Wow!

It's been such a long time since I've posted anything to this blog. Just been looking back on here and reminising about the Japan times and after. What a crazy time!

Also it's been interesting looking at everyone else's blogs. I remember part of my daily ritual in Japan was sitting down in the teacher's room and clicking on everyone else's blogs who were out in Toyama. It was a great way to hear what people had been up to, find out what experiences they were having that week that were maybe similar, or extremely different to what I'd been up to! But no one seems to be blogging anymore! Everyone used to write pages and pages of the stuff. I lapped it up!

Shame in a way. Blogs are good because you actually write down thoughts and think about them before you stick them down. Facebook and Twitter and all the other social networking sites seem so lazy. You write something that you are feeling that second, send it out into cyberspace and then move on. We've all got the attention span of a gnat!

So am I going to keep this blog going? I don't know. I don't know who reads it. But does it really matter who reads it? Probably not.

Axon...

I've started my new job this week at a Heathcare Communications Company called Axon. It's situated in Richmond, which is a seriously nice part of London. Lots of cobbled streets and old shops. It's also seriously expensive, so can't see myself living around here.

Staying with a family friend just down the road in a place called Kingston. Nice place, but not as nice as Richmond.

The next thing to do is just settle in here, and find myself a permanent place to live. It could well be in Putney...which is nice.

So that's my news.

Jobs etc...

Well, Christmas is hurtling towards us at rapid speed. It’s amazing how quickly the time has flown by.

I’ve been to a number of interviews up in London. I have basically decided that the job at the Western Gazette is not for me. It came down to two things:

1. Living out in the countryside is not for me at the moment - for obvious reasons. Not enough to do.
2. Money - I hate to say it, but getting paid £13,000 a year is nothing.

It’s a shame really because it’s a good job. I just got my second front page this week.

But I suppose you have to weigh up all the options.

The interviews I went for were for Public Relations companies based up in London. One was for a technology company and two were for Healthcare Companies. I’ve got another two interviews tomorrow.

Another weird thing - I seem to meet people who have been to Japan everywhere! At the newspaper, there’s one other girl here who lived in Gifu for two years. At another job interview I went to last week I meet someone who lived in Japan for two years through JET.

It’s quite cool though. It’s like an immediate bond that you have with that person. It may even help me to get the job!

But overall, things are going quite well now. Sorry about the rather downbeat last blog entry.

It's been a while

Well it’s been a while since I have written anything in this blog. This has been for a number of reasons, but the main one has been because I haven’t had the time or the motivation.

It’s been a pretty crazy few months back in England, and a hell of a lot has happened which I’d rather not go into. But it’s been pretty hard. It could be a stark warning for all you guys still back in Japan who are contemplating staying or going.

It’s been bloody hard. Certainly harder than I thought.

The first month was pretty great. It was good to be back in England, hanging out with old friends and eating good ole Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

By September the alarm bells started to ring. I had to find a job and basically I wasn’t particularly qualified to do anything. It seems that two years in Japan is a great experience, but it won’t help you that much in this competitive job market.

So from September onwards I’ve been like laser. I’ve sent off my CV to all sorts of companies and contemplated on some level doing all kinds of different jobs.

My first aim: the civil service fell, unfortunately at the first hurdle. I didn’t pass the exams.

Very quickly I began to realise that I had to have back-up plans. So I applied to a whole load of PR companies. It turns out that you need at least two years experience and no matter how much you try and big up your experience in Japan, it just won’t wash.

However, by a strange turn off events that I managed to get a job in a ‘;ace which I hadn’t even considered - the Western Gazette.

I wandered in one day just to ask some questions and get some advice, more about a job in press relations and within a week found myself sitting behind a desk reporting and writing for the paper. What makes it stranger is that not once did I produce my CV, and I didn’t have an interview.

I’ve now been almost two weeks and the paper is going to print in a couple of hours.

I’ll have at least five articles with my name on. Last week I had five.
But there’s a catch. I’m living down in Somerset, which is countryside through and through. Yeovil is pretty boring. I have found myself pining for an Asahi karaoke bar or a couple of cheeky beers down at 135’s.

Oh, what a strange life this is!

http://www.westgaz.co.uk/

I'm still alive

I've been keeping myself busy, since coming back from Japan. It's been over three weeks but I've found that I've settled in well. I don't know what people are talking ab out when they talk about reverse culture shock. It's all been good. I can go into the supermarket and eat anything I like!! I can also understand everyone! But who knows the reverse culture may hit soon.
But since I've been backed I've been down to Brighton, London, Colchester, the Westcountry and Bristol. Doing the rounds, catching up with people I haven't seen in two maybe even three years. I forgot that this is the first time that I have lived in England properly since March 2003. Before coming Japan I spent three months out in Botswana.
So there are lots of funny stories to tell people. But that's all they are - funny stories. It's impossible to describe how different my life was out in Japan to how it is now back in England. Really weird. In some ways it feels like I never left, and that Japan was just a very long and strange dream.
This weekend, it's a bank holiday, which means that everyone gets the monday off work as well. So it's a great time to go and see more friends.
On Thursday night went to a club in Bristol. It was a drum and bass club, and the first club I have been to since coming back from Japan. Really weird. The whole place stank of marajuana. It was full of people of all shapes and sizes from all corners of the globe. So utterly different from Japan. There's also the possibility of a fight breaking out if you look at someone the wrong!
Oogly, boogly...

Callum's oiishi english grub

Back in Brighton!