Monday, 10th June 2002
I have been in Japan, Takasaki now for just over 1 week. So far I am still adjusting to life in Japan. Today is my first day at work at Macro Inc. I am feeling very nervous because my Japanese is still very weak and I'm not familiar with how Japanese business' work. I don't want to do anything wrong and so that makes me feel nervous. What makes me feel even more nervous is because the Boss is sitting right opposite me!!!
Tuesday, 11th June 2002
The second day of work. I didn't feel quite as nervous today as I did yesterday. I got used to the fact that I would be washing desks and stuff. I was all prepared for the Briefing session today, where yesterday I was scared witless by the woman who held it. But it wasn't so bad because instead of the woman holding it, the boss held it instead. Incidentently, she is also sitting just three desks away from me, which is still too close!! Phoebe says she's really nice really, but I have yet to speak to her. I think that her name is Matsuda-san? I suppose that work will get better after a couple of weeks when I get to know everyone. I don't know anybody's names yet, apart from Douwaki-syunin (the boss). However, he is very cheerful and helpful and that makes life much better for me. There is another guy who has an incredible hairstyle, I'm not sure if he intends it to be like that or what, but he's quite a happy chappy and a seemingly friendly guy. I know that it's not because I am a foreigner that not many people speak to me, because there is another guy who is very timid too and he doesn't say a word, nor does anybody speak to him even though he is Japanese.
Wednesday, 12th June 2002
Work is getting more and more relaxed, both for us (the interns) and the workers. Maybe work will now start to get more and more monotonous as it becomes more and more familiar. Hopefully, once our Japanese is up to a higher standard, I'll be able to join in with the other workers more. I have now found out that the briefing session seems to be held on a per rota basis, because everyday since I have started, there has been a different person who has held the session. I wonder what happens when it gets to us? I have noticed that most workers here make lots of cups of drinks to drink during work. Work is generally quite relaxed on the whole. I have no idea what anybody else is doing, but it seems as if though a few of the workers are working together on some sort of project. Then there are a couple of separate workers, who are sitting quite close to me. One of them is the scary woman, the other seems to be the deputy boss. Douwaki-syunin has been out every afternoon since I have started. I think that he said that he was busy with a customer.
Tommorrow will be our welcoming party, I'm actually quite looking forward to that as I am just curious to as what will actually happen at the party. I've been told that the Japanese drink a lot and so I think that it would be very interesting to see if anyone gets drunk!
Thursday, 13th June 2002
It was raining this morning, so I cycled to work and I got a little wet! Got to buy me an umbrella sometime. Japanese people here seem to have been riding bikes since they have been able to walk! They seem to be quite adept at cycling one handed, be it using the hand for using a mobile phone or holding an umbrella... Seriously, I think that I have seen some guys cycling around whilst writing a text message! Today I got assigned to a do some real work. The deadline is pretty tough, but I think that I can do it. Anyhow, the welcoming party starts in about half an hour and so I'm really looking forward to that!
Friday, 14th June 2002
Oowww.. my head hurts... Last night at the welcoming party, it was great. I got a bit drunk! The Japanese really do drink a lot and in case you are ever coming to Japan, the beers here have greater alcohol content than in the UK! Watch out!! Seriously, every person at this company are really nice people and they do everything that they can to make us feel welcome. This morning, I must have put my shoes on and off about 5 times in total as everytime I was about to leave, I realised I forgot something. First it was my jacket, then it was my wallet, then my phone.... inbetween all these times, I put on my shoes and then I had to take them off again. (You aren't allowed to walk in the house with shoes on).
Also, I just sat through my first earthquake!! It seems to be pretty much a normal thing to happen as nobody really did anything about it. If you haven't ever sat through an earthquake, it feels really weird and it made me a little dizzy, even though it only lasted for a few seconds.
Monday, 17th June 2002
I don't have much to report today. It was the weekend and nothing exciting really happened. Takasaki is a pretty boring place. However, while the World Cup is on and England are winning, nothing could be better! To 'celebrate' England's victory (3-0) against Denmark, I had a few too many... Ooops.. I paid for it on Sunday! I went out to one of the many arcade entertainment places on Saturday and it's quite strange in those places to me. This is because there are many people in there who look older than me inside. Mind you, they are great at playing BeatMania, DrumMania and those other sort of games. It's scary to think how much money they must have put into those machines to become that good. Also, whilst there seem to be older guys in there, there are also many younger girls, looking around 15-17 maybe, I can't tell. One type of machine that seems to be insanely popular are the ones with a crane and you try to pick up a prize, like a cuddly toy. You get loads of the guys playing them with their girlfriends next to them and they win the cuddly toys for them!! Since I am no good at those kind of games, I have devised a plan. What I'm going to do is to buy a load of cuddly toys, exactly the same as the ones in the machine and then I'm gonna hide them in my bag and stand next to the machine. Then, when some cut girls come along, I'm going to pretend that I've won a load of cuddly toys just for them!! I personally think that it's a great idea!
Nothing exciting happened at work today except that a flourescent light went out and so it took about 20 mins and just about everyone here in the entire workforce to marvel and try put in a new one. It puts a spin on the old joke, "How many Japanese does it take to change a flourescent light?" :p
Tuesday, 18th June 2002
Right now, I think that I am smack bang in the middle of Japan's rainy season. This morning it was absolutely chucking it down and I was soaked to the bone. Not a good way to start the day. Also, then I got into work and no one was around and so I accidently set off the alarm system. The day was only a couple of hours gone and I can tell you things haven't got much better from then. Japan have just been knocked out of the World Cup by Turkey and so I think that I may be in danger of getting killed by all the Japanese around me... (just kidding) But really, everyone around here is very nice and it wasn't that big a deal that I set the alarm system off, even though the security person came round to see who was breaking into the office... Douwaki-syunin (the boss) even told me not to worry about it. I wonder if my pay is gonna be docked to pay for the call out charge from the security team? Ah well, I'll just have to remember not to do it next time.
England are facing Brazil soon, which I think that England could win. You heard it here first!
Wednesday, 19th June 2002
I don't understand Japanese weather. It was really warm today. Yesterday it was pouring down with rain and now it's really really warm. Nothing exciting happened today, but I am pretty pleased with myself because I successfully predicted that Japan would not progress to the next round of the World Cup and also I said that Korea would beat Italy. So many people said, "Huh? Are you crazy?" Ah well, I was right in the end though!!
Thursday, 20th June 2002
Bad news. I just found out that I'll still be working when England are up against Brazil. Damn. Do you reckon I could get away with a toilet break for 90 minutes? ;p Well, I'll probably be able to catch the last ten minutes of the match after work, where I'll be screaming at them to put the tv on!
Friday, 21st June 2002
The world has just ended. England are out of the World Cup and the one thing I have to say is: Referee - you're bloody useless. Pretty pissed off now. I think I'm going off to sulk for a bit.
Monday, 24th June 2002
I've just about stopped sulking about England going out of the world cup now. I saw a japanese program the other day and it said, "yo nen ato ni ragayuku zo!" Which means, "We will shine in four years!" Presumably, they were talking about the Japanese team, but I think that this applies to England also. I played football over the weekend, for 5 hours! My legs don't feel like they want to work at all and cycling now is rather painful.
Tuesday, 25th June 2002
Last night I went out exploring the city. Actually, my main intention was to find something more interesting to do over the weekends, other than going to play pool and wandering around the shops in town. It's no fun going to all the shops if you have no money and things here aren't exactly cheap! After much bumbling about around town, I somehow managed to find the bowling alley (after I had given up looking for it). It looks quite nice, but I have no idea how much it costs to play. Also, something I noticed while going around was that the Japanese seem to be obsessed with 'Pachinko,' which is like pinball, but it's also gambling. There are absolutely huge establishments dedicated to 'Pachinko'. I lost count of how many I saw.
Wednesday, 26th June 2002
I went out to play pool again. I whooped James again. This time it was pretty severe, I think he only potted like two balls in the first few frames!! Then I went to the arcade, where there were the usual guys there who seemed to have been playing the arcades all their lives. I had a go at this bongo drum style game, which was fun, but my arms were aching afterwards!! James got his revenge for the beating at pool by beating both us and Phoebe at a driving game.
Thursday, 27th June 2002
I watched 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' the Japanese edition! It's about the same except it is called 'Trial 10,000,000 Yen'. It's speeded up too, they only show the contestants from question 10 onwards, where the suspense kicks in. The presenter isn't the usual style Chris 'Are you Sure?' Tarrant. Rather, he just stares and stares at the contestant for ages before letting them know if they have the question right or not. They even have the commercial break cut out before the presenter reveals if the answer was right or not! In case you are wondering, 10 million yen isn't all that much, it's about ?0,000. I saw one guy win the maximum. Nobody seems to just take the money and run, they all seem to answer the question even if they don't have a clue!! I saw several people get to the penultimate question and they just failed and dropped back down to 1 million yen (?000).
Friday, 28th June 2002
Well, work is over for another day. Today, it was my project deadline and I think that I got most things done ok. I wonder what they will make us do next? Tonight, it will be a welcoming party again! I think that it should be fun, I can't wait!!
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