雨が降る時 (When It Rains)

[perfectchaosrei]

Damn. I knew this day was gonna start off fucked up as soon as I woke up and notice it was a) raining like a motherfucker and b) lightning like a motherfucker. What the hell. Didn't the weather controlling bastard get the memo that it was my first day of work? Couldn't hook a brotha up with some sunshine or something? I left the apartment around 7:45, thinking I could get to work about 10-15 minutes before my 9 o' clock start time. Little did I know traffic was jammed up all through Yonabaru and most of Haebaru as there was an accident on the 329. Doh! Soon as I bypassed that shit I took what I thought would be a faster route and ran into assloads of more traffic. Never ending traffic. All told I was 22 minutes late to work today. And I had to run through some moonsoon like conditions to make it to my building. And I forgot the damn lunch I slaved over last night by the front door before I left.

Thankfully things got a lot better after that auspicious start. I didn't get bitched out about being late as I think a bunch of people in the office realized I wasn't bullshitting about their being an accident. Swag. On the other hand, instead of getting bitched out by my boss I did have to deal with a 2 hour meeting that dragged on...and on...and on....mostly dealing with stuff that most people have to learn about on their first days. You know, shit like when you can take sick days, how much leave you have, protocols and procedures and self introductions and stuff. A couple of interesting things I gleaned from that session:

• In order to prove you took a sick day, you have to bring back a doctors note. Uh...since my ass still lacks insurance, guess I won't be taking any sick days ever.
• After 6 months you get 10 days of vacation. After six and a half years that gets bumped up to 20. That's still better than the 0 vacation days I had at my eikaiwa
• An inkan is a terrible thing to misplace.
• Overtime is only counted after you've already worked 30 hours of it. Which means if you've worked 31 extra hours a month, only 1 of those hours is paid.
• I get paid on the 25th, but I'm only getting paid from the 1st-15th. However, with the money from my other jobs that means I won't be destitute for another month. Huzzah!

As a reward for making it through the talk that'd never end, we were treated to a free lunch across the street at Main Place at the same restaurant I had my first meal in Japan in. By we I mean Yuiko (work BFF/translator these days), and a couple of employees that happened to be starting the same day as me. Out of the whole group I was the oldest...but nobody believed me. I wonder if that'll hinder me as I try to work my way up the ranks and into the position of Supreme Office Overlord. I regaled them with my craptacular Japanese skills and scarred them for life my putting soy sauce on white rice. I also learned something important: I wasn't the only foreigner at the company after all. Dun dun duuuuuuuun.

After lunch, it was time to do some actual work. Woohoooo! Finally, a chance to get paid for something I've been doing a lot of for the past six months: sitting on my ass in front of a computer! It wasn't long before the other foreigner spotted me from across the room and came over to introduce himself. His name was Dennis, and he was a lot less menacing than his name would suggest. I thought he was just your average white guy in Japan doing white guy in Japan things (you know...karate...swimming with sting rays...uh...cosplaying), but no! He was only half white, the other half being Okinawan. And he had lived on the island damn near his whole life. Culturally he is 1,000,000% Japanese, but I have a feeling we'll be work/izakaya BFFs. I shall take him under my wing, and nurture him. And in return he will hook me up with sweet military discounts! Mwahahahahahaaa...anyway.

Seven o' clock rolled around and I finally decided it was time to leave work. I'm still not quite sure how the whole over time thing works. My boss left around 6...yet nobody really seemed too anxious to run out the building along with him. I guess when I get more actual work to do I'll have a better idea of why people spend so many hours of their lives at the office. Despite how things started, I had a pretty swell first day of work. And now that I know I have to leave my house 3 hours early to be on time, and I don't have to sit through 100 hours of non-stop Japanese, tomorrow should be even better.