Gaijin Spotted
Heading to my first day of official paperwork, being an hour early I headed into a previously scouted convenience store that was only five minutes away. Buying a quick snack and a drink, I headed towards the dining area to relax before officially signing anything. While eating I contemplated the entirety of my whole existence, but I something caught my attention as I absentmindedly stared out the window. As a foreigner I knew I stood out in japan, but when I saw a blonde white guy I immediately knew he was a foreigner. Taking his seat, he pulled out some papers, and began shuffling through them.
Not wanting to make it look completely obvious I collected my things and headed for the door. Pretending like I was leaving was the only way I could look over the strangers shoulder to see what his papers were for. As I suspected the papers he held in his hands were from the same company that I had been hired by. Being a socially inept introvert, the fears I dealt with everyday had to do with talking and interacting with other people. Freezing for a small moment in time, I decided it was better to get over the fear and introduce myself.
International Friends?
Tom is one of those fun loving people that doesn’t take himself too seriously, in fact he doesn’t really take anything too seriously. It was that part of him that made us click instantly, we both share that perspective on the world. Although he is the brighter, more optimistic, social version of not caring. Me on the other hand, I was far too cynical, pessimistic, and self hating to take myself or anything else to seriously. I found it interesting how we could reach the same spot taking vastly different pathways. Being a cheeky Australian he was very open and honest about a lot of his thoughts, which was refreshing coming from the overly censored and PC world of the pacific northwest. He had the same sense of humor as me, saying the most depressing and cynical things with a straight face, only to smile and laugh about it two seconds later.
After signing away at some papers that no one really understood the fine print of, we were informed that we would be living at a sports center for a week of training with my fellow ALTs. Settling into our rooms, I was happy to see that the cheeky Australian lad would be in the same room as me. Sitting in the room after the long training session, I had realized there was a feeling that closely mirrored this one in the recesses of my soul. Having a bunch of young adults having to compulsory, follow a schedule and live together like this reminded me of nothing else but sixth grade camp.
No Different Than Kids
To be honest I barely remember what was talked about at the training, but I do remember the people there especially the people that roomed with me. There was Joe, Jess, Tom, Tony, and finally in a traditional japanese style room. Social situations are always a struggle for me, because they are when my negative thoughts are the loudest. It’s hard juggling remembering things about other people, and the voice telling you you’re disgusting and repulsive. Not to mention sometimes you zone out trailing on a long thought train that makes other people feel like you’ve forgotten about reality for that second. Taking the same spot I do in most conversations, I mostly listen saying little, and when I open my mouth it is something I really thought about before speaking.
In my room I was definitely the most green when it came to most things, being the youngest I had lacked any real life experience. Joe, who came from the U.K., had studied abroad in japan before, Jess from the Philippines had taught in thailand, Tom had taught in both thailand and China, and finally Anthony who also had taught in korea before making his way to Japan. As boys are half the things we talked about were jokes and utter nonsense, but making that nonsense made the boring training sessions bearable.
Gaijin Soup
Some of the interesting things that happened during training, the gaijin fukboi soup, the fabricated backstory that one of our cabin mates was a serial killer and plotting our murder as we slept, convenience store/ mcdonalds runs, and interacting with the college ping pong training camp kids. The last noteworthy thing was the last dinner we ate together which consisted of going to a ramen place, it also was the first time in my life that I had experienced any form of racism or discrimination of any form. There was a restaurant that didn’t want foreigners entering, but I had to realize that was just the way some people were and move on with my life.
The final significant thing that happened in our training was we found out where we were going to be. Because I had said I didn’t care where I was going, and I had gotten a license I was expecting to be placed out in the country somewhere. I was placed in Matsumoto Nagano, which wasn’t even in the Kanto region like everyone else. I wasn’t too upset about it, the fact is I didn’t really care where I was placed as long as it wasn’t back at home with my mom. There was also a day we went into the city to sign and pay for our apartment, something I wish my company would pay for or subsidize, but I guess I’m not really worth that 🙁
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