Yukata be kidding

South Park - Crocodile Hunter
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Saitama and the world has been rocked by debate this week. Was Steve Irwin a genius who brought conservationism to the common man or just a git who dangled his kids over crocs` mouths in juvenile stunts? Undecided, I thought I should still pay him a small tribute.

Yesterday, JeDoS visited me in Ageo so I could sign my second year contract, so now I have another 12 months of work and a three year visa. I also have a decreasing enthusiasm for work for the man who delivered the paper. This Sunday, I was hoping to go on a yukata cruise with Lisa, Chantal and a few others, along with some Shane staff and a few more random strangers. We would have toured Tokyo bar in our yukata, enjoying a subsidised trip and Japan`s finest invention, nomihodai (all you can drink) for ¥2500. As it is now, my boss claims to have not seen either of my emails about the trip and so didn`t reserve me any places and we`re not going. Lisa`s boyfriend had re-arranged a shift so he could come and we had variously been plotting how to coax our Japanese friends into helping us dress. All for nothing.

As small as the problem may be, it is the last in a long line of disappoint-
ments and cock-ups by my boss at my expense; the most serious being him not explaining that `compass-
ionate leave` to Shane is set out in the same way as sick pay, in that we have to pay for the privilege, so I`m down by about ¥68,000 this month because of my recent trip home. The company line is clearly more out of line here, but when you have things on your mind, you are not going to be checking small print and I know every boss I`ve had previously would have explained this to me, whether to benefit me or to take a swipe at the policy. He either assumed I would know or forgot. He hasn`t apologised for this - I think a litigiously-aware silence - but that would have cooled my fury immediately. We all make mistakes, after all...

It is a peril of the EFL world that your bosses are little more than reluctant, over-promoted teachers (a workshy breed in themselves), most of whom have been forced to rise up through the ranks because of their spouses and mortgages and not because of any desire or ability to manage. My own boss allegedly resisted rising any further than his previous post as best he could, but the sudden departure of the previous DoS forced his hand, and the salary was kind of handy too. I have requested a change of districts, partly to experiment with some new management (I still hold a torch for the previous DoS, as neurotic and unpopular as he was, mainly because He Got Things Done - sadly, not always things that were welcomed by the teachers beneath him), but my mind is racing with all sorts of procrastinational cliches: better the devil you know; the grass is always greener; out of the frying pan...

It has made me realise how spoiled I was working in Britain with people who were vaguely interested in being decent managers. This wasn`t a skill that blessed everyone I`ve worked for. One line manager was so absent from my working life it was only in my second job that I realised that she should have been someone I knew from places other than the pub, where I generally avoided her bloated, whining mass as best I could anyway. I`ve also had a job where my main responsibility was keeping my manager`s pending breakdown at bay. It doesn`t seem to matter so much in the comfort of an office environment, where you can moan and grumble to other staff before distracting yourself with more interesting and pending matters, like regular updates on reality TV from workshy colleagues who spent all their time surfing entertainment sites for gossip. (Better and worse than it sounds).

The TTA most definitely raised my expectations to an unmanageable level This morning I couldn`t keep my frustration at yet another let-down to myself and so spouted to the ADoS. My second attempt at using him as a sympethic ear. Instead of being led into a small office for a serious listening to, I was rushed off the phone and thanked, with arid sarcasm, for my candour. In EFL, there is no problem, as long as the students are paying up and my students most definitely are. To give the ADoS his due, he did then try to firefight by calling the cruise company to book my mates some places, but they`re all booked up. Lisa and are probably going to go to an izakaya instead, which could be just as good and won`t involve Raju`s mother-in-law dressing me.

After work, I went to meet Jerry for a beef sandwich and a Japanese for horse-riding lesson at the George. Among other things, I learned the Japanese for walk, trot, canter, gallop, stop, turn, jump and help. Jerry learned a few Japanese riding words too. I don`t know if he`s ever been on a horse. His previous allusions to being an experienced rider are quickly being revealed as weak attempts to impress. He had to finally admit last night that he had ridden for around two hours in the past few years and hasn`t gone much faster than a walk. This was brilliant for me and George, who spent yet another evening Jerry-baiting. It`s a lot like bullying and perhaps something I should stop, but oh so tempting when he gets caught out so easily. I ought to be nicer to him though, he`s found an amazing and quite affordable stable. We have a 40 minute lesson `to relax on a horse`, according to the brochure, then ride out around a mountain. I`m a bit scared of this bit, as it does look quite high, but I`ll hopefully be able to secrete my camera somewhere in my jodphurs without attracting too much attention.

George pulled out his Darth Vader mask, which we all tried on, but no one wore it as well as Ken. Vader should wear bonnets more. We practised some more `bad` Japanese and I impressed everyone with Yoriko`s `special needs`. I like it best as it uses `desu` and not `arimasu`, so it`s `he is special needs`, not `he has...`. Later, Pat danced.

The girl on the train is wearing a t-shirt that said `I`m built like a brick shithouse`. I don`t think anyone else could wear it so well.