Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Life in Tokyo

I’ve taken the title from a fave song of mine at the moment, a blast from the past from the most excellent 80’s band ‘Japan’. I guess it was the chorus ‘life can be cruel … life in Tokyo’. Ok so where am I going with this post? Well considering most people from the west think Tokyo is a pretty alien environment because of things like the language etc and they probably wouldn’t be sure what to do….

oO(Jay you’re babbling…)

Ok so what I mean is that my current situation being out of work is seemingly pretty odd and alien too, the jargon, words such as P45, JSA 200, jobseekers etc is all strange to me. Also the fact that I have no real routine at the moment is also quite unnerving to a degree, it’s also cool as well, I can do what I want!

So, I have indeed (between bouts of watching dvds and playing video games – ah the shame) searching for jobs and a new flat over at Newark. The jobs thing is very much show and tell, smoke and mirrors, a charade of sorts. Agencies are more concerned if you’re registered with the opposing ones in town than searching for jobs for you. Still I’ve registered with a couple and we’ll see how it goes. The next obstacle I face is my eye operation is on the 27th March, and who wants to employ me only to have me off work whilst I recover?

The next problem seems to be bagging another flat over at Newark to escape the drab place I live in, yep my town sucks big time and I want out. So, having registered with some housing associations and the local council over Newark way it’s a case of sit and wait but then I thought, be a hobbit of action and try private landlords.

Private landlords it would seem are a mercenary bunch of bastards, hiding behind estate agents and such whilst they profess to have ideal rented accommodation. Last week I view two private flats. I met the agent to view the first one and was shown inside a large Victorian style house as she unlocked the door the resident suddenly opened it and was shocked to see the agent, so an awkward situation arose and the occupant denied all knowledge of being informed of a viewing. Eventually I was shown in, it was like something from Alice through the looking glass, quite surreal, the room was tiny, now I’m not the biggest fella but you wouldn’t have kept a hamster in this place, the asking rent was shocking too! The agent reiterated that the advert stated the flat was small, what amused me even more was the occupant had 2 cats, their bed probably took up half the flat. In some respects I was shocked, this was indeed criminally small, there were embarrassed looks all around, you couldn’t even class this as a bed sit – most people’s bathrooms would have been bigger.

Anyway, I moved onto meet another agent and view flat number two across the other side of town. The agent never showed at the agreed time, which was just as well as the place looked shabby and the local residents none too friendly, as it was pissing down with rain I decided to move on, breathing a sigh of relief.

So, both a search for a job and a new place are still very much work in progress. Money isn’t much of a worry at the moment and the operation is pending, I’ll take things as I always do, a day at a time with a smile.

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