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2010-07-18T09:29:00.001+09:00

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan

2009-12-29T21:10:00.006+09:00

Well well well... been almost 6 months. Time for an update.

I finally found a job about a month after my last post- and a decent one at that, working in Whisky. This comes after approaching 1458 companies with my resume between September 2008 to July 2009.

I also spent a great week with the daughter in the US last week! boy was it great to see everyone again!

And other than work, that's about all that's new. I just read an article today by a guy named John Scalzi. It's a bit old (2005)but inspired me to write something similar about my experiences being unemployed and broke in Japan.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means only shopping at the discount supermarket at 9pm.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means never setting foot in a Starbucks.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means carrying a bag full of 10yen coins to pay for half the train fare at the starting station, half at the destination (since you can only put 20 coins in the ticket machine)just to get to an interview.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means learning where they don't have cameras or a stationmaster window at each station... and learning how to crowd up close to the person entering/exiting when you've run out of 10 yen coins...

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means you get an ulcer thinking about whether to go to your minimum wage part-time job or another interview today.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means working the jobs you went to college so you wouldn't have to do.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means understanding that the part time/ low wage employees are forced to work 10 times harder than the permanent employees.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means not making a stink about being turned down for a job explicitly because you're not ethnically Japanese because putting food on the table trumps your personal human rights, and you need to move on ASAP.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means looking at ski masks and replica pistols as a possible future business investment.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means buying your daughter toys at the 100yen store and thanking God she's still too young to care.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means telling your daughter that the debt collectors knocking on the door at 3am is just the pizza man that came to the wrong apartment.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means not having time nor luxury to get depressed about things.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means not being able to care if your food comes from China.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means drinking the broth of an instant ramen packet so the wife can have the noodles and the kid can have a regular meal.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means being in even worse shape after getting a job, since you don't have the time to do a part-time job, and don't get your first paycheck until 2months from your start date.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means having to explain to your wife that even though you now have a job, we will be getting even less money for the first 2 months... zero to be exact...

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means worrying your wife will leave you and being shit out of luck for a visa

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means having to go back to the friend that helped you out the month before you started the job... with your hand out again.

Being Unemployed and Broke With A Family In Japan means still struggling 6 months into getting hired, but coming out of it tougher than leather.

Any of these ring a bell for anyone? Might as well keep trying until you collapse since the second you quit your rejection rate skyrockets to 100%

2009-06-05T22:41:00.002+09:00

Third Gig, first OA

2009-01-29T23:30:00.001+09:00

Finally something I was in aired... even if it is just 10 seconds...

Happy Birthday Dad

2009-01-04T02:01:00.006+09:00

For some reason I'm having trouble calling the US from my phone- when I do get through it doesn't seem like anyone can hear me. This has been going one since just before X-mas... strange, but anyway... Hear's a belated B day message for my Dad if you're out there.

Finally, a sense of accomplishment

2008-12-01T09:26:00.002+09:00

42.195KM... if you're feeling down, train for an run a marathon. The one thing that won't hurt the next day is your sense of pride! Also down to 67km and 22.1% body fat! (still no job though...)

2008-11-08T13:24:00.002+09:00

On the go

2008-10-19T09:15:00.003+09:00

Feb. 23 2008- 83.1kg, 30.1% Body fat, BMI 27.8

Oct. 19 2008- 72.0kg, 23.1% Body fat, BMI24.1 (before running 13.1miles)

Still no job, but at least I'm getting in shape. To be honest, other than the no money thing- getting shit-canned has been the best experience in my life. Haven't drank in 2and a half months, I can get up at 5am every morning to run at least 10K, I've been studying for the 2kyu Japanese accounting exam and 3kyu Business law exam to beef up my resume and have had some good interviews with 2 companies. Come Wednesday it's time to cash in on that unemployment insurance I've paid into for 7 years- more adventures to come.

One week to go...

2008-03-04T23:48:00.002+09:00

I'm officially in the final stretch with my current company. Emotionaly it feels great!
Unfortunately there's one slight hitch- I've developed pink eye!
The daughter had it first, passing it onto the wife, and I thought I had somehow managed to escape, until I woke up this morning unable to open my left eye (from all that crusty goodness that forms while you sleep).
The silver lining to this story is that I should be back to normal by Monday, when I start my new job!

One of those little stories that slips through the cracks...

2008-03-02T01:30:00.004+09:00

I've been a big fan of "FARK" and "The Small Print" in Metropolis for a while now. Here's one for their archieves if they haven't reported already.

Original Japanese article below. Here's the gist of the topline story in bobspeak:
A man was arrested on Feb. 24th for "Driving under the influence" WHILE AT THE LOCAL DMV. The cops tried to flag him down at an intersection nearby, but the suspect ignored the cop and went into the DMV, explaining that he was going to RENEW HIS TRUCK DRIVERS LICENSE (which was too soon to do under Japanese traffic law). His BAC was 0.2mg/L (with 0 tolerance in Japan) and was holding a 500ml beer. Alcohol was registered on the other passengers, his wife an cousin (which, is bad in and of its self, since Japanese law considers it to be a crime to be in the car of a drunk driver(here here!!!!)

This is why we need to have the TV show COPS come to Japan. If nothing more than the comical value... "Yah I'm drunk, but I'm about to renew my trucker's license so leave me alone..." that's both too funny and too sad at the same time.

I'll be the first to admit, I love beer and drink a lot of it, when I'm not behind the wheel. But seriously, if you drive drunk, you're a F***ing moron...

Praying to anyone that thinks differently to "Please don't run into me and kill me or my family"
Bob S.

Here's the original Japanese
2008年2月25日（月）10:10
　福岡南署は２４日、運転免許試験場にビールを飲みながら車を運転して来たとして、道交法違反（酒気帯び運転）の現行犯として、福岡市東区城浜団地、運転手谷田茂男容疑者（５５）を逮捕した。　調べでは、谷田容疑者は同日午後１時前、同市南区花畑４丁目の福岡自動車運転免許試験場で酒気帯び状態で軽乗用車を運転した疑い。容疑を認めているという。　谷田容疑者が缶ビール（５００ミリリットル）を飲みながら運転しているのを、交通整理のため近くの交差点にいた同署員が目撃。別の署員が制止したが、谷田容疑者は無視して試験場に入り、駐車場で止まったという。呼気１リットル当たり０.２ミリグラムのアルコール分が検出された。谷田容疑者はこの日、大型２種の免許更新に来たが、更新できる期間（誕生日の前後１カ月）より前だったという。　同乗の妻（５３）といとこの男性（４８）の呼気からもアルコール分が検出されており、同署は妻といとこを同法違反（酒気帯び運転同乗）の疑いで調べる。＝2008/02/25付西日本新聞朝刊＝

The where have I been update

2008-02-09T00:48:00.000+09:00

Hello World,

It's been a while since we've last chatted. Here's a quick run-down of what Bob has been up to (not necessarily in chronological order):

Related to the last post:
I cried like a baby at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life", and had a great salt baked chicken on Christmas Eve made by your's truly. I then, after the New Year-

Ran my first HALF MARATHON 21+ KM(alone with my Nike + :training for the Ome 30km marathon Feb 3rd)
I ran the longest I've ever ran before, and still was able to move after... proof here

My 30km Marathon:
Was cancled due to snow... which is just as well, since I couldn't afford to travel out to it anyway because of-

Paying Uncle Tanaka:
2days after my last post, the accounting section of my company calls me about my year-end taxes. It turned out that I owed the amount of about one monthly paycheck (gross) worth because the company didn't take out enough for my first bonus (and gave me some BS story about how because I started in mid-March, when bonuses come out in April, and since I was only on file for 1/2 a month the accounting deparment assumed that the amount I made was 1/2, and that was the salary to base the witholding on, while to try to explain that it's not their fault...)which to be fair, it isn't accounting's, it's HR's, but that's beside the point. Quick story is I had to pay a crapload of money I should've paid anyway, but didn't even know about until they tell me I'm out a month salary the day after X-mas:
Merry Christmas Bob! Which brings us to the-

Job situation (not completely related to the above, as I'd been semi-on the hunt since October, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back for good):
The topline is that I may be moving out of the fashion industry in the near future. I know, I know "but Bob, you've always had your finger on the pulse when it comes to fashion with your beer brand knit caps and hockey jersey!, and I thought you liked working 16hr days!". In some ways I do feel bad, since I've only been there for about a year, and they were nice enough to enslave...er I mean give me a fulfilling job- but as ol' Jack Burton says:

When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite hat up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye and asks you if ya paid your dues... you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

Watch 'Big Trouble In Little China' again- you know you need to...

So where am I going? What am I getting into now?
Well I used to market smokes here in Japan which cost about 300 yen for the consumer- moved to fashion-retail which adds another zero for said consumer. My next move adds an extra four zeros to the product I'll be marketing. It's the one most expensive purchase your average consumer can make in a lifetime-and is not a Ferrari...(as long as we're not talking Enzos)

In the grand scheme of things, I guess I'll be moving up! Anybody looking for a good condo?

Toriisogi, gohoukokumade.
Bob S

It's begining to look a lot like Chistma... huh?

2007-12-17T01:12:00.000+09:00

Christmas is just a few days away, and I am 100% hit with the X-mas bug.
The tree's up, of course. The daughter's presents are all wrapped and hid. The car is blaring Xmas Carols out of the speakers instead of the "Cars" soundtrack of recent past. I've either rented or purchased the mandatory Xmas movies, namely:

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
A Christmas Story
Miracle on 34th Street (the Natalie Wood version)
The Santa Clause
Santa Claus is Coming to Town (the late 60's stop animation)
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (ditto)
It's a Wonderful Life

And I've never actually seen It's a Wonderful Life, I figure it's about time.

And for A Christmas Story- It wasn't released in Japan (that I can find), anybody wanna help me do a Japanese fan sub so my wife can enjoy this wonderful jewel as well (next year)? I'll need a scribe for the English script (unless someone can find the original) and a couple of translators.

But anyway...

So here I am these days, bubbling over with the Xmas spirit. When one is in such a mood, where does one go?- That's right, to the mall!

So at the local mall, the family and I are looking around for more crap to buy this Xmas, not exactly this crap, courtesy of a local geisha, but other crap. It was then that I saw this:

Parents with there kids waiting in line for something around a huge Christmas tree.

Bob is thinking: Holy crackers! The local mall brought in a Santa!

Now imagine you're me... what would you do in this situation?

I bet you'd do what I did- wake the daughter up (whose been passed out since the car ride to the mall) "Hey guess what! Santa's here! You can sit on his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas!"

Turns out the Xmas spirit bubbling over in me made me forget where I live...

Here's what was on the other side of the tree:

(faces blocked out to protect the innocent)

Just goes to show that you can live in a foreign country for years, learn to speak a new language, work for a domestic company and other than your ethnicity, be able to live day to day completely assimilated. Then you have kids, and your true self comes through, giving you culture shock even though you should've seen it coming.

2 more videos, then back to more regular blogging... I swear!

2007-12-16T14:13:00.000+09:00

Part 1: Where she opens some videos, and you can hear me busting out the theme song to "My Neighbor Totoro". (Yes I still brake out into song at random times, there is no help for me)

Part 2 is shows her opening a huge radio controlled Lightning McQueen from the Pixar animation "Cars".

(In addition to Anpanman, she loves the movie, soundtrack and characters from Cars... go figure)

Back by popular demand

2007-12-16T00:09:00.000+09:00

Here's a quick video of the daughter at dance practice.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

2007-12-14T13:01:00.000+09:00

Yesterday the daughter turned 3! here's the video.

M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-h my god you didn't just...

2007-12-09T10:59:00.000+09:00

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, it was a moderate temperature for early December, and we live less than an hour drive from Tokyo Disney Resort. Guess where I took the family.

I bet you guessed right, but I love tangents, and this story needs a little more set-up.

Now all grown up and with a family of my own, I sometimes regret watching the National Lampoon's Vacation movies over and over as a kid- looking back, I think something rubbed off... My top 5 "vacation happenings" are:

5. This story. (yeah, I know you're probably feeling let down already, "Only number five?", but please humor me as I stroll down memory lane...)

4. Going home for winter break from college and having my car break down on the Mass turnpike. (Yes this car-natsukashii deshou- only mine was missing the front grill and the side-view mirrors were usually duct-taped to the side)

3. Walking from Amherst to Boston on my "Musha shugyou" during Spring break (1st week of March that year) only to be confronted with a blizzard and having to "camp" in the woods along route 9 with a blue tarp and bungee cords to make a tent. (Stupid-but-Manly points for this one though)

2. Braking my collar-bone during a family vacation in high school, and toughing it out for 2days before going to the hospital towards the end of the vacation. (Stupid-but-Manly points for that one too)

1. Getting pulled over in a car whose registration had expired causing that car to be towed away and leaving me and my thoughtful friends trying to throw me a bachelor party stranded in front of a closed Stop-n-Shop for a few hours until some other thoughtful friends could come to pick us all up (grant it, not a 'vacation happening' per se, but a big enough mis-adventure to override any selection criteria). And even without the big bash that was planned, I still slept through my 8am final the next morning!

So in true Bob style, something has to go awry or it wouldn't be a true family outing. Now back to the other day.

So it's 9am, the kid's up, dressed in new clothes we bought a couple of weeks back to enter the GAP kid's model contest: (yes 100% GAP, and that in itself is funny if you know where I work!)

Jeans: 70 bucks, sweater jacket, 60 bucks, printed T-shirt 30 bucks. Needless to say, we don't go shopping there very often.

We all pile into the car and are off. To set the tone, I've got the stereo pump'n with all the classic Disney tunes-both the English and Japanese lyrics. Hi-ho, Hi-ho, Shigoto tanoshii.

We're about 10minutes from the exit for Tokyo Disney...

That's when I heard "the sound"...

The one that every parent learns within the first few days of being a parent...

I hadn't heard it for a while, but none the less I could recognize it just as the little mermaid was belting out something about how she wishes she could be 'part of my world'

If only Ariel knew... the kid just got car-sick and puked everywhere!

Byebye 70 dollar jeans, byebye 60 dollar sweater jacket and 30 dollar T-shirt.

Hello stains on automobile upholstery, and that wonderful scent of what daughters are made of: sugar, spice, and everything she ate for breakfast coming from the back seat!

So I did what I've always tried to do in a "vacation happening" moment:

1. Continue right along to the Disney parking lot while me and the wife try to calm the daughter down (while the wife is cleaning everything up- thanks again honey!).

2. Buy a new outfit at an exorbitant price at Disney.
3. Have a great time anyway!!

(At the gate)

(First roller-coaster)

(Mission accomplished)

And then drove home with the windows down the whole way home...followed by lots of fabreeze...

I KNOW I get Manly points for this one!

We now return to your regularly scheduled program

2007-12-04T22:16:00.000+09:00

The Angry guy from the last post is the Hamburger Kid, a character from the children's cartoon Anpanman.
Anyone with small children in Japan has seen this show at least once, the namesake main character pictured above. For some reason, and not brilliant sinister marketing (I was a Tobacco brand marketeer for 5 years- I've been on the lookout) Japanese kids go through an Anpanman stage, my daughter is no exception. The basic storyline of almost every episode is the same:

1. Baikinman (yes bacteria-baikin) starts some trouble.
2. Anpanman comes to the rescue, but his head gets wet, or dented, or dirty (which causes him to lose all of his power) from something that baikinman does.
3. Someone is sent off to get JamOjisan's help (consisting of baking Anpanman a new head)
4. Anpanman gets his new head and then polishes Baikinman off with his AnPunch! (after being hit, Baikinman always exclaims "BaiBai-kin"(yes a play on words of bye bye and baikin, oh how clever).
5. The world is now back in order again until the next 15min. episode.
(oh, yeah, I almost forgot the thing where he rips off parts of his face to give to people to eat(well he IS made of Anpan after all)

Since I know the majority of readers to this site are either single, aren't parents yet, or not high, here is a glorified edited version I found on Youtube that you should find at least palatable.

My first reaction to the show was indifference; just another kids show that becomes the black hole that sucks the money from your wallet faster than a night in Roppongi. They've got everything from DVD's (we own 5, have rented over 50), stuffed animals (yeah, got the whole collection), cups, towels, books, toothbrushes, pajamas, the list goes on and on in the Japanese tradition of taking a cute mascot and slapping it on absolutely everything ala hello kitty

But when the kid's into it, and with over 2,000 individual characters (which just happens to coincide with the number of Joyou Kanji characters, but I digress) to memorize, I've found myself being able to do more than just go-along; I've actually started to enjoy this dumb-ass show too...

So with all this merchandising, what's left? Why of course, to complete the formula one needs to have a theme park. And the Yokohama Anpanman Museum just opened this year and that's where I took the family last week.

I have to say it was a lot of fun, and only 1,000 yen admission. The shops are all located outside of the pay area so you can buy useless crap at your leisure. If you have a 2-4yr old and live anywhere near Yokohama definitely check it out. Some of the cool stuff they have:

Make your own DVD of you in an Anpanman episode (3,500 yen): yes we did it, it involved greenscreens and was cool, though now I have to watch it with the daughter almost every night. Great memorabilia though! I'd of course post it on Youtube so you all could laugh at me, but alas, it's copyright protected and I wouldn't want to break that right?

JamOjisan's bakery: Since a lot of the characters are made out of bread, how fitting they have a bakery outside of the museum. All of the pastries are shaped like the characters, are only 100 yen a pop, and actually taste good too.

Check out the HP at http://www.yokohama-anpanman.jp/main.html

One other reason to tolerate the show is with all the characters, you can always find one that reminds you of someone you know. Takers on who the guy on the left could be?

We interrupt Bob's second post to bring you this important announcement

2007-11-28T00:15:00.000+09:00

If you live in Japan, you've undoubtedly heard that starting last week, ALL non- Japanese need to be fingerprinted and photographed the next time they re-enter Japan.

This is a something that has been brewing for quite a few months, and any background I could give here is best explained at debito-san's site or a good write-up by the NY times on the subject. (And yes, I only gave you a general link to Arudo Debito's site, because it is worth reading everything on it if you haven't already)

My 2 Yen on the subject:
My reaction to this entire fiasco has been disappointment, not precisely anger,but getting there.

As everyone that knows me knows: I love being here: I have a great career here, a great family here, I love just about everything about living here day to day, and it's crap like this that turns those Great feeling into Shitty feelings:

no "Great" to "Good" to "So So" to "Hey, it's better than" to "I don't know about this" to "Damn this stinks" to "Shit".

Straight from "Great" to "Shit" (and you can quote me on that!)

Yes I know the US does something similar: my wife has to go through it every time we go back- but A. we don't live there, so she doesn't have a "visa" other than her passport, and B. I don't agree with that either but at least we can go through the same line.

It's things like this that make you wonder how to raise your child:

Do you do the activist- "this is all crap that mommy or daddy has to go through" speech every time they pass through the border, or do you just shrug it off in front of them so they get used to living in a world where when they go to one of their "home" countries, one of their parents will be treated as a criminal...

(Although my daughter's still so small, she'd probably want to do the fingerprinting thing with us just because it looked fun!)

Re-entry Japan's got a great start on at least something to do! There is also an online petition that you all should sign (yes, I've never heard of an online petition before either, and also semi-doubt its effectiveness- especially in Japan- just don't be the idiot that signs it anonymous) but at least if you're not happy also, you have something!

Oh and also get your T-shirt now! and fight the power!

Meanwhile, I have half a mind to simply just not leave the country for a while- they can't get me if I don't leave to have to come back, right? (I say to myself with tongue in cheek)

Back to more day to day cool- life things: the next post will be more about the above picture:

But trust me both he and I are not amused about fingerprints!

I ran until my veins pumped battery acid... then I ran some more...

2007-11-25T16:42:00.000+09:00

Yes, it is Bob, back with a new blog.

Just got back from the Tsukuba marathon, where I ran the 10km race. Yes me, beer-belly-Bob runs. I even have the Nike+ module with my ipod and have logged over 100km so far (running off and on since this January)For not running for a while I think I did well- 1hr 7min 58secs net time including a pit-stop from eating too much leftover Thanksgiving turkey the night before...

The day itself seemed doomed from the start though. I woke up on time and drove to Tsukuba (apx 1hr away) leaving myself plenty of time to register. However traffic was backed up trying to get to the parking lot and not moving at all. The 10km race started at 10:20, but registration ended at 9am, and I was still still 2km away from the parking lot at 8:30. "My first actual race since gym class in high school and I'm going to miss registration and have to sit on the sidelines" I'm thinking to myself.

(for those of you that are just tuning into my life- I've never been a runner- I preferred a combination of Shaolin-kenpo, Kendo, and shooting guns- i.e. I've always tried to be the guy that DOESN'T NEED to run...)

Then for some reason I wonder if I will have to pay for parking and decide to get my wallet out since I don't have anything better to do.

That's when the day got worse...

Because my wallet was not in my pocket, it was sitting back at the apartment on the computer table. My wallet that has my driver's license in it (so I'm driving without a license), my wallet that has my money in it (so I'm TSOL if I want to buy a sports drink or something), my wallet that has my foreigner registration card in it (so if a cop stops me on a BS gaijin-check I can contribute to the "rising foreigner crime rate" by not carrying it, in addition to possibly getting arrested).

That's why it's great to be married: the bride had money, her driver's license so she could take over, she didn't have my registration card but I figured I'd chance it and everything was good again.

Except for that whole 30minutes until registration closes and stuck in traffic thing.

With the bride at the wheel, I decided to let her park the car and I took off (what else?) running to get to the race on time. Registered with 5minutes to spare.

All and all it was a good warm-up for the race and now have my first official time.

When is the next race you ask: February 3rd at the Ome marathon- next time 30km!!!