Second Thoughts…but only momentarily

This math can’t be right, I thought, and I reworked it all gain in my head. Knowing my mathematical skills are about as equal to a hamster trying to paraphrase Merchant of Venice I flicked on the laptop and worked things out again on the calculator. The numbers checked out proving not only that I am better then a hamster trying to paraphrase Merchant of Venice but also what I had suspected for the last three weeks, right there under my nose all this time but never fully investigated until yesterday, was correct. It was another staff meeting, this time attended by one of the big bosses so we were all on our best behavior which meant I couldn’t take my pants off this time. Shucks. These meetings are used to talk about the previous month, talk about the future month and generally air any grievances we may or may not have. With one of the bigwigs looming behind us like a dark storm cloud, nobody had anything terribly negative to say. I had no issues myself so I was able to keep my usually overly large mouth closed as well. At these meetings we are also handed our paychecks and, for the first time, our time sheets from the previous month. I happened to glance at the hours worked section before turning it over to continue the re…what? I turned it back again. That’s not right, is it? Should I mention it? Ask? No, best to wait…do the math later. I flipped the piece of paper with the startling news back around and sat through the rest of the meeting (making one faux pas…I called the bigwig Australian, and then British when he was actually Welsh…I even made fun of the Welsh language…he was a good sport about the mistake and even gave me some rice balls his wife made…of course those things could be poisoned…best to feed one of them to the kids first to test the waters). Back home I started calculations to ensure everything checked. I did it twice. I did it three times. The numbers didn’t budge. What I was reading was that, out of the entire month of April, I only worked 20 hours. Yes, read that again, in 30 days I worked 20 hours…not even an hour a day. Further thoughts came to mind: This is half or the time I would work in an average week at the video store for triple the earnings. My average week is less then my average day back home. Christ on a stick, I mused, why doesn’t everybody live this way? Why is there not an influx of millions coming to places like Japan like Mexicans crossing into the States? True the numbers of ESL teachers in foreign countries are indeed high but certainly the minimum wage earners back home, some with great potential and others will be flipping burgers the rest of their days, should jump on this cart and ride it till the wheels come off. This, my friends, is the life!

I am not writing all of this to brag about my very lax life here in Japan but, more so, to say that this is how we humans should live. We shouldn’t be overworked and underpaid drones to large corporations, as most of us are. Our lives should have more time spent doing what we love to do and if that is your job then so be it but I am sure most of the working class would rather be elsewhere when they are on the clock for the normal 8 hour working day. In a week we have 168 hours. Take away 40 for work. Take away another 6 for commuting to work. Take away 56 for sleeping. This gives us 66 hours a week to ourselves. Break that down it becomes about 2 ½ full days. Out of a year that has 365 days we get 130 full days to ourselves. Now, these are not staggering numbers. That is indeed a lot of free time and most people don’t know what to do with this time when they have it hence why so much reality television. However, I look at my job here, working a few hours, sometimes even one, a day and so little time each month giving me all this time to explore my other interests and I really believe that there should be more life and less work. Less hours. More money. Wow, isn’t that crazy talk? Try to plug this view to those back home and they would think me insane. Here in Japan though, for me anyway (the Japanese are not as fortunate in their working hours as us outsiders are, which is another sad state that I won’t ramble on about), I am able to live this way and, honestly, it is going to be hard to return to the firmly regimented work week (if I, in fact, half to return to it).

This is where the second thoughts started to sink in. If life here is so good, so much time, bigger pay, why in the holy hell would I want to leave it? I began to think of extending my stay should it be offered to me, another year, maybe two, maybe always. I keep fighting off contrasting images of my life back in Canada working those 8 hours for a half hour lunch break, loathing most ticks of the clock and waiting for check out time. Here I don’t dread, despite some past rants, work…even the Eliminator is 5 hours of a day. I know that my days are short and I am back to my own free time usually within 2 hours. I use it to travel like I never have before, write more, photograph more things that suffered in my Western existence due to how much time was spent on the job. One would think that less hours does not equate to more finance but here I am living the dream and why wake up when I don’t have to? Will it ever be this good back home? Very, very doubtful.

But, as I said, these thoughts were only momentary ones. They still floating in from time to time but I realized two things: 1) I still have a strong passion for film that I feel I have never really given a fair shot at, never dove into the water, balls to the wall, headlong into the industry….just flirtations over the years, frustrating flirtations but never full consummation. I have to at least say I tried as hard as I could before moving on. I can’t say that yet; and 2) All of you are back home and though Vancouver is still a fair ways of distance between most of us at least it is the same country, now worries of exit Visas or travel complications due to language barriers. Now, both of these are easily maneuvered around and are not real deterrents but I would be amiss to no mention one of the reasons pulling me back are my loved ones.

Now, all this said and out on the table, a analyzing and working out of my thoughts on this page, there is nothing to say I could not return to such a life should I wish to in the future. If nothing works out, if film fails and other job prospects or lack of them place me back into a working life I hate leading then the world awaits. It is a comfort to know that I take away a year of teaching in another country, that experience, with me when I return to Canada next year. I plan to try to get tutoring jobs with this experience in the large Asian community in Vancouver as I don’t want to fully shelve teaching just yet. If I do it will never be placed on a high shelf to collect dust. No, this experience will always be within reach should I happen to want to go back to it. It is nice to know that this life a world away isn’t as far off as it may appear to be.