In Hokkaido (and not for holidaying)

 Not long after moving in to the new apartment, my ass got hauled away for another business trip:

In case the image doesn't give it away, I ain't exactly happy about it, especially with what I had been hearing going behind the scenes. That, and I had only just moved before getting my marching orders.

As usual, I won't say where exactly I've been sent, but it is in the Hokkaido region. This is actually first time having been to Hokkaido. Just wish it wasn't for work purposes. 
For those that aren't aware, the Hokkaido region is one of the colder parts of the country. It means, it's very cold in winter, and the summers are said to be pretty comfortable compared to other parts of Japan, especially compared to places like Saitama and Kyoto that are ridiculously hot and humid.
Also, because of the cooler weather, the sakura bloom much later compared to other areas in Japan. Just last weekend, the sakura finally bloomed, and I was able to go to the nearby park and take a nice look around. As I have been getting up really early lately for work, I ended up checking out the nearby park very early. Clearly, other people had the same idea, as there were already people at the park by the time I got there just before 8:00 am. While people had already started turning up there, luckily it wasn't crowded, which would have made walking around and taking pictures of the sakura a real pain to do. 

Aside from that, I haven't done many touristy thing during my off time. The main reason is that we're saving up for the wedding (yeah, we're finally focusing our attention on that), and even a simple wedding is not cheap these days. I cut back on most things - including snacking, going to the arcade and even eating out - and was surprised by just how much I saved this month alone. But that's a story for another time. 

While I will be going back home briefly for Golden Week, nobody is able to give me an answer on just much longer this business trip is supposed to last

ワンモアタイム！

[Let's try drawing again!]

描きはもう一年ぶりか？ああ、本当だ。今日ようやくちょっと描いてみていた。タブレットで描くのはちょっと変な感じだから、最初に簡単な絵を描いた。こらは会社員的な自分だ。俺はイケメンでしょう？（笑）

You've got to be fucking kidding me

When you've been asked to cover work at two different cities, then they ask you to do it again for a third day in a different city, and you just know you'll be asked to do it again on Friday.

Not going to lie, this one of my least favorite parts of the job. It means my job has to take a back seat, not to mention having to reassign many of my tasks to my co-workers.

Japan's Day of the Dead (and other news)

Starting today, I have a few days off for the Obon break. For those not familiar, Obon is Japan's equivalent of the Day of the Dead, with people paying respect to their ancestors and loved ones who have passed away. During this time, people will go back to their hometowns, clean their ancestors' graves, and leave offerings at shrines. Working as an ALT previously, the entire month of August was a break for me, so I actually did not observe or even notice this period of time. I may actually do something during this time - of course, I have no ancestors buried here in Japan, but I feel I should do something in remembrance of loved ones that have passed away - and in recent times a lot of extended family members have passed away 

In other news, we had a bit of a scare in the office recently, with somebody apparently testing positive for the Wuhan flu. Fortunately, my employer was pretty swift about it, firstly disinfecting the person's desk (they went home obviously), and those that have either had close contact with him, or have desks within his vicinity needed to take a PCR test immediately, myself included. Unfortunately, my test result turned out invalid for some reason, but fortunately, a second test I took when I went home came up negative. While everyone else on that day also came up negative, a few more people in the following days weren't feeling well and took a few days off to recover, which later turned out to be just a cold and not the CCP virus. I kept an eye out for any symptoms popping up, but fortunately, I've been pretty lucky, and it's been over a week since it happened. 

Also, it would seem the Omicron/Xi subvariants have hit hard in Japan for the official 7th wave now. Tokyo has been seeing daily cases of over 30,000, whereas Saitama prefecture has weirdly been bouncing back and forth between 7000 and 13,000 cases a day. I won't deny I am a bit nervous as I have to take a crowded train daily to get to work, but just about everyone is wearing a mask, and keeping quiet - I mean, you really can't blame people for not being in a talkative mood when you have to take the train early to get to work, can you?

On the other, this summer weather is unbearable. Sometimes, I do miss having a car, as walking around in hot and humid weather sucks, especially when working out of town which requires walking for long periods without shade. Not to mention my apartment when I get home is pretty much a sauna, due to facing the sun - even with the curtains shut, it's still boiling hot inside. Though oddly, today has not been too bad actually.

CCP Virus or Heat stroke - Which is the lesser of two evils?

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220627/p2g/00m/0na/038000c

To be honest, I wasn't even aware of this. I do watch the news on TV every morning before work, and even read up on Japanese news online. The fact that I didn't even know of the government's push to (very slowly) ease up on mask wearing, especially with this hot weather lately, is a demonstration of the government's ineffectiveness in their getting this message out to the people. There are already a number of cases of people (especially children) suffering form heatstroke, because it has now become so ingrained in Japan to wear masks no matter what - and the whole group mentality of Japanese society in general - that people won't take off their masks while out for fear of being called out on it or inconveniencing others.

I can only just imagine the government realising their efforts to get everyone to wear masks has backfired:

As I said earlier, the weather has been incredibly hot lately. Not only because it's summer, but it's because the rainy season (梅雨 tsuyu) ended earlier than expected - and the news was making mention of this recently too. 

Furthermore, I've recently been given the orders to work out of town again (won't disclose the nature of the work or where, so I don't inadvertently give away my employer or me). Walking outside to and from has been really rough - so bad, that for the first time, I actually have been taking my mask off while walking outside. Furthermore, I'm considering getting a small umbrella to protect me from the sun, since my commutes while out of town don't have much shade the moment I step out of the train.  I will be working out of town until the end of the month, but fortunately, recent progress in my job has meant that this will (hopefully) be the last time I'll be working out of town.. at least in this particular area anyway. 

I demand perfection from my candidates

When you're interviewing someone, you get along well with them, but you find out they're already blacklisted.

らちが明かない

Since starting the new job, I've been assigned to work out of town for nearly three weeks, and it looks to continue on for possibly a few more. The company made it clear to me that this sort of thing would happen some times, though they admitted that this current situation is irregular, as when this usually happens, it's for a few days at most. As a result of working out of town, I've been put up in a hotel that was chosen and paid for by the company. It's not too far to the local train station (and I have to take a train to get to where I'm working), though even after taking the train, it's nearly a 30 minute walk still. Some good exercise at least. 

I know I'm being cryptic about the nature of this out of town work, but I am a little concerned that if I give any more details (such as which city and prefecture I've been assigned), somebody might be able to identify me and which company I work for, and I don't want that. 

Fortunately, though I'm out of town during the week, I'm home for the weekend at least. Still, since Friday, I've been feeling really tired. I could understand Friday, as I commuted back to the office right after finishing my out of town work, and did a little bit more work there before heading home. However, it doesn't explain why I was still feeling tired yesterday, and even today. I have a suspicion it might be to do with the coffee I've been drinking regularly, and the fatigue is finally catching up with me. That, or possibly I'm mentally fatigued from the constant travelling back and forth every week. Or, it could just be down to the weather, as it has started to get warmer recently. 
For now, I'm going to try and cut out the coffee this week, and see how that goes. Fortunately, Friday's a public holiday, so I'll only be out of town until Thursday, and enjoy the long weekend. 

The new job - One week later

It's been one week since I started the new job. So how's it been so far?

Compared to being an ALT, I feel there's a lot more to learn and do as a recruiter. I've been spending this past week learning a bit about the procedure for how to screen applicants, record entry for all candidates, whether they have passed or failed their interviews, and they've taught me how to engage with a few candidates to set up interviews.

Whether it is because this is currently a busy period to find new candidates to fill in positions that are still vacant right now, or because it's only been one week since I started (I suspect maybe the former), they haven't quite got me contacting candidates on regular basis just yet. They've given me a few candidates to contact to allow me to get the hang of things, so it's not all bad. 

Though the one thing I'm still trying to get my head around is regarding my hours. The hours I do is always set, and includes time for lunch. However, if I'm out somewhere work related (i.e. a school in another prefecture), and come back to the office after a 2 hour commute, that commute counts as work time. However, if I do that commute with the intent to go straight home, I need to remote in and work from home to make up for those two hours. That is how I understand it, thanks to my kind (and very patient) team lead. That's the other thing I've noticed so far - my team is pretty helpful, and pretty damn patient too - they're willing to help me with whatever questions I have (and I have a lot), and even encourage me to ask if there's something I'm not sure about, or if there is something irregular in candidate records or even the candidates' applications. 

Hopefully, I can keep on top of things as I am also trying to learn from my previous experiences working in IT support.