It's been a while

I was just checking out my Fb profile and read a note that I wrote right before I graduated from college. I always say I need to keep a journal but never do. I need to keep a blog of everything but never do. I think I used to care too much whether or not anyone read my blog posts. After reading that note today I kind of realized that I don't care if anyone reads my post. I think it's just cool to keep a record of what I was thinking at certain points in my life.

It's been ages since I wrote in this... I was actually just now checking to see what was the last thing I wrote in this blog.

What have I done since then??? A lot actually...
For starters there was an Earthquake here in Miyagi, the prefecture I live in. It was massive and I remember it shaking the earth for over 5 minutes. Despite the scale of the thing, I don't remember being scared or thinking it was a big deal. At that time I didn't know a huge tsunami would be hitting the northeast coast of Japan. To be honest I was just taking a quick bathroom break when everything happened. I remember some the teachers were in a panic and one of them was screaming at me, "Where were you?" At that time I had just moved into Sendai from my Rifu apt. To save money I was cycling an hour each day to work. It was more exciting than you think, but I was quite the sweaty mess when I arrived at my school. Anyways I'm losing focus. This hour bike ride turned into an hour and a half ride back home. It still didn't dawn on me what was going on the coast side. I remember getting home and the advice one of the teachers gave me which was to go to the supermarket and buy what food I could. I honestly thought it was a silly idea and that power and whatever else I needed would be back later the next day. I was wrong. Sarah came over in the middle of the night and because she worked at Tohoku University, she heard everything that had happen that day.

The next day we went out to look for our friends and made sure they were ok. Pretty soon we were a bicycle gang of foreigners riding through Sendai. At the Prefecture Office the Self-Defense force was giving out bread to everyone. After that we all went to each other's house and got whatever frozen food we had and cooked it all that night. We didn't want to waste what little good food we had. We were able to cook all of it at the University thanks to Sarah.

Greg's place was the first place to get power back so we all stayed at his apartment. Some of us went to search for more friends while the others waited in line at grocery stores and convenience stores for food. We never starved or had to worry about food.

A few days later, Sarah told me about a interpreting job for Sky News. I thought it was a great chance for me to gain some experience and possibly help tell a story. Little did I know that these guys were a bunch of selfish assholes. We drove to Yamagata to get outside of the radiation zone as requested. Than they wanted me to find a hotel with six rooms. Not one or two but six. In my head all I could think was, "Why do we need six fucking rooms?" They had me on my phone all night looking for a place to stay. (They never paid me back for the cost of using my phone. Dicks!) After we found a hotel out in the middle of no where they were yelling at me to find them a place with internet. Found some places but they wanted a direct line and they were impatient and just a bunch of assholes. I don't even know if they were telling an honest story. To add salt to injury the driver who was Japanese and couldn't speak English got a call from his boss. He was ordered to take the van back to Tokyo. They had me up all night looking for a driver and a rental van. Which was near impossible, because A) all rental vehicles were being used for something much more important and B) it was midnight and car rental places close at like 8:00. Seriously, fuck those guys.

Next day, I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go back to Sendai with driver. Really awesome guy by the way. Dropped me off and even bought me apples and bread for my friends and I.

When I got back to my place I finally had power and water. School wasn't going to start for a while so a bunch of us decided to volunteer and try to get the coastal area into better conditions. It was a shitty situation but it was actually a lot of fun. I built closer bonds with my friends. Good times!

Let's Help Japan!

This is Wade. Yeah I know it feels like I'm spamming you, but I think it's neccessary.

Alright. I needed to do what I can.... I'm going to start bothering you all to donate whatever amount of money you can to the people who lost their homes in Japan. 

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d8aaecf214c576bf971e4cfe43181aa0/?vgnextoid=46f51a53f1c37110VgnVCM1000003481a10aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

http://www1.networkforgood.org/help-survivors-pacific-quake-tsunami

For those of you who like cool stuff. My favorite band Blink 182 is also doing a charity where you can buy a T-shirt and 100% of the profits go to Japan. Here's a link:

http://www.bompa.com/bands/blink182/shop

If you're in Japan copy and paste this link on your wall, too. Let's get the word out to help Japan.

Wade vs. 80 High School Students

At my school we have two types of classes. Sports science and normal classes. Sports science is kind of a lower level class and most students don't have an interest in English. Today I had to combine both of my classes because next week I'l...l be visiting America. Normally we split the two classes into three smaller groups so we can control the behavior in the class easily. If you aren't familiar with the Japanese word genki, it means energy and used as an adjective mean energetic. 80 kids were over energetic.

In the class I did a Christmas lesson. With in the lesson we sang, "12 Days of Christmas." Beyond my expectations a majority of the students were singing the song and top of all of that they were doing it with a smile. As an example, I played Relient K's cover of the song.

Next, I did the whole "What do you want for Christmas?" activity. My favorite answer was six girlfriends. I told the student he better be careful for what he wishes for. It was good laugh, but I had to do a lot of screaming. Now I'm tired and I still have two more classes to go.

I look like who????

The other day I was heading home on my bicycle. While passing an elementary school a little kid yelled, "Hey, it's Michael Jackson!" I honestly couldn't believe my ears. I felt like I was being called a pedophile and ugly at the same time. LOL! Japanese people are so backwards sometimes. Anybody that is white with brown hair looks like Tom Cruise. I've been told that I look like Tom Cruise many times. Anyone who is black is called Obama. While I admit that if a student of mine isn't wearing their uniform in public then I can't recognize them. However, I don't go around calling every Japanese girl I see Lucy Lu. Lucy Lu isn't even Chinese just imagine how insulting that could be. My beef isn't with the kid because let's face it kids can't comprehend stereotypes. It's the adults that get me all the time. For a first world country I really feel like Japan is behind in acceptance of other races and cultures. 

Brain Storming

I need to stop sitting on my hands and wait for an opportunity for a translation job to come. I've been brain storming and I decided to try and contact some companies directly through e-mail. Hopefully, I can attract their attention with my desire for such a job. If not I really hope they take the time and try to answer my questions seriously.

Does anyone else have any other ideas? Hopefully, we can get this brain storm going.

Job Hunting in Japan

I had my first interviews in Japan last week. Unfortunately, they were in English with a couple of white guys. LOL. Not really a curse but not a blessing. I wanted to experience a Japanese interview. Oh well, I guess it couldn't be helped. The interviews went rather well I think. Both companies wanted to hire me. They were really impressed that I passed the Japanese Level 2 Language Test within two years. I guess it's rather rare for someone to do that. However, being an executive recruiter just didn't appeal to me. One of the major flaws of the job is I don't really get to use Japanese in the job. Defeats the purpose of me looking for a new job. Second, I'm not good at coercing people into doing something they don't want to do. Japanese executives just do not want to change jobs. In Japan people especially executives are die hard loyal to their company. It takes more than money to get these guys to switch jobs.

The pay sounds good if I'm willing to kill myself to make a sell. If I was in Japan for the money I would take this job, but I'm looking for the job that pays well but at the end of the day I'm happy. I know it's like hunting for a unicorn, but my dream seems very possible. I have to be a little more patient.

(For those wondering, I want to be a translator for a video game company.)

Japanese Driver's License

Last week I had the pleasure of getting a Japanese driver's license. It was actually the opposite of pleasure. I'm so glad we don't have to go through this torture to get a license in Japan.

Step 1: Go to the DMV and wait two hours just so you can make an appointment to take the driving test.

Step 2: Arrive on appointed date and spend $21 to take paper test.

Step 3: Pay another $16 to take driving test which less than 1/3 of people pass on their first try.

Step 4: Fail said test for tiny and stupid reasons, such as not pulling in close enough to the curb before turning on to a street to prevent bicyclist from passing you.

Step 5: Reschedule to take driving test.

Step 6: Arrive on time to second appointed day.

Step 7: Wait a long, long, long, long time to take test.

Step 8: Pay $21 + $16 to take test again.

Step 9: Drive the course exactly how they like, but in the end not complain but tell you, "You barely passed and I think you need more practice driving. Go tell them inside you passed."

Step 10: Refrain from talking back to the tester.

Step 11: Tell the office you pass and pay another $15 to get actual license.


Step 12: Wait in lobby to take license's picture.

Step 13: Get license and away on your bicycle.

Even though, I have a license. I don't plan on buying a car anytime soon. I really wanted it in case I feel like running away for the weekend and renting a car. Or if family or friends come to Japan we don't have to waste energy on public transportation and what not.

Unfortunately, if I want to drive Manual in Japan I have to get a MT license. I haven't driven in over six months and I've never driven a MT car from the right side. I thought my chances of success would be higher if I just stuck with AT.