Instead of picking up and going home, I decided I like Japan far too much and that I haven't had enough time to experience it fully. I'm happy to announce that I am quitting Nova on Monday after the payment deadline (teachers who quit apparently get put in the bottom of the to-be-paid priority list and I NEED this paycheck to continue living here) and that I have been hired by Berlitz Japan. If you've never heard of Berlitz, it's an international company that teaches languages all around the world and publishes all those language books. It has an infinitely better reputation than Nova and treats its employees like a good company should. After I put in my resignation, I will continue working for about three more days and then I'm done. I start Berlitz training on Oct 22. It's all a little nerve racking but I guess that's how you feel when you start at any new job.
Obviously, if I no longer work for Nova, I can't stay in the apartment they rent to instructors. And so, I have signed and paid a deposit for another apartment I found through a Nova teacher who also works for a real estate agency. After I move at the end of the month, begin working for Berlitz, and after Nova deposits my final paycheck in mid-November (hopefully!), I will be cut off from that company forever and starting from scratch.
All this responsibility, especially in a foreign country, has forced me to grow up quite a bit. I didn't know I was ready to be fully independent like that but I guess I have to be when I'm forced. And to be honest, after all this instability is over, I think i will be feeling pretty good.
Since I am starting at a new company with a new contract, I will be staying in Japan longer than the initial year I told you all (contract will end next November). At the end of the contract, Berlitz and I can discuss whether I would like to renew and stay longer. I guess that's always a possibility and I could be considering it in the future. But that won't be for awhile.
Anyway, I have a story about what my friend, Rachel, and I did yesterday. First, one of my students told me that there was a free zoo just a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Clearly, we had to go check it out. Nogeyama Zoo is a very compact little zoo but with plenty of animal varieties. Since it's so small, the cages are literally about 3 feet from the path and visitors can get thisclose to the animals. I have to say, it was a little scary to think I could reach over and touch the lions nose, but really cool.
After the zoo, we went to get dinner and decided to just try walking into a local neighborhood, family-owned restaurant and try ordering random food to try. We decided on this tiny little place with only three tables and very sweet old lady named Sato ("What's your name?" = Onamae wa nan desu ka?) working behind the counter. Each table had a grill in the middle of it so it looked like fun. Of course, the whole menu was in Japanese and Sato only spoke it along with a limited English vocabulary of "pork," "cabbage," and "mayonnaise." We decided that ordering in a normal manner wasn't going to happen so we resorted to saying random words to establish some kind of boundary with what we'd eat (Rachel doesn't eat pork or beef and I eat everything). Then, after a little more confusion on both sides, a couple of men who were definitely regulars at the joint came in and knew a tiny bit more English and tried to help us. Finally, one of
them pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and I took them and drew a picture of a chicken for Rachel and a picture of a pig for myself. That got the message across better. Sato then tried to tell us some dishes and while we didn't really understand what she was saying, we caught little words in it like ebi (shrimp), tako (octopus), and of course, pork, cabbage, and mayonnaise and agreed to try it. We had no idea what we had just ordered but we knew we'd have to eat whatever she brought to be polite. It was essentially us being guests in Sato's home and her cooking dinner for us. We couldn't be rude by not eating.
Later, she brought over a bowl filled with a mix of cabbage, shrimp, squid, octopus in some kind of creamy marinade sauce and with a layer of sliced pork laid across the top. She told me in Japanese with many many hand gestures that when the grill was hot, to turn the bowl over upside down and let it crisp on both sides while keeping its round shape. She also told me that she would let me know when to flip it. The dish turned out to be delicious and also my first time eating octopus. Rachel, who normally doesn't eat shellfish, got something
with noodles, shrimp, squid, octopus, and chicken and ate it all. <
At one point during dinner, the men who helped us asked us if our food was good and we told them yes (tastes good = "oishii") and then I told them that their food looked good too just to be polite. They got really happy and told me I could eat some! We all ended up trading a little bit of our own dishes for each others.
Over the course of the evening, more locals stopped in and Sato bragged to them that she was serving these two gaijin (foreigner) teachers and pointed to us. She was so excited, it was adorable. Everyone was also SO friendly. Eating at this little restaurant was honestly one of the interesting and most fun things I have ever done and Rachel and I left smiling. We plan on trying other places like this one as well as coming back to visit Sato and her husband sometimes.
One more quick note, I ordered my first dish in Japanese at the bar last night! And they understood! It was a shining moment for me for
sure haha. :) In case you were wondering: Yakitore, negishio, o hitotsu to oolong hai o hitotsu. (grilled chicken and spring onions on a stick and an oolong tea)
So that's it for now, the internet that we've been piggybacking off of has been really bad lately so I can't upload my new pictures until that fixes itself or until I move to my new place on Nov 1.
