First Steps S01E03 : Shower and Rain

"I am prepared for the prospect of having to fight for my extension contract with the post office. It I had to, I guess I would. But I am still having my fingers crossed"

September 21st, Sunday

I must admit that after arriving in Japan yesterday, life here has been rather lonely. The one good thing that I am looking for is the drama camp I'll be having tomorrow, which happens to be compulsory, which is the only reason why I had to come back to Japan this early instead of spending extra days in Malaysia to celebrate Aidilfitri.

So after my part time job, whilst walking back to my home, I recalled the problem of not having any water to shower so I began to panic. Luckily I remembered this student's dormitory for my university which was located along the way from the train station to my house. I thought that a student dormitory must have at least a shower room. Or more accurately, I was praying that the student dormitory would have a shower room. So I went into the building non chalantly, pretending that I was a resident there, and began my search. First floor, nothing. Second floor, nothing. Third floor, nothing. By this time. hope was dying already. Fourth floor, nothing. But wait, there's a floor directory located near the elevator on the fourth floor. As it turned out, on the basement floor, there is a shower room located next to the gym (wait, they have gym too?!!. I should have stayed there). I went to check it out and true enough, they did have a shower room.

Overwhelmed with joy, I proceeded to the closest 7 eleven shop and bought shampoo, conditioner, soap and tooth paste.

After packing my clothes and towel, I went to the dormitory and showered at the shower room. If I had any doubts that I was in Japan, the doubts were all cleared. After my shower, the moment I went out, I realised I was out of place cause I had towel around my waste. Everyone there was naked. I meant EVERY single person there, except me. And yet, most Japanese have problem expressing their points of view despite having to show everything that is on the outside already. Sigh...

Anyways, after shower, I felt refreshed like a brand new person. Next agenda, sleep.

September 22nd, Monday

So after sleeping for about 10 hours the day before, I woke up at around 6 pm on Sunday. Immediately after that, I called up Lily (she`s from China and she`s my drama partner. Each pair were assigned a script for a play that we were going to perform this November) and asked if she wanted to practice tonight. She said yes, I said yeay, mainly because I was in dire need of some form of social conversation.

At around 10 pm Sunday, we met up at the lounge of her dorm. Our practice was way longer than we anticipated. It took us 4 hours to finish half the script. Most of the time, we were laughing and joking about things that had nothing to do with the script though. So as it was already 2 am, and we had to go to our camp at around noon today, we decided to call it quits and meet around 11 the day after.

On the way back from her dorm to my house, which is a good 20 minutes, rain began to pour. As much as I wanted to shower, that wasn't how I wanted to shower. So desperately needing a place to crash, I went to this 24/7 cyber cafe. In Japan. most of the cyber cafes function as a place for people to read comic books, watch videos and everything else. Drinks are complimentary btw. So since I had time to burn, I began to youtube. Then, I googled random stuffs and checked my email. Then, I began to look for job online.

I decided that this time, I would try and look for more jobs that requires English. The problem though was that I am not a native English speaker thus putting myself at a huge disadvantage. Nonetheless, I tried and applied for almost 20 teaching jobs. Some at kindergarden, some at primary school and some as English conversation partners. However, some time near the end of my search, I found this Malaysian restaurant that is currently hiring staffs. Running out of options, I applied for that as well and fingers crossed, I'll get it.

In the mean time, however, I am prepared for the prospect of having to fight for my extension contract with the post office. It I had to, I guess I would. But I am still having my fingers crossed, that at least I'll have options if any of the jobs I applied for is available.

Coming up next
A job is offered but it comes with a compromise. Is the sacrifice worth it or is it better to stick to the post office job.