Diary of a (Semi) Unemployed Man

As I wrote previously, since last Friday the company has been in limbo status between bankruptcy and finding for a sponsor. During this time, all of us employees are in a similar limbo status as well. We've been told to stay home and not come to work until further notice.

Perhaps you might wonder what I've been up to with all this free time on my hands.

It's nice to have free time, but the no-job unemployed type of free time leaves you with a dirty taste in your mouth. I'm sure Maria in Denver can identify. Hell, we've all been there at one time or another in our life. I'm sure we can all identify. (In fact I was just in this position last summer). You enjoy staying up late and sleeping in and meeting friends for coffee, but all the while you have something hanging over your head reminding you that you really should be looking for a job right this minute, and every free minute you're spending with your friends is another minute you should have been looking for a job.

In my case, I'm only semi-unemployed, so I'm half waiting around to see what is going to happen with the company in the next week. But all the smart rats fled the ship a long time ago, and I should be looking for another job or at least polishing up the resume a little bit.

Also I'm supposed to be researching graduate schools (something still in the back of my mind), and planning out a wedding. So as Shoko said to me at the beginning of the week: "You've got quite a lot to do, so I don't want you wasting all your time by going out and playing with your friends."

I've been trying really hard to buckle down and get some things done during all this time I have off, but it is intimidating, isn't it? Even if I intentional cancel all my social appointments and lock myself in my apartment, I just get un-nerved when I think of all the stuff I should be doing, so I think, "I'll just read the morning paper for a while. I'll just have a cup of coffee and play some video games while I get in the mood to do some research. I'll just watch this last video, and then straight to work. I wonder if any one e-mailed me lately. I should check all my friends blogs to see if they've updated..." And the time has a way of getting away from me really quickly. And then I end up with the worst of both worlds: not doing anything fun with my day, and not being productive either.
I was feeling really bad about this, until I was talking with my semi-unemployed co-workers the other day, and heard the same stories from them. Still, that's no excuse. Must be productive from this week on.

Anyway, my lack of productivity aside, here's what I've been up to this week.

Friday (October 26)
This was the day I received the phone call about our company being shut down. I was talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses at the time. (They have Jehovah's Witnesses here in Japan as well. They've been coming every Friday for weekly discussions with me. I should really write a blog post about this some time, but I don't have room to get into it here).

For some reason I've been designated the contact person for our branch, (probably because I'm the most senior teacher), so I was put in charge of phoning up the other teachers and telling them not to come into work that day.

Later in the day I got another call with more information (telling me to tell everyone not to come into work indefinitely) and I had to start making phone calls all over again.
I met a couple co-workers for coffee.

Saturday
This was the day we did our day trip to Yufuin, which I already wrote about.

In the evening I went to tutor Shoko's co-worker's daughter.
This is a private lesson I took up on the side. Actually Shoko volunteered me for it. I was furious about the extra work initially, and Shoko and I used to have several arguments about it. Now, suddenly it has become my only source of income, and I have to thank Shoko for setting it up for me.

There was a Halloween party at Tropicocos that night which I didn't attend because it completely slipped my mind. (I understand all my co-workers had a good time there). I guess I dropped the ball on that one, but at least I've got good memories of this annual party in year's past.

Sunday
A student of mine dropped by our apartment on Sunday afternoon. He was able to guess where my apartment was because I once talked in a lesson about the house fire next door.

This student, a Buddhist priest, was very concerned about our well-being because stories about Nova teachers without food or money have been all over the Japanese TV. I assured him I was doing all right thanks to Shoko. He then wanted to set up English classes at his temple to help all us Nova teachers get a little bit of spare income in the limbo period. It was extremely kind and helpful of him of course. As Shoko said after he left, "Well, I guess that's a priest for you."

I got chewed out by Shoko for having been unproductive the past couple days, and at her encouragement I cleared out my schedule for the next couple days so I could get some things done.

Monday
Got together at a co-workers apartment for a pasta dinner (a cheap way to feed everyone since we're all a bit short on cash). The evening then degenerated into drinking games. (Since I don't drink, I agreed to take shots of coffee instead). 
The lovely Shoko attended as well--here are a few pictures from that evening:

Earlier in the day I had made a phone calls to some of the Japanese staff to invite them out hiking on Tuesday. They replied with a counter offer to go on a picnic. I carried the invitation to everyone Monday night, but almost everyone declined to go for various reasons. Some needed to get a jump on the job search and interviews, and some had other plans, and some were a bit bitter over the way things had gone done during the last few days and the way the Japanese staff hadn't always shared information with us.

Maybe I'm too forgiving of a pretty face (the Japanese staff are all pretty women in their early 20s) but I take the position that the Japanese staff were just doing their jobs and following head office instructions to keep certain info confidential, and in any case they probably didn't know all that much more than we did. But as Shoko said to me, "You're able to play the bigger man because you're financially secure with me paying the rent. If you were one of these Nova instructors being evicted from their apartment and without money to buy food, you'd be pretty angry as well."

Tuesday
Went on the picnic with the Japanese staff. In the end only one other foreign teacher came with.

We carpooled down to Oita city where we met up with all the other Japanese staff from the prefecture, some of whom I knew, many of whom I was met for the first time. All women in their early 20s. (It was in the paper this week that it had been Nova's policy to hire only young woman as Japanese staff so they could pay them less, and then they would work them hard enough to ensure they would quit early and not advance in the pay scale).

There was surprisingly little shop talk among the Japanese staff themselves, although they did answer most of my questions when I would ask directly about things. For the most part it was just a fun fall outing. We had a great picnic feast. We got out a beach ball and played a little volleyball in the park. There was a giant slide for children, but we all went down it anyway.

Besides the two of us from Nakatsu, there was only one other foreign teacher there. A British guy who, poor bastard, had only flown in a month ago, and so never received a single paycheck before the company closed down. He was, needless to say, a bit strapped for cash (like the rest of us). "At least you'll have a story to tell when you go back home," I told him.
"I know," he said. "I'm keeping a journal."

Wednesday
Yet another day in which despite locking myself in my apartment, I accomplished very little.

In the evening I and a couple other co-workers went to the temple to discuss with some students how we could continue lessons privately. Nothing is ever simple when it gets discussed in a group, and deciding on things like the time and the price turned into a 2 hour discussion.

It is difficult to negotiate these things in a group as well. Aware that the priest and the students were doing this partly out of the goodness of their heart (and also aware that if Nova company goes bankrupt, they stand to lose a lot of money in pre-bought lessons) I didn't want to overcharge, but me and my co-workers had no game plan before we walked into the lesson, and ending up debating the issue in front of the students.

In the end we chose a price that Shoko feels very strongly is over-charging the students, and my co-workers feel is under charging.

After the meeting, my co-workers were meeting for a video game tournament. I dropped by for a little while, but not having a big interest in video games I didn't stay long.

Since it was Halloween I went to the video store and rented some classic horror movies: "Frankenstein", "Dracula", "The Wolfman", and "Night of the Living Dead." (I know the old movies don't have the same punch as today's horror movies, but you can't beat the classics for atmosphere. To me it's not Halloween without some old black and white monster movies.)

Thursday
Spent most of the afternoon finishing up the videos from last night. Another unproductive day, although I did do some cleaning and some Japanese studying while the movies were on in the background.

In the evening a co-worker and I met up to do a dry run and make sure we could find the temple again (it was hidden away in some side streets). We spent about an hour wandering through the side streets and squabbling about which way it was, before we were able to find it again.

After we had found it, I took a different way back home and discovered it's only a 10 minute walk from my house.

Friday
Yet another day that wasn't as productive as it could have been (although I have been doing a lot of Japanese studying).

The Jehovah's Witnesses came again. After our regular discussion they told me they were concerned about me since all the news about Nova has been all over TV. I assured them I was alright.

I walked to the Temple in the evening. I wish I had some pictures because from my apartment to the temple is such a beautiful walk. I cut across some rice fields and over a river, up a hill, and there the temple is. And the time of day I was walking there was just right before sunset when everything has a kind of pink color...Obviously this is something that's hard to do justice with words, but I couldn't imagine a more idyllic setting to teach some English classes in.

A few students came into the temple for some lessons. Everyone's still kind of figuring out what we're doing and how this new system is going to work, but I enjoyed myself.

After that stopped by briefly at a going away party for some co-workers (who are moving to Fukuoka to search for jobs there).

...And that pretty much brings me full circle. Stay tuned for more updates in the life of the semi-unemployed man.

Link of the Day
The Catastrophic Iraq Occupation the U.S. Media Rarely Reports: Interview with Dahr Jamail