Sunny Side-Up

How do you like your eggs? I enjoy my eggs poached, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, over easy and scrambled, but I think my favorite is sunny-side up. I just had three sunny-side up eggs with salt, pepper, and ketchup over a bed of rice. A fantastic breakfast all-around!

So now I’ve been in Tokyo officially 1 month and 3 days. And how is it? Well, overall I’d say it’s pretty good! I spend my days shopping for menial things (I'm in desperate need of some clothes hangers, and I'm trying to find a new pair of slippers but in Tokyo size 12 is hard to come by), playing video games (the Wii is very popular here at Oakhouse. Whenever I take it out into the common area, finding a few friends who are up for a round of Mario Kart is never a problem!) sending out resumes, and meeting with prospective private English students.

After my last blog, and with some of the comments I got on Facebook, I feel I need to post a follow-up blog to clear up a couple things. So here is the honest truth in black and white:

• After the ‘heartbreaker’, when I didn’t get the job at Citibank, I felt really down. I seriously worried about whether or not I could stay here long term, and was thinking about returning to Canada in June.

• Another thing that had me deeply worried is that I didn’t anticipate quite how long the visa process can take. Apparently, while usually it can take about one month before you can start working, there are times where the process can drag on for as long as three months. That means that even if I found a job in May, it could be as late as August before I can actually get a paycheck.

• I began to lament about my finances.. sure I have savings now but, can they last long enough?

But I realized that if I succumb to this kind of negative thinking then I may as well go back to Toronto right now, since I’ll have already ‘lost’.. If I’m going to think negatively like this, then I’ll never succeed here and I’ll never be able to realize my dream.

As many of you know, over the years prior to moving here, I’ve made many friends from Japan and other parts of East Asia who are visiting Toronto. Many of my Canadian friends would often ask “where do they get the money?”

Well, the answer to that question is that some of them have parental support, but many of them don’t. And the ones that don’t, they saved up their money, about $10,000 dollars, and they managed to survive in Toronto sometimes for 1 year or more on that small amount. Just like me, they dealt with visa issues, struggled with language, and had to deal with a certain level of inaccessibility due to the sheer difference between the way things work in Canada vs. they way things work in Asia.

I started to think about how much they loved Canada and loved Toronto, and what sacrifices they would make to stay there. This inspired me a lot.

Another thing I reminded myself is that I'm not attempting to do the impossible. There are many people in Japan who have done the exact same thing that I'm trying to do. I'm not asking for the moon and the stars, just a decent steady job doing the same kind of work I've been doing for over ten years on a professional, full-time basis. This is a realistic and attainable goal.

I decided that no matter what, I will stay in Tokyo for at least six months. And hopefully a job will surface within that time. In the meantime, I’ll take on as many private English students as I can, to cover costs. I already have 5 hours/week of paid teaching lined up and I’m really just getting started. If I can expand this to about 20 hours a week then I’ll have my living expenses completely covered.

And amazingly enough, as soon as I started to think more positively, my phone started ringing again. I got a call from an outsourcing company about a Help Desk position, as well as a call from a recruiter about a Technical Support Manager position. In both cases, they are aware of my visa status yet they are still interested.

So don’t worry about me too much!

Heartbreaker

Well, I didn't get the job at Citibank (sigh).

For the whole story... I had been put forward by Skillhouse (a recruiter) for a position at Nikkociti (Citibank). While I didn't know what to expect, I had a good feeling about the position. The job description describes me pretty much to a tee (except for the part about being significantly overweight yet somehow amazingly handsome) ^_^

Desktop support, some Japanese skill required, Windows 2000, XP, etc, and a chance to use Japanese on the job. The salary is >50% more than what I was making at Torstar Digital, and taxes in Tokyo are way lower than Toronto on top of that. So, since the job is so fantastic, it was natural for me to get excited when I found out Nikkociti wants to contact me for a phone interview. I set a time with Skillhouse and then they e-mailed me the day before to let me know about it.

And in the e-mail, in a "by the way" kind of fashion, they mentioned that the interview would be in Japanese, and that the hiring manager I'd be speaking to was from India.

So let's just think about that for a second. I know many of you back home think I'm some kind of Japanese-speaking genius, but the truth is that my Japanese is rudimentary at best (although it's improved a lot over the past few weeks). Like I mentioned in a previous blog, sometimes even ordering in a restaurant is a challenge. And now I have an important job interview in this very same language.

This problem is exasperated by the fact that I'm conducting the interview on the phone. Facial expressions and hand gestures can go a long way to assist when speaking a foreign language, but over the phone those tools are not available to me.

And of course, the next problem is that the person is from India. I've spoken to Japanese speakers from Canada, France, Hong Kong, mainland China, and other places. And in every case, except for maybe Japanese speakers from Korea, I've had trouble understanding them due to their accent.

So of course, I was deathly worried that I wouldn't be able to understand this manager. But oh well, this is the shitty hand I've been dealt, so I'll just play it best I can. And that night I called my friend Yumichan, who patiently helped me prepare for the interview and get some notes down of things I want to say (ユミちゃん本当にありがとうね！）

And then I had the phone interview. Actually the manager's accent wasn't noticeable at all. She spoke a bit more slowly, but I'm not sure if that's just because Japanese isn't her first language, or because she wants me to understand her (I'm guessing the latter). So I answered her as best I could, but after the interview was over I had a bad feeling. I felt like they wanted someone who has a stronger Japanese skill to do the position.

So, my spirit sank and I took a walk around Kichijoji to get some shoelaces and some other stuff I needed, when I noticed I had a phone message. It was Skillhouse.

They said that they had "very positive" feedback from the phone interview and that Nikkociti wants me to come down for a face-to-face interview.

Now I'm on Cloud 9. Suddenly everything is right in the world, and my dream of my own apartment with a kotatsu, a Japanese kettle, and a shower toilet is well within my grasp.

But that night, I had a hard reality pill to swallow. It seems that due to some kind of breakdown in communication between Skillhouse and Nikkociti, the manager was unaware that I require visa sponsorship to work in Japan. And since that takes time to happen (a month at least), and since Nikkociti wants someone who can start right away, they are not going to interview me.

Sigh... so close, yet so far. The business of chasing dreams sounds so wonderful but ultimately I've found it to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

And now the chips are down, and it's gut check time. Do I quit and give up, or do I keep looking?

I choose to keep looking.

3 Weeks...

Tonight I officially celebrate the completion of my third week in Tokyo, with a corn-mayo bun and a can of black coffee.

I had another recruiter interview today, for a different position within a financial company. I guess this one is looking to hire someone "very quickly" so I guess I should find out soon. The recruiter seemed certain I would get an interview. He also seemed far less concerned about my technical qualifications and much more interested in my personality. He says that my positive, calm demeanor is exactly what the manager is looking for. I hope he's right, it's only a 3 month contract but the salary is much higher than what I was making in Toronto.

My Japanese language is improving. I can't even begin to say that it's "good" per se, but speaking Japanese is far less taxing on my brain then it was when I arrived. I also have a lot more confidence speaking Japanese to strangers and new people. In fact, some new friends that I've made such as Chie, Seiko, and Etchan can't speak English well so we speak entirely in Japanese. I'm also using mixi.jp a lot more (blogging, e-mailing) so my reading/writing is getting better too.

I guess you could say I really feel 'at home' here. Of course sometimes I miss my friends and family in Canada (no seriously, really!) but you know, when I was in Canada I missed a lot of my friends in Tokyo and other parts of East Asia.

I don't know if I believe in fate or not, but I do feel that for the last few years in Toronto, I've been delaying the inevitable. I knew that for better or worse, I had to come to Tokyo not just as a tourist, but as a resident. I'll always be a 'gaijin' here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, after spending so much time in Canada with friends from abroad, it's great to experience the same kinds of things that I saw them go through when they came to Canada.

One last thing I want to say that's hard to describe. I feel like there's some kind of running dialog in my head, especially when I go out of the house. Like almost anytime I see something, I have some kind of observation or comparison to something from home. If I had the time and energy, there are a million different things I could say about anything from food to television to trains to fashion to cost of living prices, etc. However, as it is I probably spend at least 2-3 hours a day in front of my computer screen.

Becoming an English Teacher

I honestly believe I will find a job here in Tokyo, doing the IT work that I did in Toronto. But i'm not sure exactly when that will happen. Could be next week, could be next month, who knows? I have enough cash to float me for a few months, but nevertheless I feel useless sitting out here with no reason to get up in the morning, except to maybe visit my friends or go chat with the locals at Inokashira Park.

So, I've decided that in order to make a few bucks on the side, experience something new and also give myself something to do, I'm taking a little baby step into the world of English tutoring. I registered with a website that offers such services, and my first student is on the 10th, at 7pm.

My biggest problem is, although I have years of informal experience teaching English to my Japanese friends, I've never done this kind of tutoring before. So I'm not sure what exactly I should do.

This is the e-mail that was sent to me from the website:

About the first trial lesson
date/time : 10th of April at 19:00 for 30 minutes
meeting spot : At the No4 exit of Monzen-Nakacho station on Tokyo-metro Tozai line

About the student
gender : female
age : 20's
English level : Beginner
purpose : colloquial English

My impression is that the main point of these lessons is to give the student an opportunity to converse with a native English speaker. But I'm not sure what else we should be doing besides just talking So for those of you reading this, if you have any experience (either as a teacher or as a student) with these kind of tutoring sessions and have some advice, feel free to offer it. Either on this blog as a comment, or on my Facebook wall.

Comparing Toronto to Tokyo

An interesting discussion developed under one of my Facebook pictures regarding the comparison of Toronto vs. Tokyo. So I thought I would add my own thoughts on the subject. I really can't make a completely fair comparison. I spent ten years living in Toronto, and about two weeks living in Tokyo. I feel I need to live here at least one year before I can judge fairly. But my initial impression is that almost everything I like about Toronto, I get the same in Tokyo except many times over:

- I like Toronto because it has a subway system so it's easy to get around without a car. But Tokyo's train system is much, much better and can take me to many more places.
- I like Toronto because I can see lots of people and the streets are lively. But in Tokyo I can see many more people, and the streets are much more lively.
- I like Toronto because I can get interesting Japanese food at some grocery stores like ingredients for okonomiyaki, chirashizushi, etc. In Tokyo I have lots more selection and the price is much cheaper.
- I like Toronto because I can meet lots of people from other parts of the world. I especially like to make friends with Japanese so I can use my Japanese language. In Tokyo I have many more opportunities to meet and speak with Japanese people. I also have met people here from France, Hong Kong, England, Korea, etc.
- In Toronto I can see interesting concerts from artists I like such as Puffy AmiYumi and Shonen Knife. But in Tokyo I can also see concerts from Hamasaki Ayumi, Koda Kumi, and other favorites that would never make the journey to Toronto.
- In Toronto I can get a good job and make a decent salary. But in Tokyo it seems I can make a better salary even to start, and as my language skill improves I can make considerably more money.
- In Toronto I can live downtown so that it's convenient to walk to most places. From Christie I could walk to Dufferin Mall, the grocery store, many restaurants, etc. But in Kichijoji I can literally walk to almost anywhere that I would go in all of downtown Toronto.

I'm the first person to say that Tokyo is not for everybody. Even most Japanese seem to complain about Tokyo. They say it's too busy, and too crowded. And there are some things I will definitely miss about Toronto.

But for me, I prefer Tokyo. It's why I gave up almost everything I had, just to have a chance to roll the dice and see if I can make a life for myself here. It doesn't mean Toronto is "bad" per se, but given the choice, I prefer to live in a city that is well-suited for the kind of life I like to live. And Tokyo is exactly that city.