Job Interview, Subtitle Success

Saturday morning and Kuniko and I both headed into Kobe. I was in Kobe to interview for a job, and Kuniko wanted to do a little shopping while I was interviewing. We split up in north Kobe and I headed on to Shin-Kobe station to catch the subway under Mt. Rokko to the other side.

On the other side of Mt. Rokko lies Tanigami, a fairly small town that grew quickly with the new tunnel to Kobe. It was a ten minute ride through the tunnel, and then I got out in a fairly large station, complete with a supermarket and McDonald’s. It looked like a big commuting station – people catch a bus to the station, and then catch the subway into Kobe.

I had a little time so I walked around and checked the place out, and then soon after Toshihide Iguchi came walking up and said hello.

This guy is pretty interesting. He moved to America when he was 18 years old, and has been living there ever since. Now he is planning to move back to Japan, and start up an English conversation school. He has no experience, though, just a lot of money and a desire to succeed.

He has already hired one teacher, a woman who will move from Chicago to start a new life in Japan. He’s looking for one more teacher, and he’s trying to decide between me and one other guy living in Japan.

There are lots of things to worry about if I take this job. First, it’s a new school, so there are no students right now. Mr. Iguchi has never run a business in Japan, and hasn’t been here in so long that he really doesn’t have any idea of what to expect marketing-wise. The more I talked to him, the more I saw that he would be depending on me to advise him on a lot of things. The bad news is that I don’t know much about English conversation schools, and hardly anything about how to run a profitable one.

Mr. Iguchi told me that as the business grows he sees me taking over more of a management role, and he hopes to open several branches, so he might want me to run a branch for him.

The hours didn’t sound great either – and they may end up being the reason I don’t take the job. I would work from noon or 1 in the afternoon until 9 or 10 at night. That means that I would see Kuniko for only about an hour each evening. Also, I would have to work weekends, so I wouldn’t get to do much with her together.

I also found out that Mr. Iguchi once worked for a Japanese bank in America, and was directly responsible for that bank losing 1.1 billion dollars. He covered up the fact, and ended up serving time in jail. The bank was kicked out of America, and Mr. Iguchi wrote a book about the whole experience. This was a long time ago, but it does weigh on your mind that your future boss lost more money than you will ever make in your life.

For his part, he seemed pretty excited about working with me, and I sense that the job is mine if I want it. He’s faxing me a contract to take a look at on Monday, and I promised him that I would let him know yes or no by the end of the week. Lots to think about!

After the interview Kuniko and I met up in Sannomiya, and together we killed some time walking around town. We had a drink at Starbucks, and then headed over to the movie theater to see “Daisy” – a Korean movie with Japanese subtitles. I’m happy to report that I understood about 90% of the subtitles. It was a pretty good movie, with a typical Korean “over-the-top” plot. I won’t give any away, but it was anything but subtle.

After the movie we walked into Kitano and went to Star Child’s burgers. It was Kuniko’s first time there, and she had a big avocado cheeseburger. I had a fried egg burger. It was really good, and we walked out of there stuffed. We came on back and crashed out pretty early. Tomorrow we’re going to spend some time cleaning house and getting organized for the next week.


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