New Contract

Last Tuesday I signed my new contract with NOVA. Pretty much what I expected, although I was a bit disappointed by the raise I got. The raise I got was 2k yen per month, which is a bit less than what most people I know received (4k per month). There are a few reasons floating around in my head as to why, which are in order of likeliness: the company is in financial troubles and so is being stingy with increases, I'm not as good a teacher as others (I don't really like that one), and the fact that I was late twice (once by about 5 minutes, once by one lesson) not because I was sick or any other external reason, but I just forgot or lost track of time. Probably a combination of all three.

At any rate, a small increment is a bit shit because after one year I have to start paying city tax, which apparently is a fair bit bigger than the increment (by at least a factor of 2-4, maybe more). Ah well, most people don't bother paying, or at least not until the government gets serious about asking about it, although I have heard it can cause problems if you try and visit Japan again later on. But, since I am the type of person I am, I will probably pay the tax.

I'm going to try and sort out renewing my visa tomorrow, but that will mean heading into work early and hoping the copy of my contract for the immigration office has arrived. It wasn't anywhere Friday, but the area manager said it would be at the office by Thursday, so we'll see in the morning. Then I'll have to go into Osaka, and hand in some forms and stuff. Hopefully it won't take too long, as I have to start work at 2:15, so that gives me about 4 hours to pick up the contract, go into Osaka, deal with the bureaucracy, and get back out to Nishinomiya for work.

End Post
Writing time: a while (I started on Tuesday, but didn't get back to it until tonight)
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: alex gaudino - destination calabria