11-01

11-01 10:19am – Getting Started

Yesterday’s orientation wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I received a copy of my contract, which was nice, and it went over all the salary information I needed. There was another packet I received which contained the complete breakdown and totals for my salary at probation and regular rates as well, so I can do the complete math on my expenses here now. I won’t receive my first paycheck until Dec. 15th, so I went ahead and opted for the salary advance. I don’t have to spend it all, but it’ll be nice to have the padding if I need it.
While on probation, I’ll be making 229,000 yen per month. Probation is mandatory the first two months, and after that it can be extended month by month as needed. I don’t plan to need much more than that. After that I’ll be making 244k. Now, this first paycheck there will be a lot of deductions which won’t normally be there, for instance my medical insurance is being charged until the end of January, and after that it will be charged monthly, so that’s a chunk of change. And then the setup fees for my phone, and the couple days prior to November I was here in terms of rent, and so on. Additionally, I’ll be paying off the salary advance in thirds, so, there’s that too. But, even after doing the math on all that, it still seems that I’ll be pocketing around $525 a month, even after my bills back home are paid. I am positive I won’t actually pocket this amount. That money really just represents 59,700 yen I can afford to be off in my calculations.
I work ~30 hours a week. I have Mondays and Tuesdays off.
Met some cool people at the orientation yesterday, afterwards we went downstairs and had some drinks. We all gave Phenlan our phone numbers and email addresses, so hopefully she will send those out to us, and we can maybe keep in touch. As Tim noted, “Don’t worry about it too much, you’ll never see them ever again, really.” Which I can understand. It’s going to be a busy, busy life pretty quick here.
I have my set of three training days starting today in Matsudo, after which I will be working in my own main office of Moraju Kashiwa. I’ll sit in on lessons to start with, and then I will take over part, and then the other part, and then I’ll lead with someone watching. Hopefully that will span the three days, but I have a feeling the third day will be all me teaching under observation. But, like always this is purely speculation. We’ll see.
My phone is a Nokia 6630, and it’s pretty sweet, though a little larger than I’m used to. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera though, which is nice.
Alright, time to take a shower and get ready for my first exciting day with Nova.


10:45 pm – Looking Back

Well, that was interesting. I met up with Dave, the other guy with whom I am training, at Matsudo today, and after a brief lunch, headed over to the Nova office where out OJT, On The Job Training began. I remember reading Greg’s entries in his journal about these first few days, and how worried he was, and I suppose I carried a bit of that with me as I went through the lesson training. For the first half of the day, from 1:20 till about 5pm, we just went over each part of the lesson and then performed them to the other, and the trainer. There were the obvious train wrecks now and again, but by and large things went smoothly, at least for me. Dave had some difficulties, and if I had similar ones I was largely oblivious, due to the stress. I will admit that enthusiasm is one of my strong points, and I think that the times where I might not be so strong, it carries me through for the most part. Kerry, the area manager, stopped in at one point before lunch, and spent some time training with us. Of course, it was when we were getting to the hardest parts of the lesson, so she couldn’t really see me shine all that well, but there was some good humor shared between the trainer, her and myself.
On the way to lunch, she mentioned that Greg and I knew one another. I told her that I have a great deal of respect for one another, and the odd coincidence of wanting to come teach here that we announced to one another at the same time. She said that she could already see the similarities between the two of us, and that he does very good work. Then, managing to completely jinx me, she said that she had equally high expectations of me, to which I responded that I would do my best.
Dave has to cut his ponytail. I feel bad, cause it’s clear that he has some unruly and curly hair. I look forward to seeing how he manages to style it once it’s cut.
Anyway, today was a full 8 hours, and I was pretty damn tired at the end of it. I went over to the internet point nearby and checked my email and all, then set about going home. I picked up a sandwich or two and a bottle of green tea, and made short work of them once I got home. So here I am, 5 till 11, and I think I am going to sleep like a log tonight, for the first time really since arriving. I’m guessing I’ve already lost a couple pounds since being here, if not from the diet and exercise then the stress. I anticipate returning to my preferred, emaciated state before long. More as time progresses.