My first job in Japan

So I got the job in golf place. Yeeeeah. I work there for about 2 weeks now. It is slightly different than it was written in the job description (of course).

          The job starts from 4 in the morning till about 6, which means that I have to wake up very early, 3 o’clock. A cup of coffee is my morning friend and then by bicycle for about 30 minutes to Iiama golf square. :-)

           Here is few pictures of the place.

   

           I was very surprised, cause most of the people working there in morning hours are above 50 years old. I really admire them. They work very hard.

          Well, there is not much to be written about the job itself. I just pick thousands of golf balls. :-)

          If the weather is nice, it is quite pleasant to work in such early hours. Because of the heat and humidity, I can’t sleep well at night anyway. And I get to see all the moon shapes and many sunrises. The other day I have seen a full moon and sunrise at the same time, pure magic.

On the other hand, if it rains, it is very hard, cause rain in Japan is very heavy. If I am correct, the right expression is: “It rains cats and dogs”. :-)

          My boss is quite nice. He is about 65 years old, plays ukulele, loves Hawaiian music and Elvis Presley. So he invited me to play together one day, when the weather gets a bit cooler. Looking forward for that.

         My colleagues are also nice. Despite my poor Japanese, we try to talk, but I must say most of it I don’t understand. So I just nod my head, smile and say:”Hai…” So far it works. :-)

         It is very nice how we help each other there, especially when it’s very hot or very wet. Nice Japanese team spirit.

  

          Since I started working I discovered new things about Japanese culture.

One is that I have to have a bank account in a bank, which the place I work for is using. They don’t accept any bank. Just one week before I started working I opened a bank account in Post office. Last week they told me at the golf place, that they don’t accept them, so I have to open another account in Yokohama bank. Strange system, but what can you do…

Another is, that there is lot of presents giving, called Omiyage. It is a little present for colleagues when you have little trip somewhere, or holidays; or you give it when you visit somebody, etc. It could be sweets or crackers, or some special juice or drink, produced in the area where you go for a trip. It is a really big business here. I must say it is also very yummy.

 Little Scottish joke at the end....

Wee Archie rushed home from school to tell his mother he had been given a part in the school play. "Whit part have ye got" she says.
"I play the part of a husband" says Archie, proudly.
"Well she says, just get right back there and tell that teacher you want a speaking part"!

Meeting with Yoshie and Trip to Kamakura

     Last weekend I met with Yoshie, my good friend who used to volunteer at Allanton. For those who know her, she is very well, enjoying her life. She is now a full time teacher at Primary school. Very hard job, but she is thinking to do some teachers course, to be able to teach music and piano at High schools in the future. 

     She came to visit us here and stayed one night. She brought lot of good information with her. First, finally I will be able to play with somebody. She has a concert in October for children at school, and she asked me if I am interested in playing there. There will be other concert in November, much longer one. So I am looking forward to play again with other musicians. 

 

       I am thinking about buying a cajon, a drum that looks like a wooden box. It is an instrument that would fit perfectly for me. And would bring some beat to the performance with Yoshie. 

      Secondly, there is a certain project with disabled children in her area. And they are looking for somebody to make it happened. They have good support from local council, and schools. They have been given some land, but they are not sure what to do. So Yoshie was thinking that I would be a perfect candidate for it. Cause it is pretty much exactly what we have been doing at Allanton.

     If it happens, I would be over the moon. Creating little Allanton and spreading Ania (an environmental project for kids) in Japan. Yeeeeeeeeeeah.....

Now I just have to lean this strange language. Gambarimasu (I will do my best)….

     It looks like Yoshie is my little guardian angel. She brought to me Mitsuyo, my girlfriend, and now this kind of opportunities. Good, good, what a great mission in life she has. To bring Stano good news all the time.

     Next day we went together to Kamakura. It used to be a capital of Japan. It has one of most famous statues of Buddha (we didn’t visit that place this time), and few famous temples and shrines with lovely lotus garden.

     It was nice rainy day close by the sea.  

 

     We visited also one temple that has a little bamboo forest with tea house, where we had nice bowl of matcha tea. Yummy yummy….

     And we had lovely Japanese lunch. The owner was half drunk, so it was quite funny too. We had all good chat and lot of laughter.

     All in all, it was a good weekend.

Summer holidays and Job hunting

     Since Monday my summer holidays started. It means I have 2 months of not much to do. So I went to local job search center, called Hallo Work, and I must say, it is difficult to find anything. One reason is of course the language and another is actually the school. But at least I managed to find one job, I have never done before in my life and I applied for it. It is picking golf balls.  

(…much better than what I experienced in Prague, Czech – one of my jobs was picking dog poo from the streets. I managed only one day.)

     The job is in the early morning, from 5 to 7. So it won’t be affected by school time later on. And the money earned will pay for the food. So that would be great if I get it and later on I can still apply for evening job to make a bit more money, to cover the costs of my living here. Guys…. Japan is expensive, the Yen is so strong.

     So now I am waiting for the Golf Company to phone me.

     I also found out at Hallo Work, that there is evening Kanji course, a preparation for Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 4 (about 300 kanji), and it is for free.

So I applied for that too. 

     Interestingly, most of the people attending these kinds of courses are from Spanish or Portuguese speaking community, so no English. Actually that made me happier; at least I can practice Spanish again. (Que buena oportunidad.) 

 

     By the way, these free courses are quite rare here. So I feel very lucky to have such opportunity.

     And I might also start Japanese calligraphy with Mitsuyo. Looking forward for that too.