Japan as a Professional II
It’s been a hot minute since my last blog, but I wanted to get this in before the end of the month. I got a lot of feedback from the previous entry asking me to really go more in depth on life in Japan, so I’ve decided to do two more parts to this. This one, focusing entirely on the positives. And the next one, that will focus completely on the negatives. Both of these were touched on a bit in the last piece, but I’ll try to do a deep dive into certain aspects of working (and marrying) into the culture.
Why marrying here as well? Well, I actually met my wife just a few months after moving to Toyama, so my work and my marriage really intertwined. And no, before you ask, my wife was not one of my students. I did teach at an adult school, and more than a few former coworkers of mine did end up dating (and in some cases marrying) their own students, but I really don’t suggest this unless you’re really good at keeping your mouth shut and your relationship under wraps. It’s a trap a lot of people fall into, which is a shame.
Anyway, that isn’t the purpose of this blog. We’re talking about the POSITIVES today baby. The land of milk and honey. The sleeper has awakened. Those perfect little things about working and living in Japan that just rub you the right way. Remember, my experience is with Eikaiwa. In compact, small team environments. This is based on my experience, and obviously everyone will have different experiences. Let’s do this.
People do their fucking jobs. I know this is a wild concept, but for the most part people really put a lot of effort into getting good at their jobs. When I joined the school I work for, I spent so much time in training. Even when they sent us home, they sent us home with homework and worksheets to complete for the next day. There is a level of expected professionalism in Japan, which I do miss. The amount of training and support you get in the U.S. can be pretty laughable. Not only that, but people here just don’t care. It’s their 9-5 and they want to do the least amount of work as possible so they can go back home and relax.
Now, this is a huge, huge, huge oversimplification. I’m obviously not bringing up overtime and the extreme negatives (we’re positive boys right now, remember?) but I gotta tell you. When you actually call someone and ask for work to get done—and then it actually gets done on time—it’s amazing. It feels GOOD to work around people who are giving 100%, and also to be a customer of people who are giving 100%.
Your commute. Now I’m going to sound like a complete hypocrite on this one after I spent an entire chapter describing how inconvenient Martin’s situation was in Toyama in Okey-Dokey Sensei, but that was Hokuriku. Most people don’t end up living and working in the sticks. They end up in Tokyo or Osaka or Nagoya. Places where you can hop on a train to anywhere and be within a fifteen minute walk to your destination. I worked in Toyama and Fukui, and in both situations I actually lived close enough to my office that I didn’t have to take the train into work. I walked in every day or rode my bike. It was great. In fact, riding my bike to work in Toyama was absolutely amazing in the Spring and Fall.
Your team. This is another one that obviously has some negative implications (NEXT BLOG BOYS CALM IT DOWN) but I’ll tell you. When the manager comes in and just yells out, “who’s drinking tonight?” and the entire office just piles in on a night out at a yakitori joint, it’s the best. Some of my best nights in Fukui started with me and my equally alcohol loving coworkers just throwing the idea out there, and then most (or all) of our coworkers coming along. I’m telling you, when you have a close, tight nit office like I did, it was absolutely amazing. Drunken Karaoke until 2am, then stumbling back home to shower and barf before passing out and waking up to do it all again? Sign me up.
There’s more. It’s not just the partying, but the when you and your team sink or swim together, you try hard to support each other. You have to. If you don’t, then things get really really bad. But when everyone props each other up and really gels together, it feels wonderful.
The social aspect. Even though we started out as coworkers, most of my team became my actual friends in Japan. People I’d go out with on the weekends. See movies with. Go to the malls with. Go clubbing with. When you move to a new country, especially for the first time, the biggest danger to your mental integrity is the feeling of isolation. The first few months in Japan will separate the wheat from the chaff really quick. And that’s a good thing. Flaky people will not last. Japan doesn’t have a high tolerance for them, and you’ll be left with the smart reliable ones that are easy to get along with.
The second part of this I think has to do more with my personality, but going out and meeting new people in Japan was an absolute breeze. As soon as people realized I spoke Japanese, the ice was completely shattered. Were there rando’s who just tried to speak English with me no matter what even though they were awful and I had no idea what they were saying? OF COURSE. THERE WAS ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE! But fuck ‘em. I was introduced to my wife by a guy who owned a bar I frequented, and I hit it off with her immediately. Again, I lived in the sticks and I was probably the biggest gaijin in a 50km radius, so I had novelty going for me, but if you’re willing to get out there and have a good time, you’ll have a good time.
Dating in Japan is easy. I mean, really. Maybe you’re one of those brooding “introverts” who wants to stay in all day. I met those. You know what happened to them? They quit or got fired. If that’s you, why are you even reading this? Why are you even considering going to another country and accepting a job where you literally spend 8 hours a day in front of a large group speaking? I swear to Christ every time the company hired one of these guys it was like pulling teeth and they just ended up leaving anyway, but I digress yet again. This has nothing to do with dating, LOL.
So what I’m talking about is this. Japan is very structured, even in romance. There isn’t much ambiguity. You go on date one. You go on date two. If you like her, you go on date three, and then you give her the old 好きです。付き合ってください and BAM. You’ve got yourself a freshly minted girlfriend. Maybe I got lucky, I don’t know. My wife is very plan-oriented and we would always schedule our dates and outings well in advance, so there was always somewhere to go or something to do. She actually put in a lot of work while we were dating coming up with stuff, and I love her for it.
Benefits and Cost of Living. I mean, minus the vacation schedule which is pretty rough. You’re enrolled in healthcare and doctors visits/medicine are cheap and easy. I’ll pause to say that not once in for years did I ever visit a doctor in Japan. Like even when I was sick as a dog I just popped a ton of medicine and wore a mask. But I think I only got super sick in Japan like one time, and of course, it was during a vacation. I never missed a day of work in Japan in 3 years.
Second to this is your cost of living. In Fukui especially this was amazing. I lived 50 feet from Fukui station in a third floor apartment that I paid like $400-450 a month for (I forgot what the exchange rate was at the time). While I was single, it was more than spacious enough for me to fit all of my things. I actually miss that apartment a lot. Aside from this, bills are easy to pay and inexpensive. I know certain things in Japan are super expensive (like $30 for a pizza, what the hell) but by and large I was able to get all the food I needed for cooking without ever feeling like I was breaking the bank. Some people have told me they’ve had the opposite experience, but for what it’s worth I went to school in Hawaii which has the most ridiculous prices at the supermarket so comparatively a lot of places feel cheap for me.
The Community. I’m gonna make this my last point because this blog is really long and I’ve already spent more time on this tonight than I have actually writing my next book. But the community around me was really irreplaceable. I’m not just talking about the other foreigners you meet and befriend there, but the native Japanese or other ethnic minorities. In Fukui, I lived a block away from a tiny Indian-run Izakaya. This Indian dude married a Japanese lady and they taught scuba diving by day and ran this wonderful little Izakaya at night. My wife and I went their so much we became really close with both of them. And even now, people would laugh hearing a 6’4 pale white American dude and the darkest skinned southern Indian guy speaking fluent Japanese to each other at a Bar in the middle of Fukui. But those moments really did help break down barriers. The other guests there were always welcoming.
My best friend who also worked in Fukui but lived in Daishoji, (about 7 stops away by the local) had this as well. A mom and pop (I guess only pop) curry shop that a man named Numata ran by himself. We would go there all the time, listen to jazz music and eat Numata’s curry. Also near that was a very popular yakitori chain called Akiyoshi. It was the smallest restaurant in the world. No tables, just a U shaped bar with seats ringing it. Two chef’s, a husband and wife pair, standing in the middle of the U covered in sweat cooking up the best meat you’ve ever eaten. We’d eat and eat and eat until we could barely walk back to his apartment then turn on his X-Box and play Dark Souls for the rest of the day.
There are more examples of this. I could go on and on. But this was really important to me. In California I feel like it’s so much harder to develop these connections with people. I don’t know my neighbors (and kinda don’t want to know them, they’re loud). The only hole in the wall place I frequent is large and always busy, so you don’t get the same personal touch. I miss that a lot.
That’s going to wrap it up for now. I know I missed a lot. I’m kind of writing this on the seat of my pants, memories just whizzing past me 10 at a time. It’s hard to get everything out I want to say, but that’s really all I could think of right now. Next time will be THE NEGATIVES. A deep dive into those things in Japan that made me so mad I wanted to leave and never come back.
And yes, Manager was one of them.
-CA
