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There have been some events in my life recently that my close friends know all about (I'm sure they all wanted me to shut up about it). I wont go into details here but the end result was that I decided that I was going to attempt to get a job in Japan.

Ever since I was a small child I have had a love of Japan and the thought of moving there has always appealed to me.

unfortunately, I have this inertia thing I mentioned in my last post. I always would find excuses not to make the leap. These excuses caused me to miss out on a perfect chance. I could have taken a working holiday and gone there to live and work for a year. I am now too old to do that (the cut off is 30 years old). I don't have a university degree so I can't get a job teaching English to kids. Now, to get a working visa I have to somehow manage to convince a Japanese company to sponsor me sight unseen.

To this end I updated my resume (thank you Andie, I couldn't have done that with out you) and started searching out jobs in Japan. Deep down I know that the chances of me actually getting a job there is pretty slim but I will still try. As long as I keep trying I will not feel like I broke a promise to myself.

On Wednesday I spotted an ad on www.daijob.com. It was for a company called Denphone K.K.. It's a company located in Tokyo; Roppongi to be precise. They make PBX systems based on open protocols. They are looking for a PHP/UNIX programmer. When I saw the ad I rushed to write a cover letter and emailed it off to Andie to get her approval. Andie is really good at that sort of thing. Waited all night for a reply from Andie. Couldn't relax. Kept running to the computer ever ten minutes to see if she had replied yet.

At 9:30 I decided to give her a call to see if she could give my cover letter the once over. She answered her phone and instantly launched into a pity me story. Her basement was flooded and her computer's hard drive was FUBAR. She lost a bunch of physical and digital stuff on the same day in totally unrelated incidents.

And to top it off, her shower was broken. She was having a bad day to the n^th degree.

I am a good listener but I am not very good at comforting people. I never know what to say. When someone gives me a sob story, I usually just listen and say "uh-huh".

After she had gotten all her frustration out I got around to asking her to go over my cover letter. Only problem was that with her computer out of commission she couldn't check her email. I ended up reading the letter to her. Between the two of us we got it polished up and ready to go.

Thursday morning, I emailed off my resume with the cover letter. I didn't expect to hear back from them. Why bother to sponsor someone from Canada when you could just hire someone who already has a visa?

When I woke up this morning I saw a email waiting for me asking me for a phone interview. If I wasn't still rubbing sleep out of my eyes I would have done a happy dance. My first attempt and I manage to get an interview. Awesome. One thing about my resume: it gets noticed. Bernard (one of the trip members) thinks it is no good but he is in the minority. Everyone else seems to love it. It stands out. I was once told by an employer that it is the single best looking resume that he has ever seen.

I have to wait for them to get back to me on a actual time for the interview. There is a thirteen hour time difference between Ottawa and Tokyo. Co-ordinating this might be difficult.

I really hope this pans out.