This is the Rice Lake International House in Miharu, Japan. This is the place where Kevin and I lived from August 2000 til spring of 2007. I was the live-in "manager" of this American-style bed and breakfast in a small town in Japan about 3 hours north of Tokyo in the beautiful heartland of Fukushima Prefecture. I worked for the local Board of Education and a local International Association. I planned parties and events for the House. In the 8 years BEFORE I became manager the place was in the RED because the other guest managers from the US were not allowed to try much of anything new. They were never given a budget for anything, and any time they wanted to try something, they were told there was "no money". They also didn't speak Japanese so it was rather hard for them to explain their ideas. They tried, but no one would listen. Luckily for them, I speak Japanese pretty well, and don't need anyone to listen, I just get the job done. We were in the black within 6 months, and for the following 3 years.

Then hurricane Naoko hit and I was told to "not do anything without explicit permission of the Board", which made actually planning and carrying out any events difficult, since the Board didn't actually ever MEET except once every 3 months or so. And even then they never wanted to discuss actual business. Of course, my staff and I, and Board Secretary continued to meet every month, as we had always done, and came up with ideas and scheduled events, as we had always done, but the new President (Naoko I.) failed to approve ANY of our plans, and unless we screamed and hollered for permission, we were roadbloacked! After two years of fighting for permission for every damn thing, I decided to do nothing until I was told to (as I had been told to do for 2 years by Naoko), and we began the year and half when there was NOTHING! Even English Conversation classes came to an end. And to everyone's SURPRISE (except mine and every other reasonably intelligent person on the planet, of course) suddenly the House was bad in the RED - they couldn't pay the bills...... So NOW the President Nitwit (Naoko I.) and her stooge (Hiroko Y.) turns to me and ask "WHY ISN'T THERE ANY MONEY?" "WHY AREN'T YOU TEACHING ENGLISH?" and "WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A BAD MOOD?" Gosh, I wonder. "I'm just following your orders!"

Once confronted with their own stupidity, they did what any reasonable intelligent person would do - admit the error of their ways, apologize, and establish new guidelines and procedures to return the Rice Lake House to its full glory....... Oops! Wait! That is so NOT the way it happened..... Once confronted with their stupidity, they did what any reasonable intelligent Japanese person would do - blame the foreigner for everything and continue the same old crappy LACK OF management that got them into trouble in the first place, AND THEN (and here's the topper) appeal to the Local Government for money to BAIL THEM OUT. And guess what? The government is giving it to them! $30,000 next year alone. Hey, why actually do any work when people will give you money for doing nothing?????
So, Naoko gets a nice big BONUS from the Miharu town budget, and I get SACKED! Am I bitter? Oh, HELL YES!