Dapper.

August 21, 2007


Day two of training.

I woke up early, well before I had to go to work, so that I could go to downtown Tokyo and do paperwork for my Alien Registration Card. Of course this is an errand I've been having to accomplish since the first day I arrived, but it requires 2 passport style photos. It turns out that the Tokyo "City Hall" has a photo-booth right inside it. I'm not sure why Nova doesn't just note this and tell it to teachers who are coming in from foreign countries, it would be a major stress reliever (of course on my way back home I noticed the out of order photo-booth near my apartment was being restocked).
I filled out my registration forms, and need to pick up my official city-issued ID card on September 11. Heh...quite a date for an alien to receive an ID card from a foreign country...
I also purchased proof of residency certificates so that I could purchase a cell phone and open a bank account. Woo...on the fast track to living a legitimate life in Japan.

After traveled back home, and attempted to purchase a monthly train pass. Luckily a train station employee came over and assisted me (which involved me doing a lot of stick figure and map drawings since he didn't really speak English), and actually got me the exact pass I needed!

After running all of those errands I had to head to day #2 of training. It was the same as the day before except that I taught 2 full classes. It was a little weird, but the trainer observing me gave me rave reviews. Who'd of thunk that my stubbornness and lack of patience would translate into excellent teach skills? Heh.

After work I went to grab a beer with the 2 peeps I've been training with, which involved walking around through a 5 block long red light district until we finally found a semi-normal bar.
The red light districts are pretty insane, there are just a bunch of EXTREMELY attractive (either hot, cute or hot/cute) Japanese girls standing outside of their parlors in either tiny black dresses or costumes of sorts. I've made it a goal to take pictures of these areas, but I still hesitate to be "that guy with the camera," a concern that is leaving me more and more each day.