Well, It's been quite a busy week for me this last week and the weekend was a lot of fun!
To start with; on Monday I had my interview with Gaba, though I still haven't heard from them.
I also went shopping again and bought a pair of jeans, but I also bought some food and found something quite funny..
It wasn't very gooey, from what I recall...
Anyway, I also had a follow up interview with Berlitz on Thursday. Which apparently went very well as they've offered me a job! Woot!
So I'll be starting my 6 day training thingie next Monday (7th November) with them.
On Saturday, Take and I went out for Halloween. We decided to go to Roppongi as Take had been there quite a lot in the past and obviously knows more than I do about night life here!
I actually had some trepidation about going to Roppongi, as I have heard quite a lot of bad things about the place, but everything went fine and it was actually nice to be able to meet new people and talk in English.. lol!
Here are some photographs, we didn't really have a costume but we went into the nearest Donki and picked up a mask for Take and a cat headband for me. ^^
You may have noticed by now I don't really wear make-up.. well, I haven't since I arrived here!
I should probably start wearing more, as I did look like a bit of a zombie! lol
It was a fun night, even though I got quite drunk.. and had trouble walking back to Take's. Fortunately he was there to help! xxx
Okay, not a lot this time but I did make a video from that night. Which is a bit out of focus in some places, so I apologise for that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WXW0hAEsuY
Well, I'm past the 2 week point now and I'm definitely starting to feel better in general.
Those two interviews are now over and Berlitz has invited me back for the 2nd(last) interview this Thursday.
The interview process here is very different to what I'm used to back home in the UK. You are sat in a room with at least 5-6 other applicants, you're given forms to fill in and are given some kind of questionnaire/task to complete.
They apparently use these to filter out the undesirables (people who obviously don't understand English too well,) after which each applicant will be taken into a separate room where you will be interviewed privately.
They ask relatively normal questions; probably things that you won't feel comfortable sharing with everybody else, like visa status and past education etc.
In the Berlitz interview I was the only person without a degree and I had no previous teaching experience.
I was actually surprised they invited me back for another interview knowing this, but I do think my location helped a lot as I had applied for a job at the Shinjuku branch and my nearest train station is on the Seibu Shinjuku line, which is about 4 stops from Shinjuku.
The Gaba interview was similar, in that we all sat in a room whilst we were told everything about the company and had to fill out forms etc. then taken to a separate room to be interviewed. It was a lot shorter and I'm not sure I did so well in this interview. The 'task' you're given is quite difficult unless you studied English at university or something and you're VERY good at grammar.
You have to give examples of past tense, present tense and future tense and tense perfect (past and future) for the word 'Teach.' My English isn't bad but I am pretty sure I failed this part, as I'm sure most people probably would!
I also had to give an example of a 40 minute lesson plan for a fictional client based on his hobbies and what he wants out of an English lesson. This was quite straightforward, but I kept everything short and used bullet points. I noticed a lot of people write up entire essays which is okay, I guess, but from my experience of teaching (so far) the more convoluted your explanation of something is the more difficult it is for your student to understand.
Anyway, all in all it wasn't as daunting and scary as I initially thought it would be.
Not sure if I'd mentioned it already but, about a week ago I bought a pair of really nice shorts from GAP which set me back about 8,000 yen.. now, that's a lot of bloody money for a pair of shorts! but what has really got my goat about these shorts, is they can only be dry cleaned!!? I've bought a few items of clothing since being here and even in places like Uniqlo things are quite expensive, at least compared to what I'm used to.
I guess I should just get used to this. ^^
At the weekend I went out with Take again. We went to Ebisu and drank in a pub called ''What's the Dickens'' which was nice, and they had live music! That's another thing that's expensive here, the alcohol! I should stop moaning, lol!
I should really keep track of everything that happens on a day to day basis, 'cause I'm sure I leave a lot out..
Oh, I don't know if he'll be okay with me mentioning it here, but me and Take have started dating. He's a lovely guy!
Okay, enough rambling and I'm hungry... (I need to stop using ellipsis!)
Don't get me wrong I am loving it here and the people are lovely, but I have been finding myself feeling quite depressed today.
I think the realisation of actually being here and the necessity of being able to (or unable to, in my case) speak the language is starting to dawn on me. I am not able to communicate basic things in Japanese properly which, as you can imagine, is causing me serious problems when trying to do something basic like going shopping.
So far almost all of my shopping, besides some groceries, have been done when I am with one of my Japanese friends.
Combine this with missing my family and friends back home, and so far being unable to even get an interview for a job.. it's really starting to get me down.
This last weekend was amazing though. My friend Take showed me a lot of Shinjuku and was kind enough to let me stay at his house for the night, as I had missed the last train.
On Friday another friend, Takeyuki, showed me a lot of Tokyo too and where to buy reasonably priced formal clothing.
I really do appreciate all of the help and hospitality I've recieved from these people.
Today, however, I am definately experiencing a kind of anti-climax.. I hope it passes, because I'm starting to feel like I want to go home..
On a positive note, work wise, I have recieved considerable interest from a few people who would like to be taught English privately. So it's not all bad.
I'm sorry, this will be a short post for now..
EDIT: Shortly after writing this I recieved invitations to interviews with both GABA and Berlitz. Now I'm just scared!
The one with GABA is at 11am tomorrow morning and I have to go to Yoyogi Koen st. Which is quite a while away from me by train. I just hope I find it in time!
The one with Berlitz is on Wednesday at 11am also.
GABA called it a 'seminar' I'm not sure what that means.. and Berlitz is a group interview, which is very rare in the UK..
I'm mostly nervous because I am not qualified to teach, I have no experience in that field and I will probably be the only applicant without a degree. So I'm already starting off on the 'wrong' foot, so to speak..
Will see how it goes anyway... No harm in trying, right?
I promised people back home that I would try to keep a blog whilst I am here in Japan, so here it is!
It's been slightly hectic and very confusing to say the least!
To begin with, the flight was veeeery long but the views were amazing. When I arrived in Narita the standard procedure of going through immigration and collecting baggage etc. went smoothly.
Pretty much all staff in the airport spoke English, so it didn't seem too weird yet... haha.
I bought the N'EX Suica deal, one way to Shinjuku (as that is where I had to get my apartment keys and pay my first months rent.)
Again, some lovely views (I'll stick links to all videos I've made through this period at the end of this post.)
When I got off at Shinjuku it felt like a maze, anyone who's been to Shinjuku will probably know what I mean.
I had been given a map which indicated I should take the west exit, of course I couldn't find it, and after an 11 hour flight and not having slept in two days I looked like crap and just wanted to get out of the station.
I think I took the south exit, they always seem easier to find.. or maybe that's just me lol!
Anyway, so I'm out of the train station and EVERYTHING is in Japanese, I was pretty much wandering aimlessly for 10 minutes. I managed to find a landmark that was on the map I was given and headed up to the office for my keys.
I got stared at. A lot. I knew before going to Japan that this sort of thing happens to most foreigners, especially those not of Asian descent. It still didn't help as I am naturally quite self-conscious and paranoid (pretty much a normal woman haha!)
I managed to find the office and paid my first months rent etc.
The worst part was heading to my apartment. I was told to take the Seibu Shinjuku line to get to my area, which is Numabukuro. So I get to the station and I'm on that blasted platform looking for something in English. Nothing, it was all in Japanese apart from to let you know if the train was Express or Local. (I didn't know what that meant at the time.)
So I just got on the next train, and unfortunately for me, it was the Express train.. so of course it passed Numabukuro and I ended up having to ask a train driver (LOL) how to get to Numabukuro. One thing you can never fault the Japanese for is their politeness and willingness to help someone, especially a stupid foreigner like myself. :]
I managed to get on the right train anyway, thanks to his help.
I, again, got stared at a lot, but one thing I did notice is people actually sat next to me on the train even though there was plenty of space to sit elsewhere. I've read and heard of a lot of people having people avoid sitting in the same carriage as them!
Maybe this was just a one off, who knows..
So yeah, I'm now at my apartment and haven't really left my neighbourhood in the last 2 days.
I've been really ill from jet lag (I won't go into details!) but I'm hoping this will pass by next weekend when I'll be going to Shinjuku again with a Japanese friend I met. This time at night, lol.
I've only met one person since I've been here (yesterday) which is the Japanese friend I mentioned. He's very nice and speaks very good English, he wants me to speak Japanese with him though but I'm too scared.. well, embarrassed!
Next thing for me to do, is to go to my local ward office and apply for my Foreigner Registration Card (AKA Gaijin Card) as today is a public holiday I don't fancy trekking it up there just to find it's not open. Plus I feel so crap right now..
Anyway, I'm waffling about nothing now.. I'll try to update this relatively often. With pictures and videos!
