Empty Promises

Let it be know by ALL across the globe: Eikaiwa is a complete and utter JOKE, and it is not a funny one, either!

Among the many many many many many many things that I could say about this, if indeed I were so inclined, I will say this right here and now:
There is absolutely NO other way in this modern human world that a man could travel to a foreign country, live there for an entire YEAR, and get practically NO study or practice in the foreign language of the land, other than if he buried himself in a bunker for said year.

I am about to complete my contract with my much-hated Eikaiwa company, and I tell you, I honestly cannot get away from it fast enough!

The other day, something terrible struck me. In keeping with the pursuit of self-honesty, for sanity's sake, I was plunged into a death-spiral from which there seemed no escape at the time.
It was a Thursday, I believe, and there was absolutely NOTHING going on at that damn "school" (if you can call it a 'school'). The managerial/senior half of the staff were out in the lobby/computer area, babbling away in Jap jap jap about god-knows-what and Tom-don't-give-a-shit whilst myself and the two more bearable co-workers had segreagated ourselves periodically up in the back classrooms, sometimes trying to look busy.

I had no classes or students to face for a grand total of FIVE whole hours! On that day the debate was decided: in this job it is better to have a really busy day than to have a really empty day. Why is that? Well, when one is busy time does go faster, and when one is not, it drags into eternity. The biggest problem with busy days, of course, is the heightened possibility of facing a truly crazy, rightly fucked-up personality among the students, many of whom are lonely, sad cogs in the great big faceless machine that is "Japan".

This particular day, the one with the 5 hours of nothing, I was sitting there, caught in the void between pretending to do work (of which there was none, and I was certainly not going to go looking for it, and I'll explain why in a minute), and flat-out ignoring that fact that I had a "job" and just playing DS all day.

Why would I not go looking for work? The reason is the same reason I hated this job. This job is meaningless, and it is nothing.
When I leave this job, people will remember my name for about a week, and it will be completely forgotten even before my stupid little farewell poster is torn down, to make way for yet another fucking bloody "campaign" to gouge the lonely students.

One example, very quickly, of a money-gouging campaign: "Chat Club". This is a 'class' that involves a bunch of students showing up, with no textbook, and teacher (gaijin, of course) going in to talk to said students without any props at all. Let me cut right to it for this quick example: The Eikaiwa is charging people exorbitant amounts of money to come in and talk to a realistically underqualified foreigner for 50mins! It is brilliant for the company because there is no need to produce a textbook (the highest costing part of the whole operation, according to my recruiter back in Sydney in 2008), and also requires no expense to be lost for training - you cannot train a person how to simply talk. And the beauty of it all is that the students, as sad and lonely as they all are, are actually willing to go along with this!

But before I digress too much on that, let me get back to it. For 12 months, I have more or less merely "existed" in Room 5 of AEON Mito, on the 10th Floor of the Fuji building.

I have achieved NOTHING. I have learnt so little about anything at all that it is negligible, and what I may have learnt I cannot for the life of me figure out how it could be applied anywhere for anything useful at all.

I am 22 going on 23 years of age, and I can honestly say that I have just wasted yet another year of my life. High school was a waste of 6 years, and University was a waste of about 2 and a half (some of it was useful, actually - about 1 years' worth). My goal in life is to MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE, and I got nothing done to that end there in Room 5!

We go to work at Eikaiwa, and we collect paychecks, but nothing is actually accomplished!
There are "campaigns" but the true goal and end result is never anything more than PROFIT, and the method is always juicing our current students and whatever dumb dally may wander in, for all they are worth!
Our god and overlord, the company president (whose lair rests high above the Tokyo skyline, where the crows circle and kaw), has even attempted to rebrand the word "profit" as "spirits". Why did he do this? I don't know. Maybe it lets him sleep easier at night (and that is a BIG maybe, because no-one above the rank of toilet cleaner has a soul in this great cancerous mess of a corporation).
By the way, the term "spirits" is, believe it or not, misspelled on on the monthly profit reports a grand total of 6, yes SIX times! Not to worry though, it is only an English education institution.

That day last week, a week ago today, actually, it hit me very hard. Harder than it has before. I believe it is due to my having endured a full year of it by then, and my mind is indeed turning to mush now. I am losing my abilities with the English language, and I am bby absolutely NO means capable in the Japanese language, as the real result of my year at Eikaiwa is to squirm until I am neckdeep inside the quicksand nexus between both languages.

Eikaiwa is a stupid, useless, and pathetic job, which preys on the grossly overdone lack of confidence that the Japanese people have on the individual level.

This nervousness and unconfidence (my new word, copyright), is a direct result of the severly screwed-up and prolonged stagnancy of Japanese history, which has led to a deformed and disfigured mass of a culture that, were it an animal we would have shot it purely for mercy reasons!

Anyone who may ever contemplate joining Eikaiwa is hereby advised DO NOT DO IT!

Besides, the major players in the Eikaiwa indsutry are dropping like flies these days. Nova collapsed 2 years ago, GEOS collapsed last week in Australia, and the Japanese HQ is certain to follow. If there were a God, and he were truly a force for good, he would have smote AEON decades ago. Sadly, we have to do it ourselves, and the closest thing we have to a god these days is the economy. The economy will destroy Eikaiwa completely one day. And if it doesn't, one of two things will do the job instead: The death of the last Japanese person (after the birthrate drops into negative territory long enough), or the utter needlessness of it once Japan begins importing people in a future Immigration program. The former is far more likely, just so you know.

Fuck AEON, and Fuck eikaiwa. I'm about ready to say Fuck Japan, but I have my trip coming up soon, and I expect good things from that.

From The Tominator.

SNOW!!!!!

It was actually over a week ago, but it was on February 1st, 2010 that I witnessed only my second ever First-Snow.... I was walking with my friend in Katsuta, on our way to enjoy a meal at the only known Mexican restaurant in Ibaraki! The snow began to fall, and I do declare that when it is falling, the biting cold greatly its belligerence very quite noticeably. Of course, it stopped snowing later after dinner, and the biting was back - and it was nasty, too!
I returned to Mito, and it began to snow again- and again, I was able to wander in free abandon as the small, modest, yet wonderful flakes fell! Snow is not common in this part of Japan (a pity, because it seems to be the ONLY place it isn't common). That night and the next morning there was a fine layer of white ice all over everything, but sadly not enough light to take a picture at night, and not enough snow left in the morning to make it worthwhile then, either.
But it snowed here, nonetheless!
I will not be going back to Hokkaido this year, however I will be venturing to visit a friend in Nagano, the site of the 1998 Olympics. MORE SNOW THEN!!!!!!

If it must be Winter season, then there MUST be snow! Without snow, there is only nasty biting cold, and I still cannot fathom why people do not simply up and move to more temperate climes. I realise that this thinking is a product of my upbringing in rather temperate Sydney (where nary a snowflake will ever ever be seen). But come ON, people! Biting winters and sweltering, humid summers? I know where I want to be. Give me snow, or give me nothing!

From The Tominator.