These boots were made for walking

It may seem like just yesterday - okay, it was actually about a month and a half ago - that I reported to the masses that I had gotten a job (!). Alas, I have since discovered several things that have ultimately prompted me to give my one-month notice at J's Kitchen. That's right, folks, a mere 7 weeks after beginning work at the restaurant, I'm turning in my dish-washing gloves.

Here is what I learned/my reasons for leaving:

1) I discovered that I have an allergy to the dish soap they use there that made my hands look like they'd contracted some form of what Erica and I decided to call 'Hand Herpes.' Don't worry, it's not contagious, it just didn't look very pretty. In fact, the dermatologist thinks that the fact that the hand herpes continued even after I started to wear dish-washing gloves might mean that I also have an allergy to latex in general. Damn, there goes that membership to my local Latex Fetish/Knitting group!

2) During the job interview, I came to understand that I would be working in both the kitchen and on the floor - as apparently everyone who works there does. I took this to mean that I would get to learn how to cook veg/Japanese food (in addition to pro-cooking basics such as cutting/chopping super fast) as well as waitressing in addition to the dirty work that people would take turns at. Well, I basically became the go-to person for the dirty work (i.e. washing dishes and taking out the trash) and the no-go person for the waitressing. I was only carted out when a large group of gaijin came in or someone speaking English was on the phone. It's not that I minded dish-washing or trash-outing so much, it's that these were basically the only things I was doing and that's not what I signed up for. People who were hired after me and with the same amount of experience were let out on the floor by themselves almost immediately. It became clear that they didn't intend to train me to take orders in Japanese, which is what I had hoped/thought would happen. I did learn how to cut veggies better and faster, so that's a skill that I happily take with me. However, all the people who really worked in preparing the food have either gone to some form of culinary school or were lucky enough to work in other restaurants that trained them in the past, and it didn't seem like the manager was eager and/or willing for me to learn more of the ropes around the kitchen - again, I think this was mainly a language thing in that it's too much of a hassle to train me through hand gestures (I guess not everyone knows the international hand signal for julienne) and stunted Japanese.

3) I like waitressing - when I'm allowed to chat with the customers and my fellow employees. In Japan, there isn't really a "chat with the customers" culture, and while I was allowed to chat with my co-workers when out of range of customers (i.e. in the kitchen), we aren't really supposed to talk to each other if we're actually working the floor - even if we're just standing around in the enclosed pantry area waiting for the food to be ready to take to the customer, etc. Anyway, I'd suspected that I would like waitressing because I like working with people and talking to customers. In fact, the few times that I did get to waitress at J's, I really enjoyed it. However, it's not worth only 900 yen an hour when I only got to do this maybe once every two weeks.

4) I don't like hand herpes.

5) Late hours and late meals are not conducive to a good night's sleep and a productive Japanese class in the morning.

So, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. You're probably wondering what my next step is. For the time being, I'm just focusing on finishing out my time at J's and my studies. In the meantime...

WATCH THIS SPACE. :)

I'll leave you with this picture that I found recently. They're too cute!!