Here is the run down on my current job working for the newly revived NOVA. As of today I officially was hired and added to the payroll of the company that bought out NOVA and am assigned to a school that is about 25 minutes away from my home train station. It is currently not open and tentatively scheduled to open on December 4th, but that could always change as this new company adjusts to dealing with their currently rather overwhelming situation. However until the school opens and I start working full time again I am paid to 'standby' or simply to wait at home. Now originally this pay was supposed to be my full wage, but on Tuesday G. Education, the new owners, changed this pay to only 60% of our full salary. Consequently the foreign heads of staff were enraged and are currently fighting to get it returned to full payment or at the very least 80%. So while that is frustrating, at least it seems that there is a chance that I will be able to obtain full salary while waiting for my school to open.

As far as the back wages I am owed by the now defunct NOVA the government will pay 80% of those, but due to the large number of applications that have to be prepared and processed by the government trustees appointed to NOVA it is unlikely I will receive this payment until March at the earliest. However this should be in the range of 4 to 5 thousand dollars, so at least I will be able to recoup some of my losses.

The situation is much better mainly because the foreign personnel heads of staff are being very upfront with us about the entire situation and are actively fighting for us whenever the Japanese owners attempt to manipulate or take advantage of us. This is a huge departure from the deception and outright lies we had to deal with before, so things are finally turning around. All in all my spirits are high and I can finally start enjoying traveling again as I'll finally have money.

Christmas in Japan

Since the Japanese don't celebrate Thanksgiving, after Halloween they dive right into the commercial fever of Christmas. This includes sales, decorations, the whole nine yards. I thought it was interesting because while Japan is a mainly non-religious culture, they certainly embrace the commercial religion of Santa Claus. These are some pictures of just a few of the many decorations I have seen...

Alright this will be the last time I say this, but I actually have a job. I start next Thursday for the company that bought out NOVA. Good news on that. The reason I haven't been blogging recently is that I lost my password and only recently figured it out, so I hope you haven't been too on edge wondering about what has been happening to me in the land of the rising sun. For now I will leave you with some pictures of when Jeff visited as well as some random ones. Enjoy.

Well jokes on me I guess as the company that bought out NOVA will now only rehire about half of the foreign teachers and J staff. More info on this can be found here:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071113TDY02307.htm

It is still unknown as to whether I will be offered a job or not and no one living in Osaka that I know has been offered a job yet, but that doesn't mean much. If I have not been offered a job within the next week or so it seems very unlikely that I will get hired back, so that is rather depressing. However I do have two more interviews this week, so maybe one of those will work out. I apologize for any false hope, but we were once again given misleading information from surprise surprise a Japanese company dealing with foreigners! This whole situation hasn't lessened my desire to stay here for another couple of years, but it has shown me that Japan is sadly still very xenophobic and quietly racist. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but when the Japanese media was covering all of the NOVA scandal all they kept mentioning was how horrible it was for the students to lose their disposable income while nary a mention was made of teachers being evicted from apartments, penniless, jobless, and starving. So while almost all of my interactions with individual Japanese have been amazing, their society at large is shockingly anti-foreigner with no concept of discrimination or racism. Overall I'm just hoping I don't turn into some cynical ex-pat due to my poor business experiences in this country...but the future is looking bleak.

I have a job. A company bought out NOVA and I basically will be doing the same thing I did before, which leaves something to be desired, but regardless I won't be getting thrown out of the country. So that is rather uplifting. Still have a second interview this Thursday and if that works out I will have a better paying job with better holidays and all, but who knows how that will work out. So basically I will be in Japan for quite some time as was planned before, so sorry to anyone who was hoping for a quick return of their hero. Anyway more info on the new company and such later, but I haven't gone to sleep after a night of kinda partying and club hopping. Kinda sad, but it wasn't really that good of a night, more just philosophical talk with my friends. I fear I am getting old...

http://www.nova.ne.jp/information/announce-071106-en.html

This is the latest info from NOVA regarding the buyout. Potentially I could be re-hired by the company that bought 33% of NOVA's assets, but they have not announced exactly how that will work at this point. Hopefully since I live in Osaka and a good number of the initial schools will be centered around here and Tokyo, I will have a better chance of getting hired. Who knows. As soon as I know more details I will post it.

Well had a ton of fun with Jeff in our time around Osaka and Tokyo and despite getting over a pretty bad cold things are looking up. Seems that the lawyers controlling Nova right now are in negotiations with several companies who could possibly buyout the company and they have stated that their goal is to announce the sponsor within a week. More info on the whole situation can be found at www.letsjapan.org, but i suggest you only read the first post in all of the blogs as all the comments following the official posts can be very confusing and mostly inaccurate. However this blog stays very up to date on the situation and posts any official news from Nova, the bankruptcy lawyers, and the media.
I also have a second interview with another English school and as there were over 400 applicants and subsequent interviews and only three of us called back for a second 2 hour demo lesson and interview I suppose I should be proud of the fact that I was selected to come back. This job would be full time with better pay and while it wouldn't start until December it would still be a much better position than the one I currently hold with Nova. So once again thank you to everyone praying for me as I still really appreciate all the support.
Lastly here are some of the pics from when Jeff was here!