Archive for 2014
August 4, 2004 – An unpleasant conversation with my boss
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on August 17, 2014
In case you haven’t been reading regularly, I had way too much fun on my birthday with coworkers, and had to call in sick the next day. I was expecting to hear about it from someone, and finally did today.
At the end of my shift at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA, one of the Japanese sales staff told me that I had a phone call from the area manager. I picked up the phone and he proceeded to express how unhappy he was with me about missing work due to drinking too much at my birthday party. He told me that it was unprofessional and immature, and said that it was worse because most of my coworkers were there and knew why I missed work the next day.
He reminded me that he was very flexible at approving shift swaps, and that the next time I wanted to celebrate something, I should make sure I have the next day off. He then went on to say that he usually doesn’t approve the number of shift swaps that I was allowed to have, but did so because he thought of me as a responsible, reliable employee. I also learned that I would have been considered for a promotion if I didn’t request a transfer, but he had lost some trust in me over the incident. He seemed legitimately disappointed in me.
The area manager continued for about ten minutes, and I listened quietly. At the end, I apologized and told him that I had no excuse for my behaviour and was embarrassed about the whole situation. I didn’t really have much more to say because I really was embarrassed about it. I thanked him for talking to me and promised that it would never happen again.
I took the call in the tiny teacher’s room, so Anzac and the other teacher caught the gist of the conversation. They asked me about it, and thought I handled it well. I have never been chewed out by a manager like that before. The worst part was that I knew it was my fault, and was avoidable. The only good thing to come out of the phone call was knowing that the area manager (previously) thought of me as a responsible employee who was worthy to be considered for promotion. I will try harder in the future.
(2014 Update) In my original blog entries, I didn’t mention anything about missing work after my birthday or getting chewed out by the area manager. This is all new material, but I remember the details clearly. I am happy to say that nothing like this has ever happened again.
August 1, 2004 – Yet more work
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on August 17, 2014
If you are noticing that all I am writing about lately is work, it is because all I have been doing lately is working. I am paying off approximately 6 million shift swaps that I needed for my family’s visit. The first time I will get two days off in a row will be August 23 and 24. Everything else is 6 and 7 day work weeks.
I didn’t realize how valuable days off were until I started my work marathon.
July 31, 2004 – Rugby
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English, Uncategorized on August 16, 2014
More NOVA kids! Today I had a group of four x 4 year old boys. It was rough. I am not sure what educational value parents expect their 4 year olds to get out of NOVA kids classes.
After work I watched rugby on TV. Like most sports, it’s a lot more enjoyable when someone takes the time to explain what you are watching. For some reason, the rugby match reminded me of my NOVA kids class.
July 30, 2004 – Birthday aftermath
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Uncategorized on August 16, 2014
Yesterday I thought I had a bit too much fun at karaoke. This morning I realized how badly I had overdone it. I was sick in the morning in between birthday phone calls from home. I ended up having to call in sick to work, which is terrible considering that I was out for beer with many of my coworkers the night before. I expect to hear about this later.
(2014 Update) Don’t miss work because of drinking. Also, never miss work because of drinking with your coworkers. That’s just irresponsible.
July 29, 2004 – Happy birthday to me!
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Karaoke, Keikyu-Kawasaki NOVA, Lux on August 15, 2014
Happy birthday to me! I turned 26 today!
I got woken up in the morning with a birthday call from my parents. Lux gave me some presents including a six pack of Labatt Blue. I love Japanese beer, but it’s always good to drink something Canadian when I get a chance. Canadian beer brings back a lot of good memories.
Work was a very relaxing day at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA. After work, the usual Thursday night karaoke became birthday karaoke. The regular Thursday karaoke group is usually about 6-8 people. Tonight we had about double that. I had the best of intentions to be sensible with nomi-hodai, but ended up having a little too much fun.
July 28, 2004 – Schedule changes
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on August 15, 2014
A regular shift at NOVA is eight lessons and a lunch or dinner break. Today I got to observe two training lessons, and got an empty slot to work on my Voice coordinator duties, so I only had to teach five lessons.
One of the lessons was my good Wednesday group kids class. I haven’t taught them in a while, and they were happy to see me. Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues next month, I will be working at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA on Wednesdays and someone else will get my good kids group. It really sucks because they are the one group of kids I actually enjoy teaching, and they like me too! Hopefully I will get them back in September.
July 26, 2004 – Early shift
Posted by Barniferous in Hello House, Movies, Teaching English on August 14, 2014
I am still paying back shift swaps, but today’s was an early shift for Mohammad. Early shifts rule! You can actually do things with your evenings. I am not a morning person, so I typically sleep too late on my days with late shifts.
I used my evening to finally watch Schindler’s List because I had just finished reading the book. The movie was very powerful, but I still think the book affected me more. Regardless of the format, it’s an important story for everyone about an extraordinary act of mercy in a world of cruelty.
I have been reading a lot lately. I can usually read about 62 pages a day on the train – 31 on the way to work and 31 on the way home. Hello House has a big bookshelf in the common room full of books for the use of the residents. I am sure that when I leave Hello House someday, I will be adding some books to the collection as well.
July 25, 2004 – Tokyo with the Penpal
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Tokyo on August 14, 2014
Rental boats at the Ueno park duck pond
I managed to wrangle a day off, and met The Penpal at Tokyo station. Recently we have always been meeting in either Numazu or Kawasaki, so this was a nice change.
Our first stop of the day was Ueno Park. We walked around the park and rented a swan shaped paddle boat in the duck pond. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it was still fun. After Ueno, we moved on to Shibuya to explore the area.In the evening, we went to the Shiodome building in Shimbashi to look for restaurants. We ate dinner in a sensibly priced restaurant, and then decided to check out how expensive the restaurants on the 46th floor are.
In big buildings in Tokyo, you can usually find restaurants in both the basement and the upper floors. The restaurants in the lower levels are more likely to be moderately priced. The restaurants on the upper levels are likely to be expensive, especially in skyscrapers. Shiodome was no exception – one of the restaurants near the top offered a multi-course meal for a fixed price of 10,500 yen (not including drinks).
The best part of the evening was the glass elevator from the basement to the 46th floor. We got an amazing view of nighttime Tokyo as it fell away from us. Highly recommended.
July 21-23, 2004 – The saga of the new computer
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Lux, Tokyo on August 13, 2014
July 21, 2004 (day 1) – I used a shift swap with Jem today in order to get a break from my 20 days of work in a row. I ate breakfast outside of Hello House, and had a pretty relaxing day. In the evening, I went to pick up a used computer in central Tokyo. My sister’s ancient laptop is just not enough for me anymore. I searched English language ads online, and found someone selling a used desktop tower for 15,000 yen (about $150). It isn’t the world’s greatest computer, but it is a huge step up from the laptop.
Zoe and Lux came with me to pick up the computer. The seller was a Malaysian man with a fantastic apartment. He seemed nice, but Zoe and Lux were getting a creepy vibe from him. We tested out the computer and it seemed to work well, so I handed over the cash and we were on our way. I didn’t realize how big and heavy the computer was until about 5 minutes into our walk back to the subway station. The tower was huge, so it was awkward to get a grip on. I am very happy that I brought friends with me to help with the keyboard and doors. Carrying a desktop computer through busy, massive Shinjuku station is NOT fun.
On the way home, Zoe almost got into a fight with a salaryman on the train. He was sleeping while standing and kept inadvertently hitting Zoe with his umbrella. She responded by kicking him every time the umbrella hit her. Good times!
When I got the computer home, I formatted the hard drive so I could install a fresh copy of Windows. I rebooted after formatting and I couldn’t get the computer to work! F**K!! The rest of my evening was very frustrating.
July 22, 2004 (day 2) – I bailed on Thursday night karaoke to spend time working on the computer. It still isn’t working correctly. I ended up watching The Shield in the Hello House common room while grumbling about wasting 15,000 yen.
July 23, 2004 (day 3) – I got some ideas on the computer from my more tech savvy coworkers. The main problem is that the CD-Rom is on a SCSI interface, which won’t work without drivers. Windows has appropriate drivers, but my Windows 98 install disk is on CD-Rom. I ended up making a simple boot disk on floppy so I could get the new computer running. I then used my box of floppy disks to slowly copy the Windows install files from the CD-Rom on the laptop to the hard drive on the new desktop.
Once all the install files were finally copied, I was able to run Windows installation from the hard drive on the desktop. When Windows finally installed, it recognized the CD-Rom and everything started working! It took forever, but the new computer is finally running! Victory!
July 20, 2004 – Seventh consecutive workday
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on August 13, 2014
Today was an exhausting day. I had some emotionally draining phone calls in the morning and a busy day at work (my seventh in a row). I didn’t get out of the office until late, but still found some time to hit the internet cafe before going home.
(2014 Update) 1o years later I can’t remember what the draining phone calls were, or who they were from. If I had to guess, it was either a conversation with the ex or a call about sick relatives. Maybe both? Who knows. If I can’t remember, it probably only seemed bad at the time.
Drinking in Japan 
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