July 10/11, 2007 Excursion to Ehime

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!!!

June 24, 2007 Laaaaaaazzyyyy Weekend :o)

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 18, 2007 - Japan

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

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)