The Mystery Continues, Shaken Up

Late last night Kuniko called and we recapped both of our days. Her conversation with her father sounded like a pretty rough one. He’s very concerned about her and her future. Who is this American dude coming out of nowhere to marry his daughter? What future does he have in Japan? He’s not even Japanese! Anyway, he’s eager to meet me and put a few questions to me. Kuniko says that he’s concerned that I haven’t put a lot of thought into our future. Sounds like a fun evening.

What’s worse, a big thunderstorm came through around 2 a.m. I had left all the windows and doors open because it has been so hot. The sudden loud rumbles of thunder and bright flashes of lightning were a pretty harsh way to wake up. I stumbled around closing things. I couldn’t get right back to sleep, though. This was one loud storm.

At six a.m. I got up rather groggily. Today I had some great leftover shrimp and rice to take to work for lunch, but I was busy in the morning trying to get organized and I walked out leaving my lunch on the counter to get warm and go bad. My only excuse is that I’ve got a lot on my mind lately.

At school everything was chugging along normally. People asked how my weekend went, and I told them just that it went fine, saw a movie, studied. All true.

I had three interview test classes today, and they all went smoothly. The students were very energetic and did great – they were really nervous, but afterwards they seemed a little more confident.

The other day I heard from Struan that they are offering free Japanese classes during the summer at the YMCA in Kobe Sannomiya. I called today and signed up to take an entrance examination on Tuesday night. Tomorrow I’ll head over there and see if I can get in. I’m hoping that will help my Japanese a bit more.

Mr. Hayashi came up to me and gravely said that my career plans are looking pretty bad. This came as a surprise considering he had told me as recently as Friday that getting a job in Japan is pretty easy with the right qualifications. I asked him what had happened to the Japanese economy in the last 72 hours to create such a situation. He apparently had talked to a guy he knows that works in a grad school – that school is hiring people from colleges in America – so they don’t need people from Japan. I just smiled and told him that I’ll burn that bridge when I get there, but I don’t think he understood the mixed metaphor joke.

When I got home from work, I called around to some of the JETs that know Melanie to find out where she might have disappeared to. I got in touch with one of her co-workers, and she got all mysterious on me. She said that she isn’t allowed to talk about it, and then later said that she didn’t know anything really. All I got was that she isn’t in her apartment, she is still in Japan, she’s “safe where she is”, but she’s not teaching at the school anymore. Her contract is up anyway in just under a month – I wonder what’s going on. At least I found out that she is OK.

Dinner was breakfast today – scrambled eggs, Japanese bacon, and a nice big hit of salsa to spice things up. I spent time doing laundry and writing down some thoughts and plans career-wise. Between Mr. Hayashi’s grave predictions for my future, and what Kuniko’s dad said about careers, I was a little worried. What if I can’t find something stable? How am I supposed to support a family if I can’t get a job? If somebody asked me right now what my plan is for the next five years I couldn’t really map it out in detail. Is that a problem? Have I ever had a five, ten, or twenty year plan?

Mr. Hayashi has a saying… It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you are moving in the wrong direction. I’m taking a little time now to dream a little bit about the future and see if I can crystallize it into something interesting. I’ve got some things that interest me, and I know there is a market for them in Japan. It’s just a matter of positioning myself to be as good a fit as possible. Maybe now is the time to finally realize my dream of becoming an exotic dancer.