10 posts tagged “jaiku”

I know it's old news that Pownce is closing, but I just went across there to pick up my posts as an export for vox and when I got to the point of importing I noticed that all my posts were being fed there from Twitter anyway. Talk about redundant. Long ago I must have begun feeding Twitter to Pownce, and completely forgotten about it.

One less blog/microblog/social networking service to worry about. I wonder if I can take the knife to any more? Jaiku?

When I started twittering in Japanese about a year ago, I had no idea how far I would go with it, or what benefit it would bring to my study of Japanese. At times it has been a distraction, and at the height of my addiction attraction to it, kind of costly, as my international SMS bill went through the roof.

What it has helped me do is be more productive, more outwardly expressive with my inner Japanese speaker. In some respects it has helped me find my my Japanese voice, as clumsy and stilted as it still feels. Sometimes there is a dialogue maintained with other twitterers, and sometimes there is not. There is always the need to formulate thoughts into comprehensible sentences.

Just recently I have been gathering my daily twittering into the one post with the help of a service called LoudTwitter. I was hoping that it would spur me on to breaking out of the 140 character limit, and into writing more consistently in Japanese on this blog. So far only 5days of this kind of daily diary through twitter have been posted here.

Never would I have in wildest dreams thought any one would go to the bother of translating my twits into English. But , someone has. Now I'm not quite sure how I feel about this, the illusion of anonymity and privacy provided by blogging in my second language has just been erased a little further.

Blogging in my second language I feel I am far less critical of my self, perhaps blunter and less self conscious about it. In English the same expressions may come across as selfish, and ill-conceived. As a Japanese speaker I am not yet beyond the junior high school vernacular, but that's OK with me.

There are plenty of people blogging in a language that is not their first. Does it provide you with a different sense of self?  Do you feel safer presenting parts of you that you wouldn't in your mother tongue? If you could blog in another language, what would you say? Would it be different from what you already write about?

Note: As I was in the process of writing this entry, the company I was working for closed it's doors and told everyone to stay home. The Japanese staff are out of pocket two months, two weeks and a summer bonus. The foreign instructors are all out of pocket about 6 weeks. None of expect to see much of this money back. I am lucky enough to be eligible for unemployment insurance, many are not.

If this blog post seems a little unfinished, then so be it...

On Sunday, the situation in the branches is deteriorating steadily. The number of instructors not turning up is climbing and those that are turning up are being confronted by schedules filled with students trying to burn their last points and kids classes, for which some people haven't been trained. When conditions are this bad why would you bother going in to work? In some places, even if people wanted to work, their places of work are closing.
mfgrape:

"When I heard that my branch was closing its doors until further notice, I called Foreign Personnel to ask if this meant that I was being fired or let go.
They had no idea.

In the afternoon, I get a call from my staff asking me if I would still come to work if the branch closed. I think about for a second, then acquiesce, because I have a sneaking suspicion things won't last much longer. At least not as far as my scheduled date of return, the 19th of November.

I wake early Monday morning to find hurry_up_and_die has posted a fax that seems to be from the Japanese staff:

" if you read through this you will see that the staff are now mutinous, and planning legal action against the company. At the same time, they want instructors to come in and work for the same company that has screwed everyone over.

The Asahi runs a story on Monday morning, outlining three scenarios for Nova amid snowballing fiscal troubles.  Possibilities to consider; Nova goes out of business, outside investors step in or drastic restructuring takes place. OregonDuck echoes the sentiment of the thread:

"The company is spiraling into oblivion, with only a shady deal like the BVI banks having any chance of effecting the short term life of the company. Nova will never recover from this, ever.

At least some people are keeping their sense of humour.

Pabloski:

"I just called in to toppatsu at Osaka FP.
Young lady was very upbeat and friendly.
When She asked why I wasnt able to go into work, I replied "um...coz the school suddenly shut down?" She burst out laughing. Then she did the standard "okay I'll let your bran...br...b...ahhh. I'll let foreign personnel know"

Nova is the hot topic for bloggers, but hasn't yet become front page news for the Japanese press. Chris Salzberg from Global Voices online, talks about a company on the brink of collapse, and has some translations from some of Nova's students. Shinjuku Honko has closed it's doors, the flagship school, where you can "study abroad in front of the station. Shinjuku station is the busiest station in the world, and the effect of this school closing on the public psyche must be huge.

Remember Nishida, the object of much speculation last week in the forum? Well, it seems the Japanese press have decided to turn up the heat a little more. The Sankei Shimbun runs an article linking him to scams where he pumps and dumps stocks for the yakuza. Livedoor news goes one step further to suggest that authorities are setting their sights on the next big fish. The implications are clear enough when they include a familiar pink bunny in the article.

In The Know:

"The best journalism that happened during this saga was on this thread at LJ where the diligent posted faxes, translations, verified talk from the inside, shared anecdotal evidence, offered wise opinion, etc...

Shawn:

"As Nova as we know it is basically at an end, this thread is now closed, but the conversation continues on the "Supernova" thread.

As the bad news continues to pile up, and the pressure to file for bankruptcy mounts, Sahashi is nowhere to be found. The vast majority of people continue to go into work, perhaps in the faint hope that Sahashi can pay their their salary on the 15th, no sorry the 19th, at least that's what the latest fax said. Well, the 19th came and went, and now we have new fax and a "target date" of the 25th.

I woke up on Sunday morning to see this from Moonos21:

"...I received a letter from Nova informing me that they were deducting 137,000 yen to pay my city tax... when I finally received my salary, it was ($&#%) all! Today I was informed that the city has yet to receive a cent of this money!

It seems that Nova, has sunk to new lows, is there no end to the ways this company is ripping off it's instructors, staff and students? Not only does Nova steal it's employees rent money, and health insurance premiums, but it also steals taxes it is meant to be paying on behalf of employees. Even after all this thievery, there still isn't enough to pay instructors or staff.

So, just where does Sahashi intend to get the money from to pay salaries? Things about the warrant deal in the British Virgin Islands are starting to make sense, the deeper you look into the connections the more sordid the whole thing becomes. On the warrant issue, burleydude had some interesting news from a contact at the Sankei Newspaper, about the arrest of a man linked to Sahashi (in Japanese). He had this to say about the story:

" Obviously the implication is that Sahashi's dodgy dealings may be uncovered before the 25th if the trail stays this hot and the teachers won't receive any of this infamous 'cash injection'.

PanicInducingGaijin had the follow up to the story (in Japanese), this time from Yahoo Japan, implicating the same man, Nishida in an attempt to raise funds for a different yet unnamed JASDAQ-listed company this month:

"this is huge news, and it is very bad for Mr. Sahashi.

The story in the Sankei is wise not to name the ailing company in need of a capital injection, but it does make clear that Nishida and what he does is shady to say the least. This translation from jrfiction:

" The way I read it;
According to investors within the Nishida Group, these types of new capital investment companies and offshore funds are a way to conceal money that is often laundered on behalf of gangsters, using a method which Nishida is suspected of using.

The Japanese press are very careful to avoid naming the people involved in Nishida's scam but allblacks points out:

"It really is just a matter of time before this gets linked to Saruhashi.

For anyone holding out to the faintest glimmer of hope of getting paid this month, burleydude had this to say:

" As a Nova teacher you should be prepared for the eventuality that October 25th's "cash injection" is both illegal and may be prevented before it reaches your paycheck.

On Monday night Muteki is the first to post scans of an expose in the Yomiuri Weekly that  hammers home the shady dealings of Sahashi to the local audience. The article is in Japanese but there is soon a translation of it titled "Nova in Flames" by Shawn at Let's Japan. The article paints a picture of the Nova president as a cowardly liar, who is afraid to show his face. The reaction I get from students when I show them the headline in my last voice on Tuesday is golden.

PanicInducingGaijin having read the article in Japanese, shares what is now coming to light about Sahashi and his fumbling business moves:

"It makes clear that Roots hasn't returned the 8 million shares because it wasn't paid back by Nova, and it has the president of Roots going on the record and essentially calling out Sahashi as a liar. It also says that Sahashi is in hiding, moving from hotel to hotel in Tokyo.

So with the president in hiding and another promised payday looming, how are managers meant to run a company. Well the truth is, they don't, they just shut the doors and put up signs.

zombiejesus was surprised:

"so i went and checked my branch today and all the lights were off and there was a little notice on the door saying it was closed until november 20th.

So this is payday and once again, despite promises to the effect that there was nothing to worry about, no one has been paid. This is also the first time, both staff and instructors remain unpaid. Momentum has been building for a strike, and the debate rages over it's potential effectiveness. On the value of a strike, poxonyou has some reasonable doubts:

"Strikes are meant to pressure positive changes for workers in normally functioning companies; a company that you planned to continue working in.

Level3 is more positive that a strike could result in a positive outcome:

"A strike is a negotiation tool, but how can you "win" a negotiation about cash, when your opponent DOESN'T HAVE ANY CASH!? The only "successful" outcome is for Nova to officially become bankrupt... Monkeybridge isn't going to do that, so the employees have to bring the company down themselves...

So it begins, instructors, severely jaded by the last fax begin to take matters into their own hands. There are some unsubstantiated claims that over 1/6 of the workforce didn't turn up on Monday and over the weekend more than a hundred teachers from the Multi-media centre called in sick. This from MMPurpleTag who works in the Multi-media centre:

"People are dropping off like flies. 60 of about 250 toppatsued on Saturday, 150 on Sunday, not sure about today. I'm sure tomorrow will be worse

CynicalBeyondReason:

"Of course the best course of action is to call in sick. But as we've seen, most Nova workers-for whatever bizarre reason-seem incapable of doing that.

Level3 makes some predictions, while some people are still playing the will-we-get-paid guessing game. What ever happens on Friday it is clear to most people that the company is irreparably damaged. In Osaka, they can't even afford to close branches, they are simply abandoning them. PanicInducingGaijin has the skinny from
Kansai TV:

" Some number of schools in Osaka just closed after business on the 15th. Closed as in not opening again. But they didn't move out either -- the staff left all the phones and furniture inside. This is not closing branches; this is abandoning them.

Dubious dress code aside, the Nova and General Union's hard work starts to get some traction in the local press with an article in the Japan Times on Wednesday. Bakanova was in attendance at the union protest in Tokyo, and was present when the union handed it's demands to the people in head office:

"Those spineless jellyfish hid! That is right, they HID in the back of the office leaving the reception area empty. We only got a chance to talk to a Mr. Murakami... who just happened to be in Tokyo for the day... Mr. Murakami told us that... there was absolutely no one who was in a position of responsibility in the office. No wonder this company is going down the toilet... there is actually no one in charge!

It seems that the more this debacle drags on, the more inclined people are to take holidays. JSpank2007 heard from a little birdie:

"...that Anders Lundqvist (he sits on the board of directors, and is the highest ranked foreigner in Nova) is not at work. In what is probably Nova's biggest week ever, Anders has taken very sudden leave (no 30 days notice for him).

fumanchu has news that Foreign Personnel, the section responsible for handling sick calls, are starting to feel the heat:

"Interestingly FP are now asking instructors if they'd like to call in for tomorrow as well.

There is a rising tide of calls for people to stop going in to work. Doing so would certainly bring things to head. Level3 puts it as simply as he can:

"...by helping Monkeybridge drag this out, you are making it worse for yourself, other teachers, J-staff... everyone.

Not surprisingly, when pay doesn't come in on Friday the reaction is swift. Lord Blackadder has this report:

"From the trenches: Fax received in our area this afternoon from our AAM. Basically, they have abandoned all hope, said we can do whatever the hell we want and they will approve all leave requests.

Texgo:

"I just got off the phone with my AAM a few minutes ago. He told me what others have posted here. Come in to work, or don't. Call gaiji on time if possible. Don't bother calling sick. Tell them exactly why you aren't working. Coming in would be nice, but he understands why we're all pissed off.

Texgo:

"I just got off the phone with my branch manager who asked if I was coming in tomorrow...  she broached the topic that there had been discussion to close all branches in the prefecture tomorrow, but that, "surprisingly" (her word) enough teachers said they would work. She sounded gutted that the branch would stay open.

We are still waiting on news from Jasdaq about the report due this afternoon the 19th, but it's clear that even if it is acceptable, it may not be enough to save the company. In all likelyhood Jasdaq will shut Nova down before the shady BVI deal has a chance to go ahead. pointless

"I'd be surprised if NOVA makes it to the 25th. The submittals to JASDAQ that are due today may spell doom for the company.

If the people writing the report have anything to do with it, it looks like the report might be a fast-track to Nova's demise. PanicInducingGaijin:

" I've just finished skimming/reading Nova's submission to JASDAQ. Very interesting. Many of the problems get blamed squarely on Sahashi.

Samegasuki:

" That would mean that Sahashi didn't sign off on it, would it not? Good to see we're not the only ones trying to bring down this sorry excuse for a company.

Late on Friday night another fax in Japanese appears from the president.Tyler Durden

"Before I sign off for the night, just curious, has anyone considered that monkey man might actually be deluded enough to BELIEVE what he is writing in the faxes?

boom boom 331:

" he in the end was / is a meglomaniac.
and has taken a brillant idea. and
destroyed it.

good riddance

 It is now Saturday night, the branch closures are accelerating and the press is starting to come down heavy. The only thing that seems to keep this thing afloat are the people that continue to trundle in to work in the vague hope that the company will be saved at the last moment by some Caribbean voodoo magic.

By way of disclaimer, I left work on Wednesday for a month off on stress leave. I am still bitter and twisted.

Sunday starts quietly enough as I flip over to Gaijin Pot to see some photos of a branch closure in Kanazawa. Surely we'll start to see a lot more of these in the coming weeks, assuming we make it that far. The most pressing issue on everyone's mind is will the instructors get paid? Seeing that the staff have not been paid yet, this looks highly unlikely in the extreme.

On the subject of pay ex_sensei had this to say:

"I just finished having drinks with some (managers), and they told me that they don't expect their paycheques for another week (if ever!)  Furthermore, they said that the company will not have the money to pay instructors on the 15th.

But what ever happened to the rumour of white knight investor, If he ever existed at all? Again, ex_sensei on the conversation he had over drinks with Nova middle management:

"There is no white knight. There never was! It was all a lie by Saruhashi.

Expect the instructor response to be severe when pay doesn't come in, last month will pale in comparison to the flood of toppatsu's expected. So much so that branch staff seem to be making preparations already. So what exactly will happen when pay doesn't arrive? Lord Percy supposed:

" ...when the pay is not there, I'm sure some disgruntled instructors are going to pay the office a surprise visit, and they wont be bringing omiyage.

Never mind disgruntled employees, how about the thousands of angry students that are going to start making appearances at your local Nova branch? In response to a report of an irate customer venting his spleen, nigerian_nampa made the point:

"Nova would have never have gone as far as it did with its sales practices had students stood up for themselves from the start.

Well why not shift everyone on to multimedia lessons? A fax arrives in branches regarding free Multi-Media lessons for the next two months for any student. Lord Blackadder wrote:

"...is this some cunning (but demented) plan to convert NOVA to a purely Multimedia entity...?

On the subject of a grand plan, boom boom 331:

" plans??
me dont see no plans!! he he he
all me see is a lot of reacting to nonsense
and that in turns create more nonsense.

Wether the rapid cannibalisation of assets is planned or simply a reaction to increasing financial pressures is anyone's guess. It seems more likely that the company is simply gorging it's self on less profitable parts in an effort to cut costs, knowing full well that the haemorrhaging just won't stop. InTheKnow wrote:

"Some entity... needs to put this rapid dog down for the good and safely (sic.) of all.

On Monday morning I was buoyed by the fact that someone was reading, FalconDriver was the first to notice:

This is good reading: http://rainbowhill.vox.com/

Amongst the odd flare up, there were a few good stories about teaching students with special needs, mostly related to just how inadequate Nova was in catering for these students. Then yet another Sahashi fax appears and gets caned on 2ch, almost as soon as it hits branch fax machines, as "insubstantial and moronic", wtfysc:

"The only way anyone could be a bigger idiot would be to believe it.

Some rumours about death spiral financing surace on 2ch, It seems as though he vulture capitalists have moved in, the scent of blood is in the air. Would Sahashi be willing to sacrifice his stake in the company for small change to cover just a few debts, in a last ditch attempt to keep the company limping along?

Novawhiz on the 2ch rumours:

"There's been rumors about Nova trying to work convertible (junk) bonds before on 2ch. I have no doubt that if Saruhashi could do this he would in an instant. ...(if) he ever does end up selling convertible bonds then essentially he would be skinning Nova alive (to get a burst of cash for himself before it goes bust).

Nova continues to make the news at home and abroad. On Tuesday morning Life Matters, a morning news program on national radio, devotes 8 minutes on the demise of NOVA. The same night NHK, Japan's national broadcaster airs a spot on it's nightly news that focuses on the efforts of the Union to ensure the security of salaries for NOVA employees, and refunds for students. As soon the union submitted its written demand to METI, METI demands that Nova pay its students their refunds.

Katsuji Yamahara, head of the multinational General Union had this to say:

"Nova is now facing a serious crisis... We asked METI for immediate action to save customers and teachers.

The discussion on LJ turns back to the issue of collecting unemployment, how long one should continue working for a sitting duck company, and the enigmatic figure of Flemming Lord, who is probably the only one left in Foreign Personnel manning the phones. Then at about 4am Wedesday morning, abenoku notices that:

"a document was remitted to edinet outlining an investment by two offshore companies in the british virgin islands (pdf).  ...first company listed is "rich penninsula trading limited" and the second one is "tower sky profits limited"

Maybe there was some truth to the rumour of death spiral financing after all, although not in the form of moving strike bonds, but via convertible warrants. The story is carried by The Japan Times news first thing on Wednesday morning, most people agree that is not enough to save the company.  It's probably enough to pay some people but not all,  observes steki47:

"They should pay the rent and salaries for MM to cover all the walkouts around the country on the 16th.

Ken Worsley from Transpacificradio posts an excellent article on what the deal means for the future of Nova, and it isn't bright:

"The best analogy I can think of here is taking out a loan to buy a car, and then paying that loan by selling parts off the car. This is very bad news for current Nova employees.

By Thursday on the forum it is looking more and more unlikely that there will be anyone turning up to work on Monday. It's not just about the money either, essentially trust has been irreparably damaged by a series of false and misleading faxes. Zugzwang suggests action:

"Let's get organized. We are going to walk out:
http://novawalkout.wordpress.com/

Masked Rider echoes many when he says:

"The company has been sunk. Saruhashi hammered the final nail in the coffin himself when he sold our futures away to those nice charitable men in the Virgin Islands.

So just who are these charitable men in the Virgin islands? Adamu, a regular contributor to Ken Worsley's column on Japan Economy News, dug a little deeper into the first correction to the JASDAQ report and provided their names in the comments to Ken's checkmated article.

"Nakayama Hideki/Yasuhide: Just looking around the net turned up nothing, but I bet they are brothers or cousins or something. They along with Yasuhide’s father were\are both non-permanent board members of a MOFA-sponsored “Intercultural Communication Foundation” chaired by Sahashi. http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/annai/shocho/koeki/ibunka_meibo.html

Newcomer to the forums, dg, was the first to ask the question:

"Anyone know anything about them or their organizations(?)

If you remember, on June 22 2007 METI minister Akira Amari told a press conference that in the latter half of February 2007 LDP Lower House lawmaker Yasuhide Nakayama paid him a vist to exchange opinions about Nova's discount system for long-term contracts. That was after the METI raid in February.

Earlier that same month the Asahi reported on suspicions of political meddling.  In May last year Nova Corp. President Nozomu Sahashi arranged for the same LDP Lower House member, Yasuhide Nakayama, to accompany him when he met with Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki. The mayor's meeting with Sahashi and Nakayama was held after the Osaka Municipal Consumers' Center summoned Sahashi in April 2006, to explain Nova's stand on the refund complaints issue.

The connections don't end there, Nakayama's father, Masaaki Nakayama, is on the board of directors of  the ICF (Intercultural Communication Foundation). The ICF board of directors chairman is Nozomu Sahashi, the president of Nova. Hideki Nakayama, the other Nakayama, is the President of Ginganet, the video telephony technology that Nova sells to students so they can take lessons at home.

Despite some ill informed noises made by the Australian Foreign Minister in the Age, Friday looked set to turn into another complete write off due to flame damage on the threads, and then this at 8:19 pm from insider:

"anyone else had a fax from head office, about the teachers pay being delayed until the 19th this month?

TheJesusMemo had heard about the fax from his AAM who paints a picture of a huge internal struggle developing within the company:

"When I left from my early shift he had heard that there is plans of a memo being released about instructor pay. The assumption is that that can only be a bad memo... It's supposed to be released between now and Sunday... The Japanese managers are beginning to go into open rebellion... They are keeping all money at the branch to cover local expenses... they have AGAIN rushed a bunch of money to the bank to pay rent on a branch.

Shawn from LetsJapan on the appearance of a new fax:

"How can Sahashi pull off a stock deal, claim it to be a victory, and then tell his employees that there's no money is incredibly galling.

Went2shopping had this reminder:

"and don't forget kids...
monkey bridge, anders and the board of directors are all going to profit off of our misery.

So here we are at the end of another tumultuous week, Sahashi and his cronies are set to strike it rich, while they skin the company alive. Recruitment has dried up, pay is almost certainly not coming on pay-day, for anyone. Evictions and branch closures continue, Land lords are beginning to take action in the courts.

The fax that almost guarantees massive toppatsu's in the coming days was due to the efforts of the RAAMs, CAAMs and AAM's according to wtfysc and is further evidence of internal action against the president. Instructors are starting organise and agitate, planning to walk out, if they haven't already.

Next week looks set to be show down of gargantuan proportions. Will the monkey escape to an island paradise or get shaken from the tree? Things will happen so quickly I'm considering shortening the publication cycle of this review to three days.

A couple of weeks ago, when I began to lose sleep over whether I would get paid or not for the work I do at Nova, I started scrounging around on the message boards for any scrap of information I could find. Between the flame wars and bigoted sledging, I realised that if I was going to hear anything about my employer, I was probably going to find it on the Let's Japan.org (LJ) message board, in particular The End of Nova Thread.

Of course everything you read on the message boards needs to be taken with more than a grain of salt, some would say even BS tastes better with salt. If you want to avoid hearsay and rumour, avoid any post that claims to be stating FACT. For the humble newbie on the boards like myself I thought it might be a good idea to filter some of the crap and get to the really interesting stuff. I stayed up all night this week so you don't have to.

So lets step back a week or so to last Friday, titled instructors around the country have just been paid after two weeks of nail biting tension and "toppatsu rampages". Staff and middle management salaries were already 48hours late, then the staff get another fax saying not to worry the following morning. Shawn was amongst the first to step in after the fax was posted on LJ;

"How any teacher can see this fax as being anything more than a pile of crap is beyond me.

The Times London was at the same time reporting that teachers had been paid, averting massive strikes, painting a picture of a company on the brink of collapse.

Newbies and veterans on the LJ boards were less forgiving. This from unpaidagain

"ALL THAT STUFF I SAID ABOUT SARUHASHI BEING A DIRTY MONGREL RAT PRICK..........................WELL.........NOTHINGS CHANGED THERE.

And from veteran SamhainP8

"But as others have said, do you really want to go through this all again next month?
Take the money and run away as fast and as far as you can TODAY!

Most people were in agreement that the business fundamentals hadn't changed and Nova had just bought itself some more time. Ken Worsley from Trans-Pacific Radio had dealt with rumours of a potential buyout or a cash injection from a mystery investor the day before, and twice said the company was beyond broke in a conservative estimate of the companies value.

The conversation on LJ quickly turned back to the job hunt, and the potential flood of instructors on to a weakening eikaiwa job market. The high level resignations in head office had already started. People began to wonder where the money to pay titled instructors had come from and the rumour about a mystery man resurfaced. Bakananova wrote:

"In the case of ASA, right before the teachers were about to go on strike, a similar mystery man appeared... he was introduced as someone who was going to invest in the school... However, it was soon apparent... nothing had changed except that we were deeper in debt and had been played like fools.

Meanwhile the weekend newspapers and radio programs in Australia and New Zealand were starting to pick up the story. The Courier mail reports Aussie teachers not paid, left homeless in Japan, while Good Morning, New Zealand! Radio NZ’s “Morning Report” Interviews TPR’s Ken Worsley.

Attention soon again turned to speculation over Saruhashi's responses to a few important dates, was there something happening in the Multimedia Centre on the 5th? Could we expect some good news? Would there be anything substantial in the report to JASDAQ due on that day? The most dubious fax yet from Saruhashi got some drubbing from novawhiz;

" This is looking like he's coming to grips with the fact he ran the company into the ground and has no hope, and he's the one that did it.....

And on the topic of a government bailout mooted on Of Rice and Zen, InTheKnow had this to say;

"What politician-- LDP or otherwise-- wants to get in bed with Sahashi anyway? He's persona non grata in Japan-- a pariah. And a criminal.

Back to work on Monday and Nova employees begin to tell their stories on Trans-Pacific Radio.  The podcast and blogs describe what it is like living and working in the bowel of a behemoth that is moving closer and closer to the abyss. Saruhashi is clearly in hiding, as the Japanese media start to savage his character. The Sankei News (in Japanese) reports on Nova failing to pay rent after deducting it from instructors' salaries and files it in the crime section. LJ begins to devolve into an all out flame war on evictions that is still smouldering on Wednesday when other big news comes to hand, AACE Stops Recruiting for Nova. Brisbane, Toronto, Chicago and London recruitment offices have already asked people to reconsider travel to Japan and in some cases stopped recruiting altogether.

Branch closures are picking up speed, nothing has been done about the threat of eviction in NOVA apartments and teacher morale is at an all time low. The flame wars pick up again over who makes a better TI/wage/investment/visa candidate/argument on LJ and then this comes through on Friday morning from exUsagiCoalMiner;

"Just received a mail...  S. Frater (head of Education Quality Control Group) resigned today. For some dumb reason he was still in Nova Accommodations, and Nova hadn't been paying his rent.

Now that has got to hurt! Ouch. This piece of rumour almost eclipsed what everyone had been waiting for, the "good news" and the other minor matter of a report to JASDAQ. Note also that none of the senior management nor the Japanese staff have been paid yet either. The week look set to fizzle out, then Deadbunny finds a small article (in Japanese) on the Chunichi Shimbun with reference to the JASDAQ report (pdf).The report is almost immediately rejected by JASDAQ for being "clearly insufficient" and Nova have a further two weeks to come up with a more comprehensive plan to turn the business around.

The response on LJ is muted, this from PanicInducingGaijin;

" Anyone hanging on waiting for "big news," you've been duped.

and in more colourful terms from FalconDriver;

"It makes no sense to work now. If last month's pay doesn't have a hope in hell of reaching our pockets then working for next month's pay is looking up the ass of a dead dog.

So here we are again, SNAFU. AFAIK, Japanese staff have not been paid, nor have AAM's and above. People who left the country in July have not seen their final pay packet. Schools are closing, not through any planned downsizing, but because the rent hasn't been paid. There are no new recruits coming. Where (when) this will end is any one's guess, but it would seem safe to say that NOVA has a snowballs chance in hell of surviving.

Some important dates are coming up. The instructors next pay day is on the 15th, although I don't know how this is going to happen while Japanese staff and middle management still haven't been paid. There is a new and more comprehensive report due at JASDAQ on the 19th. Between now and Saturday expect the list of closed schools to grow, and resignations to be severe.

You can follow my tumblr, or Jaiku for closer coverage of what is being billed the biggest consumer wipeout in Japanese history.

 

As far as eikaiwa schools go, NOVA was one of the biggest, in 2003 it had captured over 66% of the market share in Japan and was voraciously clawing it's way in to uncharted territory. Expanding beyond it's much touted school in front of the station model, it opened in shopping centres and strip malls hoping to become the McDonald's of English. When I moved to Japan in 2003 I was part of that expansion, and in 2004 I had taken a position as a titled instructor in a rural branch.

When I moved into that role, there were 7 full time teachers and 2 part timers, working in a branch of around 230 students. On Saturdays we filled 5 rooms, sometimes with the full complement of 4 students in each room. Nowadays I am lucky to see a single lesson with 4 students. Most days I teach 3 or 4 students and a handful of kids. There are 5 instructors including myself, and when one of them leaves in 2 weeks for a big city job at a different eikaiwa, we won't be getting a replacement. There are half the number of students there used to be.

There has been a lot said about the financial demise of NOVA over the last couple of months, and it could be said that their trouble started a long time ago. What ever the reason, it has come to a crunch in the most predictable, yet heinous way. Thousands of students are demanding refunds, many are lodging formal complaints and the lawsuits are piling up in the courts. Staff haven't been paid, instructors are miserable if they are turning up to work at all, many  more are leaving daily. NOVA is defaulting on loans, struggling to pay rent on schools and even the apartments it leases on behalf of instructors. Many instructors face the threat of eviction.

Schools are closing at an alarming rate and instructors are being forced to transfer, many are not showing up for work at their new posts, afraid that their travel expenses may not be reimbursed. Despite this turmoil, new instructors are being shipped over to Japan, unaware of the deep financial crisis they may be about to step into.

Last month my pay was delayed by 2 weeks, this month I doubt it will come on pay day as promised, if it at all. I am still turning up to work, under the advice of the General Union, and I am encouraged by my family to hang in there. I have no faith left in the company, because the president abused my trust by stringing me along on a trail of empty promises. I feel a sense of responsibility towards my students and my co-workers, we all accept that the end is near, and we are all working hard to enjoy the last few days of our professional relationships together.

I don't feel hopeless, just betrayed, by a man who would put his greedy pride before the welfare of 7000 employees, some of them who are just days into their first experience of this beautiful country.  I am disgusted that he would leave 400,000 students in the lurch, with worthless points to be reclaimed at a school that is sinking further into the mire with every minute.

Where are you Sahashi? What do you have in store for us? Are you brave enough to admit defeat, or will you string us along again with your vapid prose and empty promises?

You can follow the unfolding drama on my tumblr, or my jaiku.

 

It's almost 2am in the morning, discovering some great tracks on last.FM from artists I thought I'd lost interest in has fuelled yet another comment and blogging session. I'm not sure when it will end. I don't think I'm in denial, but I want to be sure so I do a quick search and check out the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and find that I am an average user.

"You are an average on-line user.
  You may surf the Web a bit too
  long at times, but you have
  control over your usage."

Hang on a second, none of these questions seem to fit my pattern of usage, and anyway isn't surfing the web so 2001? I no longer spend as much time sitting in front of the computer as I used to, but I am more connected to a circle of people I call friends/followers/contacts/neighbours/subscribers than I have ever been. It starts just after I wake up and finishes just before I go to bed.

I am constantly adjusting what I like to call my signal to noise ratio, fine tuning feeds, connecting in new ways to the same people, connecting to new people in familiar ways. I have a routine that works for me. Still, I am not yet satisfied.

It has been said that I am not txting as much, but I have found ways to hide the constant stream of SMS flowing into my inbox. There is no vibration on my phone, no ring tone, and not even a notification light for txt. I check my phone in regular intervals, but not excessively, because I now there will be something there for me when I do.

I have simplified my computing, if you want to call it that by freeing myself from the desktop, there are nodes for mobile computing everywhere, and my terminal (a DSlite with Opera Mini) is smaller than a pulp fiction paperback.

Season bloggers are limiting posts in length and number, some are saying goodbye, there may be a backlash against microblogging but it is small and quiet. Even the the masterminds behind the monster have failed to stop it from encroaching upon their lives.

It's now half past two in Japan, and the twitter stream is slowing down here, but just picking up on the other side of the Pacific. I'm in no mood to chase the sun, but I will be there when it rises.

It seems that the genie is out of the bottle and will take some shoving to get it back in.

twitter:jrfiction
jaiku:jrfiction
tumblr:jrfiction
tumblr:rainbowhill
pownce:jrfiction

btw. if you have a burning need want pownce invites I have what you're looking for.

It's kind of rare that I get the time these days to sit down and write a full blooded blog post, and when I do I'm usually posting pictures of our latest trip to the park for friends and family. That's not something that I think is terribly interesting for most people. Most often I've been connecting with people online via my mobile phone and Nintendo DS  with Opera mini.

I read some where recently that people love reading short blog posts with lists of links so I've decided to send you a five of my favourite blogging tools on the web. This is where you will find me spending most of my down time, while I'm on my way to work and in my breaks.

• Tumblr - A tumblelog, fast and light, very visual and a bit like scrap-booking.
  http://rainbowhill.tumblr.com/ and in Japanese http://jrfiction.tumblr.com/
• Twitter - microblogging tool for those with an attention deficit, also a very good way to share news, and keep your ear to the ground. I'm posting here only in Japanese.
  http://twitter.com/jrfiction
  
• Jaiku - The choice for me between Jaiku and Twitter is simple, the former is in English and the latter is in Japanese. I must admit that I have connected with more people on Twitter, perhaps because I put more effort in.
  http://jrfiction.jaiku.com/
  
• Flickr - I've only just rediscovered Flickr, they have some new upload tools and it's simple to upload via email also. I repurpose my feed here for Tumblr and Jaiku. My photosets are also available through other sites like vox and facebook.
  http://www.flickr.com/people/rainbowhill/

I was going to mention 43things and Facebook because they seem to absorb a lot of my time, but that's only when I am in front of the PC, which is like I said earlier a lot rarer these days.

  I probably don't post here as much as I'd like to, and it's been nagging at me for months. It's not for want of anything to say, or lack of interesting content for that matter. I could do worse things than write a boring blog entry. I don't sit here in front of the compose screen for minutes on end unable to fill the white space, but I often write things and never publish them publicly. There they sit in eternal draft mode, gathering virtual dust as their relevancy sinks further and further into the great bowels of the web, beyond the reach of any search engine spider.

  Believe it or not, there are even posts composed and ready to go sitting on my phone at this moment that you may never get to see, because they are not polished enough. What an irony, how can anything be polished enough if done by thumb alone? Perhaps I need to lower my standards a little bit further and let some raw edges in.

  It's not as if I haven't been an active blogger, I Twitter, I Jaiku, I keep a list, I do a reasonable job of  maintaining my social networks here and elsewhere. I just don't write much of substance. There it growls again, that unhappy mutt called self criticism.

  I'm sure programming will return to normal soon...

  In the meantime and on a lighter note, I'm on holiday for 6days. I've got some things to do in the morning with the family, and a trip to a zoo in Kyoto on Friday to look forward to. The next few days after that are free, and I plan to relax and get into a new routine with regards to fitness and blogging. Two of the things I most enjoy these days. There is also a heavy duty Japanese test looming that I have to get to work on.

  I am always grateful for the people who take the time to read my posts, and even happier when they comment. Thank you. It also reminds me that I have a responsibility to reciprocate in kind.  I'm now rushing off to say thank you to my one hundredth subscriber on YouTube before anyone leaves.