Nice Guys Not Only Finish Last But They Get More Work

My usual Halloween ritual of amassing a large collection of candy wrappers and popcorn kernels while sitting like a zombie in front of many hours of horror movies is going to be hindered this year by my own inability to say no. Is it wrong for one to curse their good nature? No, instead of watching countless young women running through woods are struggling with the simple mechanics that are door locks I am going to find myself on a train heading back towards Fukui for a Halloween night of teaching. Originally my schedule had me slated in for one of those wonderful spend a few hours in the classroom devising new games and teaching materials days. You see, the last week and the first few days of October are none teaching days as they are designated holidays or those office days. During this time the Company has organized a fall seminar as a sort of reiteration of our training as well as a forum for teacher’s to express ideas. This is not a normal staff meeting, in other words. Is it a waste of time? No, I don’t think so. Personally, I can benefit from going over certain points that are to be covered in this two-day session. There will be an exchange of classroom games, a chat on how to control larger classes as well as a speech on teaching children with learning disabilities. This last speech will be given by this sap who jotted his name down as a volunteer. Now, I don’t mind giving this speech and won’t complain. I have worked with such children in the past and my input could help others. I just didn’t realize that it would be the longest presentation of the two days when I jotted my name down and the extra work it would entail.

This job, I admit, has made me soft and slightly lazy. Not so much in regards to the actual work of teaching and prepping but in the amount of time off or down time. I over prepare, show up to class an hour, sometimes two or three hours early to get things ready for the week and then I am left with nothing to do but read or doze and wait for the minutes to tick the kids through the door. There is a lot of free time with this gig be it the office days, the days off or the waiting. No longer am I working eight hours a day, five days a week and with the free time comes a sluggish existence. I mean, there are only so many mountains one can climb. So, now that my exploration has died down I find myself in front of the computer a lot and, yes, I’m becoming a human sloth. Not to say I’m not finding ways to occupy my time what with this journal and constant Facebook Scrabble games but I view the prospect of preparing a presentation for this seminar as a heap of work on the anthill of work I am used to. I’m not complaining despite how this sounds. I think a change of pass from the lessons will be nice and researching this topic offers a break from the endless Scrabble games but of course there is that part of me that would like to be one of those lucky folks who get to sit back for two days and listen to chump volunteers like me spout.

But we veered off track a little. What of that Halloween train ride? Well, once again I volunteered for something in which I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. Actually, in this instance I didn’t think I’d be getting into anything at all. For some odd reason the Company is not having these training seminaries at the same time countrywide as they do with combined staff meetings. Okay, fine, but what really seems wonky is scheduling these meetings on days when lessons would normally occur. Because of this staff that are not working those days, which is everybody in my group due to the fact that we were initially supposed to have our meetings at the same time but now those days are designated as office days, we are being asked to cover those schools. Now, Kyoto (the area I’m referencing) is not exceptionally far away but in regards to the traveling distance for myself and other teachers in my group I am one of the farthest away. With that in mind I was sure when I mentioned to our acting supervisor “I have no problem doing this but use me as a last resort” I would never have to be that last resort. Why I thought others would raise their hands to volunteer for this gig when mine was already halfway up I don’t know but it looks as though nobody else did as out of the three lucky folks chosen for this gig two of us were the farthest possible distance from the classrooms. How far? Try a two hour train ride plus a fifteen minute bus ride or a forty-five minute walk. Yup, I am heading up North once again to the Fukui area and instantly I am reminded of how the experience was the first time. Not wanting to be subjected to faulty information which would leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere once again I decided to take a more forward approach with this “trip”. Evidentially it was with good reason as things began to move out of joint right off the bat.

As it was with the Fukui trip, the supervisor organizing my tickets (I am the only one in need of company supplied tickets because of how far the trek is) was told I lived in Osaka and wold be booking the tickets from there. Here we go again. I was on the phone with my poor area manager to correct this error. It also occurred to me after looking up where I would be headed that I was only a few stops away from the place I had been sent to on that business trip a few months ago. Peculiar that I was told due to currently low travel time that I was not able to have the Company fork out the cash to pop me into a hotel. Ah, a little added math helped clear the smoke being blown up my ass. Because they were having me leave from Osaka my travel time was cut but they did not equate the travel to get to Osaka and, incidentally, that walk or bus ride. All in all, I worked things out to be over two hours of travel meaning the company would put me in a hotel if I requested it. Thing is, I didn’t want a hotel. With that seminar the next day I’d rather just take a late train home and be done with it. But things were not going to be so simple, I learned, as the final train and bus schedules didn’t mesh and my walking would have me missing the ride. A taxi cab would be needed which has to be booked by the office the day off. With buses, trains and now cabs not to mention me not knowing where I am really headed there are plenty of opportunities for things to mess up and I wanted to have my ass covered. It was nice to know I could pull the hotel card as a backup play if needed. It was equally nice to know that because of the distance traveled I was able, hotel or not, to request the business trip extra funding allotted to us for these little road journeys. A little extra cash, a small amount but extra nevertheless, was a nice perk although I’d rather be watching a bulky guy in hockey mask slash up teenagers as I ate myself into a Crunky coma. Miscommunications continued with the Kyoto supervisor as she was told I lived in Nara city and not the prefecture of Nara and thus rebooked tickets from yet another wrong location. We managed to sort things out eventually and she said she’d personally take care of the taxi cab situation. Well, if all goes according to schedule I should at least be able to make it home for my normal midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Just as this was about to go to press a phone call comes in from head office. I didn’t like the sound of that ring. It was a ring with dark, dark undertones. I slowly picked up the phone and said hello. Well, you volunteer once to help somebody move on in to the area and you are marked, it appears. I was being asked to help move in one more new teacher and I was being asked to do it in two days. Again I had no maps and no keys and again it was down to the last minute as I was really inches away from leaving the classroom and being in the clear! You know, for a company who puts some much emphasis on punctuality they certainly don’t practice what they preach! Well, this is also not so bad. I get my day off the next day and I get to spend a day in Nara city, a place I have come to miss no longer teaching there, as the new guy is taking up residence there. Not wanting to sound rude, but wanting to sound rude, I requested that the girl at the office requesting this get maps out to me ASAP as I really wanted to get home. My stomach was gnawing at me and I was nursing a headache. She said she would have them out to me right away. Right away in Japan apparently means an hour from now as I sat waiting for a FAX that never came. I didn’t know who this woman was so I had to call our support line. Turns out she was calling form there and had dialed the wrong school number. She sent the FAX again and due to our primitive cave man machines the FAX took an additional twenty minutes to print. Why can’t I just keep my big mouth shut! Finally it all popped out except, as before, there was no checklist and so I called again and told them to FAX it all to the school around the corner from my apartment. Enough was enough. I don’t mind doing a favor for you folks but there were chicken rolls to be made! When I got to the train station I tossed the class garbage away in the bin and turned to get a face full of train station door. I stood and watched the train pull away as my stomach moaned. And what have we learned form all this? Flying under the radar is less likely to get you shot!