I woke up at 2 am and couldn’t fall asleep till 6 am, so therefore I had some hard time getting up at 7. At least I could go to work later than the required working schedule. I don’t remember that morning; probably I was still sleepy and nervous about meeting new people. It took me about 10 minutes by walk to get to the plant. First thing in the morning was a meeting with hr - SJ (it is very interesting, how outside work people can call each other by first name, but inside the company mostly by last names) He explained some rules, I’ve signed some confidentially notes etc. When explaining the housing rules I was pleasantly surprised. There is a rule that I can not let anyone stay even one night in the apartment. SJ (because it is an unofficial statement) said smth like:” Ok, I am not making any comment on this one… alright, next one!” XD At least he is reasonable enough to understand that various situation might happen. However I guess the only rule that I really need to follow is that I can not get any part-time job (especially teaching English, Russian etc), but that’s fine with me. It’s not like I even have time to be giving out lessons anyways. After going over all documents I was taken to the department. People would greet me quite friendly so I felt relieved. However boss was still missing. I was shown the premises.

plain text and no photosLet’s step aside once more. In Tomioka B has quite large territory. The plant itself is 3 floors high, and CTG (controlling department) is located on the second floor. Tomioka plant (TmP) will be closed in two years, so most of the personnel were already transferred to other locations. So now there are many empty desks and some rooms have no desks at all (looks somewhat scary to me). The area on the first floor near the entrance is for guests, so no matter how comfortable those sofas might be, associates can not rest there, and instead they should use area on the second and third floors. Restrooms are nice with both types of toilets (super cool western type –maybe I should write about toilets later on - and Japanese “slipper” style). I have my own locker in the bathroom O_o which was surprising to me, but it is nice to have some personal stuff there, so that u don’t have to carry anything around. Of cause I have a regular locker in the Locker room. There are two male locker rooms and one for females on the first floor. One place that was the most important for social interaction, discussing disturbing matters and having meetings at ING, I mean kitchen of cause, is small and empty at TmP as noone really uses it (and you have to bring your our tea/coffee to drink), however there is very nice canteen right next to the main building (sometimes it is used for large gatherings e.g. when general managers present some reports.) There are also several nice parking areas for cars. I was told, if you do not have car in Tomioka, your life will be difficult. And in order to make my life easier company has provided me with a bike, which I’ve seen only once (and have ridden zero times) since I came here, but maybe in spring/summer I’ll be using it.
After a short walk around I was back to my sit and was finally introduced to my boss. He seems like a nice guy, but doesn’t really care for what is going to happen to me. I’ve made a short introduction about myself and all CTG members did the same. And then my boss and I had one on one meeting for several hours, where he has shown me what I am going to be doing in the future.
Actually I still am not used to the idea that he is my boss. I’ve been spoilt too much by GH (NB: to put several hearts or bearhugs for GH))) and I seriously doubt that there is anyone at least half as great as she is…I guess I still do not feel like part of B, even now when talking about ING I would use present tense like “in our bank we do this and this” or “my boss is like this and this” “girls at our department do that and that”. If talking about my current boss I must say that he has an interesting personality. His parents are Russians, but he was raised in Germany (therefore he is German through and through) and can not speak any Russian. It’s his 3rd year in Japan, so on top of being German he is turning into Japanese as well – which is tough luck for me. His wife and two kids are here as well, but I haven’t met them (and I am surprised about it, as he said that his wife has no interaction with other foreigners). He doesn’t speak Japanese much and I wonder how he was able to survive here, because employees do not speak English that well (I am using grade school English and it is still hard on them sometimes). Even though I am not really fond of him right now, but somehow he gives out this “safe” vibe that allows me to believe that I won’t get into trouble with him. I think overtime I can build a decent boss-subordinate relationship with him, maybe even somewhat friendly, who knows)
Our meetings were interrupted by lunch. 12-00 – music starts to play and everyone no matter what they were doing (even if on the phone) would wrap everything up and leave for lunch. (At TmP music is played every hour and sometime for some announcements or warnings as well). Food at canteen is really good and really cheap! There are various sets from 200 or 250 yen (sometimes if there is smth really special on the menu - 350 yen). You buy a meal ticket at the shop near the canteen and then use it to get your set. I can say that nobody really is watching whether you’ve put your meal ticket in the box, what was written on it (250 or 200 yen) and whether you’ve taken your change from the box (there are also 50 yen meal tickets). People trust everyone to be honest and enjoy their meals. The meal set consists of: 2 side dishes of your choice out of 6-7 available (salads, appetizers, desserts etc), main dish (fish, chicken, pork, beef up to 5 choices), rice (which come in small medium and large size – if necessary you can ask for extra large!), miso soup (each time different), tea and some additional sauces/pickles/radish etc. First day I couldn’t finish it all. (And even till today I have not eaten the same main dish twice!) I must say that these tiny Japanese eat a loooot. I am a big girl, but even for me sometimes their dishes are simply enormous. Another interesting observation is to see who sits with whom; you know, it’s like typical high school all over again XD. During my first lunch I was introduced to the “young people”, with whom I sit now even though I still do feel like I belong there. But it’s getting better. (Remember the past view prospective))) So the “wakamono” (young people) of TmP include the above mentioned SJ, the below mentioned NY (lol at my storytelling style XD), KY (later introduction tb provided) and Indian guy Manju (his name is very long and very Indian, so we call him simply Manju. At first I didn’t pay much attention to him, but later on he would gain more importance in my life as he helped me to get more involved with others. And in Japanese “manju” is one type of traditional sweets, so we used to tease him about it too). After lunch the older generation would go back to their desks to sleep or read newspaper and the young ones would walk around the premises to get some exercise. I am enjoying these walks as I can relax from the somewhat depressing atmosphere in the office.
After lunch and walk I had another meeting with boss. What I used to call a brief discussion at ING is called a meeting at Bosch. And even when associates sit next to each other, they would go through the trouble of scheduling a meeting via outlook. Everything is done through outlook here! Sometimes it is simply hilarious! Once it is time to go everyone would stand up and go, but only when it is exactly 14-00 for example and not even one minute earlier. They also have this fancy software to held online meetings as a simple conference call is no fun for them XD. The rest of the day I spend wondering what the hell I was doing there and trying not to fall asleep. I also got used to making some random notes in my notebook from the very first day. Later on I reread it and make fun of myself (I guess the same will be with this diary after some years, but for those notes even a few days is more than enough to make me smile at silly troubled me)))
My welcoming party/bounenkai (end of the year party) was the only event I was able to look forward to on that daty. BTW it was also scheduled via outlook. I thought I’ve kept that email, but unfortunately I think I have deleted it. But I still remember what was written there pretty well, probably because I’ve never seen an invitation being written like that. There would be quite typical greeting and intro like “dear all, we are having a welcoming party bla-bla… location, time etc”, but then there would be an interesting moment included – list of those who are going to attend and amount of money they have to pay. Top manager - 10000 yen, regular manager – 5000 yen, regular associate – 3000 yen, me – free of charge as I was a guest (bua-ha-ha). I’ve heard before that such cases might occur that senior title owners would pay more as they have higher salaries, but I didn’t expect it to be so straightforward. Anyways I got off work around 6 pm, stopped by at my apartment to pick up presents for everyone and went to the male dormitory where colleague aka my baby-sitter NY-san was waiting for me to drive me to the restaurant.
I didn’t call NY my baby-sitter for no reason. Against his will he became one. NY (age 29) works for B for quite sometime (5 years or so), but as he is the youngest of all CTG members, he does most of such assignments. He booked restaurant, collected money, drove me there (and therefore couldn’t drink), took me to City hall for alien registration, to bank etc. When I have questions I am being told to address him, when I was assigned an individual project he had to volunteer to help me with it. I feel that sometimes he has to do much more for his seniors. Another interesting comment about him that I’d like to make is that he was the one I had an interview with). I remember it pretty well! I was talking a lot with my boss and NY at that time was really quite. Almost at the end of the interview he said –“ You’ll be the only girl in the department. And the only young one. He-he” after hearing that “he-he” I pictured him as 60 year old grandpa, but he turned out to be the youngest one! To tell the truth I couldn’t miss a chance to tease him about it, as he gets shy really easily. But I think that he is really shy in general.
The restaurant was really nice – Japanese style; unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of it or all the food that was served that time, but seriously that was a lot! The first serving was already too much for me to eat but food was served non-stop basically. I’ve tried some dishes that I have never imagined existed. Coworkers tried to make me drunk with all the sake (both warm and cold) and beer - ha, they should have known better XD, like that can make me drunk! And when the time for speeches arrived I was still nervous, after all I was sitting in the room with 8 Japanese and 2 German guys XD. I’ve talked just a bit, cause people couldn’t understand me anyways XD. And then when I said that they can ask me what they want to know, that very same moment one hand had risen - the boss of my boss looked like grade-schooler. The question of cause was about Japanese guys. My response was quite general and apparently was not good enough therefore the next one was about a certain guy around the table, who was sitting right next to me. I has given another general answer and turned everything into joke. But I guess BBoss really likes to tease me about getting me married off to some nice Japanese guy (I know that some of you, yeap Saori –that’s you, think that BBoss should receive a golden star). My boss has made a speech about the last year and how well everyone performed; my “fiancé” shared his experiences from his stay in Germany. Everything was ok till the part where he mentioned how he got sick and his boss’s wife cared and nursed him, so now he wants to get married soon, so his own wife can attend to him. I will leave out my thoughts about such situations in general and spare you some time, but you can imagine the reaction from BBoss XD But enough about that cause no matter how much they try to tease me I do not pay much attention to it) Once again I was being a good girl and would laugh at the situation with others. So the mood was really nice. I’ve given up most of my dishes for my boss to take home, cause there was absolutely no way I could’ve eaten all that myself. And after ritual clapping and thanking everyone we finally left the place. As all the guys were drunk, NY had to call for pick-up service for them (driver will come and take you home with your own car, so that you will not be driving after drinking and do not have to worry about picking up the car from the parking in the morning) and only then he drove me back to the dormitory.
On the way to dormitory NY mentioned that SJ invited me to come over that night if I want to use inet (at that time I still had no inet at home and could not access gmail at work). I wonder why they would bring such matters only last minute, but I was glad to get my hands on inet. We arrived pretty late at the dormitory, but there were no guards, so I could easily get in without any trouble at all. Later on I’ve asked whether it is that easy to get in and out of dormitory without any check points, and only then SJ mentioned that actually ladies are not allowed to come in as it is male dormitory XD. Too late for that, I was busy with inet and couldn’t care less about being caught by guards.
Once I got my hands on pc and inet everything else disappeared for me XD. However as I am used to multi functioning it was really interesting to listen to the conversation between SJ and NY in Japanese, especially as they thought that I could not understand even a word of it. I want to state honestly that I do not mean to eavesdrop on anyone, but that’s their fault about being to careless! But anyway I was to be busy with arrangements for my Tokyo trip for NY holidays. I needed to get in touch with many friends, figure out where to go and who can take me in for the night. Most of my friends were going back to their hometowns for NY, so I was almost panicking as I didn’t want to spend a fortune on hotels. When I was getting pretty much desperate Bee came to my rescue!
I’ve known Bee for several years now. She works at UAJC and is currently enrolled in Japanese university for Graduate studies or smth of that sort. We get along pretty well. She is very cheerful and easy going. She has gotten herself a Japanese boyfriend (10 years older than she is) and as they are getting pretty serious (she is moving in with him, which is good for me as I am getting her extra stuff like rice cooker, hairdryer etc) I think they will get married this year. I’ve stayed at their place in Kashiwa, Chiba during NY holidays, but let’s not skip steps). At first I had to set the meeting time and place. I’ve decided to go by bus (2000 JPY one way, 2 h ride) which arrives at Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo. Bee knew the place well, but as it is a large station and usually pretty crowded we were troubled with the actual location. God bless Google Earth creators))) really if you have never been to the place and u need to have a view of the location – google earth is what you need. SJ and NY said that red mail box near one of the entrances stands out. I said that what it might not be there anymore as the images might be somewhat outdated and both guys laughed at my naivety, saying that there is no way that the mail box will be moved that easily (they haven’t been to Ukraine XD) I still struggled with this choice, but in the end there was no other option for me, so I’ve given up. It was late when I came there so I didn’t want to intrude more than was necessary for me to prepare for the trip. About the time that I was finally leaving KY stopped by.
KY (age 29) is working in quality management department. He is crazy about skiing). His English is not as good as SJ, but his character overcompensates it XD That day he has given me his drawer for clothes and some hangers, which I truly appreciate cause I really needed it. He was even willing to carry it for me, but as I am not a fragile Japanese girl (not every guy can lift up my purse, and please do not ask me what I am carrying around)))) I kindly declined his offer. Later I learned that KY had his heart broken by previous intern girl form Germany as he had treated the relationship quite serious and for her it was for fun only. I feel kind of bad for him, as he is really nice guy.
Well, having settled the details for Tokyo trip I happily went back to my apartment with my new drawer))) I was actually able to do some unpacking that day. I went to bed in a relatively good mood, looking forward to actual serious working day!