Birthday and such

I know, I know, I haven't been writing for quite a while. The main reason is that the last week was so busy. Loads of deadlines at work and a lot of stress that resulted in that I neither had time to do anything interesting to blog about, nor any spirit to do it. Well, I'm still busy, but at least I have some events to write a little about. To begin with, my 20th birthday was yesterday. We had a party on Sunday though, at an izakaya in Shinjuku. A lot of people came and we had a really great time. I got presents as well, such as a very nice necklace (with real gold and real perls!!!) from Tomoya and cute things with cats (such as a scarf) from my girl friends. I even got cake! The Japanese were confused when I told them that in Sweden the person who's birthday it is always starts with the cake. I suppose that since Aunt Hildur scolded Tell for cutting the cake before the birthday child, I'm sticking to that custom too hard to let someone else do the job. On Monday night I went for dinner with three of my colleagues and my boss had ordered a big icecream smooshie for me. It came with candles and all, and the staff of the restaurant we went to took a picture that they printed and gave to me, neatly put in a colorful frame. I was quite surprised. The rest of the weekend we took it quite easy. Tomoya had his TOEFL (again) on Sunday, so studying and sleeping have taken up much room on our activity list. Moreover, Halloween is extremely big over here. There are pumpkins and bats and spider decorations everywhere. I don't think the Japanese are planning on doing something special at Halloween though. They are probably doing the same thing as with christmas. A lot of decorations, but when Christmas finally comes, no one cares. The weather isn't even that autumnish now, it's about 20 degrees and sunny. Perfect in other words... It's also good for Tomoya who is forced to go golfing with his colleagues sometime in November. This includes practicing some days before, buying the equipment and spending a weekend golfing. If he refuses he will be seen as bad at human relations and interaction, and since he's working with investment, that will definitely mean no promotion or raise in salary. Go Japan! I am at least enjoying my job. It's sad that I have to go home in December... Well, I'd better enjoy Japan while I'm here. I'm getting into autumn mode, and so are the wending machines.

Business trip to Tokyo

One more week of work has passed. This one was relatively short though, since I was free at Monday and had work in Tokyo at Friday. My boss suggested me to go to Tokyo at Thursday night, an offer that I gladly accepted. The work we did was to check that all the things needed for the exhibition had arrived properly. It was quite fun and I felt quite at home in the warehouse where we stored the goods. It made me think of Daloc, the good old door factory back in Toreboda. Speaking of Daloc, it might be that I try to find a job there for the coming spring. I had plans, and even an offer, for a job as an aupair here in Tokyo, but the family suddenly changed their mind and now here I am, without anything to do next year. Any suggestions? In despair and lack of better things to keep myself occupied with, I've applied for some courses at university in Gothenburg, starting this January. I chose English, History and French (in that order), even though I'm not too keen on any of them. I was planning on choosing German or Danish (the former because I actually have some German friends and the latter to mock fate), but both of them were only available if in the autumn semester. Fate won. Well, I might find something better, an aupair job somewhere else, Daloc or maybe another internship. Enough about the future. The last week has been like the previous ones at the company. It's quite fun to work, as long as I have something to do. And this week I have, to my own and my colleagues astonishment, started making my lunchbox every morning. Instead of eating cold rice balls (it's better than it might sound like) every day I've been making omelet, rice and fried vegetables every morning. Some unknown guys at work have been giving me compliments for my work and the word "jouzu" (=skilled) is now used about me in another context than that of when I say “excuse me” in Japanese and everybody is thrilled about my language skills. It's interesting to work in a Japanese company, really. I'm not one of the common salary men and therefore I can see the office from a different point of view. I'm not expected to work overtime, understand everything directly, lift heavy stuff or whatever. And besides, the fact that I'm an internshipper and not a full time employee is not the only factor that makes my office life different from the others’. To begin with, I'm a girl, which gives me a totally different position at work. But still, I'm a bit louder than the average Japanese girl and the office guys are confused when I come and ask them stuff in Japanese without seeming too shy or scared. I'm also a foreigner, which might be the biggest difference. I'm not expected to speak Japanese, not at all. I'm not expected to know anything about Japanese culture, TV or even being able to eat with chop sticks. So, sometimes I'm seen as some sort of super human, that can do all of that, and speak English and French as well - wow! Well, it's weird at work. But nice. At lunch I'm eating with the girls. They are curious about Sweden, and ask a lot. Sometimes it can be a little boring though, when they only talk about wedding dresses or cute actors for hours in a row. Japanese girls' worlds can be a little unrealistic sometimes (not all of them are like that though). The other day when I said that my favorite Japanese actor is Oguri Shun the most girly girl at the office said "But! I'm sorry to say, but he has a girlfriend, a model, did you know that?". I was a little confused and didn't really know what to answer but said "Well, uhm, ok how does that matter? I have a boyfriend for that matter... but..." and she answered "Oh! Well, then it's OK!". It would be depressing if I actually was aiming at getting some rich Japanese star that might be the most retarded guy in the world to be my boyfriend... Well, she has quite many favorite actors, so maybe she has a chance with some of them. Anyhow. I returned to Tokyo yesterday, and as usual it feels like coming home instead of going away. When people ask me what's going to happen in Tokyo this weekend, what fun stuff I'm going to do, I usually explain that I'm going to take it easy and rest. Most Nagoyans don't go to Tokyo to calm down, but to go mad about shopping or clubbing. Today Tomoya and I have been sitting at various cafes, he studying English and I Japanese or knitting. I had the best chai latte in a long time at a nice cafe in Kouenji and ate a vanilla muffin in Mitaka. I was stupid enough to forget my knitting bag in the cafe in Mitaka though. But, since we are in Japan, it was still there 5 hours later when I came to pick it up. This night we watched the film version of the book I wrote about in the previous blog article, Ensemble c'est tout. It was OK, but since I finished the book some days ago and remember it clearly, I was annoyed with the things that were changed or omitted. Tomorrow we are going to study some more and maybe do some window shopping. The Japanese autumn fashion is making me crazy.
(Bonus information: Tomoya is studying while listening to music. He shuffled his iPod and got confused and lost all concentration when Coffinshakers' Pale man in black started playing...)

OGURI SHUN!

(Bonus information: Tomoya is studying while listening to music. He shuffled his iPod and got confused and lost all concentration when Coffinshakers' Pale man in black that I put in the play list ages ago started...)

Back on track in Tokyo

I returned to Tokyo Thursday evening. My kind boss gave me Friday off to go home to Tokyo earlier. I will probably have to do some overtime work later, he used as a justified reason for letting me go earlier. Besides, Monday is a national holiday, so I don't have to return to Nagoya until Monday night. The people at the company have already proven to be kinder and nicer than I expected. I've been out drinking, going to the movies and had lunch with several of the coworkers already. Before I left for my train at Thursday afternoon my Japanese boss asked me if I had enough money, and if I didn't I were to ask him or Michael (my Swedish boss) for some. I'm already a part of the Japanese company family, and I must admit that I don't dislike it too much. This week of work has been full of ups and downs. Some days I haven't had too many clear tasks to do. As long as I'm occupied with something that I feel that I can control I like the job. But, when my boss suddenly gives me 43 tasks at the same time, all of them equally vague, I feel like running away. In the end though, it's been working out fine, and I'm no longer afraid of calling Japanese hotels, printing companies or whatever I can be put to do. I've also enjoyed life in Nagoya a little, shopping a new skirt at a second hand shop and having coffee at nice cafes. I've also been looking forward to every Morning dress up in a nice office outfit. The rules at the office aren't that strict, but wearing black high heeled shoes, a skirt and a shirt, makes me feel important. Yukosan, a girl at work, took me to the movies one night. She had gotten free tickets from some friend, and invited me. The film though, was Chinese (Reddo kuriffu (Red cliff)), and the subtitles in Japanese. I didn't understand too much, but thanks to the fact that 80 percent was fighting scenes, and Yukosans explanations a little now and then, I could with help of the Japanese text understand a bit.
Coming back to Tokyo was nice. It's a little bit colder and the weather is perfect for skirt and short sleeved shirt. There's also a special flower blooming now. It's an orange one, growing on bushes, that smells like the candy necklaces I used to eat when I was little. I remember the smell from last year's October in Japan and it took me some weeks to understand that it was this small flower that was emitting the strong scent of artificial candy where ever I went. Today, Tomoya and I have been walking around in Shinjuku and stopped at cafes for him to study English and for me to read. I'm reading a brilliant book right now (the original title is "Ensemble, c'est tout) that my mother gave me. I haven't been able to put it away since I started to read it and I must say that it makes me happy. I recommend it. Tomorrow Tomoya has his TOEFL test. After that we are going to his parents. His 95 years old grandmother has been missing us, and it will be nice to visit his house again.












(Oh, and Lukas, the picture of Tomoya and the trousers he bought today is for you.)

Stuck in Nagoya

I'm sorry for not blogging more often, but I've had problems with internet connection, transferring pictures etc. Anyhow, as some of you might now I'm currently in Nagoya, doing a 1,5 months long internship. I arrived to Nagoya station last Wednesday. It only took 2 hours by Shinkansen but the cost was about 10 000 yen (550kr). At the station I got directions from Michael, my boss, to our meeting spot. After meeting up we went to the office and I was introduced to what felt like 5268 Japanese salary men, everybody having the same name. Takahara, Nakamura, Takeda, Nakata, Takahashi, Nakatake and so on. As if that wasn't confusing enough for one day I was also introduced to my new computer, cell phone, the email system and a lot of other stuff that I'm supposed to keep track of. I admit, the first day was not too fun and I was regretting that I'd ever set my foot in Nagoya at all. The next day however, it got better. People at work are kind, impressed by my Japanese and very helpful. I also did 2 hours of overtime work my first real day at work. I'm starting to feel Japanese. At Friday I started working for real, with serious tasks and stuff. I got a lot of little missions that were really fun and I'm also in charge of things that are really interesting and challenging. It's sort of weird to feel somewhat important and do something that will be noticed. But it's nice. Very nice. By the way, the company is providing me with a little apartment as well. It's a bout 3 times bigger than my dorm room maybe, and equipped with a bath, a little kitchen and even a TV. I have a nice view over a little temple from my balcony and the neighborhood is full of small funny cafes. Anyway. Friday night we went out with some colleagues. There's one girl, Yukosan, who's really nice and friendly and also has a sense of humor. Some of the girls at office are of course shy, already married, and have no time at all to go shopping or hanging at cafes with new coworkers, but a couple of them, including Yuko, are interested in other cultures and don't mind hanging with the foreigners at all. Yesterday the two other Swedes at the office and I went exploring the nightlife of Nagoya. Before that we had sushi in the boss' apartment. A lot of sushi... Then we went to Karaoke, and I could enjoy listening to happy Swedes singing Take on me with Aha. Even though I've spent the weekend with Swedes I get the feeling that there are less foreigners here than in Tokyo. In this case I would say that it's actually an advantage since the foreigners who actually are here get integrated instead of pushed together into a group. In Tokyo I mostly spent time with other foreigners, but since they are so few here, the Japanese seem more curious and easier to bond with somehow. There are other things about Nagoya that are different. To begin with, it's warmer here. The Tokyo I left had autumn climate, but the Nagoya I'm in now is warm like nice Swedish summer days. So, I'm supposed to be in Nagoya until the 24th of October, but since next Monday is a national holiday, I've already bought Shinkansen tickets and will stay with Tomoya in Tokyo from Friday to Monday. I think that will be very nice since it easily gets lonely in this little apartment with no one to await from work in the evening. Today, I'm going to meet up with Martin, a Swede at the office, and he will show me around Nagoya a bit.