We are in desperate straits-please wire 100 million yen immediately

Well it's not quite as bad as all that yet although I'll be sure to let you know if I have to start teaching for food. As if foreigners don't have a hard enough time integrating in Japanese society and making a living. What's going to happen if the Japanese believe all they need to get an English lesson is a can of corn? For anybody who has been here for more than 6 months, there's no excuse for this nonsense. Have people not heard of saving for a rainy day? I consider myself quite fortunate compared to some of the people around me. I've got a house for a reasonable rent, a 3-year visa and a small war-chest thanks to some financial self-control-my good friend Chad fondly refers to me as a "cheap-ass".

One of my co-workers will be gone quite soon however. She had the bad luck of having her visa run out just as Nova shut down. We weren't paid this September so she and her boyfriend (who also worked for Nova) have no money to pay for their rent-or food for that matter. The Immigration office is no longer approving visas for employees of Nova which means that she has to be out of the country by the 22nd of November. It's really quite sad that this had to happen. What makes it even worse is that Nova seems to have been mismanaged into the ground and that the CEO was possibly (probably) involved in illegal financial activities to the detriment of the company for his own gain.

I'm not sure what Peter's plan is. He's definitely one of the luckier ones in this whole deal, ie. he has some money to live off of and he has an apartment that hasn't been defaulted on and he has a 3-year visa. However he doesn't seem to be basking in glow of unemployment the way I have been. He was always more of an idealist than me though. A real teacher's teacher. The very idea of just sitting around doing nothing just does not seem to appeal to him. I hope he can stick it out. Well that's all the complaining I have to do about Nova tonight. I'll make a nice new post of more pleasant material.