Queen Chief
Me Supervisor Mr. Sensei
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The desk is set up so that Mouse and I face each other, etc. At the head of the office is the section chief, not to be confused with Chief.

In a better effort to convey the work atmosphere, I know introduce you to the cast of The Office: Japanese Edition

Mouse- She sits across from me, and was given this nickname simply because, well, she looks like a mouse. She has something that looks similar to a bowl-cut for her hairdo, and I don’t think would be flattering to anyone. She is extremely quiet and has only ever talked to me one about something other than work. Even when the others in the office are having a rousing conversation about something, she’ll keep her nose to the grindstone, only raising her head to offer up a related fact or two if the situation calls for it. She is also known in the office for being very healthy. In the summer when I first got here she would have a little “juice-box” of black vinegar every day, which is supposedly good for you.

Supervisor- Less of a nickname and more of a fact…she is my supervisor, and sits next to me. This is a deceiving title in that, within the office, she has no real title, and certainly isn’t a “higher-up.” One of the many things she deals with in her job, though, is whatever red tape there is with the JET program. Also, if I have a question or concern regarding work, I ask her. So she acts as sort of a go-between, I suppose. She is quite nice and relatively laid back. She is never really looking over my shoulder, and in fact, doesn’t seem to care what I’m doing, which means I have the freedom, to say, write a blog post during downtime. She also tends to talk a lot with Drama Queen, who sits across from her. They’ll often talk about different diets, or certain foods that are supposedly good or bad for you. Even I can tell they are just talking out of their ass, but Supervisor will always give advice to Drama Queen as if she’s an authority on the subject. “No, no, you need to stir your oil COUNTERclockwise before you fry your pork, then your cholesterol won’t go up.” (Not an actual quote) Again, though, she’s a very nice person.

Drama Queen- Unlike supervisor, who I guess to be in her thirties, I’d say Drama Queen is in her 50’s, thus all the talk about health, etc. She is given this nickname because she makes a huge deal out of almost everything, has over the top reactions (she could probably be on Japanese TV), and whines a ton. Granted, she deals with the budget, and professors are less than punctual with deadlines and have unrealistic expectations, so she has reason to be bitching (which puts her a step above Wallin), but still, she could stand to exercise some self-restraint.

Chief- He is the assistant to the office head, and thus slightly higher up than the rest of us underlings. He has a title in Japanese, but everyone just tacks on “chief” (cheefu in J-speak) onto his name. Most of the time, this guy is nearly unintelligible. He speaks in the back of his throat and barely opens his mouth. When people arrive in the morning, they “Ohayo gozaimasu!” (Good Morning!). Since this is somewhat long, most people don’t bother saying the entire phrase, maybe just the second half. This guy takes it a step further by just doing this weird sort of half-hearted grunt/hiss when enters the office. He certainly captures how I feel when I walk into the office in the morning, so I give the grunt/hiss right back. I feel ya buddy. He also likes to attempt English sometimes, and by far has the most proficiency aside from Supervisor.

Mr. Sensei- This guy is the definition of a bureaucrat. Rules are there for a reason, and they must be followed…and part of his job is to make sure they are enforced. He was a high school teacher for most of his career, and only recently got transferred into the office work he’s doing here. It is this teaching background that leads everyone to tack –sensei onto his name. He taught Japanese in high schools, so he is a stickler for “proper” sounding Japanese and he extensively uses honorific and humble forms in his daily speech. He gives the full “thank you very much” when someone throws the lights back on after lunch, or for other mundane things. I understand being polite and saying thank you is a good thing, he is just always so formal about it. In general, he is very Japanese, and gets really excited over traditional stuff. He also talks to himself, mainly muttering about how he’s busy, has no time, or needs to get work done. Although I’m sure he has plenty of work to do, I can’t help feeling it’s part of the Japanese tendency to put importance on looking like one is busy/working hard, whether or not you are actually busy.

The Actual Chief- He is the office head for the Educational Affairs Office where I work. I couldn’t really think of a good nickname for him. He’s really chill and quite affable in general. He's always cool about me asking off days, so he gets a thumbs up in my book. I also like the way he speaks, especially on the phone. He'll throw "desu ne" (you see?/right?) after every other word in a sentence. It makes him sound like a smooth operator, always in control of the pace of the conversation.

The Librarian- She sits at the other cluster in the office, and only pops in once and a while when she isn’t off running the library. I have yet to figure out if she has a personality.

The Wild Card- As anyone who watches “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” knows, every group needs a wild card. This guy wasn’t around when I first got here, and sits at the other cluster by himself (except for when The Librarian is actually around). All of a sudden he started showing up for a few hours at a time a couple months into the job. Apparently he had been in the middle of an extended leave due to mental illness/depression. He has supposedly been through rehab or in some sense gotten better, but he is super quiet and has no personality that I’ve been able glean. For all I know, he might not be better, just faking it, and might relapse and go apeshit at any moment. Thus, The Wild Card. “I cut the brakes, WILD CARD, bitches!!”

Those folks make up the Educational Affairs Office, which is connected to the General Affairs Office, which together make up the Administrative Division. Overall, the General Affairs Office is much quieter, so I’m glad to be where I am. There is an honorable mention within that office:

The Youngin’-I shouldn’t really be calling him this myself since he is a couple years my senior, but he is the only other person still in their twenties. We don’t have a chance to talk about stuff other than work very often, but he is cool to talk to and we have exchanged music CDs since we both like rock music. It’s currently my turn to make him a CD.

There is yet another office, the Center for Media Culture, from which I receive work. This office only has a few people in it, one of whom gets an honorable mention.

Festivus- She gets this nickname mainly because she is quite the festival enthusiast. I went sightseeing up north with her soon after arriving in Japan and she was also nice enough to take Jon, Sarah, and I to a temple offering “festival” as well. She is super nice, always willing to help or give advice on things to do and see, and generally has interesting stuff to say.

The Nurse- The school also has a nurse/counselor, although she also spends time doing secretarial work at her desk in the General Affairs Office. She is extremely jolly and, as one would hope for a counselor, easy to talk to. She once had me translate a children’s book so she could read it to some elementary school kids in English. While doing that, she brought out some tea and candy, and we ended up chatting a bunch, getting me out of more time in the actual office. Yeah, I think we’re going to get along. She’s big on food in general, and a couple of times her and the cleaning ladies have made daikon mochi (rice paste w/ minced radish, which I’m not the biggest fan of) and kinoko mochi (rice paste dusted with a slightly sweet powder that tastes vaguely of peanut butter, which I love). So we could just leave the office to go grab a freshly made snack. Yeah, I probably milked that into a half hour break.


The Student Body- Between both the Academy and the Institute, there are maybe 120 or so students. For the Institute, the half that my work mainly deals with, maybe has 40 students total, about 20 per graduating class, and there are almost as many professors. Most people I’ve talked to seem nice enough, but as students, who are supposed to be creating some sort of worthwhile project during their stay here, I can’t say I'm impressed. What leads me to start on this little rant is the Master’s Thesis presentations that I had to interpret for a couple weeks ago. I’m not sure if this is a comment on the quality of graduate work done in just this school, or Japan in general, or if it’s just me not being used to what a humanities graduate project consists of, but I’m pretty sure their presentations would get you laughed out of the room by professors of any discipline back at Madison. Almost all of them just read straight off of a script or their computer screen, speaking quickly in order to jam as much pointless info into the time limit as they could. This made it impossible to interpret properly. The professor I interpret for was up in arms the time due to the low quality of work and wasted potential. Honestly, there were a number of presentations that wouldn’t have cut the mustard as a term project for an undergrad class, let alone for a master’s degree. It seems the students really don’t have enough guidance from the professor’s and even when they do receive guidance, like “Hey, this idea isn’t going to make a proper thesis, you should think of something else” or “You really need to do more research about your topic, this is all really shallow analysis” the students simply don’t listen and continue to do it the way they want, which is to say, in a misguided, lackluster fashion.

All of this will be moot, though, if the school isn’t able to justify its own existence to the prefecture, which is in the middle of chopping its expenses to balance the budget. As I mentioned before, there are technically two schools, the vocational and the grad school. The decision was handed down late last year that the vocational school would be dissolved in two years, after students admitted this year have safely graduated. There were apparently proposals to get rid of both schools all together, but thanks to some smooth talking by the school president and a few profs, they re-branded the grad school with a different focus and at least postponed its demise. This new direction the grad school is taking emphasizes creating projects and technology that can be of use to local industry and provide a more tangible benefit to the prefecture. A major part of that is iPhone app development. So most students as least managed to tie-in how their project could be related to or potentially implement the iPhone. What happens when the next big thing comes along and nobody gives a hoot about iPhone apps? Well then they’ll be up shit creek without a paddle. But I guess as a stop-gap measure it at least ensures the school’s existence for another couple years…not that anything put out by this year’s graduating class looked like it would be all that enticing to businesses, so the axe may be coming not too far off after all.

Thankfully, though, not so soon that I won’t have a job next year. I just got the papers back from the prefecture approving me re-contracting for another year. A second year is all the further I had planned on staying on JET program, so at least that is happening. Now I’m hoping the school will hold on long enough for me to have a successor so I don’t have to figure out what to do with an apartment full of stuff when I leave. Ugh, enough about work for one day.

*Recent Update* Earlier today, one of the Korean students at the school came in about getting his visa extended. The only catch, his visa expires TODAY! And he was laughing about the situation. Hahaha, get it? Yeah, neither did my supervisor, who has to deal with that sort of thing. How do you not remember how long your visa is good for?! And did he think it could be done in the half hour before the visa office closed? (He came in at 3:30pm) Not sure what that dude was thinking. My supervisor just screamed "baka!" (idiot!) after he left. Wallin, can you shed any light on this one?