私はもどって来る (I'm Back)
One of the original problems I had trying to get a job on Okinawa was the whole lack of a proper visa thing. If you're just visiting Japan, as I technically was at the time, you get a big ole tourist visa stamp in your passport as soon as you get off the plane. This allows you to stay in the country for three months, but doesn't allow you to (legally) work. To actually start teaching I'd have to have a working visa. Little did I know how hard that would be to come by. Sometimes places would interview me not knowing my visa status, but as soon as they found out it was like, "...well thank's for your time and come back when you have a real visa, fucker!".
Well, now I've got a real visa and I've begun hitting up places that didn't hire me the first time around but are a lot more likely to hire me now. One of those places is Okinawa Hands On NPO, a non profit organization in Chatan that provides a variety of classes to people across the island, including low income families. I had an interview with them yesterday that went amazingly well. Best job interview of all time I'd say. I didn't get hired on the spot but it seemed to me like an inevitability. That would add another two hours a week to my plate, giving me 12 hours total and bringing me about halfway to my goal. I'll need 25 hours a week (at a rate of 2000 yen an hour) to be making as much money as I did at my previous English school, which is interesting because I definitely worked 40+ hours a week at that place. But that's another story for another day.