My Week in Review
As some of you know, I got rid of my TV this fall. I felt like I was spending too much time watching it, and not enough time studying or cleaning my apartment. Especially not enough time cleaning my apartment. Boy my place is a pit. So I thought if I took all those hours I spent watching TV, and used them to clean instead, my place would look a lot better.
Well, it is amazing how things have NOT improved since I got rid of the TV. The amount of time I spend cleaning has increased very little. Instead, the amount of time that I spend reading, sleeping or just staring at the walls has increased.
Unfortunately I’m beginning to follow the same pattern in my job search. Lately I’ve been very strict with myself about not spending time e-mailing, and keeping blog posts to a minimum. The theory being that I should spend that time looking for jobs. And yet in spite of this, I’ve accomplished very little on the job front.
For those of you who missed my last post though, I did get a rough draft of my resume typed up. Check it out, and send me any editing suggestions you have. And a big thanks to everyone who already did (both of you know who you are).
Anyway…since I’m not doing too much regular posting these days, I thought I’d at least give a brief summary of my week.
1.I was on TV this week.
Well, apparently anyway. I don’t have a TV anymore to see for myself, but my office assures me that I was. We had a regional meeting this Wednesday for all the JETs in my area, and the local television crew was there to film us. And apparently a brief clip of that meeting was shown on the evening news that night. My office has been telling me that the clip was of me looking like I wasn’t paying attention. I suspect they’re just teasing, but to be honest it is certainly a possibility such a clip did exist.
2. And about the meeting…Every two years regional meetings are held. This is different than the prefectural meetings (which are twice a year). Regional meetings are, well, regional. In my case just the JETs who happen to live around or close to Nakatsu city. It is basically just a time to talk about any problems that we might have at work. It is an interesting exchange, but since no one present has any power to change anything, it just turns into a bitch session. Somewhat therapeutic, and it is always interesting to hear other people’s horror stories (my favorite story was that one female JET’s Japanese supervisor had started spreading rumors around her town that he and she were a couple) but ultimately it all seems like a waste of energy.
The meeting was facilitated by the head of the JET program in Oita prefecture, and the local Coordinator for International Relations (CIR), who brought in for discussion a couple articles from the Japanese newspaper about the JET program. One article was about how recently the quality of JETs coming to Japan has been declining. In an attempt to clarify, I asked if Chris, who was sitting next to me at the time, would be an example of a lower level JET. Unfortunately the CIR said she was unable to answer that.
Odds and Ends
A friend of mine directed me to a store in Nakatsu that carried some western food items. I was surprised to learn this place had been in close proximity to me this whole time, and I hadn’t even known about it. I went there with Mike and Chris, and we had a look to see what the place had to offer. I was very excited to find Blackberries there. Blackberries are pretty much impossible to get in Japan. Most Japanese people don’t even know they exist.
Alright, they weren’t fresh blackberries. They were canned, and imported from America. But still, it was a find. I thought of all the ways I could use these blackberries. On my cereal in the morning, on ice cream, mid afternoon snack, with tea, etc. So, I decided to buy 6 cans so I wouldn’t have to make return trips.
Well, the punch line is that it turns out these blackberries were 600 yen ($6, roughly) a can. I never even thought to check the price. I mean everyone knows canned food is supposed to be dirt cheap. But in Japan I guess you can never assume anything.
Rather than go through the embarrassment of re-shelving the things. I just opted to pay the money. The boys had a good laugh about it. In fact a week later they’re still bringing up how much money I wasted on those damn blackberries.
And, to top it off, it turns out canned blackberries taste pretty awful.
Also, this Saturday I went to the 3rd year anniversary of “Tropicoco” my favorite Mexican bar in Japan. Good time was had by all.