When words need actions, or "how I got an extra part time job"
That I'm always in need of money is nothing new. However, the problem has gotten serious, mostly because I need to move, and moving requires lots of money here in Japan due to all the stupid deposit and random fees you have to pay when you make the contract. Also, I won't just blame the world because of this, since it's also my fault for wasting so much money in doujinshi and other T&B-related stuff. But you know, I live in Japan because I like it and, most importantly, because all my hobbies are here, and what's the point of being here if I cannot pursue my hobbies? In other words, I don't want to stop buying crap because I need money, especially if there are other solutions, as suicidal as they might seem.
This is to say that well, after much thinking, last month I finally decided that my plans needed to be acted out (it's easy to say "I'll do this and that", but then you must actually do it...), so I started looking for a part-time job. I thought about many things, but in the end I sadly decided that I should try with... conbini. Why?
First of all, because I'm a foreigner. I don't like to boast, but I think I can fairly say that my Japanese is good enough for any job that doesn't require special skills or knowledge which I don't possess. However, as much as things are getting better lately, in Japan there are still many people who dislike foreigners, even though most of them will be much nicer to the ones who can speak really good Japanese. And this means that in many shops they might not hire you if you're not Japanese, or if you're not Asian-looking. I've always seen lots of Chinese people working at conbini, even people who, seriously, could barely speak Japanese... As much as I'm confident about my language skills, I still didn't want to be rejected right away, and that's why I decided to try Lawson, since it's the conbini where I see foreigners most often.
The other main reason is my lack of time. I have my normal job from Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 6 PM (officially, but I'd say 7 more concretely..), which means on weekdays I could only work from 8 PM to 0-1 AM (depending on the place), but most shops have shifts from 6 to 22 or something like that, so I can actually only work in the weekend. Another good thing about conbini, or at least the one I tried, is that they make the shifts every week based on the availability of the employees, and also you're not obliged to work at least 2-3 days a week, so if one week you can only work one day or at a certain time, or one week you can't at all, it's ok as long as you tell them before they make the schedule. This is very important for me, since I don't want to miss out on events or other things (after all, the reason I'm doing a part time job is that I need more money so that I can afford to go to such events, so what's the point if then I cannot go because of the job itself?).
Anyway, the first 3 shops I called made me kind of anxious. When I called the first one a Chinese guy who spoke average-level Japanese got my details and told me they'd call me back, but even though I waited a few days I never got the call. Then another one said they had no shifts available at the time I asked (I originally thought to do the night shift to earn more). The third one was very rude, he told me they didn't need anyone at the moment and basically hung up on me when I was asking if they had other shifts available... Most conbini won't pay you the transportation fee to go there, so I was only calling places that weren't too far away from where I live. In the end I tried calling a shop in Kawasaki, the guy was very nice and told me that they didn't have the night shift but I could have an interview if I wished. I said yes, because I wanted to at least see what they'd ask and say about me, so the next day I went there and had my interview.
The shop manager and another long-time employee interviewed me, they were very nice. The manager told me he thought I was Japanese on the phone until I told him my name, and he also said that it was the first time he spoke to a European person that could speak Japanese fluently. He also said that my Japanese was way better than what average foreign people (mostly Asian) working at Lawson could speak. I actually noticed this myself in a few occasions... But anyway, yeah, I was surprised because I was expecting them to look at me suspiciously and treat me coldly since I'm a foreigner, yet they actually seemed very excited and talked as if they absolutely wanted to hire me. I also understood that I couldn't do the night shift anyway (in that shop they only keep one person at night and it must be a guy because you never know what kind of weird people might come, and also it's better to keep people that have worked for a while and already know how to do everything), so I agreed to work in the weekends. I had to get an inkan (a seal with my name, I got it written in katakana) to sign my contract, but it all went smoothly and after about one week, as promised, they called me to say I could start.
Now, at the beginning I was a bit scared, because they told me that lots of people quit right away, often without even telling them first, they just stop answering the phone. Kinda shocking, I mean, that's so immature... But still, is it so terrible that people wanna quit right away?? Well, after having been there 3 times, I'd say that no, it's not *so* terrible. My idea is that maybe it's all people who have never worked before and don't know that well, ya know, working does happen to be tiring.... But yeah, indeed, it's nothing worse than what I do everyday at my company. Let's say that it's more physically but less psychologically tiring, because you have to physically do more things but you don't have the same pressure and responsibilities that I have in my normal job.
Anyway, my first shift was the 4th of March, from 9 am to 2 pm. The guy that was at the interview, Yoshimura-san, was going to be my trainer. He's a nice guy, and also, he knows (and likes) the pillows!!! I usually get surprised when I meet people that know the pillows, for some reason they don't seem to be so well-known (sadly)... Anyway, my first day was mostly spent learning how to use the cash register, how to behave, what to say to customers and all this kind of basic stuff. The only other things I did were cleaning the floor with the floor duster every hour and checking what bento, sandwiches and onigiri were expired. All the expired stuff gets registered and then put in the staff room. Employees usually eat it or take it home, but sometimes there's quite a lot of expired stuff and it's sad to think that it will be thrown away. I always take home what I find, if it's stuff I like.
I must say that the most challenging thing for me the first day was... cigarettes. There are SO many, and since I hate smoking I seriously have no idea about brands, packages and whatever, and some customers shorten the names, so it's kinda hard sometimes to understand which one they want, but I guess I'll get used. So many people buy cigarettes too... I guess it's because they're so cheap. Some are just 250 yen for one package, and most are around 450, which is still less than in Italy I think.
The register is just something you get used to, but unless you completely suck at technology it's not hard to learn. Yelling "irasshaimase" etc every time a customer enters and exits is quite annoying, but that's the Japanese way so yeah... Luckily on Saturday and Sunday morning it's not so crowded, also because, even though the shop is close to the station, it's not really in front of it. Lots of old men come to buy newspapers and cigarettes in the morning, and by lunch time it gets a bit more crowded with people buying lunch.
Another thing you need to get used to is putting chopsticks and other stuff in people's bags according to what they bought. There are straws, spoons, forks and you have to give them with some kind of food, or at least ask the customer if they want them. And you also have to guess the correct size of the plastic bag for what was bought, which can actually be challenging at times.
So far I've seen a few old men that weren't totally in their right mind, but I still haven't seen anything really weird, though I guess that might be more common in the evening/night.
Anyway, the first day was mostly learning the basics and where the most commonly used items are.
Oh, and I forgot! One thing that amused me is that the register has two rows of buttons with "male"/"female" and age ranges written on them. After every payment, to print the receipt and close the transaction, you have to press the button corresponding to the customer's gender and age range. Old people are easy because it's just "50 and over", but when people look around 25-35 it's harder because the available ranges are like 20-29 and 30-49... Of course it doesn't need to be perfect, since it's just a general survey Lawson is doing to check what kind of person buys certain products, but anyway I found it interesting because I had no idea they were doing that.
Oh well, I just wanted to share my experience, because as much as I think it's similar to working at a convenience store or supermarket in any other country (for example, in Italy we don't really have convenience stores), it's done the Japanese way so I guess there are some cultural differences. Though to be honest, I've never worked at a shop in Italy, so I actually have no idea how it works there... Lol.
This is to say that well, after much thinking, last month I finally decided that my plans needed to be acted out (it's easy to say "I'll do this and that", but then you must actually do it...), so I started looking for a part-time job. I thought about many things, but in the end I sadly decided that I should try with... conbini. Why?
First of all, because I'm a foreigner. I don't like to boast, but I think I can fairly say that my Japanese is good enough for any job that doesn't require special skills or knowledge which I don't possess. However, as much as things are getting better lately, in Japan there are still many people who dislike foreigners, even though most of them will be much nicer to the ones who can speak really good Japanese. And this means that in many shops they might not hire you if you're not Japanese, or if you're not Asian-looking. I've always seen lots of Chinese people working at conbini, even people who, seriously, could barely speak Japanese... As much as I'm confident about my language skills, I still didn't want to be rejected right away, and that's why I decided to try Lawson, since it's the conbini where I see foreigners most often.
The other main reason is my lack of time. I have my normal job from Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 6 PM (officially, but I'd say 7 more concretely..), which means on weekdays I could only work from 8 PM to 0-1 AM (depending on the place), but most shops have shifts from 6 to 22 or something like that, so I can actually only work in the weekend. Another good thing about conbini, or at least the one I tried, is that they make the shifts every week based on the availability of the employees, and also you're not obliged to work at least 2-3 days a week, so if one week you can only work one day or at a certain time, or one week you can't at all, it's ok as long as you tell them before they make the schedule. This is very important for me, since I don't want to miss out on events or other things (after all, the reason I'm doing a part time job is that I need more money so that I can afford to go to such events, so what's the point if then I cannot go because of the job itself?).
Anyway, the first 3 shops I called made me kind of anxious. When I called the first one a Chinese guy who spoke average-level Japanese got my details and told me they'd call me back, but even though I waited a few days I never got the call. Then another one said they had no shifts available at the time I asked (I originally thought to do the night shift to earn more). The third one was very rude, he told me they didn't need anyone at the moment and basically hung up on me when I was asking if they had other shifts available... Most conbini won't pay you the transportation fee to go there, so I was only calling places that weren't too far away from where I live. In the end I tried calling a shop in Kawasaki, the guy was very nice and told me that they didn't have the night shift but I could have an interview if I wished. I said yes, because I wanted to at least see what they'd ask and say about me, so the next day I went there and had my interview.
The shop manager and another long-time employee interviewed me, they were very nice. The manager told me he thought I was Japanese on the phone until I told him my name, and he also said that it was the first time he spoke to a European person that could speak Japanese fluently. He also said that my Japanese was way better than what average foreign people (mostly Asian) working at Lawson could speak. I actually noticed this myself in a few occasions... But anyway, yeah, I was surprised because I was expecting them to look at me suspiciously and treat me coldly since I'm a foreigner, yet they actually seemed very excited and talked as if they absolutely wanted to hire me. I also understood that I couldn't do the night shift anyway (in that shop they only keep one person at night and it must be a guy because you never know what kind of weird people might come, and also it's better to keep people that have worked for a while and already know how to do everything), so I agreed to work in the weekends. I had to get an inkan (a seal with my name, I got it written in katakana) to sign my contract, but it all went smoothly and after about one week, as promised, they called me to say I could start.
Now, at the beginning I was a bit scared, because they told me that lots of people quit right away, often without even telling them first, they just stop answering the phone. Kinda shocking, I mean, that's so immature... But still, is it so terrible that people wanna quit right away?? Well, after having been there 3 times, I'd say that no, it's not *so* terrible. My idea is that maybe it's all people who have never worked before and don't know that well, ya know, working does happen to be tiring.... But yeah, indeed, it's nothing worse than what I do everyday at my company. Let's say that it's more physically but less psychologically tiring, because you have to physically do more things but you don't have the same pressure and responsibilities that I have in my normal job.
Anyway, my first shift was the 4th of March, from 9 am to 2 pm. The guy that was at the interview, Yoshimura-san, was going to be my trainer. He's a nice guy, and also, he knows (and likes) the pillows!!! I usually get surprised when I meet people that know the pillows, for some reason they don't seem to be so well-known (sadly)... Anyway, my first day was mostly spent learning how to use the cash register, how to behave, what to say to customers and all this kind of basic stuff. The only other things I did were cleaning the floor with the floor duster every hour and checking what bento, sandwiches and onigiri were expired. All the expired stuff gets registered and then put in the staff room. Employees usually eat it or take it home, but sometimes there's quite a lot of expired stuff and it's sad to think that it will be thrown away. I always take home what I find, if it's stuff I like.
I must say that the most challenging thing for me the first day was... cigarettes. There are SO many, and since I hate smoking I seriously have no idea about brands, packages and whatever, and some customers shorten the names, so it's kinda hard sometimes to understand which one they want, but I guess I'll get used. So many people buy cigarettes too... I guess it's because they're so cheap. Some are just 250 yen for one package, and most are around 450, which is still less than in Italy I think.
The register is just something you get used to, but unless you completely suck at technology it's not hard to learn. Yelling "irasshaimase" etc every time a customer enters and exits is quite annoying, but that's the Japanese way so yeah... Luckily on Saturday and Sunday morning it's not so crowded, also because, even though the shop is close to the station, it's not really in front of it. Lots of old men come to buy newspapers and cigarettes in the morning, and by lunch time it gets a bit more crowded with people buying lunch.
Another thing you need to get used to is putting chopsticks and other stuff in people's bags according to what they bought. There are straws, spoons, forks and you have to give them with some kind of food, or at least ask the customer if they want them. And you also have to guess the correct size of the plastic bag for what was bought, which can actually be challenging at times.
So far I've seen a few old men that weren't totally in their right mind, but I still haven't seen anything really weird, though I guess that might be more common in the evening/night.
Anyway, the first day was mostly learning the basics and where the most commonly used items are.
Oh, and I forgot! One thing that amused me is that the register has two rows of buttons with "male"/"female" and age ranges written on them. After every payment, to print the receipt and close the transaction, you have to press the button corresponding to the customer's gender and age range. Old people are easy because it's just "50 and over", but when people look around 25-35 it's harder because the available ranges are like 20-29 and 30-49... Of course it doesn't need to be perfect, since it's just a general survey Lawson is doing to check what kind of person buys certain products, but anyway I found it interesting because I had no idea they were doing that.
Oh well, I just wanted to share my experience, because as much as I think it's similar to working at a convenience store or supermarket in any other country (for example, in Italy we don't really have convenience stores), it's done the Japanese way so I guess there are some cultural differences. Though to be honest, I've never worked at a shop in Italy, so I actually have no idea how it works there... Lol.