Friday, 1st November 2002
The first of the month. Last night, as I said, there was no Japanese class, which kind of breaks up my rythm for the week. Fortunately, Phoebe, Takako and I went to the cinema instead. We saw Triple X! I knew exactly what was instore and so I left my brain at home and proceeded to watch the film. Needless to say, I thought that it was ok. Takako was kind enough to give me a lift home from the cinema, which was very nice of her.
Again, I find myself with another weekend where I have no big plans to do anything. Phoebe I know will be heading off to Disney Sea, although with this cold weather I know what I'd rather be doing. Over these couple of days, I have been working quite hard on my new project which has been assigned to me. It's interesting to me and it is something that I have never done before (probably why it is interesting to me..).
I have some events to look forward to this month. We will have the company trip during the later stages of this month, which should be interesting if not fun. At least I'll get the chance to use the shinkansen!
Tuesday, 4th November 2002
I didn't even realise that we had yesterday off, until James reminded me on Sunday! Otherwise, I'm quite sure that I would have gone into work regardless! For the weekend, I decided to make use of my time in an energetic manner by getting up early and going out, getting things sorted, like weekly shopping. How fun... Also, I went to the library for the first time since I have joined and I had a quick look at the books before I decided that there was no way that I was going to understand any of it. Finally, I decided to attend my Japanese class, which I hadn't done so before because I was usually busy on Saturdays and even if I wasn't, I'd forget! So, Japanese class was quite fun, I got a one on one tuition, although again, it was the basics, so it wasn't too difficult. I did cover a lot of old ground though in a short space of time. If I keep going, I think that I'll learn a lot.
The other day, Macro in its infinite generousity decided to give us some items. These were; a television, a coffee table and some sofas. Quite why they have given these items to us, I have no idea, but I'm not complaining. There's a lot more incentive to watch TV now as it's a big screen!
Other than that, nothing new to report, apart from the fact that the temperatures are rapidly decreasing and it is getting very cold. I wonder how much colder it will get?
Wednesday, 5th November 2002
Right now at work, I've been assigned to do a project on my own. I don't mind that really, but as everything I am doing is completely new to me, I have to work really hard to be able to do it. So, that's all that I have to say now. Every month, we have to fill out a report form detailing what we have done over the past month. I find it kind of difficult to fill this out, as it all has to be in Japanese. We all have to speak to the boss tomorrow about it.
Thursday, 6th November 2002
Japanese class this week. I kind of missed the class last week, as we didn't have one... it broke up my routine a little. But, as always I have to be off otherwise I'll be late!
Friday, 7th November 2002
I don't feel too good today, as for some reason, my neck is hurting a bit. It's Friday already?? Well, I'm coming near to the end of my current project and I guess that they are running out of ideas with what to make us do. They asked if there was anything I personally would like to do, and luckily enough, I have been thinking about it, and I suggested something. The boss seems to be quite enthusiastic about my little project. I think that he's also quite knowledgeable in that area too, so hopefully I can get a lot out of what I have planned to do.
This weekend, I have been invited to go on a city tour of Takasaki. It's going to be on the Sunday. I haven't read much aobut the itinery yet, but I'm looking forward to visiting the Daruma factory! As I have been told many times, Gunma is famous for producing Daruma dolls, so I really want to see how they are made.
Monday, 11th November 2002
I think that this week is one week for a long time where we actually have to work for 5 days! Yesterday, I went on the city tour of Takasaki and it was quite good fun. I got to meet a few more people, although by now I must have met hundreds of people and sometimes, I forget who I've met, so I'm sorry if I have forgotten you! Anyway, there were some familiar faces there, along with many more new ones. We went to Byakui kanon (where I have already been, but it was good to go again), then we went to a 'kofun' site, along with the museum. After that, my favourite, we went to a Daruma factory and painted our own Darumas!! Mine came out pretty rubbish though, although the owner of the factory was a supreme master at painting Darumas (he's been doing it for about 30 years!). After that, we went to a Buddhist temple, where we climbed up 160 steps to meet a Zen Buddhist Priest, who gave us a session in teaching us how to meditate. Apparently, you can meditate in your bed... although rather than practise meditation, I think that I'd rather practise my sleeping.. ;p
Anyway, it's the start of another week and before I know it, I'm already 1/3rd of the way through November! Really, time is passing by extremely quickly and it will be Christmas before I know it! Soon enough, on the 23rd of this month, we will have the company trip and then in early December, we are going to have a 'Neat Dressed' party! We all have to look smart for that one apparently. I'm looking forward to these events, as they are always interesting!
Tuesday, 12th November 2002
Just another day at work, where I'm actually working quite hard trying to solve this project that I have been assigned on. Just now, as I'm writing after work, we've had to do an interesting piece of work. We had to help clean out the air conditioning units!! That was a bit weird, but it wasn't just James and I doing it, everyone was doing it. I didn't realise that we had so many air conditioning units in the office!
Wednesday, 13th November 2002
This morning, I came in a bit earlier and noticed that some of the air conditioning filters had yet to be replaced into the air conditioning units. Kimura-san was actually putting them in, so I offered to help him out. I think that's the first time I have ever spoken to him! The cleaning theme carried on today.. we all had to clean out the lighting units! It's quite a sight to see everyone on the desks, removing the flourescent light tubes and wiping the light units! At least it makes work a bit more interesting. On a side note, it is now 8:30pm and I'm still in the office! Actually, I don't mind as I quite enjoy what it is that I'm doing. Besides, it is nice and warm here in the office. ;p
Thursday, 14th November 2002
Despite the fact that I still have lots of work to do, I don't want to give up going to Japanese class. So, just a quick note to say that the remainder of the lighting units were cleaned out just now and it really is time for me to go grab a bite to eat before class.
Friday, 15th November 2002
The weekend beckons once again. It's been a tough week for me, staying in quite late after work (tonight again). I've stopped working for tonight (it's now 8pm), I haven't finished my project quite yet. Recently, during the last few weekends, I have been rushed off my feet and this weekend it seems that the trend will carry on. Tomorrow, I will go to my secondary Japanese class and then go shopping with Phoebe. Then, on the Sunday, I have been invited to join Fumino, Mika and Phoebe for a cooking class! Actually, I think that it will be quite fun, so I have decided to go. I don't mind being so busy as it makes my time here both interesting and rewarding as I feel that I am doing the best I can here. I still manage to surprise myself every now and then by realising that, no matter how slowly, I am always learning. The other day, while walking past some signs, I realised that I actually understood quite a lot of the kanji on the signs. Hopefully, I can accelerate my learning a bit more.
Monday, 18th November 2002
The 'Monday Blues' have struck again. However, the weekend was fun so starting work for another week was bound to make me feel bad! On Saturday, I had my Japanese class and I had some fun there, whilst also learning at the same time. After class, I met up with Phoebe and James and we went shopping. Phoebe wanted to buy a new ring, and we found that in Japan, they measure the sizes differently! Phoebe had some fun and games trying to get the correct size! On the Sunday, I went to the cooking class and I learnt how to make lasagne!! Not very Japanese I know, but also the teacher was Brazilian! As I expected, it was fun because we all knew each other in our group. Afterwards, we ate what we made and it was very tasty! Also, there was an unexpected surprise, it was Fumino's birthday, so after cooking class, we all went to a coffee shop to have a few cups of coffee and have a good old chat. Despite the fact that our Japanese (Phoebe's and mine) isn't the best, it's surprising that we can still communicate very well. This is helped in no small part by Mika who speaks very good English!! ;p
Tuesday, 19th November 2002
Since the last week, everyday since after work, we have had to do some kind of cleaning in the office. Yesterday, we finished cleaning off the last of the lights. It's a group responsibility in Japan, so everyone does it. I've been working pretty late for a while, but I don't mind doing it because it's not as if I have anything much better to do. Besides, it's quite warm in the office!
Wednesday, 20th November 2002
I've just finished work today and for more cleaning, we had to clean out the cabinets that line the walls! It was quite tough, but with everyone doing their bit, it was finished in double quick time. I know that on the 21st of December, we will have the 'Big Clean' where everything is cleaned out before we all go on holiday. Maybe all this cleaning being done now is so that we will have an easier job when the time comes? Tonight, we will have a meeting, apparently, Phoebe tells me it is going to be a debate. I wonder how that will be?
Thursday, 21st November 2002
Last night's debate was quite interesting actually. Although right now, I have no time to tell you about it because I must rush off to Japanese class. I'll talk about it more tomorrow.
Friday, 22nd November 2002
Well, first of all, the debate that we had on Wednesday was very interesting, although I didn't really participate. However, I was even surprised by myself at how much I understood. Everyone was discussing about 'JUKI NET', which is like a kind of huge database register for everyone. The main point of debate was obviously whether it was a good thing or not and also everybody's concerns about what would happen if security wasn't tight enough so that data could be compromised. Like all good debates, no real result was decided on ;p but at least everyone learnt a little bit more about the topic at hand.
As always, Japanese class last night was fun. It's coming up to the last few lessons that we have now and I think that I will miss going to class on Thursdays. I'll try to enjoy the last few lessons that we have. As for cleaning, these last two days and even right now, everyone is cleaning the blinds from the windows.
A funny thing happened today. Somebody's computer just completely died on the spot and so they tried to fix it. Although, watching them, I don't think that they quite knew what they were doing! So, I just went up to them and offered to help. Actually, I don't mind because I enjoy building computers and so in the end, I fixed it for them! It was nice to take a break from what I was doing anyway. It was only the other day I was saying to Phoebe that I had the itch to build a computer.. but I didn't imagine that I would be doing it so quickly!
Tomorrow, we are going to have our company trip! It's been talked about and planned for a while, but it has just suddenly crept up on me! I haven't got much of an idea of what will be going on, but I'm sure it will be fun! At least Phoebe will be there so I won't look quite as stupid! (Just kidding).
Monday, 25th November 2002
Over the weekend, we had the company trip. We went to Nagano and Karuizawa. My initial feelings about the trip were reserved, although to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. The Japanese have an appetite to travel though and they seem to make the most of every situation. So, going to meet everyone at the station was a mixture of suprises, from all the digital cameras and camcorders to the fact that it was the first time that I had seen many of them in casual clothing! First of all, we took the shinkansen (the bullet train) to Nagano, whilst on board we ate 'kamemeshi' for lunch, which is rice and other things in this ceramic pot. It was decorated beatifully and I wanted to keep the pot, but I had no place to put it! Using the shinkansen was an experience too, it is just like using a plane, except it's on the ground! It's very comfortable and we got to Nagano in no time at all!
Upon arriving at Nagano, we all checked into the hotel, where we would stay for one night and the accomodation was more than adequate. After that, it was free time for us all and led by my group member, Hayashi-san, we all went to the Nagano temple (I forget the name). On the way there, we met all manner of crazy people dressed up in cartoon character outfits (Power Rangers, etc.) and many many people. The weather was ok, if a little bit cold. The temple was quite spectacular too, and there were many places selling funny types of ice cream. Phoebe tried miso sofuto (miso soft ice cream), which was pretty horrible! I opted for a safer option and had apple sofuto. There were many others, like green team and soba. For tea that day, we went to a soba restaurant, where we ate soba, surprisingly enough. Our group consisted of, Hayashi-san, Naito-san, Kimura-san, Taniguchi-san, Phoebe and I. We all got on well. After eating, we went to see the fireworks festival, where it was absolutely freezing! We didn't stay for the whole show because we had to go back for the company drinking party. Otherwise, the show was very pretty like the other fireworks displays that I've been to.
At the company drinking party, we had some speeches, some games and lots of drink! It was the first time that I saw some of the other Macro employees and some others were familiar faces. Some got very drunk, others, well, not so drunk. We didn't stay too long drinking, but afterwards, some of us decided to go out again (it was abuot 11 o'clock) and carry on drinking! Our group was rather large, about 10 people and eventualy, after much wandering about, we found a place to drink. I think that everyone got rather drunk (me included).
The next morning, I woke up at 9am and we all had to meet at the station to go to Karuizawa at 9:30am! I had to call up Phoebe as she was still sleeping and eventually, we got to the station. When we eventually arrived at Karuizawa, we all opted to go shopping at the nearby outlet shops. Karuizawa is like a big out of town shopping centre. After that, we were still in the same group (but minus Naito-san), we went to have lunch at this Italian / French place. The pizza was really nice! Then, Phoebe recommended that we all have cr €(epes from this shop at Karuizawa. They sold all manner of crepes, from ham and cheese to custard chocolate and banana! They were really good! The weather though, was not so good, it was quite foggy and it was drizzling. After that, we took the shinkansen home.
My thoughts? Well, I was really tired from all the walking about! However, the trip was fun and rewarding because it got the chance to see everyone a bit more relaxed than usual. I'm sure that most people enjoyed it and I hope that with all those digital cameras about no one got anything incriminating!! Now, I have the Monday blues again...
Tuesday, 26th November 2002
Yesterday and today, there have been a group of students from the Takasaki University who have come in. I think they are doing some kind of work experience or training or something. We actually know one of the students, Shingo, but we can't just go up to talk to him. Yesterday, they spent most of the day up on the other floors, so we didn't see them. Today, they came in to our office and they did some kind of training, like answering the telephones and stuff. I wonder how many of them will get recruited by Macro?
Wednesday, 27th November 2002
Sometimes, like during breaks and things, Shingo will come to speak to us, which is nice of him. Although he'll speak to us in English only! The students will only be here for a week and it's nice while they are here because we don't have to wipe the desks like we usually have to after work!
Thursday, 28th November 2002
It's our penultimate Japanese class coming up. I enjoy the classes like always, but I got to rush to make sure that I make it there on time.
Friday, 29th November 2002
It's the end of the week already, and with that, the end of another month. I've now spent 6 months in Japan, and it has all but passed me by. That's not to say it's a bad thing, as if I said that it had dragged, it would imply that I am not enjoying my stay here in Japan. This weekend, I'll go to my other Japanese class as usual and other than that, I don't really have anything else planned for the weekend. I'll probably just go out into the town and do some window shopping or something. I don't think that James or Phoebe have anything planned for this weekend either.
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