Talking about people from your past - Part 1

I was thinking about how long it has been since I arrived in Japan and how many people I have met that have already left the country. So I decided to look at the photos in my collection to see who I met and who has left.

In my original cohort of newly inducted instructors at my place of work, there were three English teachers, including myself, and one French teacher.

I and Cedric, the French teacher, are still left. The other two, well...

Colleen B. hailed from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She came to Japan with her hubby Carl. They were a nice married couple. She had previously worked in an office, while he worked at a bakery. They moved into an area kind of far from where I lived, but we still saw each other and work and on occassion outside of work. Colleen moved over to the Nightshift and we didn't really keep in contact. One day I noticed her punch card missing from the board at work. I figured she must have left because the phone email I sent to her bounced back. She was here for about a year and a half.

Patrick F. hailed from Florida, in the US of A. He was a really nice guy but a little uptight in some ways. He was a little OCD at times. This came out when he showed up to work late and was overly stressed out about it. Work didn't help as his trainer made it seem like he'd get fired or something. This lead to him being late yet another time and he got really worried after that. But when he got off probation he relaxed a lot. The wife suspected he was gay when she met him. Not that being gay is bad or anything, it was just she had a suspicion. Anyway, he never came out and told us, and we kept it to ourselves. Things sort went pear shaped later and we grew distant. He left just before the completion of his contract to go to grad school in the states.


Here Colleen is looking at our microwave while Patrick looks into the eye of the camera.

Through Patrick I met John A. He was Patrick's new roommate. John A. hailed from jolly old England. I can't remember exactly, but I think he was from Nottingham. He was a fun guy. He loved to drink and be with the ladies. This eventually lead to him splitting up with his British gal and replacing her with a Japanese one. He worked at a branch school but we managed to hang out often. That is until he moved away and then eventually he went home. Last I heard his J-girl went to England to study "English".


In the first few weeks, I got to know some people from work who lived near me. I met Kristen at work and found out she lived in the same apartment complex. She was outspoken and full of hilarious stories. She liked to tell stories of the crap the company put her through. One time near the beginning of her career here she was near broke and she was waiting for payday to buy food to eat. I don't remember why she was that desparate but she was. Anyway the company states that the money will be put into one's account by midnight on a certain date. Well it wasn't there that night or the next night. She calls the admin centre and they give her a unhelpful answer so she gets angry and reams the girl out. The girl asks why Kristen was so angry and Kristen replies that the girl would be angry too if she couldn't eat because her company forgot to pay her. The company paid her the next day. She went home as planned to return to the life of IT work for the police.


Kristen was great fun and her Sayounara party received a few complaints from the neighbours. This was how we met Bec, and through her we met Dave. For the record they weren't dating.

She came from the land down under and was Kirsten's new roommate. Kirsten had stated prior to Bec's arrival that if the new roomie was no fun Kirsten and the third roommate would drive that person out with a planned out campaign of terror. Lucky for Bec, she passed muster with the others. Bec previously worked at land planning office and wanted to travel. So she arrived at the company. She was always up for fun and could skull like the best of them. We both were gunning for a supervisory position but she got a job offer at home that was too good to pass up. Now she is back home and really happy aout getting into a Masters program in Urban planning.

Dave was a guy who had arrived at the same time as Bec, and tagged along with her because she was nice enough to let him. He was nice enough, but ended up taking a tour of Russia on his way to England where he found different employment. In his last email he told me that he was on his way back to Australia.

[more to follow]