The most difficult object to obtain in the known universe

At last, I have received it.

The silly Certificate of Eligibility that took multiple attempts to apply for and many months to process (I hate red tape with a crimson passion) was finally Priority-mailed to me today by Nova:



Just gotta take it to the Japanese Embassy in LA tomorrow and trade it for a Work Visa. Which means I'll be in the downtown area. Which means Sushi Gen in Little Tokyo for lunch. The freshest sashimi in Los Angeles, one of my all-time favorite restaurants. Woot.

Blastoff!

So this is the official launch of my blog for the upcoming life of mayhem in Japan.

Forgive the title being complete BS at the moment, as there will be no Osaka stuff until Sept. 26th. That is, if the company that hired me (NOVA Group, Japan) can survive until then. The 411 is this: there was a class-action lawsuit against the company. The company has its customers purchase points which they redeem for English lessons. However... ex-students wanted refunds because they were unable to book their lessons (Nova allegedly made the malicious decision to make scheduling classes extremely difficult so people would be stuck with unredeemable points) and Nova refused.

Enter METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry). This arm of the Japanese gov. ruled on the case in favor of the plaintiffs and threw down a six-month ban on signing new students as punishment for the firm. This started in June, and now I'm reading all these articles on how Nova's bleeding money as they continue to try and operate without any incoming cash flow. I've watched their stock drop faster than Linday Lohan's credibility as an actress this whole summer.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the situation though, as the company is basically the Microsoft of Eikaiwa schools in Japan. Friends and family in Asia report thumbs-up on Survival Outlook Watch as Nova's received a fair amount of media attention there. So hopefully they won't go bankrupt and leave me homeless and jobless after I've landed in Japan. Though it could be kinda cool to bum around and get in random adventures...