If any of you had been wondering what a massive corporate collapse is like, well just send me an email and i'll give you all the details, because i am sorta in the middle of one right now. Thats right, i may be jobless in a month... or even 15 days for that matter, depending on the situation. We might recover and i might be ok also... but signs are pointing to the less cheery outcome these days. So, basically, the governmet slapped my company with a ban on signing new students to lucrative contracts for 6 months, starting in June. This is because my company was involved in some false advertising, which led some students to get mad and demand refunds, which my company refused to pay. Well, uncle sam decided to stick up for the little guys and forced them to give the refunds, and imposed the above mentioned ban. Now, this would normally be ok, but the company is sorta in a rough patch because the execs are too stubborn to close a few schools that have been losing money, simply because they dont want to give up market share. For the last 2 years they've been running them at a loss just to hurt competition. Well, its come back and kicked them in the nuts, because the combined choke hold on cash inflow, with the refunds having to be paid, with the loss of money on unprofitable schools has led to one minor problem: they cant pay us. So... on the 15th... payday, only maybe 80% of us were paid. They didnt pay the higher promoted teachers at each branch, basically cause they couldnt, and they were the only ones that would be less likely to revolt. Well, they were wrong, after repeated lies about when they would be paid, revolt they did, and all hell is breaking loose. They have only JUST managed to pay them today, which at this point noone saw coming. The thing is, now noone thinks they are getting paid next month, and all kinds of crazy rumors are going around. Anyway... on Oct. 15th if the teachers dont get paid again, all hell is going to break loose. They might get some money to tide them over till the ban lifts in december though, so we'll see. All i can say is its getting a little crazy, and noone is taking their job seriously now.
Anyway... enough about that, i'll cross that bridge when and if i get to it. So, i went to the Tokyo Game Show with Jon. Eric was a pansy and didnt call in, so he didnt go, but we had fun! It was basically like E3, in japanese, with more people in costumes. Anyway, we had a good time, saw some cool games, and the cool thing is it was only like 10 bucks to get in, pretty killer.
In about 2 weeks or less, Eric, Azu and I are going to South Korea to hang out for 3 days. We are meeting a friend of ours named Sook, from UNR who graduated and moved back to Korea, and she is going to show us around Seoul. We're pretty stoked about it. She set us up in a guest house somewhere downtown. Also in early November i am going to Saga, which is in Kyushu (southern island of Japan) for a couple days to hang out in Azu's friend Juri's hometown. There is some kind of festival that time of year, so that should be a good time as well. Mike is also probably coming over in early November too, so that should be a rockin good time. Azu is working night shifts these days, which she hates, but i sorta like actually, haha. She has to work these long 24 hour stretches, and while i dont see her then, she usually gets more time off inbetween, and we can actually do things. We went snorkeling in Manazuru last week and met some girls from sweden. There were alot of fish surprisingly, despite the visibility not being the greatest.
Oh, there was a typhoon that plowed right into us earlier this month too. It was pretty crazy, the ocean waves were NUTS. They were coming all the way up the beach, and over this giant 20 foot cement wall at times. They also knocked out a section of the freeway that is right on the ocean. Anyway, me and azu were going down to check them out before the Typhhon fully arrived, and i stepped over this barrier the city put up to detract people from dieing in the giant waves (it was only like 2 feet high, lol). Anyway, before i could do something stupid, some old japanese dude came running out of his house yelling "what the hell are you idiots doing, you're gonna get swept away!!, dont you know what this means!? get back over here!!" and the like... so he probably saved my life, cause not more than maybe 2 minutes later a giant wave washed past where i was standing. I probably woulda been ok though :P. Anyway, me and Azu were on TV because a camera crew came down to film the giant waves when we were watching them, and as they interviewed us, a big wave came and soaked all of us. It was pretty funny. But yeah, a few students recognized me on TV. So that night it came in full force... scary, crazy rain and wind. The house was shaking and all.
Anyway, thats all for now, enjoy the picture of a few crazy FF10 cosplayers there. I'll let you all know how the ol' company fares here in the next few weeks. Peace!
