Claire's farewell party

To our tremendous sadness, Claire finally left Japan after her five years stint here. Since we own her so much, since she has been so popular among students, especially bunch of tired, smelly, and politically-incorrect middle-aged OYAJI men, and since we appreciate so many things that she has done for us, her farewell party seemed to become kind of hostess clubs at Romance Dori! Many people got together to say thank you to her at one night on late September. Because many people wanted to talk to her, I couldn't get enough time to have a chat with her, but hey, Claire! Again, thank you very much for everything you have done for us! You have been listening to my English since I started Nova nearly four years ago. I am not sure how much my English has improved over the course of those years, but thanks to your kindness, sincerity, and, your phenomenal perseverance against inappropriate remarks, we could really enjoy good time in your voice! Manabu is crying now! So are Toshifumi and I! But we also understand that it is time for you to move on now, So... no cry!
I wish from the bottom of my heart that your experience in Japan would be somehow helpful for your future! We will gossip about you some time at Nishi, and we are looking forward to seeing you some day. But now, see you again and good luck!







Oyaji-trio at Nishi

I am angry

Imagine the following situation. You live in a small apartment in Japan. It would be for five months or seven months or two years or more, but duration doesn't matter here. You have been a good resident. You have never delayed monthly rent fee at all. You have always paid it by a due date from your moderate monthly salary. Provably, you have caused small troubles for your neighbourhood in the past, either by making noise too loud or by throwing away your rubbish at wrong day a couple of times. But, you have never caused any serious problems. You have been an ordinary citizen as normal as your person living in next door.

Then, one day, a person from real estate company knocks on your doors, nervously smoking cigarettes as if he is trying to calm himself down for ensuing confrontation. He asks you to let him in your room apologetically, but you can tell that he is convinced that you don't have any choice but let him in in this situation. He may well saunter around the room for several moments, tapping the walls as thought inspecting them for damage. Then, he stops, turns around, and says to you, "You gotta be out within seven days".

How would you feel if this happened to you in reality? How do you think the person who got evicted like this would feel, if he or she is a foreigner who lives far away from his or her hometown and has difficulty in communicating with local people, let alone protesting to such a awful situation.

But this is exactly what has happened to some of Nova teachers today. One of the teacher showed me today a piece of paper he got from a real estate agency, which orders him to leave his apartment within seven days. He has never failed to pay his rent fee at all, but Nova couldn't pay it for his apartment. That is why. This situation is totally unacceptable. You can't force somebody to leave with only SEVEN days notification, even if you couldn't have paid your monthly fee. I have never felt such a strong anger toward Nova as I am now feeling in my four years student hood. And, I don't know much about real estate businesses or its procedures, but this is completely illegal. And if it is still legal to have law-abiding residents evicted within seven days, I don't give a shit with such a fucking laws!

While I was hearing this appalling story from a teacher, all I could do was just to listen to him and convey my sorry for him, hoping that this horrible experience in Japan would make him prepared for anything unexpected in the future, and that time would come someday when he can talk about this shitty situation with laughter in party talk.