2 for 2 on Interviews

Today was my best yet. Although in Tokyo for just shy of a week, I am making serious employment progress. I met with an agency that places teachers in public schools. I probably will accept this year-long position because:
(1) visa sponsorship – legalizes income for any job
(2) daytime hours 8am-3:30pm enable moonlighting
(3) frequent public school holidays enhance schedule freedom
(4) location just 40-50 minutes north of my apt.
(5) opportunity to expose rambunctious middle schoolers to their first English
(6) wear jeans to work
(7) free Japanese lessons
(8) transportation cost reimbursed

The negative is that the pay is mediocre (~$2,155/mo.), and I don’t get dough for days the tikes aren’t in English class. That creates Yenless months. The opportunity to experience authentic Japanese public school life should prove interesting yet boring. These kids don’t know any English, but it will be amusing to be the center of attention while they try to learn…New York slang.

My role is assistant teacher. Remember the young teacher lady who sat in on your elementary school class? I’m going to be her. Teaching just 3 or 4 50-minute classes/day will leave me ample room to hone my newly acquired cigarette skills in the teacher’s lounge. Pufffff. Mr. Oura, my interviewer, actually advised “bringing a book.” Maybe I’ll lug my laptop and catch up on travel writing and journaling in between teaching ABCs.

The second interview with a foreign staffing company was an ego boost. I hit it off with the expat company president, Jesse, and Abby, his cheerful 25-year old assistant from Pennsylvania. While Abby is fluent, I can piece together better Japanese than Jesse, despite his having a J-wife.

I felt like a celebrity during the interview because when Jesse wasn’t complimenting my resume, he was emphasizing the potential I had to be a model in Japan. (Truth be told: tall, white & American does the trick over here). At first he wanted to staff me in Dean & Deluca’s first overseas and upscale restaurant, but then admitted that would be wasting my talents. In between sincere advice and humorous anecdotes about Japan, we discussed a game plan for me to test the market where apparently I’ll be seen as “fresh meat.” Lovely. Once I get a valid visa and a “book” of glamour poses, I can solicit print gigs that could pay $200-$400 a pop. Billboards go for 10 times that. Well, first things first. But it was easy to dream with the way we were talking; the chemistry bubbled and my ego soared.

The most exciting part came when Jesse, a former Disney honcho of 15 years, offered to put me in touch with his good friend who runs the foreign staffing position at Tokyo Disneyland. Jesse pegged me as a “substitute” character for none other than…well, I don’t want to jinx myself, but I left the meeting grinning ear to ear.

As if this weren’t enough excitement for one day, my “Lost in Translation” dinner will be the subject of the next post and a short story submission somewhere.