I've tried to avoid really long, drawn out posts. But inevitably that's what you get when you put off writing for a week at a time. So please stick with me as we travel through the past week of the Japan adventure.
First up is a few photos from my office. Of course, I took these while all of my colleagues were out at a monthly meeting. It was held in Japanese only so there wasn't much point in me joining. Plus it's kind of fun to have the office to myself for a few quiet minutes :)
My desk is at the table on the left, on the aisle side. The space with the big navy pocket book sitting on top. Everyone has their own kind of space with a some drawers and outlets. Normally all of my stuff expands to take up well over my share of space and outlets, or at least that's how it feels. Everyday I look at all of my desk's contents and wonder how in the world I managed to bring so much office stuff with me. Granted I have two laptops, one issued to me by my Japanese office and one that I brought with me. All the cords, mice (???) and wifi devices that go along with those is enough to fill my little space. It's definitely different than my office back at home, but honestly it's kind of nice to work side by side with other people. It's really difficult to actually get anything done since there are constant interruptions... but I think every office setup has its good and bad.
You may remember this main character from my safety training story. I've still not forgiven it for the embarrassing squeak. But honestly, I love that my colleagues issued me my own special hard hat.
Here's the board where we post our comings and goings.
In case you didn't notice the only non-Japanese word on the board, here's a closeup.
One night last week I took a trip to a nearby mall and stopped in the Gap store to check out the sale rack. Interesting fact applicable to the ladies only: when you enter the dressing room of a Japanese clothing store, you will be handed a small, tissue-like bag about the size of a normal plastic grocery sack. Most likely, you will look down at the bag in your hand and then back to the smiling face of the sales woman and in the most polite sign language possible, you will question the purpose of the bag. She will then take a second bag from her stash and place it over her head while making a motion that suggests the action of trying on a shirt. You will then smile and nod while immediately remembering the extreme amount of makeup worn by many fashionable Japanese women. Bag mystery solved.
For you boys out there, the bag over your face protects the new clothing from makeup smears and stains. Just in case you were still wondering.
I had also set out on this little shopping adventure to try and find some tops to wear under my suit. The next day, I was leaving for a business trip to visit customers on the West coast of Japan. I was really fortunate to find a few nice tops that would look great with my suit the next day. Unfortunately, my suit somehow didn't make it into my suitcase while I was packing. So instead of a new shirt with my suit, our customers got to see my new top with jeans and flats. Very classy.
Headed to Yonago City in Western Japan. This area of the country has some really nice mountains and rivers. I could see a bunch of tiny towns as our local train wound through the countryside.
Big girl bed in my Yonago City hotel room.
And a nice sunset view of the town.
The lady who checked us in at the front desk also gave me a stack of complimentary toiletries. I still haven't really figured out what any of it actually is. Maybe you can help me...
I hope you can read this. Because it's really, really beautiful Engrish.
Also, I'm afraid to use anything that calls itself Red Heat Hot pepper SHAPE UP GEL.
More beautiful countryside. I wish we had more time to sightsee or go hiking. I might try to see how difficult it would be to come back here for a weekend or day trip.
Backseat sightseeing. Two hour drive.
At a restaurant slash reststop with my colleague and customer. We're standing in front of (literally, we're blocking it from your view) Mt. Daisen. 1700 meters of mountain.
Lunch! Rice bowl with chicken, soft boiled egg and seaweed strips. Also miso soup, some noodly things and pickled daikon.
Tourists.
The mid-week trip to Yonago was so nice and I really enjoyed seeing some new parts of Japan. However, the same day that we traveled back to Ibaraki (last Thursday) I had dinner with some colleagues planned which led to an extremely long day. So, so fun but I was so tired!
This is called "turban shell" according to my colleague's electronic translator. Delicious.
We had a ton of food but I only took photos of the new and interesting things :) The dish above is tuna sashimi with natto, which is fermented soybeans and apparently considered to be a Japanese super healthy food. Kind of different, also delicious. Good enough that I bought some at the grocery store for this week.
The next night, Friday, was my official welcome party with my office colleagues. Myself and two other colleagues had joined the office in the past month or so, so we had a big dinner to celebrate.
The traditional Japanese welcome party is a pretty interesting process. I can't remember the timeline exactly, but it starts with randomly assigned seats (typical style, apparently to encourage colleagues to talk to new people), always has a "leader" who does introductions and kind of acts as the emcee of the evening, includes lots of kampais (cheers, drink!), requires the guests of honor to say something in front of the group, and consists of a two hour period of all you can eat and drink followed by a group photo and exit. The only reason I know this is a sort of typical process is because I had a similar experience when I visited Japan for the first time. It's actually a really nice setup and idea.
We had shabu shabu for dinner which means we were brought out a bunch of thinly sliced raw meat and raw vegetables and cooked everything ourselves in a pot of simmering water. I think the name shabu shabu comes from the sound or motion of swishing the mean through the water to cook it. Or something like that. Overall, really great food and a really fun evening. It turned out to be one of my favorite Japan memories so far.
Throwing up the peace sign at every chance I get. The woman at the table is in my department, the guy across the table from me sits next to me in the office and speaks great English so I constantly bother him with questions and the guy next to me works with our department in the physical testing lab. They obviously love the peace sign, too.
Group photo. I love this so much. SUCH a fun evening.
Basically my "speech" consisted of an acknowledgment of everyones kindness and hospitality towards me and an invitation to sit at my lunch table.
Halfway through my speech I became suspicious of my translator's, how can I say, accuracy of translation since everyone was laughing more than I thought appropriate considering what I had said. So I nominated a new translator and of course everyone laughed even more. So even if my colleagues can't actually understand me, at least they think I'm funny. Or crazy.
NORTH CAROLINA!!!!!!
This is another great example of beautiful, beautiful Engrish. The opening of a port? In Charlotte? Really??
What happened next that night doesn't even need a lead-in.
K-A-R-A-O-K-E
I'm not sure why I just spelled it out with all caps, but it just felt right. There were a few pages of songs in English that were hits. There was also a little electronic tablet where you could search for your favorite songs. But do you want to guess what happens when you're about to do karaoke for the first time and you're put on the spot to sing a song? Absolutely ZERO songs come to mind. Not so helpful when all of your Japanese colleagues are already zooming through their mental list of karaoke favorites.
This is me in the middle of my first song. Thank goodness for a seven second pause to take a photo. Stand By Me. Also, thank goodness this came from the list of English "hits" and thank goodness that my colleagues understood my laughter to be that of the nervous kind so they were willing and able to help me sing. Whew.
Chu-hei, a mixed drink of Japanese gin or shochu and fizzy fruit juice. This one was lime-y.
Name that Bon Jovi hit.
So overall, karaoke wasn't nearly as terrifying as I'd imagined and I'm glad that I was able to go with my colleagues. They are honestly SO fun and I'm really enjoying our time together. Hopefully there will be some repeats of this night. Well, minus the awkward first song and plus some pre-chosen songs on my part.
The next day was spent mostly sleeping, doing laundry, napping and then going into Osaka to do some shopping. My colleague and probably BFF of the office (BFFOTO from here on out, ha!) came with me to Osaka so that was really nice. I'm pretty sure he just likes to practice his English but it's nice to have a friend along for my kind of aimless shopping. Over the course of the evening, he introduced me to TWO new foods- one that I'll call octopus nuggets and the other was an infamous "ramen shop" that I've been hearing about since I got to Japan. Apparently these ramen shops are open late and serve exactly what you're thinking- all ramen all the time! Of course this ramen is a little more sophisticated than what we eat by the bowlfuls in college. So good. Will definitely be visiting a ramen shop again. Apparently it has the same kind of allure as Waffle House... great for super late night eating when you've had a lot to drink and nothing else is open.
On Sunday, my supervisor had invited me to Kyoto to have lunch with him and his family. The Kyoto train station was filled with tourists because of a big festival happening in Kyoto that day. I had been hoping to avoid the festival traffic but it had actually been postponed from Saturday due to rainy weather. The Kyoto train station is pretty huge and I spotted Cafe du Monde on the upper level. No beignets, but I had a great cafe au lait while I people-watched and waited for my colleague to meet me.
We took another local train and then walked to his house. It was so nice to spend a relaxed afternoon eating great, homemade Japanese food and sitting around talking. My colleague kept apologizing for making me come because I seemed so tired (ha, not so great at disguising this I guess) but it was honestly such a lovely day. I loved seeing a typical Japanese home getting to know my colleague and his family a bit better. His daughter and wife both speak English and I had fun watching them all try Pop Rocks (from the US) for the first time.
Homemade tempura vegetables and shrimp, edamame, sashimi, a kind of cooked egg roll, tuna salad, dried sheets of seaweed and rice. All the fixings for make-your-own rolls! This was really fun and I want to try and recreate this kind of meal at my apartment. Not the tempura, because I'd probably burn the place down. But I loved the little customized sushi roll idea.
Just before being rolled up and devoured.
At the Ibaraki train station on my way back home. I've been meaning to take a photo of this shop every time I pass it. Beard Papa. Love it. And fresh'n natural cream puffs?? How is that even possible?
Overall this week and weekend were really, really great. I feel like my relationships with my colleagues keeps getting better as we all get more comfortable with each other and spend more time together.
New words: chikuwa- a processed fish meat that I had in the cafeteria one day. Doh itashimashite, you're welcome. Mido- hello! Kansai area specific. Chu-hei (choo-hey), Japanese mixed drink. Tokoyaki- grilled batter nugget (?) with octopus inside. Yum. I took a photo but guess it's on my other camera or something so it didn't make this post.
Other exciting things: I have a Japanese cellphone! Over the course of a week (yes, a week) I've learned to send a text message, check my voicemail and delete voicemails. I think I've sent maybe four texts and made one call in the week that I've had it but it's still exciting to have a local number.
Exciting things learned about the office: at three o'clock everyday, music plays over the intercom but I never knew why. Now I know that it signals a COFFEE BREAK. So from here on out, I'm taking a walk around the campus or going downstairs to get a coconut juice from the machine and enjoying my afternoon break. My supervisor also told me that we have a softball team that's actually pretty good. I'm planning to try and go to a game if I can... they're usually held on Sundays, a few times a month.
Stranger interactions: a guy talked to me on the bus (a first! hardly anyone talks on the bus) and showed me a book he was reading in English. He recommended that I read it to learn about Japanese culture. So I ended up buying it during my trip to Osaka last weekend at the biggest bookstore I've ever seen! Bushido: The Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobe. Also bought a Japanese cookbook (in English).
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