Catch-up #2 Training week in Tokyo

I just got back from Tokyo, where I spent a week doing some training with the new recruits for my company, Interac. That's pretty cool for me on several levels. I got 1) paid. 2) free/soon to be reimbursed subway fare on the order of $30 around Tokyo 3) great experience that will look really solid on my curricula vitae, and 4) a substantial ego boost seeing as how I've only been doing this for 5 months and they're already using me to train this stuff. All the other trainers were surprised to hear how quickly I had gotten this gig, but EVERY single one of them also took the time to pull me aside and tell me personally that they thought I was doing great and was headed for corporate promotion if I wanted it. Being recognized by one's superiors at work is a very gratifying thing. It was my first experience of that kind, and I liked it. I can see how a man might spend the rest of his life playing by those rules, grasping for more of that particular currency of validation. Its not an economy I wish to live under, though. I'm not sure which one I do want to live under, though, so for now I'm at least considering staying with the company for another year, but only if I can get promoted to a different position by the start of the next contract. I'll stay if it means growing as a person and in my skill base, but I've effectively drained the act of just teaching English as an ALT for its life-enriching powers. I like my job, but it is not challenging in the way or to the degree I would like it to be.

I know Daniel, Chad, David, and my mom have their votes cast for me coming home. Don't worry guys, that holds a lot of weight in my decision making process. I miss you guys too.