Day 16 - First Day at Gaba and the Imperial Palace

So yesterday was my induction at Gaba where I had to finish off a couple of modules and met everyone.  It was not until 5:30pm so I had a bit of time to kill and looked at my map and thought that I have not even been into the cit yet, or to the Imperial Palace.  It was not raining (YAY) so jumped on the metro that takes me straight to Tokyo station.  When I popped out the other side, I feel like I was transported to a city/country that was not Tokyo, let alone Japan.  I was in Europe,  tree lined boulevards, stone roman columns, and blue stone paved the streets next to the likes of  Major bank corporations and designer stores.  I don't know what I expecting but that was not it.  Anyways, it was easy to find the imperial palace, look for A) the hoards of tourists and B) the massive stone wall around the edge.  The Imperial Family still live there so you can only access the east garden (which is free).  Maybe it was a bad time to go, I was getting a little hungry and was thinking 'yeah, yeah Japanese garden' despite the fact that it is, oh, how many years old...well the palace was reconstructed in 1968 (I don't feel so bad now) but the family has lived in this area since 1600.  

Headed back home to prepare for my induction (prepare = iron clothes) so I can head out to Akabane.  So I get out there just on time ( I missed the rapid train) and it is only a 16min train ride form shinjuku so I think this location for work will be fine.  I met the leader, got a tour of the studio and we get stuck into the other modules (need to complete four in your first week).  They are pretty basic, taking about 20 mins each, read the text, take notes and a mini quiz at the end.  By now it is about 7:30pm and my leader says 'how about we open up a lesson for you at 8:30pm, and if someone takes it great, if not, you can start tomorrow'.  After a minor panic attack, someone books the class and I have my first student.  Talk about being thrown in the deep end, but it actually went ok.  Not great, mind you, but not a disaster either.  It was good to get it over and done with.  The leader gave me great feedback, I have to speak louder, and stop saying 'yeah'.  But other than that, he thought it went well for a first lesson.  He said I was quite nervous at the beginning but settled into it, so he thinks I will be fine.  He has opened up my schedule, so fingers crossed I get some bookings.  Eventually, he said you want to be getting all 'blue bookings', that means that the student requested you.  In the beginning I won't have many unless the students want to meet me, but he said after a month or two, my schedule should be fully booked with mostly blues.  Fingers and toes.  The first month is always quiet, I just want to break even with my living costs which means I have to teach 16 classes a week at 40mins each.  (Hopefully I get more than that).

One thing I am tossing up about at the moment is about the pub job.  Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest teaching, and he has opened me up for 9 classes this Saturday, but I have to work at pub on Sunday.   If I could get 9 classes teaching that is 13500Y versus  5700Y for 6hours at the pub.  Pub might have to go I think, unless I can switch a shift.  Maybe I will try that first and if it doesn't work, then I will just have to be super tight until Nov 25th when I get paid by Gaba, and try and teach as much as possible.

xoxo