A day with the Queen

Before the Queen of England
the best of you is expected,
much the same as walking
into an office building in Japan.

For you youngsters, putting
on your best manners
for the Queen of Pop,
Ms. Lady Gaga
(who really cares about
the Queen right?).

Once I arrived home I prepped myself by looking at our Training First Day Manual given to us upon arrival to our apartment. I made a vow to myself to not make another disastrous impression of myself (even though about fifteen minutes earlier I could add another bad impression to my list, with getting pegged as the "Daisy" yeller)! Looking at the manual, I had not yet bothered to open, I was shocked to see it went something like this: Dress: Business Formal, No tattoos showing, No heavy makeup, No jewelry, No holes in socks, No watches, No unkept or dyed hair, No piercing. A list of continuous No, No, No's were crammed in small font, on to about two pages! It was as if we were meeting the Queen of England that day (For you youngsters, putting on your best manners for the Queen of Pop, 

 Ms. Lady Gaga (who really cares about the Queen right?)! 

What were we signing up for, I thought we were just going to English teachers for kids? 

In Japanese business culture, appearances and conduct are ran with such precise rules, that perfection on every level is expected from each worker, once stepping foot inside their place of work. It was not like any other job I had had, with how many stipulations were demanded of me. I get that newbies, even back home, are usually given the, "This-is-the-most-important-job-in-the-world" speech, but honestly with the endless list of stipulations-this company seemed to be taking it to that level. I was seriously imagining the Queen of England or Lady Gaga (for the youngsters who really wouldn't mind having poor manners in front the Queen, but Lady Gaga on the other hand you'd be on your best behaviour) to be a guest speaker, or maybe we'd be on some crazy Japanese TV program and had to look our best!