LJ put the application in my hand. I’m now suspecting it was all a long con to get me hooked on JPop.

I was a worker-owner in Athens throughout the early 1990s. The town was getting stale after eight and 1/2 years. Our frind Laura (we called her LJ) came back from Taiwan (with husband Ian) where they were English teachers for a year.

Before she left the country, LJ and I were colleagues, worker-owners at the Casa. Ian worked there, too, but wasn’t an owner. In addition, I was the operations manager, the first of its kind in our establishment. I joke that my lofty position is what prompted LJ to come to me for a letter of recommendation. We were all excited that she and Ian made such a bold decision as that, and I happilly wrote my endorsement. They got accepted, so the worker-owners sent the newlyweds off on a year of adventure, teaching English in Taiwan.

After the hangover subsided, life went on. The restaurant was growing, thriving, and I left it so I could volunteer for Rural Action. Great opportunity to practice some light journalism, but I knew my time in Athens had to expire. I’d completed my degrees (two), I left my kushy job in the restaurant industry, and my sub-minimum wage Americorps stipend running out. I needed a real job, whatever that is. But that’s the rub - all I’d ever known were the odd, parttime jobs, volunteer gigs or teaching assignments. What on earth am I equipped for in the corporate world, and how can I get there?

I’d spent the past eight and 1/2 years in Athens, by the time Ian and LJ came back. How quickily another year flew by. Making the rounds at their Welcome Back shebang, LJ asked me what my plans were, now that I left the Casa. I had no answer. She told me right there, a couple drinks in for both of us, she said that I’d love it in Taiwan. She saw me having an English teaching job as a young stud in Asia. (I was young, at least.) “Or Japan!”, she exclaimed, before moving on to another margarita. The thought lingered in my mind until my own beer was drained. And that was that.

Or so I thought.

“I have something for you.” Two days later I was eating huevos rancheros at my favorite table. LJ was wating in the other room, but here she is now. “Remember the Japan job?” She then produced an official JET Programme paper application and put it in front of me. “You’d be great as a teacher! And I hear Japan is fantastic. You’d love it there.” I guess I had no choice.

“yeah. Sure. What the hell.”

Six months later, I’m in Japan. (to be continued)