Travelbug in Japan

July 19, 2007 Uneventful days at work

2007-07-19T23:06:00.000+09:00

Gooooooooood mooooooooorning, Vietnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
I just woke up after 10 hours of intense sleeping! How wonderful! "Bed" is definitely one of my favorite spots in the world *smirk*

But although I woke up at 6 am, it was about 28 degrees outside! By now, the clouds are all gone and we are having blazing sunshine - so I am trying hard not to burn. It's still a little bit humid, but for the most part just nice to be outside. Can't wait until the hanabi-season starts, then every little village will have their own firework party at the local river! (hanabi = fire flower)

Speaking of language - today I learned a new word! Well, that in itself isn't all that big news, I constantly pick up new words and generally impress everyone when I write one kanji... but I still CANNOT speak! Not even teeny tiny phrases... well, ok, teeny tiny phrases I can say. So nevermind.

But today I learned that there is a Japanese word (yappari!) that literally means "I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that..." - how cool is that?!

July 18, 2007 Chef talk

2007-07-19T22:52:00.000+09:00

This morning I came to the office early again to do some private stuff and was promptly summoned by Amling-san to come to his office. It turned out that today would be the last day of seeing him, tomorrow he will fly to Leverkusen, Germany, to do some projects for about 4 weeks and won't be back until I'm gone.

He asked me for a general feedback on what I've been doing so far, impressions, criticism - we had quite an interesting conversation. He gave me the advice to focus on my communicational skills (well, I guess I didn't make too much of an impression on him with not knowing where I will want to work in the future).

And he also offered that, should I ever consider to work for Bayer, I should contact him and he would see what he can do for me!! Brilliant :o)
I'm very impressed by all the Bayer managers I have met so far - almost all of them were very easy-going, easy to talk to, humorous people - a bunch that I wouldn't mind working together with, I guess ;o)

July 16, 2007 Strange days come unexpected

2007-07-17T19:19:00.000+09:00

Funny how days can turn out when they start somewhat awkward!

I threw overboard my plans to go to Kyoto when my train stopped in Amagasaki and just wouldn't move any further. Neither did any of the other trains. Only later did I find out that there had been a heavy earthquake in the North of Japan. and looking back, I think I even noticed it, only that I thought that people were stepping onto the train rather violently...

So here I am, for two hours stuck in Amagasaki, where I spend every day of the week anyways... But at least I found out that there is a movie theatre in the area! Although it's probably a lot easier to just go to Osaka or Kobe. Which I then did :o)

There'd be loads of things to tell that happened in between, from crowded malls, more and more shopping horrors (it seems that shopping in Osaka really isn't my thing...), from losing the orientation yet again, from toilets that have a loudspeaker system installed that will play the sound of flowing water (I guess to keep people from flushing just to be able to pee.........), from All-in-One wash basins that have one sensor for shooting out foam, one for water, and another one for blow-drying your hands! I could tell from in-door shopping arcades in Shinsaibashi and Namba (both parts of Osaka) that, in spite of having a roof, seem to let the rain inside because of the high ventilation they have there (da hat so ein Durchzug geherrscht, dass man auch gute 20 Meter vom Eingang entfernt noch gut Regen mitbekommen hat!). Or I could tell from eating in a small shop where you pay an automat to give you a ticket, where everything seems automated, but where, with a single word and a smile, you can make the lady there very happy :o)

But I won't tell you any of that because there are way more important things to tell - for example how to go to the movies in Japan!
First, you take the highspeed elevator that takes you non-stop to the 8th floor. You enter the newly-built complex, smell the air of something familiar that is not popcorn - and find out that it's churros!! (For those who haven't been to Spain, churros are longish dough-sausages that are usually dipped into chocolate or sprinkled with sugar - as can be seen here:)

After passing the theatre's souvenir shop, you focus on the wild mix of people, mostly small tiny women in high heels with very pearly clothes, the rest of the younger generation usually made up of guys with hats or wildly styled hair, and cowboy boots. A nice example for being different crossed my way, a young woman in sneakers, rocky clothes, wild hair, and churros and a beer. She was making a point of being cool. I had to smile a tiny bit when she was entering the same cinema as I was, showing Harry Potter IV :o)

Before starting the movie, a comic came on to teach the visitors how to use the movie theatre - emergency exits to your left and your right, toilets outside and straight ahead, movie night on Tuesdays (hilariously, movie nights (= cheaper tickets) are only cheaper for women! Men only have one night a month where they can see a cheaper movie - that's what I call modern discrimination ;o)). So far, the whole thing seemed to be like boarding a flight, I was actually waiting for flight attendants to come on stage... Then it got even more bizarre when a comic character appeared on screen that looked a lot like Bruno Ganz in "Der Untergang" (portraying Hitler), and telling another visitor the usual stuff like "no filming, no shouting, no phones", but curiously they made a strong point of "no kicking" as well... Would be interesting to see what regular Japanese people behave like in a movie theatre...

This is Bruno Ganz, by the way:

And finally, the MOVIE!! That was exactly what I needed, a great movie, at the perfect distance from the screen, with just the right level of volume and all the emotional range a good movie needs :o) Wonderful! Even better that during one of the action scenes with dramatic wand-whirling and bass-thundering the whole cinema (remember, we are on 8th floor!) started shaking - because of a second earthquake :o) I think, today I was more than compensated for the rather flaky typhoon *grin*

To end another wonderful day, Simon called and invited me to go to sing karaoke!!! REAL karaoke!! Just the two of us, in a small room (2x2meters at best), with two microphones, a giant song book and unlimited volume to crank it up :o) The two of us had a very hard time speaking on leaving the bar - after screaming at the top of our lungs to "Un-break my heart", "The heart will go on", "Rock me Amadeus", "I need a Hero" :o) Loads and loads and LOADS of fun, I tell ya!

If I can get this video to work, take a look :o)
VIDEO (coming soon, I hope...)
So absolutely no reason to complain about having missed the festival in Kyoto - I doubt that it could have been more fun than this!

July 15, 2007 After the Typhoon

2007-07-17T09:33:00.000+09:00

Hm, this whole big news coverage about the typhoon got me all excited that we would actually get a real storm! Watching the images on television gave me an impression of Armageddon - and all we got was a little rain and a slight breeze... Ok, I shouldn't be wishing for a real typhoon experience, but some of the "regular" storms around here have been more dramatic than this...

This is what I woke up to the day after!

Other than that, I went shopping and found the third 100-Yen shop in three days! 100-Yen (about 60 cent) shops are like dollar-stores or euro-shops, only WAY more sophisticated - you can buy ANYTHING in there, from swiss army knives to flower deco to foot spray to nose-hair-removers! And I thought things would just be cheap, but they actually only cost 100 Yen! I was quite amazed!

Oh, and I did find this goodie - Jeans in Boyfriend-style!

Then I also found out more about ways to contact me - which of course is an invitation to all of you to call or text me :o)
Thanks to my mom, I have everything tested now and ready for use:

To actually reach me on my mobile from outside of Japan, call: 0081-80-344-28719 (remember that I am 7-8 hours (Europe) and 12 hours (Michigan) ahead of you!
This is just for calls - in Japan, cell phones work differently - every phone has a number and an email address. The number is for calling, the email for receiving messages. So in order to send me an SMS, you'll have to send me an email to "erikku_1976(at)t.vodafone.ne.jp", and when I respond, it will be an email.
To call me on the phone in my room, call 0081-5075348769 - but don't expect too hard to reach me, I'm not at home all that often.

Ok, that's all :o)

July 14, 2007 I'm back!!

2007-07-14T13:49:00.000+09:00

Hey there, folks!

Sorry for my extended absence from the web, but the past week has been filled with new departments, new people to meet who wanted to share their lunch breaks, with projects that needed finishing, and two days of "business tripping" to the production plant of SBU in Ehime, on Shikoku Island (about 3 hours away from Amagasaki). So enjoy the reading from the past days, and I hope you didn't worry too much about my sudden entire disappearance from the internet :o)

July 13, 2007 Not even close to Friday 13th ^_^

2007-07-14T13:44:00.000+09:00

*wahahahahaha* Matsuki-san is soooooooo funny!
This morning I had my second day at BPI, Business Process Improvement, and today I met Matsuki-san - he's a small guy with very little chin and a funny way of talking, which in itself is hilarious - but then he also has an incredible way of speaking English, looking up many words in the dictionary and then picking one with a slightly different meaning than what he intends to say! You can understand what he's saying, but if you have ever tried to read a page translated by Google Translator, you will know what I am talking about (*^_^*)

We had a lot of fun, and it was mutual - he had put many gimmicks into his presentation, e.g. a walking envelope that he was very proud of :o)

---------------
By now, I feel quite at home here in the company... I spent the afternoon on 3rd Floor, where Customer Service, Import/Export, Logistics, Procurement, BPI and some more people are all sitting in one big room - and there are very little people left that I haven't met yet. Many of the ladies have gone either to dinner with me or went dancing, and with almost everyone I have a story to share which makes us smile a lot! Toki-san and Naoko-san have put up pictures of our dance night in their cubicles, and today I wrote the kanji for candy (お菓子, okashi) on a small piece of paper and gave it to Kageyama-san who had taught me that kanji the day before - his face lit up, he smiled at me very broadly - and put the piece of paper into a folder where he had already put in my CV! I think people actually like me around here...

Naoko-san (the crazy dancer) later asked me whether I wanted to join the next dinner with everyone from Customer Service. "Sure, when will it be?" "We are doing it on July 27th." "Oh, I don't know if I will be in Osaka, that's my birthday and I was thinking about going to Tokyo to see a big firework festival." "WHAAAAT??? That's your birthday?!! Then you have to come!!! I will ask Ueda-san (the CS manager) if he will pay for you!" :o)

So now, I am officially invited to a dinner with everyone to celebrate my birthday :o) With loads of people I know and like. I am happy *^_^*

July 12, 2007 Change of Weather

2007-07-14T13:40:00.000+09:00

My life at work gets busier and busier, yet the world outside seems to calm down a lot. The weather has changed quite a bit - instead of cloud-muffled sunshine and incredible humidity, things have calmed down to constant rain, but of the nice sort - it's still warm rain, the air feels a lot clearer, it's not as hard to be outside anymore and there's a constant breeze going - and yesterday I learned why that is the case:

We have a typhoon approaching! I'm not quite sure yet what that means for me. I don't think I have to worry that the house is going to fly off to Kansas (yeah, you heard right, typhoons can sometimes do that as well!), but it probably means lots of rain and wind, and I was told that I shouldn't leave the house if it's not necessary - oh, and the trains might stop, which is probably what could affect me the most.

Although I would very much like to see what a typhoon is like, the timing is not exactly perfect - for Saturday, there's a 24-hour marathon planned in Osaka, and a team from SBU will take part in it. Some of my friends are joining as well (I'm of course too lazy, or well, don't have sport shoes *g*), so it would be a shame if they had to cancel it...

P.S.: I miss dark bread...

July 10/11, 2007 Excursion to Ehime

2007-07-14T13:34:00.000+09:00

Have I mentioned that I really really have fun with Eric?! We just got back from a two day trip to Ehime and its production plant, which is about 2.5 hours by train from Amagasaki. Yesterday morning, I was in a terrible mood, but more or less from the second Eric and I left work to get on the train to Ehime, things started to light up! He's so funny and I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow with sore stomach muscles from laughing so much! He says he's not planning to be funny which only makes it all the better - I definitely have some new permanent good-mood memories! (do you have some of those? The ones that make you think of a situation and you just have to burst out laughing?!)

Besides that, the trip was very interesting and we saw a lot of the plant, its way to function, we saw production lines, filling stations, miles and miles of piping, heard stories about highly toxic phosgene that kills you within two breaths (I don't want any breath-mint jokes here... ;o)). We walked loads, even visited a museum about Copper mining which was actually very interesting, and which had a temple right next to it - my first authentic Japanese temple! I felt like being in a Mila Superstar- or Sailor Moon- comic :o)

What probably impressed me most (apart from the logistics section - I could watch machines all day long...) was the way a morning of work starts in Japan! People come to the meeting room, start smoking and drinking coffee as they would probably do in Germany as well. But then, the loudspeakers start giving gymnastics orders, everybody jumps up, starts circling their pelvisses, stretching arms, legs, swaying like elephants... And then, after gymnastics, they start pointing at blackboards and signs full of safety measures and security procedures and reading them out loud - like a mantra to imprint it into their brains!

These two days were so full with new impressions and information that I was totally hecha polvo when I arrived in Ashiya, but REALLY enjoyed the past 30 hours!!!

July 10, 2007 ...

2007-07-14T13:32:00.000+09:00

... I have some thinking to do. I started reading a new book called "Tuesdays with Morrie". It's about an old man, a young man and a fatal disease. The book, combined with what I talked about with Simon the other night, plus the grades that I received this morning, make me think. I don't want to bore you with my "What do I want to do in Life" kind of thoughts at the moment, but once again, I should refocus on what I am actually doing. Here, in Cologne, in private - the whole deal.

I sometimes get those phases. And these are usually the times when I get a bit homesick or at least friends-and-family-sick...

Sigh.

July 9, 2007 Walking to work

2007-07-14T13:23:00.000+09:00

Although I sometimes am annoyed by the 15 minute walk from Amagasaki station to SBU, I am quite fond of the little back roads that get me there. Of course you could always take the main road and be run over by cars, but you do well with opting for the slightly longer trail of joined paths that lead along tiny houses, little garden areas, laundry lines, green spots... Sometimes, a dog will have his breakfast outside, almost every morning I am greeted by butterflies. Little purple and pinkish flowers dance along in the breeze, and sometimes I get the feeling that people start getting used to me passing there in the morning. I am polite and greet the older women that come my way and am greeted back with a smile. All types of people pass me, walking their dogs, riding their bikes with the mounted umbrellas protecting them from whatever type of weather we're having, or just generally getting towards their place of destination. If I get to work around the time that kindergarden starts, usually the kids stop for a second or two to look at that strange creature with the blond hair and the light skin (well, to them it's blond anyways, and my skin isn't exactly white either with that slight sun burn from Sunday).
Between the small houses, the towering building of SBU Bayer appears and, taking the last two turns to pass the miniture cars, I reach the bushel trees of Sumika.

Ready for another day of work :o)

July 8, 2007 Football, Fog and Foooooooood!

2007-07-14T12:52:00.000+09:00

For the slow weekend I thought this would be, I am quite exhausted after today! Simon had invited me to join a football game between SBU and NEC (a technology company), and it turned out to be more than a friendly kick - they were actually quite competitive about the whole thing! So I didn't get to play myself, but that was probably a good thing, as it was blazingly hot outside and they were playing at high noon!

So I took on the job as fotographer:

Quite impressive at what velocities Japanese women can run over any kind of substance - e.g. grass - on high heels!

The kids were really cute, standing by the side of the field and screaming "otoosan, ganbatte!!" - Daddy, good luck, you can do it!!

Only downside of the match was that, as we didn't have very many players, almost all of SBU had to play the entire game - and NEC exchanged more than half of their players during half time. The result wasn't all that surprising: 4:1 for NEC...

------------
In the afternoon, I finally got to know Carsten. Axel, our neighbor in Germany, had prepared people in Japan for my imminent arrival on his trip to Osaka a week before I went to Japan - and he had introduced me to Carsten, who is working for Bayer Business Services in Osaka.

So today, we finally managed to meet for the first time - on the phone, he had sounded a lot like Wolfgang from Thailand, which already made him very symphathetic! He had the brilliant idea of driving up Rokko Mountain (a trip that I had wanted to do as well), and although the sight was pretty crappy, it was nice to be outside and to hear - nothing! (ok, I'll have to be realistic here - the noise of the occasional car going by didn't exactly fit perfectly into the mountain atmosphere) Up there, I noticed for the first time, how noisy it is down in the cities! And you could hear real birds up here! (In Japan you get deafened by fake bird noises - in the subway, at intersections (to indicate that the traffic lights are green), in commercials - Japanese seem to love fake birds...

Hankyuu Railway, one of the various train companies that coexist in Japan

And the aforementioned fog...

Carsten has been in Japan for about 9 weeks now and has to endure 3 or 4 more weeks, until his family will finally come to Japan. So, to be prepared for that, he had proposed to try out some restaurants to know where to take his family wehn they finally arrive! You can probably guess that I didn't have to think too hard about whether to take him up on the offer or not ;o)

We went to a wonderful Italien place in an Asian garden (mixed styles of Japanese, Chinese, a bit of Thai), very fancy, with amazing food and a great atmosphere. We could even watch a Japanese wedding take place in the garden, which was interesting all by itself. Carsten is very easy-going which made it absolutely effortless to talk to him! So our conversation jumped from Japan in general to wine to travelling, to family to food, to wanting to work in Barcelona.

I seriously had a great evening with loads of new info that I am sure will help me in the future ;o)

July 7, 2007 Triple 777

2007-07-14T12:49:00.000+09:00

Actually I had been planning to go to Kyoto this weekend - today is the triple 777, so that was bound to be a very lucky day! Instead, I decided against doing that - Sascha, a friend I know from highschool, who is now studying in Kyoto, wasn't available this weekend and I was pretty tired from the week. Ever since Eric gave his ok for me using the laptop for private purposes outside of office hours, I have spent around 10 or 11 hours at work each day, starting earlier and leaving late - so at the moment I am not doing much more than being at work, eating and sleeping.

Which is what I spent this Saturday on as well (apart from going to work, of course :oP). When I woke up, I could still remember a very odd dream about Japanese school kids who had a German class and were practicing to say "kaaaaa, kAAaaaaa, kAAAAAAAaaaa". Even while dreaming that I thought that it was very odd - then I woke up and realized that there was a crow sitting in front of my window :o)

The rest of the day I spent with more thinking and with reading - yesterday, before meeting Simon, I had stopped at a big bookstore to buy some English books for the train ride to and from work. Books have a very cool format here, small, handy, fit into every bag - and they sell them with neutral paper wrapped around them so that people won't know what you're reading :o)

July 6, 2007 Night out in Osaka

2007-07-14T12:35:00.000+09:00

I thought my day had reached its climax when, around lunch time, a big ugly box that sits on top of one of the cupboards, suddenly started making very funny noises :o) First it went "krhcchkerkchkchchr", followed by a nervous "pling plong plang plong", and then the voice of Okada-san, our Human Resource person, announced that there would be a security check in the afternoon.
Umezawa-san had noticed my looks watching the box and she smiled: "Yes, they do make the sound by hand", which was immediately followed by another "pling plong plang plong" - I just had to burst out in laughter imagining Okada-san standing in front of a microphon, creating funny melodies on an ancient xylophon *g*

I really can't imagine why they just wouldn't tell me where the room with that thing is located *mischievous grin*

But near the end of work, Simon sent me an email asking what I'd be up to in the evening, so I decided to stop by in Osaka to meet him. Simon is an intern at Bayer Yakuhin (Health Care), and he was also at my welcome dinner during the second week.

An impressive amount of people crossing a minor road...

HEP Five, an entertainment complex / Shopping Mall

We had quite a fun evening, meeting up in Yodobashi Kamera to do some Tech shopping and laptop looking, spent a while walking around Osaka and then Simon took me to the apartment of a manager friend of his, who is currently on a business trip and left him his keys!

The apartment was amazing, really big for Japanese sizes, very fancy wood furniture, a giant flat screen, designer couches and lamps - and all of that in the center of Umeda, one of the busiest areas of Osaka. Bayer managers from overseas seem to be quite well taken care of over here :o)

Simon and I talked a lot and it made me think very hard on my way home... Simon is 22, has started his own business with 18, is studying event management and came to Japan for a 3-months internship. He has quite a bit of practical experience, plus speaks Japanese fluently because his dad is Japanese. That's probably why his internship is taking a very different course from mine. He is preparing three meetings for around 100 doctors and media people from all over Japan to coach them on new products that Bayer has developed (if I understood correctly). He's organizing those meetings, writing the budgets, traveling to look at the places, taking part in all kinds of sales meetings, designing new incentive systems... Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining about my internship - I am very happy with the intense training I'm receiving and am not entirely sure whether I could handle a task like Simon's, even if it was in English.

But it made me think what I got out of my studies so far. I have been studying my current major for 2 years (well, or 8 months, depending on what you take as major), but I don't really feel like I am using any of the stuff I learned in university. What I am using are presentation skills, IT-skills (which I had before), and more or less common sense - and right now I can't think of anything out of the management majors that I am actively using...

People keep telling me that you rarely use stuff you learned in university, so I am hoping that I picked up a number of skills during studying that I am not entirely aware of...

It's just a little shocking that Simon, who in theory has studied as much as I have, is just so much further than me! Even more reason to add another internship around Xmas! And what I get out off all this thinking is that I want to use my time at SBU more actively, and I want to do a good job - I would like to have Mr. Amling and Eric think by the end of the internship - hey, that investment wasn't wasted on her...

July 5, 2007 Hardcore Training

2007-07-05T22:54:00.000+09:00

I must say, I am very impressed with this internship. The only internship I have done so far was in 10th grade when I still wanted to become a biologist, so I worked for 3 weeks in a nature reserve-type of area - and when I write work, I mean actual physical labor: After these three weeks, I was a master at digging holes, cleaning out ponds, constructing children's playgrounds, improving walk ways and running with wheel barrows (Schubkarren). I had loads of fun, but it was hard work.

This time that is very different. It's not that I am not working or that I am staring out of the window all day, but this is way more like a training for me than working. I get insight into almost every department, the people are taken out of their regular responsibilities for 1-4 days to teach me what they do in their everyday work, I can ask millions of questions and the whole event seems to serve the sole purpose of teaching me! I start feeling really bad - I thought I would have to give something back to the company, instead they are paying me pretty well, giving me allocation, frequently inviting me to lunch, taking me on excursions, and all I have to do is to attend the meetings and ask loads of questions! This is great!

I do get assignments from Eric, mostly to prepare presentations about companies, or to do internet research on a specific topic. But I really don't feel like I am working hard.

I developed a new strategy for the end of my teaching sessions. Almost always, they ask me whether I have more questions, and as I already nail them with loads of questions during the presentations, I usually run out of any more to ask in the end - so I started asking people if they had any questions about me! And it turns out that almost everyone is interested in something (I'm not sure whether I have mentioned that yet, but apparently, everyone here has seen and read my CV...!!!), and once they find out that I am more than willing to answer their questions, they open up even more, tell about themselves, offer me their help, and even try very hard to speak English even though they usually never speak it :o) Yesterday, Umezawasan (my colleague) said that she was very surprised at how open people were talking with me, and that Japanese people usually are a lot shyer in talking with foreign people - I guess I must be doing something right then! *beam*

On my way to and from work, I took some pics of Ashiya (where I live) to give you a tiny impression:

So this scenery I get to see every morning :o)
Good night, then!

July 4, 2007 My new favorite Japanese Food!!

2007-07-05T22:35:00.000+09:00

It's called Okonomiyaki! Hard word, great meaning, even better taste! It means "whatever you want, fried" (maybe a bit free the translation, but it hits the spots!) Okonomiyaki are a mixture between pancakes and pizza! You can order almost anything you want to go inside/on top of them, then it gets mixed with what looks and tastes like pancake dough (though not sweet), and it is served on a small cooking grill that is installed into each table - as I didn't bring my camera, I found you some pictures on the web - if you ever get the change, TRY THEM!!

This is the cooking plate that goes with it:

Yummie!!!!

And these are Yakisoba that usually go along with the Okonomiyaki - this must be food heaven!!

Me, chopsticking.

That's all for today, I am so full that I can't think of anything else to write ;o)

July 3, 2007 Bug Paradise

2007-07-05T22:08:00.000+09:00

I'm exhausted. The more it rains, the warmer it gets. It seems that I can drink the air around me by now. And still there are people telling me, that the "bad" part hasn't even started yet... At least most of the Japanese people around me seem to be affected by the weather as well, so it's not just the whimsical foreigner who's fighting with it.

The river that crosses my way to the train station has grown quite a bit since I first got here, although it's almost entirely covered in plants. With the humid weather, the bugs seem to come to live, and they are quite impressive - I have heard people report about the giant insects of Japan, but now I can see it with my own eyes and I haven't decided yet whether I am fascinated or a bit taken aback - the bats that circle the river at night are more or less normal size, but basically everything else, from butterflies and moths over centipedes (Tausendfuessler), spiders, ticks (Zecken), to bigger animals like crows are huge!

This (see picture), for example, is a mukade, a giant centipede - they bite like hell (I was told) and Amlingsan (SBU's President) has told us stories about how hard they are to kill! You can't step on them, because the shell's too thick. You can't drown them because they know how to swim. If you cut them in half, both parts will crawl their way - they seem to be relatives of cockroaches... His method is to slice them in as many pieces as he can, that seems to stop them... Thank god that this is not my hand!

The past two days, I have been in Procurement, the department that organizes necessary things for other departments. Most of all, I learned a lot of Japanese, as 3/5 of the procurement team didn't really speak English at all - so lots of body language and cross-translation was used. My pile of vocab cards is getting bigger every day.

I had asked Eric to find out whether I could borrow a laptop for private purposes, e.g. checking mail and writing my report. Unfortunately, SBU doesn't loan or rent out notebooks, but we made a deal - I can work on the laptop before or after office hours, if I don't use the internet too obviously for private purposes (most of the "entertainment sites" are blocked anyways). I can live very well with this agreement, so the past couple of days I have spent around 10 hours in the office. So don't get too upset with me if it takes a while to respond to emails as I won't be stopping by the internet cafe every day anymore.

July 1, 2007 Shopping Horrors in Osaka

2007-07-04T21:35:00.000+09:00

"Intense" is the only word I can think of right now to describe today afternoon's shopping experience in Osaka, which coincidently coincided with the first day of summer sales...

I like to think of myself as having a fairly good general sense of orientation, but today I was lost within 2 minutes! I had had two options when seeing the giant crowd entering EST, one of the main shopping complexes around Osaka Station - fleeing or diving in.

Obviously I took the dive, and I'm still not entirely sure whether that was the right choice. Hundreds or thousands of Japanese tiny girls crammed into a giant labyrinth of shops, interconnected by crooked alleys that have never even heard of the word "rectangular". From each shop, an army of other Japanese working girls scream the latest offers into the ears of everyone who doesn't want to hear them. They're using little plastic trumpets to create the right ringing sound to be left with your maltreated hearing.

The ones that don't shout offers instead scream "sumimaseeeeeeeeeeeeen" in 10-second intervals to make sure that people know they are actually working there and are not part of the deco. When I - being twice as wide as the average Japanese - tried to enter a shop, there was no way of getting inside without rubbing against everyone around you. Once you finally entered the shop, got used to the rubbing and ignored the screaming, I found myself totally flabberghasted by all the shiny, pearly, plasticky, glittering mini-skirt fashion that seems so very Japanese...

I could continue for a fair amount of time with descriptions like these, but I guess you get the point.
Nevertheless, I took some pictures, although they are not very exciting:

Yodobashi Kamera, where I bought my camera:

Quite a normal thing here - ferris wheels on top of houses...

I'll have to repeat tours to Osaka to get over the shock. Maybe I'll hire a guide to direct me in the general walkable direction...?

July 1, 2007 Nachtrag

2007-07-04T21:12:00.000+09:00

Thinking about yesterdays entries, I wanted to add some things:

First of all, I can't believe that I didn't say a word about my ingenious MacGyverism! Before buying chopsticks (I have nice own ones now, see pic), I ate my Sunday ramen with - Qtips :o) (Ohrenstaebchen) Strip off the cotton on one side, and they make perfect cutlery *g* I'll also allow you a look into my "fridge" :o)

I wanted to add some more info on the Japanese disco as well - I was so excited that I didn't say anything about it!

Imagine it like that - you enter an underground disco (well, or take the elevator up to the 10th floor, depending on the establishment :oP), pay an incredibly high entrance fee (somewhere between 2000 and 4000 Yen, about 12-24 Euro. But the drinks are fairly cheap, so if you're a fair drinker...) and enter the dance floor - to take part in the mass-aerobics class that seems to be going on! Everybody is facing one wall that is entirely covered with mirrors and dances kind of for themselves, checking their looks in the mirror... I couldn't resist, I had to jump and jiggle across the room, blocking people's sight and highly irritating the more "serious" dancers :o) I definitely had fun!

The price more or less explains why Japanese people aren't the biggest of clubbers - I already met a couple of people who have never in their life been to a disco... Don't you people ever DANCE?! I was fortunate enough that the girls invited me, as a kind of welcome to Japan :o)

Arakisan had gone to a beauty treatment for the occasion - 44.000Yen to enlargen her eye lashes! 44.000Yen!! That's more than I have paid for my camera including all the equipment!!! More than 250 Euro for a treatment that will last her about 3 weeks... Women are strange creatures in any culture, it seems.

June 30, 2007 An all but lazy Saturday night!!!

2007-07-01T13:49:00.000+09:00

Yeeeeaaaahaaah! I didn't think I could have THAT MUCH fun when the girls from customer service invited me to go to a HipHop place :o)

To get to know Osaka and the way Japanese people go out, I decided to try it anyways - and it was AMAZING! We went to the On-and-On, and they didn't play any HipHop at all - a great mix of 80's funk, boogie and all kinds of happy music! I had so much fun, 100 Japanese and me :o) I was the only gaijin in the whole bar, and I made quite a scene, I guess *g* Naoko had warned me before that she was a crazy dancer, so I thought "all the better, let's dance then!" When we started rocking the "stage", everybody was in such a good mood that I decided to go get my camera - and it was so worth it!

Toteeeeeeeeemo tanoshikatta!!!

June 30, 2007 A lazy Saturday morning

2007-07-01T13:25:00.001+09:00

So here's a problem. You already got the idea that I am addicted to food. I'm so happy with being cooked for twice a day, and if the bosses of my current department invite me for lunch, even better! But on Sundays and every 5th Saturday of the month, nobody's cooking for me! Poor Elena!!

So I went food shopping - and found quite an impressive drugstore/necessities/convenience store/food court/shopping mall that really isn't that far away from my place. They sell "women's hygiene products" in inconspicuous brown paper bags... And loads of candy that is supposedly healthy for you. I found the chocolate anyways :o) So now I have a place that will cook for me all week around!

The afternoon was lazy as well, so I took some fotos for you to see where I live!

The beauty station ;o)

My walkable wardrobe!

TV and Watercooker - very useful for tea or a dish of ramen if the little hunger comes along *g*

Prrrrreettty cool, don't you think :o)

And as I was surprised at just how long my hair had gotten, I took some silly shots as well:

Nice, those lazy afternoons, right? :o)

June 29, 2007 Excursion to KICT

2007-06-29T23:50:00.000+09:00

Grr, I died about a thousand deaths today. Actually I wouldn't want to know how many social rules I stumbled over, but I was definitely blushing very hard when my hashi (chop sticks/Essstaebchen) went flying...

Scene of the crime: my first official business lunch. Three people of the logistics department and me went to Kobe today to visit the local (well, international) Logistics Port, "Kobe International Container Terminal" (KICT). Before we went there, we met with two officials from the freight company, both of which didn't speak English. It seems that they hadn't expected that I would be there, so uncomfortable looks were exchanged when I told them that I only spoke very little Japanese. Next act: the exchange of meishi... Meishi are the Japanese business cards that are of very high value in Japan - they show the status of the "owner" and are used to introduce yourself. I don't have meishi. I asked Eric to talk to Mr. Amling, but the President didn't think it was necessary for an intern to have them. I could print private ones, but then I don't think officials would appreciate being handed a meishi with a giant ice cream on it...
Anyways, there have been numerous occasions where I felt uncomfortable not having meishi, so I usually use the Japanese gesture "laughing and scratching head" to get out of the situation.
Then there was, of course, the lunch. Great food (I was glad that I had tried some of it in advance, otherwise I might have committed even more faux-pas eating them). Some of it was new though (for example the exquisite desert, sweet bean mousse wrapped with "rice squash" which was a real treat) and I had no clue how to eat it. My usual strategy of "watching the locals" worked quite well, but of course, people noticed my hesitation. Nishikida-san was my giant help at the dinner! He is one of the members of the logistics meeting I was in all week long. He has come a long way in my view of/ respect for him. On Monday, he didn't show up at work because he apparently takes sleeping pills against something, so depending on the weather, they work better or worse - Monday's weather must have been a 100% match, as he didn't show up at all. Tuesday and Wednesday he didn't seem very reliable and confused many things (maybe due to the sleeping pills?). Yesterday, however, I joined the team at lunch and he heard that I do speak a bit of Japanese (he doesn't speak English very well) and that I am interested in learning - so yesterday he started pointing out things to me, recommending me food (eel/Aal, which was delicious!) and teaching me kanji. Today he totally saved me because he gave me lots of hints on where to put my arms, how to separate bigger chunks of food (here you always have to make up your mind whether it is worth to spent a lot of time wrapping a big chunk into an edible (essbar) size, or whether you take the risk of having to bite off a bit of it - which, with me, often ends in the other half falling back onto the plate...). He secretly gestured, in what order to eat things, which parts to eat and which to put aside and just generally helped me with a big smile. When I sent my hashi flying, he said "It's ok, happens to Japanese as well", which was a big relieve.

So. Lots of situations where I felt somewhat uncomfortable today, but I guess that was mostly due to my expectations to myself. The others were amused, I guess, and didn't mind too much, given that I'm a foreigner... So now reason to moan, I was treated perfectly as always.

The rest of the day was very interesting though as I had never seen a giant container terminal before - dominated by gigantic cranes to load and unload the containers (which are between 20 and 40 feet long/6-12 Meter). I asked a million questions which apparently is very uncommon, but they could answer all of them, so I guess I didn't humiliate anybody by asking them something they didn't know the answer to. Des would have been proud of me =)

June 28, 2007 I'm getting old! :oP

2007-06-28T23:30:00.000+09:00

Wow. It's only been two days that I didn't stop at the internet cafe and I've been flooded by an amazing 68 emails! (Noo, no Spam involved, only about 4 news mails) - thank you very much, guys, I appreciate it a lot that you stay in touch so amazingly!

Recapitulating the past two days will be anything but easy! Loads happened, and almost everything involved vast amounts of FOOD!!! Some years ago, around Thailand, I made a deal with myself that I will try any type of food that other cultures eat on a regular basis - and that I will take the choice of food that I haven't eaten before, if I get the chance! So in the past 48 hours, I guess I tried about 24 new dishes which makes it impossible for me to tell you all about them!

The highlights: Raw fish isn't at all bad; whitish sauce on shrimp doesn't necessarily mean cream sauce (it was a LEMON dressing, totally unexpected taste!); and you should avoid eating the flower deco, they taste like soap...

So all in all, what I am missing about Japanese food is some type of sauces (I kind of had the image of Chinese sweet-and-sour dishes with vegetables when I came over here, but the Japanese usually go for water-soup...), but on the other hand, everyday I try something new totally changes my way of thinking about the way food should/can taste! Especially if you're looking at something, having a specific taste in mind, only to discover that it taste totally different!

Tuesday night, Eric had organized a dinner with 12 people for me, in a fancy restaurant, complete with taking off shoes (and extra bathroom slippers), being seated on cushions (but we were able to cheat, there was a hole under the table just as in the dormitory), and having a Kanpai (a toast/Trinkspruch), Eric officially welcomed me and the other two interns who had come along. Plus I got to know a lot of new people - so now you can enjoy the first pictures taken with my new camera! (To see a larger version of the picture, just click on it!)

The white guy is Ryan from the US, most of the Japanese people work with me.

Umezawasan (O...san), my colleague from the President's Office

The guy next to me is Eric, with his friend Noriko who is learning German - and we will do a language exchange!

That was Tuesday - and on Wednesday, the Ladies from Logistics invited me as well - totally different, great food, very different feeling to the whole thing and seriously not comparable.

They spoke Japanese with me all night long, so I learned lots (there were enough people able to speak English to translate if I had no clue what the conversation was about!). The girl to the left, Kimurasan, is also extremely good at teaching me kanji (Japanese signs) and grammar.

I also finished my week at Logistics & Procurement, at least my time at the conference meeting on the improvement of the distributions network. It was an interesting time, and I met people from Germany and HongKong as well, but I am ready to move on to the next phase - which will be excursions :o) Tomorrow around noon, Yoshikawasan, Uedasan and myself will take the train to Kobe to go to lunch with important people, visit a warehouse, and in the afternoon visit a yacht (!), although I have the feeling that they use the word in a different way than I do...

...So much more I would like to tell and to put down, but I'll let it be enough for tonight - sleep is needed these days :o) Especially to digest *g*

June 25, 2007 All these complaints... :o)

2007-06-25T23:56:00.000+09:00

Ok, I have received numerous emails telling me that they couldn't keep up with the amount I'm writing - in Salamanca, the people complained about too little info, and now I'm overdoing it... tststs, those people... *g*

And that although I am the one who has reason to complain! Why do I always fall for the one guy who's gay?! grrr, that makes 5. And a half, but I guess the half doesn't complain about me liking him as he recently said I was a man to him anyways (hihi, sorry Mr. youknowwhoImean, that just had to be :oP)

Ok, so I will keep it short - I took part in the first real meeting in my life today *g* "We" were discussing logistical strategies on how to save costs caused by the distribution network - it was pretty interesting to hear a lot about modelization, scenarios, all the details that had to be considered and what not. This was my first day in a new department, but by now I feel pretty secure in my role as intern, everybody knows me already and people are a lot less formal in an international organization than in a traditional one. So we were laughing a lot today :o)

And tomorrow, Eric invited a whole bunch of people (12!) to a Welcome Party for me *beam* It won't be a party, but we'll all go out to dinner together and see, where the night will take us *innocent smirk*

One of my new chefs from this morning told me that "his ladies" from the logistics department wanted to invite me to dinner as well - on Wednesday! So the next two days will be prrrrretty busy!! Maybe I'll give you a break from reading :oP

Ok, short enough? Sooo much more to tell you, but I'll just save that for the days when the dreaded routine kicks in and every day will be the same :o) (Geez, am I smiley today!! I guess I'm tired LOL)

OK, letting you go now! Muuacc to those who deserve it ;o)

That isssaaa meeeee!

2007-06-25T22:08:00.000+09:00

That's me, by the way, as seen in Salamanca, Spain at my farewell party at the end of May. Haven't figured out yet how to set it as my blog pic, but oh well.

June 24, 2007 Laaaaaaazzyyyy Weekend :o)

2007-06-25T01:10:00.000+09:00

Hehe, as the title says, I have slept loads the past two days :o) My sleeping schedule is totally screwed up, but I guess by now I can't really blame it on jetlag anymore - it's screwed up like that most of the time anyways...

But I did manage to spend today's afternoon in Osaka! Last night I finally read a little bit in my travel guide, and it turned out that Osaka is closer to Amagasaki (where I work) than Ashiya (where I sleep) is to Amagasaki! And just reading the descriptions of all kinds of festivals all over the island made me want to travel soooooo much :o) I'm already considering hopping around Japan for some of the weekends, and actually, there will be quite a bunch of festivals and celebrations close by, so I wouldn't even need to calculate a lot of money and time. *happy*

Anyhow, I went to Osaka today! I'm such a big city kid! How I love to look at subway lines, train charts, street maps and all that good stuff *g* But the truth is that I spent the entire afternoon in one shop - Yodobashi Kamera! That's a giant department store specializing in technology *beam* I entered under the pretense of buying an electronic dictionary (which I didn't buy) and made my way to the camera section (one of which I did buy *g*). I actively avoided entering the laptop section as I first want to talk to SBU's IT-department whether I can borrow one of their machines before falling in love with a laptop I see on the road...

So I have a camera now! A Caplio R6, not tiny tiny, but small enough to carry around, lighter than she looks, super fast, with a great flash and easy access to ISO adjustment. I'm happy :o) Only downside: The instructions (on paper) come exclusively in Japanese, but I'll get to know that baby in no time, I'm sure :o)

Japanese are funny people. They build giant ferris wheels (Riesenraeder) on top of buildings, change the taste of McSundays to Mango and Strawberry instead of Chocolate and Caramel and hire people to put your wet umbrella inside a condom to not drip all over the store - I should start filing ideas to implement in Germany!

I'm getting a bit excited as my travel guide said something about a bar in Osaka close to the station where I get off, where PEOPLE DANCE SALSA!!! At least on Monday nights. So I can feel the itchy butt arriving :o) (Ok, this might be a German expression, I meant to say that I'm getting excited to maybe be dancing Salsa again soon!)

Which reminds me that my hero of the Spanish language Germ`an has introduced me to my new objective in Japan - dancing Salsa in one of the subways of Japan! (well, in his version it should be with a Bayer executive in the subway of Tokyo - I'll see what I can do about that *g*) The only reason that I didn't go looking for that bar today was the hectoliters of water pouring down without stopping - this must be the rain for all of the rest of the year!

Alrighty, let's see whether I can remember to take my shoes off when I get home! (One of the things that I definitely don't have internalized yet! Here, you're asked to take off your shoes at almost any occasion - entering a room, going to the bathroom, trying on clothes, stepping onto tatami mats... It sounds very logical and I actually like the idea, it's just that I keep finding myself stepping on things, or putting on my shoes and then realizing that I need to get my stuff from across the room... and my Vans are very much a bad choice to be putting on and taking them off all the time. But it's only been a week, so I'm not giving up on me yet :o))

Good night guys, hope you're all well!!

June 23, 2007 Last night

2007-06-24T01:06:00.000+09:00

So this will be my first weekend in Japan! Lots of people asked me what I will do these 2 days. I'm guessing mainly sleeping to finally get over the jetlag, and on Sunday, I might go to Osaka. Yesterday I learned that in Japan, shops are all opened on Sundays! What a pleasant surprise!

Eric went to Tokyo for the weekend to see friends, but asked me whether I was available on Tuesday night - he was going to ask a bunch of colleagues to go out for dinner or a drink together! He himself has only been at SBU for about 2 months, so for him as well it'll be an opportunity to integrate himself more.

Last night, I spent almost 5 hours in the internet caf`e, writing emails, posting stuff in the blog... and everything that I would normally use my laptop for... It has become routine that I sleep a while after work, so after two hours of sleeping, I was bright awake!

I'm not sure though whether it is especially healthy to be in the internet caf`e long stretches at one time... I read an article about the "social layer internet caf`e". Apparently, in Japan it's a lot cheaper to spend the night in an internet caf`e rather than to pay regular rent for a room. So some caf`es have started offering showers as well... And actually, I'm regularly surrounded by snoaring when I'm here. The article also said something about the risk of getting infected with tuberculosis. I don't know, I'm just hoping that the sniffing noises I hear from other cabins are not from people sniffing a line of crack or whatever. Hmpf. I don't find the caf`e especially cheap either. For about 5 hours, I spent around 12EUR... So my daily pay will get consumed almost exclusively for being on the internet...great.

Anyway, when I was ready to go home around 4 am, I was a little worried about walking alone at night as many people had warned me about that. Arima-san and Mutsuko-san had even shown me a tiny park where they told me not to go as there sometimes was passing a "crazy uncle" who was looking for sex. But when I left the building at 4:11am, THE SUN WAS COMING UP!! By the time I got home (about 5 minutes walking), it was bright daylight - unbelievable :o)
--------------------------------
Re-reading what I wrote, I think this doesn't really sound like me. I'm not really worried about either the internet caf`e nor the infection nor the walking at night time. There were just things crossing my mind, so mother: Don't worry :o)

June 22, 2007 TGIF

2007-06-24T00:43:00.000+09:00

Today I feel much better. I haven't slept too much, but I'm doing more or less interesting stuff at work that keeps me busy and entertained, and Eric and our other female colleague (whose name I still can't memorize... O...-san) are a lot of fun working with. I mentioned that I'm thinking about going to Osaka this weekend, and immediately I had an email from Eric listing interesting stuff to see and a map from O...-san.

The weather is quite stormy today and it seems like an entire ocean pours down on the soil of Amagasaki - fortunately, Arima-san lent me an umbrella! I've been talking so much about the rain season, but as I don't really like walking with an umbrella, I didn't bother bringing or buying one - until I realized this morning that it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas to get to the office totally soaked...

I met the last missing member of senior staff today, the one I will work with next week, in Procurement & Logistics. And he told me that we will be going on an excursion to see an SBU warehouse on Friday! I'm not sure whether I've mentioned it, but I will go on another excursion to see the production facilities in Ehime, a couple of hours West from here - Eric and I will take off the afternoon before, have dinner with the production manager, and the next day, we will visit the facilities! On our way there, we'll cross the world's formerly largest suspension bridge (Haengebruecke) by train - that's bound to be interesting! In general, I'm very happy what SBU (well, Eric) came up with to occupy me these coming weeks! In total, I will spend about 2 weeks in the President's office (where I was these past 3 days), almost 2 weeks in Procurement & Logistics, a week in Marketing, a week in Business Development, one day in Finance, and I'll be seeing a bunch of other sections which I don't remember at the moment. So lots to learn =)

My plan to eat at my desk today failed because the president of SBU, Mr. Amling, asked me whether I wanted to join him and Eric for lunch - and I didn't want to tell him no :o) This way, I also got to know the canteen, or shokudou.

I'm not quite sure whether I like Amling-san. He's very nice and friendly, but very matter-of-fact and he conducted half a job interview with me. Especially about that gap in my CV (Lebenslauf) between mechanical engineering and CBS... But it seems that in the end he was more or less satisfied. I don't know whether he was the one who picked me as an intern, but he definitely knew my CV very well...

Food-wise, I had curry (curry sauce with veggies, meat) and rice for lunch, and a kind of Frikadelle (meatball) for dinner - the meat and veggies almost always taste good, but I'm already getting sick of eating rice... it just tastes like nothing without salt, onions or garlic! In general, I don't think that Japanese people ever use garlic (Knoblauch) in their meals... *sniff*

Oh, and O...san introduced me to "smoked cheese" today! It's quite perverse actually, a tiny cheese ball in the shape of a sausage ("mini winnie") and tastes like a sausage as well! I don't think that'll become one of my favourites =)

June 21, 2007 In the Office

2007-06-24T00:16:00.000+09:00

My second day of work. Arima-san and Mutsuko-san write me little notes and letters to meet for the next day =) Arima-san also printed out a map for me and marked the important spots - dormitory, internet caf`e, supermarket, convenience store, train station.

We arrived at work around 9:30am. The good thing is that we have flex time, so we can arrive somewhere between 8 and 10am. The streets we take to get there are very narrow, so the cars adapted to that =) So far, I haven't really seen foreign cars, and the Japanese cars seem to be half as wide as European ones =). I guess, US cars would just block the entire street *g*

I also saw bikes that have a special clip to attach umbrellas! So you can ride the bike and that "hand clip" holds the umbrella for you to protect you from sun and rain. I mention both because the weather is quite volatile here - it's constantly warm and pretty humid, but so far I can live well with that. Last night when we went home, there was half a typhoon blowing and today the sky is very cloudy. That's the rain season, they say.

I worked a lot with Powerpoint today and did some internet research. Eric introduced me to more senior staff and I keep scribbeling down comments next to the list of names I received to not forget all of them immediately!! So far, I met like 10 or 15... I've always been bad with names, but with Japanese names, I'm even worse!

Eric and I went to lunch to a different place today and I ordered (well, he ordered) a bowl of noodles for me. In the future, I will try either to bring food for lunch or to eat only a little bit as I have the free dinner at home.
In Japan, you're supposed to slurp noodles and soup very noisily to tell the cook that you enjoy the food, so today I made a lot of noise eating :o) Hopefully, I don't forget how to eat silently when I go back to Europe *hihi*

Going back home was a pain - my feet hurt (I'm wearing high heels, I guess most of you know me in sneakers!) and I felt a bit lonely. I really regret not having brought my laptop or at least more music!! Should have listened to my brother, with music everything's better... I miss my friends, my family, I miss Spain! The other day, I bought oranges and they are about 4 times as expensive as they are in Spain, and taste quite dreadfully... I guess what annoys me most of all is the fact that I can hardly talk to anyone and express myself and that I don't understand anything that is going on around me... I love to be informed and to gather information, but here I'm just drifting around. That's why I talk to Eric so much. Menos mal que toda la gente se ocupa mucho de m`i. I'm glad that everyone is so eager to help me! But right now I have that typical "surrounded by people, feeling alone" feeling - Natsumi-san even took me to a tech store today after work so that I could buy an electronic dictionary - but they were all made for Japanese people (I know, very surprising), so I wouldn't have been able to understand anything... There must be versions for foreigners, though...

Anyways, I guess I'll end this strange day now. Good night!

June 20, 2007 First Day of Work!

2007-06-23T23:06:00.000+09:00

Phew, estoy hecha polvo...what a day! I already feel like I've been here for weeks and with all the stuff I want to do, I start running out of weekends =)

About work I won't tell you everything in detail, but just the highlights are quite enough for one day :o) And I want to go to bed SOON!

I met Mutsuko-san and Arima-san in the lobby at 8:30am. Eric had told me to wear something like business casual, but as I didn't bring a "normal" jacket, I decided to throw on the business jacket - which proved to be a bad choice as it was a lot warmer outside than the air-condition inside made me believe!

We take about 40 minutes to get to work - 10 walking, 10 on the train, and another 20 walking - Arima-san had brought me a train ticket from HR (Human Resources, Personalwesen), so I didn't have to pay anything in advance.

The head of HR, Ozeki-san, welcomed me to the company and gave me a brief explanation. We firmed the contracts and now I am officially a trainee at Sumika Bayer Urethane, Amagasaki =) He then handed over to (Ms.) Okada-san, whom I had gotten to know on Monday already. She'll be in charge of me, HR-wise. I listened to her presentation about SBU and Bayer in general, she gave me a tour of the building and introduced me to all the senior staff members she could find *g* The proper words to say when you meet someone for the first time ("Hajimemashite. Peters desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.") mean something along the lines of "We meet for the first time. I am Peters. Please be good to me". Okada-san also gave me the money for the first 1,5 weeks, until the end of June - all of this is way less complicated than I thought it would be!

For lunch, she handed me over to Eric, the Dutch coordinator of my internship. The two of us joined a group of Japanese girls/young women and we went to typical Japanese place. Eric translated a lot for me and ordered rice with fried chicken, salad and noodles for me - delicious! Only the tofu that came along with it isn't quite my thing.

I didn't understand very much of the conversation, but every now and then, Eric would translate for me, and one of the women who has lived in Dubai and studied in England, speaks fluent English, so I was integrated alright.

For the afternoon, Eric gave me a more detailed intro to the chemical side of the company. He also helped me to access the blogspot website to see how to switch languages - so you owe him thanks =)

And I have my own laptop now. I'll have to memorize about a million passwords, which also means that I won't be allowed to do any private work with it. I guess this doesn't really come as a surprise.

AND: Eric gave me his old cell phone to use for this summer! I had briefly asked him whether he thought it would be necessary for me to buy a cell phone when we met on Monday, and he remembered! So now I have a cell phone. The number is ***************. In case you want to call, just remember that I am 7 hours (Germany/Spain), 8 hours (UK), 12 hours (Michigan) ahead of you, so the best time for calling would be between:

Germany/Spain: during the week 12 to 16h, 23 to 1h; on weekends 3am to 5pm/17h
UK: week 11-15, 22-0; weekend 2am to 4/5pm
US: week 5 -9am; weekend 9pm to 11am

Be warned though, I don't really know how to use the phone yet, as it is in Japanese =)

Around 6pm, Eric and I took off from work and said goodbye at the train station, He lives in Osaka and therefore takes the train into the opposite direction. Arima-san had told me which line to take, so I got home without any problems, was greeted by a happy "o-kaerinasai" (welcome!) from ryoubo (the owner's wife), and went straight to bed to sleep for an hour :o) So now, I'm back from dinner, a kind of gulasch, thick, brown, with meat and onions and rice! "Totemo oishii desu"!! And when I was about to go to the internet caf`e, two girls that live right next to me, invited me into their room and we talked a lot - in English, Japanese, French and German ;o) Natsumi-san speaks English quite well, is 20 years old and studies cross-sultural studies, so I already like her a lot *g* I forgot the other girl's name, but both are very cute little Japanese girls, and both play the piano amazingly! (Natsumi-san has a keyboard in her room that is bigger than she is *g*)

And now, I'll be dropping stone dead and won't move until the alarm clock bugs me!!!

June 20, 2007 The morning before work

2007-06-23T03:09:00.000+09:00

Yuhuu!! I managed my first conversation in Japanese! After waking up around 4.30am (hail thee, jetlag), I got ready for the day - we can choose between private showers (which are wonderful, you have a basket to put your clothes into, and a strong beam of water whose temperature you can freely adjust - from 25 to 50 degrees! Sara wuerde es freuen :0P) and the public bath. The bath is typically Japanese where you sit down on a stool in front of a mirror, with a shower next to each mirror. There are 10-15 stools like that where you're supposed to foam yourself. There's also a giant bathtub to soak, but you're neither supposed to swim in it, nor to enter it with foam. (I learned the "no swimming" part from the expression on the face of my HR manageress when I said "great, we have a pool!" ooops...)
So far, I haven't tried the bath yet as I don't really know how to use it, but if I find someone who will show me, I would like to try.

Last night, I was surprised to see that the sun went down around 6pm already, but this morning I was equally surprised to see it come up around 4.30am!! If the sun schedule is like that all year long, I'm not surprised that you always see people doing TaiChi or ChiGong or whatever kind of meditation on television in the morning - half the day passes before you enter work! I guess that also makes it easier for the commuters who have to go into Tokyo by train about 2 hours each day...

But getting back to my first conversation this morning! Today, I had my first Japanese breakfast: I was greeted very friendly by the dormitory's owner's wife (ryou bo) with a happy "Erena-chan, o-haayou gazaimasu" (good morning, little (honorable) Elena). Then I could choose between a sweet breadroll with noodle and veggies, or fish (I guess it was salmon) and tofu. This morning, I wasn't brave enough to try the fish, so in addition to the breadroll, I ate a bowl of rice and had a probiotic yoghurt which we get for free as well =) I also could have eaten a slice of bread with cheese or jam (well, ok, I admit it, I also ate one of those *g*)

The dining room is made up of the kitchen apart where 3 sweet ladies work who are obsessed with greeting me *smile*, a bunch of tables in front of a TV set, and two tables on tatami mats (the typical Japanese-style mat to sit on kneeling). Well, one of the tables is for cheaters as it stands on a hole so that you can put your legs underneath the table. I chose that one as my favorite spot.

This morning, a girl with disshevelled hair (out-of-bed look :oP) was already sitting there, so I approached her asking: "Sumimasen, ii desuka?" - Do you mind if I sit here? (well, actually the literal translation would be "Sorry, is it good/ok?"). She didn't mind and asked me "dokode desuka?" [to those who speak Japanese, if my Japanese phrases and grammar are incorrect, please forgive me, I'm still learning *g*] and luckily I know that that meant "Where are you from?". "Doitsu de" "Aaaah, doitsu de!" I told her, that I speak very little Japanese - "Nihongowa chotto hanasemasu", but asked her for her name anyways: "O-namae-wa nandesuka?"

Her name is Hanako and she introduce me to her friends Mai and Makoko (I think). If you're wondering why most of the names end in -ko, that's because ko means child. Hana-ko, for example, means Flower-Child.

Mai and Makoko knew a little bit of English, so with a mix of Japanese and English, we talked about how difficult German is (a lot of Japanese have studied German in school, but don't speak a word), how long I have been here for and what I am doing. So there, that was my first Japanese conversation and I haven't even started working yet =)

June 19, 2007

2007-06-23T01:18:00.000+09:00

After thinking the past events over, I wanted to add some things - I have a kernel pillow! (Kirschkernkissen)! ^_^

But there are also two downsides to this paradise - I have to keep the balcony door shut at night and visitors aren't exactly welcome here - female visitors have to leave until 22pm, and men aren't allowed to enter the building at all. This is kind of a bummer as I thought people could actually visit me. So, you travel folks out there, I'm very sorry, but I won't be able to host you!
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Hmpf. I just spent almost 2 hours trying to get all kinds of stuff done on the internet, but failed miserably. "Surprisingly", the websites show everything in Japanese... for some deluded reason, I thought they would show in English, although that seems a silly idea now. I guess I just haven`t given it any thought before...

Another thing is that small button on the keyboard for changing the letters you type from Roman (Western style) letters to hiragana/katakana (Japanese). That button is right next to the very short space bar, so whenever I type, I keep hitting that button and can't figure out how to get back to roma-ji!! Grrr. This has been very pointless. I need to find an English laptop that's set to English all the way!! And I thought myself to be a genius with languages...

Besides that, I slept an incredible 13 hours and still fought hard during the whole day not to fall asleep! I ate dinner very early because I had skipped breakfast (sleeping) - we had rice with Japanese vegetables, squid (Tintenfisch), shrimp, salad, a spring roll and soup - and in the evening, Mutsuko and Yukiko, 2 future coworkers of SBU who live in the same dormitory, showed me where to find the internet cafe, a supermarket and a convenience store. I haven't entered the convenience store yet, but it seems to be very convenient indeed as you apparently can buy anything in there, plus it's open all night long.

So tomorrow's my first day of work - I meet Mutsuko and Yukiko at 8:30am in the lobby to take me with them!

June 18, 2007 - Japan

2007-06-21T21:33:00.000+09:00

Wow, once again I am surprised at just how quickly 13 hours can go by when flying!
I arrived in Japan! And it's a lot less alien at first sight than I thought it would be - the past half year of intensive Kanji studies now help a lot in recognizing signs, but everything is transcribed in English as well. There were only two things that caught my attention - the "French" toilets (look like little bathtubs in the ground) and the emptiness of this giant airport - we arrived in plain daytime, but the airport reminded me a lot of Stephen King's "Langoliers" - no one there besides the people from our flight! And airport staff of course, who spoke English very well. I had no trouble finding the travel info to get to Osaka and buying the tickets.

And now I am marvelling at the green scenery that's passing by outside, making up the outskirts of the 25-million people-molloch called Tokyo.
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I probably shouldn't render any judgments just yet, but so far I have the feeling that - at least by the looks - westeners are quite acostumed to the sight of the Japanese style - houses, plants, people look very familiar. Can't wait to learn more about the culture though, that's bound to be something to boggle your mind!

There are differences though - while looking out of the train window at the 13-story powerline (I don't think I've ever seen more than 5 or 6 lines above one another), a waitress came by pushing a cart with sweets to sell - I feel like on the Japanese Hogwart's Express :o)

Krass, aber ich kann's noch gar nicht fassen, dass ich jetzt 2(!) Monate hier sein werde! Two months!!!!!!! When I think back to the past summer in Barcelona and how much I learned in those 2 months... I can't wait! =)
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... I am absolutely flattened! I just shut the door of my about 15sqm room with balcony and sat down to think about what happened during the past 2 hours. Shinkansen, local train and taxi weren't a problem, there were always people that understood what I wanted from them with my crude mix of English and that handful of Japanese words that I know. So when the taxi guy dropped me off (complete with white gloves and a construction to open the passenger door "semi-automatically"), I was standing in front of Sumika Bayer, my working place for the next 2 months. Eric van Rijn, my contact person, came down immediately to salute me - and it turned out that he isn't in his 40s as I thought, but roughly my age, only with 7 years in total of living in Japan!

The whole team I got to know so far is exceptionally young, nice and smiley (and it seems like a real smile), and today I have already collected 6 business cards and bowed aroun't 150 times!

So during the past 2 hours, a group of 6 people ran around the apartment house with me, showing me around and absolutely taking my breath for what Bayer is offering me! I knew that they would pay me 5000 YEN per day, weekends and holidays inluded :o) And that they would arrange for accomodation for me. Furthermore they wanted to cover my commuting expenses.

But I hadn't expected this! In my new dormitory, I have a big room with balcony, a bed, a desk, a bunch of drawers, a washbasin, a giant wardrobe (begehbarer Kleiderschrank!) and an additional cupboard for about 20 pairs of shoes! Then I have a TV, a water boiler, a telephone line, air condition. There is a public washroom with a giant bathtub (you're not supposed to swim in it though) and also separate private showers. I think there are about 80 girls living here on 5 floors. We have a living room with television, a stepper to keep in shape, a vending machine for drinks, a code to get inside the dormitory, (for me there is no curfew as I am officially working), washing mashines, and the best of all - the canteen! They put breakfast in quite a human schedule, and guess what: all of it for me is freeeee (for me at least hehe)! I can eat as much as I want and Sumika is paying me 30EUR/day for that =)

Have I mentioned the shower gel, laundry powder, garbage bag, tea cup, slipers, toothbrush, soap, sponch, hairbrush and razor that came with the room as well? hihi

To finish this surprisingly wonderful day, Eric introduced me to 2 girls from Sumika who live in the same residence ~ Arima-san und Doro-san - and Doro-san knocked at my door an hour ago and invited me to come to eat dinner with her in the hall! Mizu soup (watersoup with eggs, veggies), rice with kaviar (or whatever kind of fish eggs), sardines, lotus roots, cellery, muschrooms, algae - extremely delicious!
And great chopsticks they have, too :o)

So what a day! Tomorrow I will check out the convenience store and the internet caf`e which Doro showed me on the map.

That's it for today! Goodnight to you all, I will collapse into a coma now and I know I will sleep veeeeeery well!!!! =)

June 17, 2007 A new experience ahead of me

2007-06-21T06:31:00.000+09:00

I don't think I have ever eaten a sandwich that tastes quite as much like parsley and red onions. How odd, I haven't even left the continent yet!
We're approaching England, and 45 minutes into the flight, Cambridge appears on the screen =) Greetings, Michael! I am waving crazily at you, in good old John "The Chicken" Colden fashion :o)

OK, so far, everything has been business as usual: very little sleep, packing the bags "a 'ultima hora", driving my mom crazy, sending off final instructions to the family before surrendering the cell to be left alone in Germany.
Yupp, that's right, won't be bringing a cell phone! I'll be checking my mail every couple of days though in case you guys want to contact me. Depends a bit on how I find things, but I'll keep you posted!
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Got to London in a second, spending most of the flight sleeping, the rest of the time being equally split between reading Douglas Adams' "The long dark teatime of the soul" and eating :o)

If you're surprised that it's already the second time I'm mentioning food, you've probably never seen me eating - I worship food :o)
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By now, I'm definitely a minority at the airport - I've entered the gate to "the Asia section" ~ about 85% of the people waiting here are Japanese *content smile*. I can already practice a bit: "sumimasen" (excuse me), "gomenazai" (I'm sorry), "arigatou" (thanks) and "dou itashimashite" (you're welcome/keine Ursache) - very basic Japanese, but already working :o)
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(In the plane) Geez, I'm surrounded by... well, Japanese people, but what gets me more is the amount of tech gadgets they drop off into a bag that their travelguide is passing around - cell phones, I-Pod-style things and yo qu`e s`e! That makes me very aware once again, that this time, I'm traveling very lightly tech-wise:

I was going to bring a new laptop that didn't get to me in time. I wanted to bring a camera which got stolen on my way to Mallorca some weeks back (I'm apparently having a talent to have cameras robbed from me...). I could have bought a new cell phone, but as Japan uses a 3G standard for cell phones (which apparently is used very litlle in all the rest of the globe), that would have been pretty pointless.

I do bring a pair of pendrives (USB-sticks) with Portable Applications (www.portableapps.com) installed - first time using it, and I must say I'm quite intrigued! Maybe I won't need to get a subnotebook after all... =)
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Have I mentioned that I'm loving the headrests!?! I quite like British Airways - their homepage and pre-flight services have impressed the hell out of me, now I can add "online check-in", "freight allowance adjustment" and "unlimited weight of carry-on luggage (Handgepaeck) to the list (sole condition, you have to be able to lift up the carry-on luggage into the overhead compartment yourself).

I was going to comment on just how big and heavy this birdy is as it had "trouble" getting up into the air - but I'm already getting annoyed with myself for babbling constantly - so you must either be horrified or asleep by now! This past week I just couldn't stop talking! Sorry to everyone - I'll be good now and shut up :o)