Interac

I haven't been very good at updating this, to be honest. Then again, I'm not very good at keeping blogs in general. It just so easy to lose track of what you're doing or supposed to be doing that it's quite insane.

I've been thinking of what I should do about this blog, and I think the best thing I can do is write about events leading up to and including my life in Japan. To do that, I need some background information. So...

I've lived in Japan for about a year, I came back to the UK a year and a month ago and it was the experience of my life. I lived in a city called Okayama and made some pretty good friends from across the world. One of them is in Japan now, doing a similar job to the one I will be doing. We had a bar that we considered our local called Matador. Matador was a Spanish themed bar that became more nightclub-like during the weekends and I found it a good place to chill out and practice my Japanese. Needless to say that I have yet to find an experience quite like Matador and so I want to go back to Japan and find something close enough to it.

There's a lot about Japan that I enjoy, and not just Matador and the izakayas. The food is healthy and nice, although I confess I will no doubt hanker for some good old British food but right now I miss things like okonomiyaki and Mitsuya food. I loved being able to cycle anywhere, that freedom of transportation is something that you just cannot replicate in the UK unless you have a driving licence. Cycling is so dangerous in the UK and the pavements were not made with hordes of cyclists in mind unlike in Japan. As far as working is concerned, I adore the work ethic of the Japanese and the community spirit that the workers in a Japanese company have. All those reasons are why I want to make my return. I find the word 'weeaboo' tossed around a lot, and I like to think that I'm not one of them. I enjoy Japan and Japanese culture, I still love my own country and own culture...except for the idiots who go rioting or beating or children and old people.

So, I've applied for a few companies and to be honest chief on my list was Interac. I tried for Peppy Kids earlier as my friend recommended it to me, but unfortunately my lack of experience proved to be quite a large hindrance to being accepted by that company, but I prefer the idea of working as a language instructor in an actual school than working for what is called an Eikaiwa, or English conversation school. I'm very interested in teaching because of it fits with my ideals in what I want to do with a job. I want to do work that benefits other people. I actually chose chemistry as my degree because I wanted to study medicinal chemistry and help to synthesise a cure for a disease we all struggle with. (I had one year project working on a compound to treat prion disease, but I'll discuss that at a later date.) Truth is, I'm not a very good chemist. I think I'm probably better at teaching because I have quite a good deal of enthusiasm for it, and a memorable personality. Interac was the one for me, and I thought the third time would be the lucky one.

I applied a little too late to meet the September send-offs, but I sent off my application anyway. It took a while for me to receive a phone interview and I felt it didn't go brilliantly. I didn't feel I shined particularly well. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I got an interview in early September. The interview itself was in a rather posh looking hotel in York, and there were four other candidates in the interview along with me, and we all had experience with either Japan or teaching so it was hard to really stand out. It started with a brief presentation on what the company was about and a quick grammar and spelling quiz. I don't know how well that went. Following up from that we had to prepare our own presentation with a few tasks to a video camera. I thought that I didn't do so great, I forgot a few of the Japanese words I wanted to say and I got ahead of myself a little during the reading exercise. The teaching, I felt, went okay. Following that we had to fill in a questionnaire like the questions an interviewer would ask you and do a Myers-Briggs personality test.

Despite the fact I felt it went quite badly, I actually got the job at the end of the day. I've recently sent off documents for my visa and an application for an enhanced CRB which Interac should have received in the post yesterday. I should probably send an email to let them know that I sent it.

My next task is to find myself some temporary work to last me until late March. Next week is going to be busy because I have a party this Saturday, a trip to Nottingham to talk to a recruitment agency (the first in weeks to actually CONTACT me) and then a trip to Edinburgh to see a few good friends I haven't seen in ages.

I hope to keep this updated with information about my work, and my preparations for Japan. I may also post other things like my guilty pleasures. I'm a bit of a geek really.