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.

What is a consulting job?

I posted my my resume on some Japanese job search sites. A company called East West Consulting e-mailed and asked me if I was interested in becoming a consultant. I did some research and found out that basically I would help other big or small companies make business decision. But that seems like the small piece to the large puzzle. Would I have to go search for said clients or would the company just hand me a folder one day and say, "Hey Ramsey! See if you can help this company out." Anyways, I sent them an e-mail back and hopefully I'll hear something but I'm not ready to jump on board until I know what ship they're sailing.

Anybody have a friend in consulting?

Passing the Japanese Language Proficency Test Level 2!!!!

Yesterday when I got home from work I had a little surprise waiting for me in the mail. They said it would be the middle of February but it came at the very beginning of the month. I was a little nervous at first because the thought of me wasting another year to pass a test I barely failed again did not sound like a lot of fun. I've been telling people since I finished the test that I felt really confident that I passed the test. I didn't want to be that jerk that talked big but ended up falling on his face. Last time I was 18 points away from failing but this time I was 51 points over the passing score. I passed it. The test that has haunted several of my friends for years. For many of us English speakers jumping this hurdle just feels great. This was step 3 in my plan to get my dream job. Now I need to get off my break and move on to step 4 which is find a job that let's me use the skills I have developed. Job searching here I come.

Damn you Steam!!!!

Recently I bought a new computer and it's been a while since I have had a computer that can handle playing high end games. (I'll give it until next year to see if this statement holds true.) Since, I have this said computer all these wonderful computer games that I missed playing in the past couple of years are coming to haunt me. Right now Steam is having a sale where you get 10% off Bioshock 2 and a free copy of part one. My spider-sense tingles with the thought that I can get such a good deal. Here's the main problem, I'm so swamped with games that I still haven't beaten this past holiday. This deal will probably only last until the release of Bioshock 2 so I feel like I should jump on board before it gets away. On the other hand, I still need to beat one of gaming's masterpieces Half-life2. Let's not forget about the little Japanese gem called Final Fantasy XIII. Kind of want to beat it before it gets released in America. I better get cracking.

What games are you guys playing?

Which do you prefer....?

A few minutes ago I was helping my students clean. During that time they like to joke around with me. Today they felt like they had the courage to ask a big question. "Which do you prefer breast or butt?" As a teacher I had to tell my students that I can't talk about those things. I guess when we are young we like to really push the line of what's appropriate and inappropriate. When I was a high school student I never really had a young teacher at my current age who I tried to bond with. This type of student teacher relationship is still foreign to me. The students seem to really appreciate this type of relationship with me. It's fun but sometimes I really have to paint a really big line for them to see. LOL

Final Fantasy XIII Impressions part II

I really want to review this game, but I feel that before I can review it, I have to play it until the end. On top of that I really haven't decided on a way to review games. I guess that can be on my next topic.

In my last impressions I think I was only a few hours into the game. I can talk about leveling up and the battle system in a little more depth now.

Optima System: After you become a 「ルシ」, Lushi, which are people that are order with a task from 「ファルシ」, Falushi. (Side note: Names will likely change in the US version so I really don't know what to label them then to just write the Japanese characters into Roman Alphabet.) So once you bear this mark you and your party members can use magic. Not only that they start off with their three main job classes. Forexample, Lighting can either be a fighter, blaster, or a healer. Fighter does just normal physical damage and has a semi magic attack called 「ルイン」, ruin. Blaster has your elemental magics such fire, water, wind, and lighting. Blaster also has a physical attack but it's not as strong as a fighters physical attack. Healer as you can guess is where all the healing spells are located but a healer cannot attack the enemy, (at least not where I am in the game. You know in some FF games there are special white spells that are all powerful, so you never know.) Then there's Snow, he starts with Attacker, Blaster, and Defender. Defender is the tank of the group but he only has one attack called "Revenge." The way it works is the defender first  draws the enemies attention towards him. He then chooses a target with revenge. After acculmating damage he returns it to the targeted enemy. ( I don't think it's really all that great.) But having a tank is awesome when taking on large amounts of enemies. I've actually survived some boss battles because of my tank. Other job classes are Jamar and Enhancer. Jamar puts spells on the enemy that weakens it and Enhancer puts spells on teammates to enhance them.
          You can have your party switch between each of the jobs on the fly in battle. You can setup about six different combinations per your three man team. Forexample, I have my battles preset to start with Lighting as a fighter, Snow as a blaster, and Vanilla as a blaster. If a party members health start to fall I'll quicly switch where Lighting and Snow stay the same but Vanilla becomes a healer. You can even switch jobs in the middle of Lighting doing an action which makes it nice when your characters are near death.
           One thing I don't like about the battle system is that once you're leader in your party falls it's game over. This is really annoying when you know your other teammates have the ability to perform raise. One good thing is when you die you don't start from the most recent save but from before the battle you fell in. Good and bad. More friendly for non-hardcore gamers but probably drops the difficulty which will probably make hardcore gamers whine a little. As soon one who is between the two I can kind of welcome this because I don't really want to repeat all the battles all the way up to that point in the game.

Summons: Summons are interesting. Before gaining the ability to use summons you have first defeat your summon in battle. The battle starts with the summon casting death on the lead character. You have to fill up your summons vehicle mode gauge by either attacking it or fulfilling special battle needs. One example, is with Shiva, I just had to be a Defender and just use guard until the gauge was full. Fighting a summon can be difficult sometimes.
              After gaining a summon as an ally you can summon them in battle with 3 TP. (You usually gain TP depending on your ranking battles.) In attack mode your summon fights along side of you and heals your leader if you near death. If you fall your summon will heal you and then disappear. As you fight along side your summon you build up it's vehicle mode gauge. During any part of the battle you can turn your summon into a vehicle, but you it can't return to attack mode after becoming a vehicle. You get a cool transformer cut scene when it becomes a vehicle. You can skip this scene anytime you call fourth your summon. Depending how high your vehicle gauge before switching to attack mode your summon has limited amount of attack points. Each button combination takes certain attack points. I.e. Up and circle takes 2 attack points. When you use all of your attack you press triangle and it ends the summon with a limit break type move. Actually your summon in vehicle mode is basically like FFXIII version of a limit break.. Kind of fun to summon in FFXIII.

Final Thought: Until I beat the game I really don't have an opinion on the story. Most Japanese stories have a hard time concluding we'll see if FFXIII follows this trend or not. So far playing through the game hasn't been a chore, yet. It's been rather fun thinking of ways to win in battle. I recommend picking this game up when it comes out to the US. It's definitely a fun game.

I'm with CoCo

I can't believe that they are trying to push Conan out of the Tonight Show. I like Jay Leno and all but I'm a much bigger fan of Conan O'Brien. His style of comedy is quirky but at the same time intelligent I think. it's too bad that NBC won't support the contract that they made with Conan O'Brien. I hope Jay Leno won't turn Conan into another David Lettermen. I'll support Conan whatever network he happens to be on. If NBC is smart they'll keep him on their network. Too bad the guy has to give up his dream of hosting the Tonight Show. I'm with CoCo.