My first week of work...

...Had a rocky first day, but after that I got the hang of it for the rest of the week!

Now for the details, that only Tommy knows how to break down (I wish I did a day by day after the day, many memorable moments, but I can't remember them all!)

My first day at the job I had to lug my suitcases and everything to Honbu (The place we train at in this area of Japan for Aeon), which took a lot longer than I expected because they were SUPER HEAVY! When I got there I had time to kill so I went to one of my fav fast food places to grab some breakfast and also grabbed a caramel frap from Starbucks. After the quick meal I headed back to Honbu to wait for my head teacher to pick me up.

During this waiting time I met an emergency teacher from Australia. He was a really cool guy and just sat and talked a bit. Then my trainer Andy came by and we had some casual conversations. Weird after the week of him training the hell out of my group and I. Then Yoshie came. My first impression of her was kinda funny for 2 reasons. 1. As soon as she came into the office (where it just so happened, the president of all of Aeon was there) about 5 or so minutes late and her first words to me are, "Tommy right? Sorry I am late, I am a bit hungover, drank too much last night". Uhm...AWESOME!!! Someone who is real and not all about the image Japan usually tries to keep. 2. Now I have been made fun of my whole life for being black and "talking white" or "Like a Californian", but this girl talks and sounds like I do!!! Lots of "like"s, "totally"s, "you know"s and "whatever"s. I feel like I am at home! She lived in San Diego and Los Angeles for about 3 years, where she learned English.

We head to the train so I can make it to my new office and she offers to carry my laptop case which was heavy for her, but we eventually made it to the office, where I met who I am replacing, and the other staff. Rob the guy I am replacing was a cool guy. He gave me a lot of good advice and info about where I live and the office atmosphere. I met Tomomi the Asst. manager who is super sweet and I also met Ogawa-manager who seems like he is very cool, he is always smiling and laughing (he also wears pink shirts and ties, twice this week). Finally I met the part time teacher to our office Teresa, who is from Canada. My impression of her isn't anything special, she seems to not ever talk to me unless I talk to her, and when I talk to her she is short and straight to the point. One of my other coworkers told me she noticed that and was wondering why. Well at least I wasn't the only one to notice it. That other coworker was Miki by the way. Honestly she is my fav coworker. She is SUPER sweet and very easy to talk to, plus very helpful to me with praises and suggestions for classes. She gives me info that some of her students have made about me (her students are very low level, and all the comments were positive), since they can't tell me in English. She even had to translate one of her younger students (probably 20 or 21) flirting with me. I understood a bit of that conversation, but when she translated the rest, I had to laugh. So that is my office. Ogawa-manager, Tomomi, Yoshie, Miki, and Teresa 2 days a week (WOOT ONLY 2 DAYS!!!). Seems like a fun laid back group of people, and they are all super nice!


Day 1

So my first day was pretty much just watching Rob do 4 classes that day. He is a good teacher, but he doesn't follow the structure or some of the rules we were taught to follow, plus a few other office rules. Interesting... BUT he does keep the students happy and they learn something. At the end of this night I was told to meet at the office the next day at 12PM to go get my ARC application in. Without that I can't really do much as far as setting up services in Japan (aka no internet, cable tv, cell phone, etc.). So I said I was told that right? Let me back up. I overheard the conversation in Japanese, some head nods, then I was off to go to my apt by my manager. Ok. So maybe I could have just assumed it was meant to be there at 12, BUT what if I heard them wrong.

Day 2

I show up at 12:30. My morning was kinda crappy cuz I couldn't find the Mos Burger Rob told me about (learned 2 days later it was across the street, I didn't recognize the logo), so I grabbed junk food from 7-11 to munch on. I ate said junk food on a bench in a nice park, a bench covered in ants... So all of that and I come in at 12:30pm, with some odd stares. Ok, clock in and go sit down and prepare. I see Yoshie and ask her when are we going to go do my ARC thing, and she says that I should have been in at 12 to do it. Yep, my assumption was right. So I apologize to her and the manager, and take full blame, but I think Yoshie thought back to that conversation and maybe realized "crap that wasn't in English huh?" She explained it to the manager, they had a laugh, and she took me to go to the city ward. We had 2 trains and about 20 mins of walking each way. The whole time we just talked about lives in California. She really misses it. I was supposed to watch Rob's first class that morning at 1pm for my LAST observation before 3 real classes that night. Wasn't going to be making that at all.

When we got back to the office I went to have lunch with Rob as it was his last day in the office, and I just blasted him with a bunch of Qs about training, and the apt (he is the previous occupant). We eat at my now fav place to eat C's Cafe, where I get 650 yen quesadillas, with more lettuce than cheese, but hey, the first Mexican food I can find. He pays for our lunch because he got his bonus check + ticket home check, and he said it was WAY more than what AEON said it would be, interesting... After lunch we headed back to the office for me to prepare for my lessons until my first class came. I go out to do lobby talk (talking in the lobby with students when you aren't studying) and when it was time, announce my first class. 2 students follow me into the class, and so does Rob, who I didn't know was observing, kind of a surprise, but I remained composed. My first class went well. Rob gave me a few pointers to make them better, but I think it was good for my first in school class. The next 2 classes didn't go so well, made a lot of beginner mistakes, but easily fixable. The day ended and Rob said his goodbyes and I clocked out and headed to my apt with my 50 lb box my mom mailed me! LUCKILY Yoshie was sweet enough to drive me to my apt in her car, otherwise that woulda been hecka tiring to take that thing on the train then WALK to my apt from the station (about 11 minutes). When I got home I unpacked everything and just kinda threw everything where I can see them, leaving organization for the weekend. Time for bed...

Day 3

So now I am on my own. This day I made few mistakes and my students were praising me openly to the management and staff, which was just too cool to witness and feel like you are well liked on your first day. I was always getting comments on being really nice, making the class fun, and having a really clear version of English (Yoshie says it is because I am from California, ok). I had 3 comments on the fact I smelled good (had Dolce & Gabana cologone on), which was kind of funny to hear. Got to spend my downtime talking with Miki (who sits to my immediate left) and found out she is leaving Aeon on September 1st, because she is getting married in November. Now my fav coworker is leaving, that sucks. Today went rather well, even though there are a few things I need to work on, with time, I won't make those mistakes.

Day 4 and 5

I don't think I am making anymore mistakes, and the student compliments continue. My students are always smiling and laughing during class, as I try to make it more exciting for them while they learn. Everyday I swore I found my favorite students, and the next class would replace the previous person/people. Now I don't have names for everyone yet, but let me list them out.

First is Hashiko who is one of my highest level students. She is probably in her mid 50s, very nice, and her son wants to be a diplomat. After my first class with her she said "Ok now I will enjoy coming to class, you make this REALLY interesting!" There was another girl in the class who pretty much said the same thing. After the class they both spent 45 minutes (this was the last class of the night so I was able to spare the time) just talking and asking/answering questions, both very cool. My next class with Hashiko was a private lesson, so that means there is more time for free talk. This is when she told me about her son's plans and everything and said she was going to show me some picture he painted 2 years ago that one some contest in Geneva, where he got to go and meet some diplomats because of his work of art. Next is Daiyuu. he lived in australia for a looong time and he speaks English extremely well (he really doesn't need the classes). Because of his level, he is very easy to speak to and just a lot of fun to talk to. Then there is a guy who is in a class with 2 other girls usually (both of the girls, Sachiko and I can't remember the other girls name are really cool in their own marks. Sachiko is a scientist I think, where she tests the water in Nagoya for impurities, and the other girl a high school students, always in her uniform for every class). The guy, who's name I will for sure memorize soon, just has soo much heart to learn English. He is always speaking up and trying his best. He gets mad at himself for making mistakes but spends seconds correcting it, all with a smile. He is just too cool! Then there are the Sawadas... Two of the freakin coolest people I have met. They travel to Hawaii once a year to golf. They are a married couple in their early 6os and they are in our highest level class. Words can not explain how cool they are, I look forward to our next class. Then there is Kaisuke (I think) who is 36 (I swear he was 24 - 26 when I met him) and he wants to be a Dr. in the US. He told me I HAVE to remember his name next week and he was just very cool to talk to. He asked me a lot of questions about me after his class (which had a girl in it, Megumi I think, who asked me a lot of questions before class, as we had to wait for Kaisuke who was late because he is on the swim team) and he said every class he is going to ask me a questions. Sounds like it will be fun! And finally there are the two high school girls, cant remember their names though. They are both 17 I think and just freaking cute with their manners. They are about upper beginner level and they try so hard to speak english with no mistakes. They help each other out in Japanese when one understands my English over the other, and make cute sounds/faces when they either don't understand or finally understand. They have a lot of energy so I made their lesson really fun and high energy and they immediately went to one of the Japanese staff after our class to tell them how I made the class really fun that day. I really hope I can remain as fun as people have been claiming during my whole year, I really don't want to let that energy die down for whatever reason.

That was the work week for me. My last class ended on time, and I smelled the weekend. I raced home because I wanted to do something last night. I found a website with different club events and found a place called Club JBs in Sakae. I wrote down the address and phone # and headed to Sakae via subway and train. When I exited the subway I was totally lost. It was funny though, because their site has a map that is just boxes with names in them, and even though I couldn't read the Kanji, I recognized the kanji on a building that was supposed to be next door to the club. It was. I see a bunch of people and ask them where the club was, in Japanese, and he said he didn't know in Japanese. Uhm, the club was right behind him downstairs, all we had to do was look up at the sign that said BF2. So I head down and pay my 4000 yen entrance fee (last time I pay that much for a club until paychecks start coming). Now this club has dif music every night, but last night was house. What was cool was hearing local DJs, who also produced some of the songs they played. I WISH I had a copy of the music last night. What was cool was they would play some rap, and a few rock songs, in their entirety, then there would be a house mix of the song, that not even I have heard! Kinda cool. They also played some old music, like James Brown, and KC and the Sunshine Band, to name a few. Long story short, I stayed until the DJ played the last song, at 6:15AM. I got there at 10:12PM. Regardless I had a GREAT night, spent about 40 bucks on drinks (buy 2 at a time for 1000 yen), met a guy who usually DJs there, but was just an observer that night, a girl that had a foregin boyfriend and spoke awesome English. She actually translated the convo between that DJ and I. She then intoduced me and translated some conversation between me and 5 other people, 3 girls and 2 guys. One of the guys who I ended up talking to for a bit about House and other music for a bit. It was just a damn good night, fun was had by all. I honestly think only 3 people left from the time I got there, and about 30 more people came in (I got there 2 hours before the "event" was to start and it was KIND of packed with about 50 people, which fit TIGHT on the dancefloor, so picture 30 more people in the club, bar and dancefloor...)

Got home at 6:45, went to sleep and woke up at 12:30 and did my first grocery shopping in Japan today. Bought milk and cereal, found lotion (they call it Body Milk, that is why I couldn't find any), nail clippers, and some stuff to make the stir fry I usually made back home. I was going to buy my bike and a bike lock, but I didn't have my address on me, so I am going in about 20 mins to go buy it! EXITING! Pics in the morn I swear! I also did my first laundry day this morn... Good news, that small thing my hand was near is NOT the washer, it is the dryer, and it gets the clothes dryer than I expected, I might not have to hang clothes EVERY time I wash. But honestly, I HATE my washer. The cycles are manual! I have to set it to wash, put on timer, time runs out, put it on drain, turn on knob again to fill with water again for the rinse cycle, timer goes off, throw 3 articles at a time into the "dryer". I am about to put the coloreds in (that's racist!) before I go buy my bike. I am kinda pissed though, my light in my walkway doesn't work! So whenever I get home when it is dark, I have NO light to turn on immediately. PLUS my washer slowly drains water when in use, which may be good, so I can get a new one!!!

Anyways, you are now caught up with me up to this VERY minute I am living now. Hope all is well in the US, and see ya guys laters with pics of the bike!