Had nothing else to do, no ideas for a good post and was really bored, so I said to myself: "What the heck!"

give me a reason to say lifes well spent/
when this feeling of time is short of worthless/
the hidden reasons of meanings i cant find/
its hard to describe this place in my mind/
this path that i follow is lonely and cold/
and barren of souls and layered with stones/
that tear at my feet with every step taken/
each scar on my foot is a memory of failing/
and though i try to justify my ways/
some days its hard to see my own face/
in a mirror that shows my own flaws and visions/
of every wrong that i made with decisions/
but ill continue this path to my maker/
ill bear the scars and continually bear witness/
to what could have been if i hadve stuck with it/
i blew my one chance and its my fault i missed it/
the blame lies with no one,its only my own/
i dug my own grave at the end of this road/
what ever the judgement god sees fit to give/
ill accept as my fate and walk towards the end/
i will walk...///

OK~ now that we got out of the way, the living expenses in Tokyo, how well you get paid from a job & if it's really worth going to a university there, it's time we moved on to something more "tasty".



The food & drinks! (best of?!)

I've tried searching on the web for some good places to dine in Tokyo and the site I came up with, was this one: http://bento.com/tokyofood.html

A cute little site, that includes not only places where you can have breakfast or an afternoon snack, but also good pubs where you can get wasted after a tiresome day at work & fancy restaurants with pleasant prices.

So, on my search for some traditional place where I can get to enjoy the japanese life at it's fullest, I've stumbled upon this neat shop.



Souten (Minami-guchi): Otsuka
Yes, it's a yakitori shop, and from what I hear they have great chicken and sake. By the way, for those of you who don't know yet, when a place has pinned on the ceiling, a (cedar) ball, kinda like a disco ball, then it's like a promise, that there they have good sake.

The main course, can be something like this: blue cheese and chicken-liver pate served with raisin bread, and some fairly assertive smoked chicken. Maybe some of you may be surprised and not have the guts to try, but for the adventurous ones, go for it! I may not know how it tastes yet, but I guess it will be a great experience.

As for the drinks, Kozaemon sake from Gifu, plus another two dozen well-selected brands from small breweries around the country. Also from Kozaemon is a very drinkable yuzushu, a limoncello-like citrus liqueur, made with a base of junmaishu sake and served on the rocks.

So, anyway, I wont get too much into it, so, let's get to the price. It's usually around ₯6000-₯7000. Which in US dollars, somewhere around 60-75$.

Well then, now that our belly's are full & our pockets almost empty, let's head over to a jazz cafe and relax with some coffee/tea and music. We can do that at Big Boy: Jimbocho!



I give it to you that it's not one of those old school shops, but if you just want to chill without having to be placed in an underground cave with barely any lights and get smoked to death, then this is the place for you. It plays new & old music, mostly going on with it's piano songs.

Also, a very important note, most shops/restaurants/pubs in Tokyo/Japan, have some kind of cover charge that you need to pay for the place you're staying on [table/sofa etc]. It's usually past a certain hour, and here it starts at around 7 pm. with a charge of ₯1000. So, yeah, you might not wanna stay until that long especially since the sandwiches and coffee/tea are usually that much, so it's like paying double.

And now to end with some listing of wine's & random fun foods.



Wine's can go from less than ₯1000, to ₯2 million yens a bottle. So, it's basically for everyone, no need to sweat over it too much, though you really have to look into it when you go to a restaurant or shop, because you may never know what is the pricing bar from which they start.

Just found this cute, 1993 Chateau Moulinet-Lasserre B, on a japanese site. It's ￥5,200. 55$ isn't all that bad when taking out a special lady, for a special dinner. From what I see all around the net, Japan imports lots of French wine, even if Spain, England, Australia & Austria are coming fast from behind, the french are still miles away.

I've actually found something interesting recently about Austria's winery. It seems, they even surprised London's pro's and the rumors reached Japan as well. More on this matter here: http://www.bento.com/aus/index.html

They proud themselves with the St. Laurent, which from what I heard it's Pinot Noir's "wilder cousin". Dunno about that, but PN is one damn wine & top of my favorites. There is even a cool offer on it. (St. Laurent)

Somehow it seems reasonable to me, a 100$ for all three of them.

Oh & and, the food, well from all the japanese cookies/snacks that they provide something did strike my eyes and that is...bread. turtle bread. wait..not finished, turtle bread that tastes like melon. MELON TURTLE BREAD!



Until my next blog, I'll let you droll over these cute little turtles!

/End of Tokyo Lifestyle #3

So, just got out of the shower and while still being somewhat calm, decided to write the next blog entry. Usually, I either get headaches or really irritated when I talk to other people, because there's always gotta be at least one pessimistic kid out of the whole group. Who knows, maybe that's why I'm even planning on leaving, to go to a better place?! Hah!



side note* A picture of Shibuya. Even if my main plan is to move to Shinjuku, I wouldn't mind this neighborhood either. It's kinda nice, it's like it's telling you that it you move there it'll kill you. But, in a nice way. :)


Well, moving on to me heading over to the fridge and getting a beer.....aaand there's none left. That's why I already went to my mini-bar to get the last sip of whisky I have. hmmm ssssccoootish.

Now, that that's out of the way, let's resume the talk I've eagerly been waiting to tell. The job, the school, and why Tokyo.

So, do I have any real plans or am I just getting on the boat and hoping the waves will be good to me? No, of course not, I've did some research first & came up with the most basic job there. English teacher!

Those who know me a little, are probably laughing right about now, but just let me get to the details first. We all know that before you can become one you need first to go to college, to have a working license, especially since you're not from the respective country, you need to take either an exam or interview or sometimes even both.

To become an English teacher without any experience will be most likely impossible, that is why I've decided to become either a part time one or a tutor. Normally, in some countries, that would be very easy, but in Tokyo, not so much.

Out of courtesy I'm not going to divulge the name of site(s) I've been getting my info, but all I can say is that they are the official jp. ones & I'll give some details about them in general.

Company: X
Job ID: xxxxxx
Location: Tokyo
Post date: Feb 8
Job Category: Teaching / Education
Work Type: Part Time / Experienced (Non-Manager)

Salary: ₯3,700 ~ ₯4,200/Hour

* plus transportation

Requirements:

* English: Native level
* Japanese: Conversational level
* Must currently reside in Japan

Well, to save some of you of calculating what a monthly salary would be like from this kind of part time job, well, at the very least 2000$ - 3000$. Which is pretty ok seeing how it is just a part time job. If we're talking about private tutoring it can go up to 4000$/month but working on weekends as well.

Even though for a full time english teacher the payment is most of the time ₯250,000/Month, which is around 2775$, when you think about it, having just a part time job, looks pretty smart. Having no choice whatsoever, since I do plan of going to college there.

But before there, I'd like to point out aaaa littleeeee detail that you may not notice from their short history on the job. Most of the Japanese companies like to hire, native english speakers, which is pretty much a drag for the rest of us, but fear not, there also a few ones, who do hire even non-native speakers as well, though you need to search a lot into that.

Now to the fun part (not really), the actual schools in Tokyo. Hmph! I haven't actually put a lot of effort in finding one so far...or, here comes the cool part, the actual field I want to work with.

I mean, I did some research, mostly on the web, but I barely could scratch any real vital piece of info. The official sites are pretty messed up, no major detail whatsoever, just talk about money and money and money and a google map. Fuck!

Though on my quest for knowledge, I did find a cute little website with some precious information.



http://www.neec.ac.jp/cie/us/

Don't be alarmed by the first part of the page, since it currently has written "animation & manga" lessons and whatnot, just check the lower part of the site. Apparently it has a variety of applications from which you can choose. Even if I do want to learn new things, 80% of the things there don't really interest me. haha

Amongst the other funny sections like: IT field, Music field.....yes, you can work your way up as an artist, singer, instrumental player, sound check guy/girl, etc. by going to one of these colleges.



Yes, I've laughed about the sport one too. Sports is a very serious business in Europe. I guess, even in Japan too. XD Though, I don't think I'll become the next Maradona.

Well, ok, so the one that caught my interest was this one:



In this part, there are explained the many things you can pursue, in learning, just so you can be prepared for the future. And I'm not just speaking metaphorical here. It starts with Electronics & Electrical Engineering, then flows to Robotics. I'll have to agree that this is still unclear to me as to what kind of job you would attend once you're finished with college, but you know, as I think about it now, it'd be kinda cool to make robots for/of myself, then put them to work. Can that be considered slavery? robotic slavery that is. Maybe I would've had the courage to do it, but not after seeing, "I, Robot" with Will Smith. It left a bad taste in my mouth. :(

Then it goes all the way to bionics and mechanical stuff. The only ones that did give me a chuckle besides the robotics part, was architecture. Here it comes in all kinds of forms and shapes. (Get it?) You can become and architect for interior purposes, ones for exterior and they even have, and this is quote, architectural design research, unquote. To me it looks like fashion/make up artist/dresser etc. Not too sure, and apparently if that's true then the years are longer to the fashion business than the actual architect one.



The thing I love about Jap. school is that they are pretty chill and the usual college term for them is 2 years, which is like a walk in the park for me, since here if you want to go to a decent one you'll need to study at least 4 years. And some go to 15-20 years easy. I dunno about you guys, but I for one don't wanna spend my life in school, then when I finally graduate, I die, of old age & bullshit. :/

Tokyo from what I've been informed it provides with a lot of things here I don't get, if it's either good staff, high tech material to work with and great spirit work. So, if I'm already planning on moving to Japan, then I might as well go out with a bang and move to the most expensive place out there.

Well, don't want to drag this too long, so just gonna end it with the cost's for a college in Tokyo. From what I've seen the usual is between 9000$ - 15.000$ for 2 years. Even if it can get pretty easy to 45.000$ & even beyond, depending on the details of what it provides. From what I hear it gets more expensive with each year.


/End of Tokyo Lifestyle #2