Starting out

I have decided to wait out the rainy season in Tokyo, until August 18th. There are several reasons for the decision; Firstly, rain is wet, and wet travel is depressing (wet hitchhiking even more so). Secondly, travel is expensive, and expensive things make your wallet lighter. My trips around Japan are coming to an end - there are indeed many beautiful locations I have yet to so, but bankbook reality has to intervene at some point. Thirdly, I want to get to know a city, I want to taste more than one gets by just passing through. So, here in Tokyo, I decide to build a new life from scratch.

By the end of the first week I soon realize that work is one of the most important ingredients of a happy life. Though we may loath work and long for the free life, I soon find the free life boring and insubstantial. Without a purpose to work towards, days fly by meaninglessly. Strange though it may seem, I begin to yearn for a job.

How far am I willing to go to get one though? I resolve to present my case as honestly as possible, without covering up the blemishes in my employability. I dont want to give the Gods of Irony any more reason to smite me, and am also concious of my role as a representation of every person outside of Japan. Moreover though, I want my new life to be a simple one, and I do not like the thought of working a job by means of lies, half-truths and hidden facts. I trawl the city, with all its shiny lights, being simple - `Hi my name is Nick, and I am looking. I can speak english, I can speak Japanese, I can wipe tables and benches, and I leave Tokyo on August 18th.`

`Simple` also has the meaning of `Stupid`. My job prospects would be so much better if I changed it to `December 18th`, and many businesses told me this outright. `We would employ you, if you were here longer`. Perhaps I should just not mention it at all, but that would just delay the shock - judging by the colour of my skin I do not live here, and will be going back to my white little home country at some stage, and an employer would be very foolish not to ask when. Job searching is as frustrating as it is anywhere else in the world, with my enquiries resulting in all sorts of responses, from being outright laughed at (one manager actually went and hid in his office for some reason!), to the more promising people who listened intently and said `hmm...well give you a call and see, ok?`, to the people who actually do call back to arrange interviews. For two weeks, I get further and further along the path, give up my job search and sit back and wait for them to call me back, only to hit a dead end and be right back where I started. The Japanese have an onomatapoeia for frustration - `Ira Ira`. Ira Ira Ira Ira Ira Ira Ira.

Ira ir---what?! A job? Hurrah! I am sitting on a comfortable couch in a very well-designed house, teaching English to Vanessa. Vanessa is 5 years old, half-Indian half-Japanese, and likes making stories. The only hard part is getting the stories to end, as she quickly finds any conceivable loophole for some further catastrophe to occur. The king and queen kept having their castle smashed by dragons, and didnt have enough money to buy new furniture, so I tried to help them by having them build a new castle in space. But then, according to Vanessa, `the hugest dinosaur there ever was came and smashed it!`...damn, I should have made it a space-dinosaur proof castle...

Nothing ever comes when you expect it to, and job opportunities wait around a corner to attack me when I am not looking. Now that I am happy to devote all my attention to teaching, I land another job after several unexpected job interviews, and am working at a British-Style pub in Shibuya starting tommorow. My new life in Tokyo has begun!