After getting back from winter vacation, life has been incredibly busy for me. Partly because after I got back, I had to catch up on some work as I'd been away for a while, and partly because in addition to my normal workload, I have also been doing a lot of interviews and demo lessons to try to get myself a new job.
Yes, that's right, after a long and difficult decision making process, I decided not to renew my contract here in Takamatsu (for a variety of reasons), and started to search for jobs in the Kansai area.
After what seemed like doing interviews every other evening, or multiple interviews per day, I moved onto the secondary interview processes, which involved various things such as creating a video demo lesson (which was in multiple parts and had to be 6 minutes or less --- so difficult!!), and actually going into Kansai to visit some of the schools I applied to so that I could show them how I interact with the students or do a demo lesson, or do more interview type talking.
Eventually, it all paid off, and I got an offer for a job...and again, considering the situation, and other various factors, I decided to accept an offer. Breath of relief! So...more details on that in the coming months! While it's definitely exciting starting a new life, it's also kind of stressful and intimidating, because once again, it means picking up all my stuff, finding a new apartment, moving, and then of course figuring out what's going to be around me, where my new favorite places will be, etc.
Not to mention, it's kind of sad too, because I really love the students that I'm working with right now, and I want to see them grow up more, but if I consider what's best for me, I think I made the best decision I could.
And other interesting things that have happened -- on one of those trips into Kansai to do those interviews, during one evening I went to a street live from FASE, who I haven't seen since September. It was a little bit cold, but I enjoyed it. Although, some strange things did happen. While I was listening, one lady came up to me and told me that I should go listen to another musician, just across the way because he could apparently speak good English. Ummm....but well, I wasn't interested in his music, and FASE speaks really good English as well, and don't just assume that I can't speak Japanese please! Then, after the street live was finished, many of his fans went up to talk with him, and I was checking out where I should go from there on my phone, when he suddenly shouted out "Amanda-san!!" and waved me over. Enter the stares/glares from his fans. And then he started talking with another person and then ran away for a few minutes. So why call my name???! Ahh....seriously....at least some of his listeners were nice...one older woman asked me if I was Amanda, and kept motioning me to come closer.
Oh, and of course my birthday happened, and once again this year I received many nice and thoughtful presents from the staff at my school. However, it did make some awkward questions come up from the students. First, the accusatory, "Why is it your Happy Birthday?" and then the "Why don't you have a baby here?" (touching my stomach).
For my birthday weekend, I ended up spending the whole thing doing prep work for my demo lessons and interviews as well as going to do those things, which meant extremely little sleep and lots of time going to various places for work, so it wasn't so much fun for me this year. I did, however, go out for a birthday supper of waffles and fruit tea. Which was delicious, although, slightly less so because I had to spend the time talking with a random Japanese person who decided that it would be good to sit down at my table and start talking to me.
So, since my birthday weekend wasn't that much fun, I decided to change to day of my birthday to this past weekend and celebrate it then instead. So, Friday night after work, I got home, changed and hurried off to go into Kobe. When I got there, I checked in to my hotel for the night, and then headed out right away again to go to a live that was going on that evening. Yes, it was a ヨシダヒロキ live. This time it was in a small little bar that I'd never been to before, and I had a little bit of difficulty finding the place because google maps led to the general area, but not the shop itself. So I had to ask around a little bit. The first person I asked was like, "Yeah, it's in this area." You think?? So helpful. So I found another person to ask, and they directed me to someone, who took me to the place I needed to be. Thank you!! When I walked in, I was really surprised because it was already after the time it was supposed to start, and there was only the bartender and one other person there. So I asked if it was the right place, and he said it was, but ヨシダさん had forgotten something. So I spent some time talking with those two, and they thought my Japanese was pretty good, so I was happy, even though it isn't. When he finally got there, he went into the story about how we met, and how we know each other and various things, and eventually he got set up and started singing. At one point, the bartender asked me if I had any song requests for him...only one?? hehehe.... Anyway, it was generally decided that I wanted to hear one of his original songs, and ヨシダさん figured that I wanted to hear "Love, love, love", which I really do like, but he actually didn't play that song. Lol. Most of the songs he played that night were actually cover songs, but it was a good night anyway. When he finished it was around midnight, and so we had one last quick chat, in which he found out that I'm finishing up in Takamatsu and will be coming to Kansai. I think he was a little surprised, but he said it's good that I can be closer, and told me to contact him when I know the area I'll be living in (I guess so he can let me know about lives near to the area??) Then he had the bartender point me in the general direction I had to go to go towards the station and my hotel (I guess he figured I'd have been turned around after walking around in circles to find the place).
The next day, I went and checked out one of the potential locations that I could be teaching at soon, and it seems like a nice spot. Also on the train ride there...I scouted out a location of a potential beach area I could go to in the summer, so I think it was productive. I came back to Takamatsu that afternoon, did my grocery shopping and then spent Sunday catching up on a little bit of sleep -- I got a whole 7.5hours....can't remember the last time I slept that much!!!!! I think it was good, because I could relax a little bit and since I felt like I might have been getting sick, I was able to deal with that.
That's it for now. More soon!!
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