Being a Ronin part V

Time: Sunday evening
Music: Iron Maiden...The prophecy

In August 2001, I moved to Japan with NOVA and lived in Goi, which is in Ichihara-shi, in Chiba prefecture.  Like I have mentioned in previous posts, Goi had alot of illegal activity going through it.  The difference between illegal activity in Japan versus illegal activity in the US is that criminals go after criminals.  From what I understand, the Yakuza have pretty strict guidelines regarding messing with regular people.  When it comes to gaijin, we may as well be on different planets.  I didn't know it at the time, but my favorite bar was run by the wife of a high ranking Yakuza.  Running the gaijin bar was a kind of a side project for her, and when she would come, she would always come with her body guard; a guy with 3 fingers on one hand a running suit and a bit of an attitude. We all just called her Mamasan.  Mamasan used some kind of crazy, outdated colloquialisms in her Japanese, but she had an odd affection for me.  As it turns out, the Yakuza are very superstitious, and I when I was drinking there, business was good... hence, I was her lucky charm.  She was always pretty nice to me, and even tried to hook me up with her daughter... a 17 year old drop out to whom Mama bought some kind of boutique for her to run as a business.  I politely declined.

One night after work, I went directly to The Phoenix, and was having a pretty good time there.  As usual, they had 6 TVs going on at the same time... but then again it was a sports bar.  Most of the Flower mansion crowd was there, and at that time I was the only American.  One guy, a Kiwi, who was one of the biggest drunkards I have ever met, went on and on about how he hated Americans.  I just sat there and listened to him prattle on his venom.  I bought him another beer, and he said I was an exception to the rule.  I really liked that guy...  Soon, one of the bartenders started to tell me how there was some kind of accident in New York, and a building was on fire.  He turned a couple of the TVs to the channels showing it live... And that is when I watched the second plane hit the world trade center.  I just stared at the TV for the next few hours in disbelief while others made comments around me.  The Australian guy was starting to be a real prick.  "America is under attack, man!" he said as he was giggling and bouncing around... I really wanted to smash his skull through with a mug at the time, but I was still in shock, and that level of violence has never been in my character.  My British roommate said to me "Now you know how we felt, getting bombed."  It wasn't in a mean way, and the way he actually said it was kind. For the next few weeks, all my students would always ask me if I had family in New York.  It actually got irritating after a while, but they were trying to be nice and they were generally concerned. 

The view outside my front door in Kisarazu.

After the second year, I had become an old hand at NOVA.  Most people would stay for a little less than 1 year, get frustrated with Japan, and leave.  There were two others that were really long timers there however.  An Australian and a Canadian; both charisma men.  If you have never heard of a charisma man, google it and you will be very entertained.  In short however, its a guy who can not get women in his own country but when he comes to Japan, he starts to get dates fairly easily just based on his personality.  Eventually a charisma man begins to get an overly inflated ego of himself, and begins to think they are the center of the universe.  They were both interesting characters, but each had a very warped view on women.  One in particular would often tell me it was very easy to "bully" your way into a relationship.  I have to admit, in Japan I found dating much simpler than in America.  I never did go to the Charisma man extreme though.  I was very lucky though to meet a wonderful woman while in Goi.  Not as a girlfriend, but as a mentor.  She was an older Japanese teacher and I went to her class at least 4 times a week in the beginning.  Her name was Reiko, and we became good friends.  I often called her my Japanese mother.

drunk charisma man... and Japanese girl trying to get away.  He was a funny guy though.

I stayed in Goi for roughly a year and a half, until I moved to Kisarazu.  I actually was working in Kisarazu most of the time, so I thought that the move would be better.  Living in the Flower Mansion was fun for a while, but the magic was soon gone.  The really fun people had moved on, and in their place came people I really had nothing in common with.  The culture in that building had shifted, and I got tired of the non stop shuffle of roommates.  Reiko helped me with finding a place, and I really liked it there.  My salary was also really good at NOVA, and I lived by myself in a 2DK apartment.  This time truly by myself, and it was a good run while I was there.  I really felt at home in Kisarazu, and just down the street was a Don Kihote, where I was a regular.  What I really loved about Kisarazudont know why.

Hard to see, but that little cloud looking thing is Mt. Fuji.  Its just a low rez pic of my route home

Over time, I did everything that NOVA offered in the way of training courses, and I was pretty popular with the students, but I saw how the Japanese staff treated students, and that bothered me.  Once they had the students money, they treated them like cattle.  As long as they kept getting new contracts and renewals, nothing else mattered, so I quit...  Not before I got another job with another company... A company that was well known for a place that readily hired former NOVA teachers.  That company was Interac... That is another story...