A New Life in a New World
Well it's been a while since I updated here. As has been happening with a lot of people now, I've become totally hooked on Twitter and as such have completely lost the ability to write anything longer than 140 character snippets. In bad Japanese. So farewell to any and all English ability I might once have had.
I must admit I was pretty depressed for the first couple days after arriving here. Despite having several friends in the area, due to various circumstances outside of everyone's control I ended up not seeing or talking to a single person until my first day of work, so you can imagine the mental state I was in. This did not help when I arrived at my first day of work to be bombarded with "You need to get 10 customers a month!" "You need to be ready to be harsh with our customers to teach them how we run our business here!" "The last guy quit because he couldn't handle the pressure!" And then, at the end of the day, the company held its monthly general meeting, which was 3 straight hours of marginal profit and expenditures and regional growth and this and that and a billion other words related to money that I certainly never studied in Japanese class. Compound all that with jet lag, and I was close to tears the whole day. The second day was a little better, but I still felt totally overwhelmed and more or less sure I'd made some kind of horrible mistake. And then they started pressuring me to sign my contract... and finally I just said to the personnel director: "I really need to talk to you about this. Because I really don't know if I can perform this job and thus can sign this contract." Even now I'm shocked that I had the guts to actually admit that and ask for a conference. They assured me that they didn't expect miracles out of me my first couple months and that they were well aware I don't have any experience in sales. That made me feel a little better, but I still wasn't sure, so I asked them to give me one more night to think about whether I should sign the contract, which they did.
I had a lot of things to think about that night. Whether staying in this job would really help me pursue my dreams of becoming a translator, whether I'd be able to find another job, *any* job, before my 3 month time limit for finding a job runs out and I'm forced to move back to the US, and whether I'd be okay with that if it happened. It was a very hard decision, but I eventually decided to stick with the company. The only thing worse than not being able to practice translation at work is to not be able to use Japanese at all, which is what would happen if I went back to the States now. I also still think I have a chance to make a lot of friends here in the Tokyo area if I just continue to build up friendships with the many people I've met on Mixi and Twitter. And lastly, I had forgotten that becoming a translator wasn't my only dream. It was one of them, for sure, but another one was to live and work in Yokohama, one of my favorite places in the world. And there I was, about to throw away that dream. So yes, I went back to work the next day with a signed contract in my hand. I had a pretty good day that day too, and I think I'm going to be okay at this job after all. My first couple days were just a very bad combination of a lot of different factors.
In fact, I felt so good about my decision that I decided it was high time I started widening my circle of friends in this area. So on a lark, I sent an e-mail to one of my friends on Twitter asking if he'd like to go out to karaoke this weekend. We had talked about doing so before but I just hadn't worked up the nerve to ask him outright. He responded enthusiastically and added: "You know, we could turn this into a little off kai if you want." An off kai, incidentally, is an offline meetup of a bunch of online friends. Off comes from offline, and kai means "meeting" in Japanese. So I was a bit nervous, but said: "Yeah, why not." He ended up inviting someone else he knew offline though to be fair he was someone I was acquainted with on Twitter and Mixi, but I wanted to invite someone else as well lest I get caught in a surprise attack. In the end, again somewhat spontaneously, I sent a message to someone I at least considered a friend on Twitter asking if he'd like to come along. To be honest, even if I considered him a friend we really don't know each other that well, and I was sure he would just say no. But to my astonishment, he responded by saying nobody had ever invited him to an off kai before and that he'd love to come! Wow! All of this was decided around midnight Friday night, and then there we were, meeting together in Ikebukuro Station about 12 hours later. The poor guy I invited was so nervous the whole time he didn't talk much, and even when we first met he refused to come over to where we were standing and instead kept asking via e-mail: "So you're the Caucasian with the green shirt?" Me: "Yes." "Standing near the shoe shop?" "Yes." "The green shirt is checkered, right?" "Yes!" I guess he *really* wanted to make sure he got the right green-shirt-wearing Caucasian standing near the shoe shop because there were so many of them (there wasn't a single non-Japanese person in the area besides me). Ah well, he was scared. I'll forgive him. Anyway, we had a blast at karaoke and a nice conversation over dinner at a nearby Denny's. It was great because we all recognized and could sing each other's songs, something which almost *never* happens when I go to karaoke with people. "Finally!" I thought. "I've found my people!" It was a very good feeling. We'll probably all get together again for karaoke in another week or so, this time bringing a few more people into our little circle. Taka says he'll come too if he doesn't have work. So I have things to look forward to!
In other news, I'm now moved into my temporary apartment, which is in fact much nicer than I imagined it to be. If it weren't around $40 a night to stay here, I'd stay longer. But it is $40 a night to stay here, and I'll go bankrupt if I don't find a new place in a month or so. I actually visited a realtor today and saw a few apartments in the area. One in particular I liked because it's close to my work and relatively cheap, though a little small. Probably even smaller than my apartment back in Asahikawa. Still, I have a month so I'm not going to make any rash decisions. It looks like there are no shortage of rooms in the area and the prices are, while more expensive than in Asahikawa, not absolutely awful. The only thing scary is that none of the apartments come with furnishings, so it'll be up to me to get everything I'll need to live in them. I've never had to do that before, so I'm kinda scared XD.
Next week is the big September holiday we get here in Japan. Two national holidays just happened to fall a day apart from one another, so the middle day automatically becomes a holiday as well. As a result, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week are off. I really have no idea what I'm going to do doing that period, but maybe I'll try to grab some more of my online friends for a meet up. Or wander around aimlessly in Yokohama. I'm good at that. I got lost two days ago while taking a walk through the city. Eventually found my way back about a half hour later. Twas a fun evening.
Alright have work tomorrow. Night night.
I must admit I was pretty depressed for the first couple days after arriving here. Despite having several friends in the area, due to various circumstances outside of everyone's control I ended up not seeing or talking to a single person until my first day of work, so you can imagine the mental state I was in. This did not help when I arrived at my first day of work to be bombarded with "You need to get 10 customers a month!" "You need to be ready to be harsh with our customers to teach them how we run our business here!" "The last guy quit because he couldn't handle the pressure!" And then, at the end of the day, the company held its monthly general meeting, which was 3 straight hours of marginal profit and expenditures and regional growth and this and that and a billion other words related to money that I certainly never studied in Japanese class. Compound all that with jet lag, and I was close to tears the whole day. The second day was a little better, but I still felt totally overwhelmed and more or less sure I'd made some kind of horrible mistake. And then they started pressuring me to sign my contract... and finally I just said to the personnel director: "I really need to talk to you about this. Because I really don't know if I can perform this job and thus can sign this contract." Even now I'm shocked that I had the guts to actually admit that and ask for a conference. They assured me that they didn't expect miracles out of me my first couple months and that they were well aware I don't have any experience in sales. That made me feel a little better, but I still wasn't sure, so I asked them to give me one more night to think about whether I should sign the contract, which they did.
I had a lot of things to think about that night. Whether staying in this job would really help me pursue my dreams of becoming a translator, whether I'd be able to find another job, *any* job, before my 3 month time limit for finding a job runs out and I'm forced to move back to the US, and whether I'd be okay with that if it happened. It was a very hard decision, but I eventually decided to stick with the company. The only thing worse than not being able to practice translation at work is to not be able to use Japanese at all, which is what would happen if I went back to the States now. I also still think I have a chance to make a lot of friends here in the Tokyo area if I just continue to build up friendships with the many people I've met on Mixi and Twitter. And lastly, I had forgotten that becoming a translator wasn't my only dream. It was one of them, for sure, but another one was to live and work in Yokohama, one of my favorite places in the world. And there I was, about to throw away that dream. So yes, I went back to work the next day with a signed contract in my hand. I had a pretty good day that day too, and I think I'm going to be okay at this job after all. My first couple days were just a very bad combination of a lot of different factors.
In fact, I felt so good about my decision that I decided it was high time I started widening my circle of friends in this area. So on a lark, I sent an e-mail to one of my friends on Twitter asking if he'd like to go out to karaoke this weekend. We had talked about doing so before but I just hadn't worked up the nerve to ask him outright. He responded enthusiastically and added: "You know, we could turn this into a little off kai if you want." An off kai, incidentally, is an offline meetup of a bunch of online friends. Off comes from offline, and kai means "meeting" in Japanese. So I was a bit nervous, but said: "Yeah, why not." He ended up inviting someone else he knew offline though to be fair he was someone I was acquainted with on Twitter and Mixi, but I wanted to invite someone else as well lest I get caught in a surprise attack. In the end, again somewhat spontaneously, I sent a message to someone I at least considered a friend on Twitter asking if he'd like to come along. To be honest, even if I considered him a friend we really don't know each other that well, and I was sure he would just say no. But to my astonishment, he responded by saying nobody had ever invited him to an off kai before and that he'd love to come! Wow! All of this was decided around midnight Friday night, and then there we were, meeting together in Ikebukuro Station about 12 hours later. The poor guy I invited was so nervous the whole time he didn't talk much, and even when we first met he refused to come over to where we were standing and instead kept asking via e-mail: "So you're the Caucasian with the green shirt?" Me: "Yes." "Standing near the shoe shop?" "Yes." "The green shirt is checkered, right?" "Yes!" I guess he *really* wanted to make sure he got the right green-shirt-wearing Caucasian standing near the shoe shop because there were so many of them (there wasn't a single non-Japanese person in the area besides me). Ah well, he was scared. I'll forgive him. Anyway, we had a blast at karaoke and a nice conversation over dinner at a nearby Denny's. It was great because we all recognized and could sing each other's songs, something which almost *never* happens when I go to karaoke with people. "Finally!" I thought. "I've found my people!" It was a very good feeling. We'll probably all get together again for karaoke in another week or so, this time bringing a few more people into our little circle. Taka says he'll come too if he doesn't have work. So I have things to look forward to!
In other news, I'm now moved into my temporary apartment, which is in fact much nicer than I imagined it to be. If it weren't around $40 a night to stay here, I'd stay longer. But it is $40 a night to stay here, and I'll go bankrupt if I don't find a new place in a month or so. I actually visited a realtor today and saw a few apartments in the area. One in particular I liked because it's close to my work and relatively cheap, though a little small. Probably even smaller than my apartment back in Asahikawa. Still, I have a month so I'm not going to make any rash decisions. It looks like there are no shortage of rooms in the area and the prices are, while more expensive than in Asahikawa, not absolutely awful. The only thing scary is that none of the apartments come with furnishings, so it'll be up to me to get everything I'll need to live in them. I've never had to do that before, so I'm kinda scared XD.
Next week is the big September holiday we get here in Japan. Two national holidays just happened to fall a day apart from one another, so the middle day automatically becomes a holiday as well. As a result, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week are off. I really have no idea what I'm going to do doing that period, but maybe I'll try to grab some more of my online friends for a meet up. Or wander around aimlessly in Yokohama. I'm good at that. I got lost two days ago while taking a walk through the city. Eventually found my way back about a half hour later. Twas a fun evening.
Alright have work tomorrow. Night night.