Happiness is....

getting a paycheck ON TIME
and in the PROPER AMOUNT.

(The way this place is I was naturally suspecting some funny business in this department too.)

Of course, nothing but NOTHING beats a warm fuzzy tunneling through the covers to sleep on your feet at night, but a paycheck is not so bad either. Particularly when you had been balancing how to spend the last 500 yen (about 5 USD) for the past 2 weeks.

In this case, I immediately went out and bought myself a rainbow of happiness.


And there were even more soy milk flavors not shown that I haven't tried yet!!
New ones included oshiruko (sweet red bean soup) and sweet potato flavor in addition to my old favs Vanilla, Chocolate, and the #1, Black Sesame Seed.

If one rainbow is good, surely two must be better.


Yes, a rainbow of sake you could never find anywhere else but in a Japanese supermarket. My old faithful companion, straight up sake by Gekkeikan is on the far right in a double size bottle this time thanks to the spiffy paycheck, but then I added some new friends to the gathering. I had been feeling it was long due time to venture into new frontiers..

On the far left is traditional sweet Umeshu made from local ume fruits (this area is either the top ume producing area in all of Japan or the second one down.), next a blend of sake known as Nigori-zake as it is nigotteiru or "muddied" by the rice, followed by a bottle of gently sweet sake as stated by the cute bunny on front. (Yeah, it was the bunny that ultimately sold me. Also, it added confidence knowning that it too is made by Gekkeikan.)

I shall report my taste findings in the future, if only for my own record.


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Wait. Korea too???

So now we're about to become the Complete JAPAN/SOUTH KOREA Guide?!?!?
maybe....
Looks like my next job takes me South Korea, NOT Japan. Although I intend to move back to Japan at some point hopefully. Heavy on the hopefully there.

I have found that compared to when I first went in 2000 to Japan, the benefits and wages for Native English teachers have been steady declining. Imagine a plane in nose-dive if you will.

From 2000-2002 I was making the equivalent of 30K USD in Japan. Ah, how I reminicse on those days.
From 2006-2008 I was making the equivalent of 26K USD in Japan. I was in the back-ass country at the time so it worked ok as there was no place to go to actually spend money.
Now shopping around again in 2009, I'm finding the area I worked before in 2000 is offering as low as 23K?!?!?!
(In case you didn't know already, Japan and Korea school years start in the Spring so from January you enter the height of teacher recruiting season.)
Yes, yes, there are still some placesa offering reasonable salaries, but mostly you're looking at the ridiculously low range where the compensation in NO WAY covers the amount of work you will be doing.

Frankly, I find no excuse for this. Commodity prices cost of living has been rising since 2000 and yet salaries are steadily going down??? Where is the compensation for this?

On the other hand, all the schools - few though they may be - I have looked at in Korea are offering top wages for Native English speakers, more in the 26-28K USD bracket. I don't understand this. Yes, the Japanese economy is in shambles, but so is the economy of the whole worldso that doesn't make for an excuse, does it? On top of which, there is a growing need for native English teachers now that they are starting to require English classes at the elementary school level nationwide.
?_?

So, as long as I convince someone to give me a contract, it's off to Korea!!
I kinda did want to go there anyway at some point. Besides, they do have a 3hour ferry that runs between Pusan and Oosaka, Japan. (A city near Kyoto if that is more familiar sounding to you. Sorry if you already know that. ^.^ )

In that case I'll be posting info about surviving in both areas from then on.

Cheers! (^_-)-☆

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

Ads make the world go around. Help us out!