Ever since Sean started getting involved with temporary/contract jobs in Tokyo for extra cash he started signing me up too whenever I was free so we could go together. He got to know a lot of the administrators pretty well and now we're on a lot of email lists when odd gigs for cash open up.  Cue two months ago when I was offered the chance to apply to work with the Japanese Government and new technology for the Olympics for a day. I was invited to apply because they were looking for American females between 25-35 years old who were native English speakers with intermediate Japanese skills. Interestingly, a headshot had to be included. I was immediately intrigued, sent in my CV and was selected as one of the participants. Did I mention that it was five hours of work for about $300? Major score for the savings account.

After a flurry of emails with specific details on what to wear - "smart business casual" (specifically a black suit, a basic color shirt, scarf and dress shoes with stockings), what to bring (copies of resident card/work permit and my Japanese signature stamp) and when/how to get there, the actual day arrived and today I got up early, put on something other than a T-shirt and yoga pants and headed downtown feeling happy to be doing something different besides staring at a computer all day.


The whole experience was hilariously fascinating and very Japanese. Extremely unsure of what to expect, I quickly learned that I was to be a prop/demo of a foreigner who needs help in a taxi. The actual gig was working at one of the booths during a translation tech fair where each company was trying to win the contract and government endorsement of their translation technology in order to prepare for the upcoming Olympics. My booth was technology that allowed foreign passengers to talk into an iPad to communicate with the driver in either English, Korean or Chinese. We practiced for about 30 minutes before the event started and then for the rest of the day I repeated the same phrases over and over: "How long is it to Tokyo Sky Tree?" "Where can I see cherry blossoms?" and "How much does it cost?" Aside from a few obnoxious comments when members of the audience would ask me questions (in the mic in Japanese) like "How do you like Mr. Trump?" etc.  The whole thing was pretty tame.



My supervisor for the day was very excited about his taxi "cosplay" costume (his words) but extremely nervous about all of the demonstrations. He kept buying me waters to "keep my voice working" and said that I was chosen to be a demonstrator because as an English teacher it was assumed that I would speak slowly and clearly. One of the most interesting things was talking to the other foreign demonstrators who were selected; they were easy to find as we all fit the same demographic and were the only foreigners in the room. The girl next to me was from California and was being used as a foreign prop to show translation technology in a hospital. Her first question to me was, "Who's your agent?" After explaining that I had ultimately gotten this job off the internet she was surprised and encouraged me to find my own "agent". She said she and the other foreigners at the event do this kind of thing full-time and it runs the gamut from voice recordings, being a "foreigner" in marketing or ad campaigns or testing new technology.

The other interesting thing was the blatant hierarchy present in the audience made obvious by the color badge everyone was wearing. The room was packed with men in suits and each one wore a different color badge which showed which level of government they were. My taxi driver always got particularly nervous for the ones wearing the purple badges with some sort of gemstone inside as they were cabinet ministers.

I don't know if I'll ever get called back to work but I hope I do! Thus, I've found a new project for post-thesis until I go home and it's definitely time to get an agent.

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