Exhausting Yet Amazing Week Part Deux (+ This Past Week Too)
I'm exhausted and I have to get up early to catch my flight down to Tokyo again tomorrow, so I'm going to go quickly through this while at the same time maintaining both accuracy and all relevant content. Yes.
Tuesday of last week was my first *business* day down in Tokyo, with an interview at a major temp agency in Tokyo. The interview was all the way in Shinjuku while I was in Yokohama, so I left extremely early in my suit in order to be sure I was on time. Once I arrived in Shinjuku and had myself some lunch, I stopped in at a net cafe to print out a couple more copies of my resume and work history. Should be simple enough, right? Not quite. See, in between the time I had originally made the resume and the time of my interview, I kinda, you know, finished my job at the Asahikawa International Affairs Division. Which means that I needed to eliminate all the phrases that said (from 2007-present) in both the English and Japanese versions. The English versions were easy enough, but the Japanese versions were all in PDF files! I can't access those! Instead I had to go back online to the website where I originally made the resumes, reinput all the data as well as upload a picture, make the one teensy tinsy little change, and then print out everything multiple times. The poor net cafe people had to count out all the pieces of paper to find out how much to actually charge me, haha.
The interview itself went... eh. I don't know. It was honestly the first in-person interview I'd had since the interview that got me on the JET program, as all the Nintendo ones were over the phone. The Japanese speaking section was a breeze, though I'm not so sure how well I did on the English proofreading section. I was nervous and I think I made silly mistakes. They also suddenly told me to handwrite a business letter in Japanese which totally threw me for a loop. Definitely not my shining moment, despite the fact that I can usually toss around business letters like nobody's business. I *type* those though. Anyway, it's a temp agency so it wasn't like they were going to hand me a job right off the bat. They'll get back to me if they find anything that looks to be up my alley.
After the interview I met up with Jess from Asahikawa, who was in Tokyo for one night before leaving for the States the next day. Later on we were joined by Glenn and Jen again and we all had a lovely dinner at the Court Lodge, a Sri Lankan restaurant that Jen and I stumbled upon when we were studying together in Yokohama and have been constantly patronizing since then. Once dinner was over we said our goodbyes to Jess who needed to catch the train to her hotel, and then I forced Jen and Glen into many many rounds of Quiz Magic Academy at a video arcade. I won every time, as if there were *any doubt* =P.
Wednesday I didn't really have anything to do, so I spent the day doing laundry, chatting with my parents on Skype, and goofing off on the Internet. Also tried out a new restaurant that opened in Sakuragicho, Bubby's (yes that's it's real name. Their specialty is pot pies, which were indeed quite tasty.)
Thursday was my big second interview with the company in Yokohama. Though I had to call them to ask for directions and ended up sounding like an idiot when it was clear I was standing *right outside their building*, and despite the fact that I was covered in sweat by the time I got there because I was in my full business suit in 90 degree heat... It went really well. They seemed shocked when it was clear that I actually really do have an interest in anime and video games, something apparently *they* don't even have. They just sell the stuff, but aren't actually really a part of the community. Before the interview was even over they asked me to come back again next week to meet with the president of the company. That *can't* be a bad sign. That interview will be tomorrow in the evening. Before that, they told me I should write out a blog entry for them to check out my work since in the event I work for them they will want me making "nerdy updates" (their words) to the website's blog as part of my job. Oh, another part of my job will involve traveling to Anime Expo to serve as an interpreter for the company's representatives. So I get to write blog entries and go to Anime Expo and get paid for it? I write blogs for free and I usually *pay* to go to Anime Expo! Score! In the end I wrote out my impressions of the recent information released about Final Fantasy XIV for my blog entry. No idea if that's the sort of thing they want or not, but whatever. I'll let you know how the interview went tomorrow evening.
I think I just spent the rest of that day wandering around the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama after changing out of my suit, and then hanging out a bit in downtown Yokohama before hitting the sack.
Friday was my flight back up here to Hokkaido, and even though I wasn't leaving until the late evening I figured it would be best to head to the airport early if only to just drop off my bags. When I got there I was lucky enough to find one of the really really big lockers open so I just shoved all my stuff in there and then hopped on a train heading into the city. I really wasn't paying attention to where I was going and suddenly found myself very lost, riding on a train line I'd never ridden before. With nothing better to do I decided to hop off and see what kind of place I'd ended up in. Turned out the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art was right there, so I decided to pop in to take a look. Turned out they were having an exhibition of the works of Mary Blair, one of the top artists who worked for Disney Animation during its genesis. Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella were based on her designs, and she is the one who established the concepts and art which eventually led to the It's a Small World ride. Then she apparently kinda went crazy, left Disney, became an alcoholic, and then drew lots of sketchy pictures of nudes and people having sex. I guess this is what happens if you work for Disney too long. Be careful Jadice!
There was another exhibition at the museum which I was planning on going to and already had a ticket for, but my cell phone rang right as I was leaving the Mary Blair exhibit so I had to quickly dash out before the guards could yell at me. It was Taka, calling to see if I had time to hang out before my flight. Eh, what the hell, I thought, tossed my ticket for the other exhibition in the trash and hopped on a train... all the way back to Yokohama, haha. Taka wanted to take me to another one of his amazing all-you-can-eat restaurants (he's trying to fatten me up I swear), but at first he couldn't find it and by the time we got there... their lunch hours were already over! Gah! So Mos Burger it was, haha. At that point I really needed to start heading toward the airport again, so Taka said: "Oh we'll just catch the next train from Kawasaki Station. It's a straight shot to the airport." "...We?" "Yes we! I have to see you off!" "Yay!" He actually had an ulterior motive in that he hadn't actually been to Haneda Airport in over 20 years and was curious as to how it had changed. The better question was: "How hadn't it changed?" 20 years is an eternity in the life of the fourth busiest airport in the world. Anyway, eventually we said our goodbyes, and I must admit I felt really sad afterward despite the fact that I'll almost certainly see him again in a couple weeks, if not even this weekend. Odd.
And then I was back in Hokkaido doing all the things in Sapporo I mentioned in the earlier post. Right after I wrote that and dropped my luggage off in Asahikawa, I took a train back towards Sapporo to the city of Takikawa, where I had the thrill of a lifetime flying in a glider. It was expensive, 7,000 yen for only about 15 minutes, but totally worth it. The pilot even let me control the plane for a while! Pictures are up on Facebook.
The next day was the meeting with the mayor between Sergej an I to commemorate my leaving and his joining the International Affairs Division staff. It was nice to say goodbye the mayor, who really is a nice guy, and cool to finally receive a medal from the city honoring me for my work there. I know that sounds odd, but I distinctly remember seeing James get the same medal when the two of us met with the mayor 2 years ago and thinking, "Damn I want one of those!" So now I finally have one, hehe. Afterward we got interviewed by the local paper who then published a story about us the next day. Or rather, about me. Despite the fact that the interview involved both of us and the fact that the reporter took a picture of us *shaking hands*, they cut out all references to poor Sergej and made it entirely about me. My office wasn't particularly happy about it, nor am I for that matter. Oh well, I got a copy of the paper which I will show my parents when I get back.
Tuesday I met up with Shouhei (yes I still remember your name even though you never officially told me it) to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. Now I'm not a *huge* fan of the zoo, but Shouhei seems to love it and I wanted to hang out with him again anyway, so I went along with him and had a good time. After the zoo he took me to a ramen shop which members of his family actually run, so I can say that I had ramen during this trip to Asahikawa. In the end we had to say our goodbyes too, and that was kinda sad as well. That night I suddenly realized that I needed to figure out my luggage situation and fast, so Ms. Saito kindly let me rummage around through my luggage which she had kept in her apartment's storeroom for me, eventually deciding to take it all with me back to my hotel room to figure out. There were a few panicked moments, but in the end I decided to pack up one more box to ship by boat back to America, and then have the delivery people take another one of the suitcases to Narita Airport for me to pick up on Monday when I fly home.
And I did all of that on Wednesday during the day, in addition to heading to the Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art to check out an exhibition there. That night was my farewell party at the restaurant Hachijima in the center of town. Even when I met with the mayor most of my coworkers were too busy to see me, so this was my first and last time to say goodbye to them all. I thought I might be nervous since I knew I would have to give speeches and all, but I really wasn't and instead just had a really good time with my coworkers. The room we were in was sweltering though. That was unpleasant. Afterward I went out for yakitori with Mr. Yoshikawa and Mr. Hanabusa, during which time I realized: Oh my God, I haven't paid my municipal taxes! I have to do that before I leave Asahikawa.
Fear not, I was able to get them all paid off today. Usually they're divided up into 4 segments, but since I'm moving away from the city I have to pay them all in full in advance. They came to well over $1000. It was painful. It still is painful. But it could not be helped. After that I had lunch and then headed to Manyonoyu, a giant bathhouse on the outskirts of town I had heard lots of good things about but never got around to going to. To be honest, I originally wanted to hike Mt. Asahidake during my last day here... but it rained today, so no hiking for me. Sad. But Manyonoyu was relaxing. I mean, it's just a big bathhouse, but I'm a big fan of Japanese bath customs and getting naked. Mostly the latter. Then I came back here, wrote out a bunch of e-mails, chatted with some of my Japanese friends online, and had an amazing dinner at Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian restaurant in downtown Asahikawa where I had one of my very first meals here. It was a fitting end to my final day in the city.
Okay my writing ability sorta failed at the end as I hurried to get every last sentence out. Apologies. Anyway, flight in the morning, must sleep, goodnight!
Tuesday of last week was my first *business* day down in Tokyo, with an interview at a major temp agency in Tokyo. The interview was all the way in Shinjuku while I was in Yokohama, so I left extremely early in my suit in order to be sure I was on time. Once I arrived in Shinjuku and had myself some lunch, I stopped in at a net cafe to print out a couple more copies of my resume and work history. Should be simple enough, right? Not quite. See, in between the time I had originally made the resume and the time of my interview, I kinda, you know, finished my job at the Asahikawa International Affairs Division. Which means that I needed to eliminate all the phrases that said (from 2007-present) in both the English and Japanese versions. The English versions were easy enough, but the Japanese versions were all in PDF files! I can't access those! Instead I had to go back online to the website where I originally made the resumes, reinput all the data as well as upload a picture, make the one teensy tinsy little change, and then print out everything multiple times. The poor net cafe people had to count out all the pieces of paper to find out how much to actually charge me, haha.
The interview itself went... eh. I don't know. It was honestly the first in-person interview I'd had since the interview that got me on the JET program, as all the Nintendo ones were over the phone. The Japanese speaking section was a breeze, though I'm not so sure how well I did on the English proofreading section. I was nervous and I think I made silly mistakes. They also suddenly told me to handwrite a business letter in Japanese which totally threw me for a loop. Definitely not my shining moment, despite the fact that I can usually toss around business letters like nobody's business. I *type* those though. Anyway, it's a temp agency so it wasn't like they were going to hand me a job right off the bat. They'll get back to me if they find anything that looks to be up my alley.
After the interview I met up with Jess from Asahikawa, who was in Tokyo for one night before leaving for the States the next day. Later on we were joined by Glenn and Jen again and we all had a lovely dinner at the Court Lodge, a Sri Lankan restaurant that Jen and I stumbled upon when we were studying together in Yokohama and have been constantly patronizing since then. Once dinner was over we said our goodbyes to Jess who needed to catch the train to her hotel, and then I forced Jen and Glen into many many rounds of Quiz Magic Academy at a video arcade. I won every time, as if there were *any doubt* =P.
Wednesday I didn't really have anything to do, so I spent the day doing laundry, chatting with my parents on Skype, and goofing off on the Internet. Also tried out a new restaurant that opened in Sakuragicho, Bubby's (yes that's it's real name. Their specialty is pot pies, which were indeed quite tasty.)
Thursday was my big second interview with the company in Yokohama. Though I had to call them to ask for directions and ended up sounding like an idiot when it was clear I was standing *right outside their building*, and despite the fact that I was covered in sweat by the time I got there because I was in my full business suit in 90 degree heat... It went really well. They seemed shocked when it was clear that I actually really do have an interest in anime and video games, something apparently *they* don't even have. They just sell the stuff, but aren't actually really a part of the community. Before the interview was even over they asked me to come back again next week to meet with the president of the company. That *can't* be a bad sign. That interview will be tomorrow in the evening. Before that, they told me I should write out a blog entry for them to check out my work since in the event I work for them they will want me making "nerdy updates" (their words) to the website's blog as part of my job. Oh, another part of my job will involve traveling to Anime Expo to serve as an interpreter for the company's representatives. So I get to write blog entries and go to Anime Expo and get paid for it? I write blogs for free and I usually *pay* to go to Anime Expo! Score! In the end I wrote out my impressions of the recent information released about Final Fantasy XIV for my blog entry. No idea if that's the sort of thing they want or not, but whatever. I'll let you know how the interview went tomorrow evening.
I think I just spent the rest of that day wandering around the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama after changing out of my suit, and then hanging out a bit in downtown Yokohama before hitting the sack.
Friday was my flight back up here to Hokkaido, and even though I wasn't leaving until the late evening I figured it would be best to head to the airport early if only to just drop off my bags. When I got there I was lucky enough to find one of the really really big lockers open so I just shoved all my stuff in there and then hopped on a train heading into the city. I really wasn't paying attention to where I was going and suddenly found myself very lost, riding on a train line I'd never ridden before. With nothing better to do I decided to hop off and see what kind of place I'd ended up in. Turned out the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art was right there, so I decided to pop in to take a look. Turned out they were having an exhibition of the works of Mary Blair, one of the top artists who worked for Disney Animation during its genesis. Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella were based on her designs, and she is the one who established the concepts and art which eventually led to the It's a Small World ride. Then she apparently kinda went crazy, left Disney, became an alcoholic, and then drew lots of sketchy pictures of nudes and people having sex. I guess this is what happens if you work for Disney too long. Be careful Jadice!
There was another exhibition at the museum which I was planning on going to and already had a ticket for, but my cell phone rang right as I was leaving the Mary Blair exhibit so I had to quickly dash out before the guards could yell at me. It was Taka, calling to see if I had time to hang out before my flight. Eh, what the hell, I thought, tossed my ticket for the other exhibition in the trash and hopped on a train... all the way back to Yokohama, haha. Taka wanted to take me to another one of his amazing all-you-can-eat restaurants (he's trying to fatten me up I swear), but at first he couldn't find it and by the time we got there... their lunch hours were already over! Gah! So Mos Burger it was, haha. At that point I really needed to start heading toward the airport again, so Taka said: "Oh we'll just catch the next train from Kawasaki Station. It's a straight shot to the airport." "...We?" "Yes we! I have to see you off!" "Yay!" He actually had an ulterior motive in that he hadn't actually been to Haneda Airport in over 20 years and was curious as to how it had changed. The better question was: "How hadn't it changed?" 20 years is an eternity in the life of the fourth busiest airport in the world. Anyway, eventually we said our goodbyes, and I must admit I felt really sad afterward despite the fact that I'll almost certainly see him again in a couple weeks, if not even this weekend. Odd.
And then I was back in Hokkaido doing all the things in Sapporo I mentioned in the earlier post. Right after I wrote that and dropped my luggage off in Asahikawa, I took a train back towards Sapporo to the city of Takikawa, where I had the thrill of a lifetime flying in a glider. It was expensive, 7,000 yen for only about 15 minutes, but totally worth it. The pilot even let me control the plane for a while! Pictures are up on Facebook.
The next day was the meeting with the mayor between Sergej an I to commemorate my leaving and his joining the International Affairs Division staff. It was nice to say goodbye the mayor, who really is a nice guy, and cool to finally receive a medal from the city honoring me for my work there. I know that sounds odd, but I distinctly remember seeing James get the same medal when the two of us met with the mayor 2 years ago and thinking, "Damn I want one of those!" So now I finally have one, hehe. Afterward we got interviewed by the local paper who then published a story about us the next day. Or rather, about me. Despite the fact that the interview involved both of us and the fact that the reporter took a picture of us *shaking hands*, they cut out all references to poor Sergej and made it entirely about me. My office wasn't particularly happy about it, nor am I for that matter. Oh well, I got a copy of the paper which I will show my parents when I get back.
Tuesday I met up with Shouhei (yes I still remember your name even though you never officially told me it) to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. Now I'm not a *huge* fan of the zoo, but Shouhei seems to love it and I wanted to hang out with him again anyway, so I went along with him and had a good time. After the zoo he took me to a ramen shop which members of his family actually run, so I can say that I had ramen during this trip to Asahikawa. In the end we had to say our goodbyes too, and that was kinda sad as well. That night I suddenly realized that I needed to figure out my luggage situation and fast, so Ms. Saito kindly let me rummage around through my luggage which she had kept in her apartment's storeroom for me, eventually deciding to take it all with me back to my hotel room to figure out. There were a few panicked moments, but in the end I decided to pack up one more box to ship by boat back to America, and then have the delivery people take another one of the suitcases to Narita Airport for me to pick up on Monday when I fly home.
And I did all of that on Wednesday during the day, in addition to heading to the Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art to check out an exhibition there. That night was my farewell party at the restaurant Hachijima in the center of town. Even when I met with the mayor most of my coworkers were too busy to see me, so this was my first and last time to say goodbye to them all. I thought I might be nervous since I knew I would have to give speeches and all, but I really wasn't and instead just had a really good time with my coworkers. The room we were in was sweltering though. That was unpleasant. Afterward I went out for yakitori with Mr. Yoshikawa and Mr. Hanabusa, during which time I realized: Oh my God, I haven't paid my municipal taxes! I have to do that before I leave Asahikawa.
Fear not, I was able to get them all paid off today. Usually they're divided up into 4 segments, but since I'm moving away from the city I have to pay them all in full in advance. They came to well over $1000. It was painful. It still is painful. But it could not be helped. After that I had lunch and then headed to Manyonoyu, a giant bathhouse on the outskirts of town I had heard lots of good things about but never got around to going to. To be honest, I originally wanted to hike Mt. Asahidake during my last day here... but it rained today, so no hiking for me. Sad. But Manyonoyu was relaxing. I mean, it's just a big bathhouse, but I'm a big fan of Japanese bath customs and getting naked. Mostly the latter. Then I came back here, wrote out a bunch of e-mails, chatted with some of my Japanese friends online, and had an amazing dinner at Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian restaurant in downtown Asahikawa where I had one of my very first meals here. It was a fitting end to my final day in the city.
Okay my writing ability sorta failed at the end as I hurried to get every last sentence out. Apologies. Anyway, flight in the morning, must sleep, goodnight!