Spring is coming

Hello everyone,

the whole week the weather has been really cold, especially because of the strong wind. But since Saturday it has been getting a lot warmer, and at the moment its 20 degrees. It seems like the change in weather is all the people in Tokyo have been waiting for. Hanami season (Cherry Blossom season) has finally begun and everyone is out and about in parks and famous Hanami spots.

I also took the opportunity today to walk around my neighborhood a little bit and found the most amazing places. With the warm weather not only the cherry blossoms began to bloom but also a lot of other plants are getting green and colorful! Around the corner of my house is a small park with a playground where Sakura (Cherry) trees grow. Underneath families were sitting, eating, drinking and talking, and just enjoying the nice weather and the cherry blossoms, that is what Hanami is all about. A little bit behind the playground starts a long street lined with cherry trees. They are now all blooming in beautiful light pink and it looks just amazing.

Here are my impressions of today:

In the next couple of days I will go to some places famous for their sakura, and hopefully will be able to take some beautiful pictures there as well.

On another note, I tried the Japanese interpretation of radler, and it wasn't really bad, but it wasn't good either. I guess if you are german, and really in desperate need for a radler it will do, but other than that you should be drinking Japanese kinds of alcohol when in Japan.

On saturday I went around Akihabara (the electric town of Tokyo). It wasn't really my thing, and I actually felt kind of uncomfortable with all the geeks and otaku milling around young girls dressed up as maids trying to get them to come to a maid cafe. I left pretty quickly to go to Ikebukuro, my neighborhood where you can really buy anything you might want. They have a huge shopping mall, a gigantic department store and electronics stores but also normal small shops and streets with one small restaurant and izakaya next to the other. It is actually very convenient to live here. I was planing to do some shopping, but in the end didn't buy anything (not that that is a bad thing ;-)).
In the afternoon I met with Markus in Shibuya, we went first to the Irish Pub we had been the weekend before, and afterwards met his German and Japanese friends at TGIF to eat some burgers. They were amazing!

 

First week is over

Hello all,

first week in Japan is over. Time to reflect and plan for the future. Until now I kind of lived from day to day, the fact that I will stay here for over one year not really catching up to me.

The people responsible for us at work are really nice people and they do everything to help us getting started. We are being prepared for what is to come starting April. For that reason we have been studying relevant vocabulary and doing some PowerPoint exercises. Anna and me are taking Japanese classes 5 hours every day for one week. It is really tough but I think we will learn a lot, especially about the right usage of Keigo (Japanese business language).

On the weekend I had time to meet old friends from University. Going out with them I took the opportunity to make some new friends here in Tokyo. After going to a Japanese style bar we went to a nice Irish Pub in Shibuya, it was really packed and there were about 40% foreigners. I took one of the last trains home, which leave before one o'clock at night.

On Sunday I just went to the nearby supermarket where I bought fresh fruit, one of the most expensive things in Japan. I payed 111 Yen for one apple, which is roughly 90cent, but it was on sale, the usual price is from 230 Yen to 350 Yen per apple. In their defence I have to say it was really delicious and I bought another one of them on Monday. For the same price you can also get two bananas, which I also bought. If I ever run out of money it will be because I want to live healthy, and since I don't get any sunlight all day I rely on fruit. The thing about sunlight is going to become a real problem soon. My balcony faces into an inner courtyard and I don't get any sunlight. In the office the blinds are always drawn (I don't know why) and when I get out of the office at 6 p.m. the sun is already gone.

This is the view from the office lounge on the highest floor of our building, we can see the imperial palace from above, pretty cool right.

And something my German friends might be interested in: This is a Japanese Radler add, I saw it on the train today. If I see it sold anywhere, I will buy it and I will taste it. And then we will see how it tastes.

My apartment

Good morning everyone,

jet lag got a hold of me still, thats why I write this at 7:23 a.m. I was already awake at around 4:50 a.m. and couldn't fall asleep again, so I decided I might as well get up.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon at Narita Airport and went straight to our office, where I received my apartment key and cell phone. At around 8 p.m. we arrived finally at our apartment, which is small but all in all I wasn't expecting any more or less. I have one room, a small kitchen, and shower with bathtub and a separate toilet. The cupboard is a little small but it will have to do. I even got a balcony where I can hang my laundry to dry. I have a TV, laundry machine, microwave and fridge.
I had to buy a Wifi router, but now I also have internet to use on my mac and phone.

Yesterday we had our first workday. Of course we didn't really do much yet, only some general information about the buildings facilities, our salary, our computer and phone usage, and about the training that will start from April first. Until April we will have time to prepare and also have Japanese classes at Berlitz language school.

I will keep you updated on everything I do, so wait for my next post!

Onboarding in Germany

Hey everyone,

my first two weeks in Frankfurt are now over. I can still say that everyone in my company is really nice. In the first week we were really busy getting information from everyone about our time in Japan, and what to expect there. We will have a basic training where we will learn everything Japanese people think you should know when starting your career (courses about what a consultant does, how logical thinking works, how to take minutes and write emails and much more). Then we will receive SAP training (in my case for the Finance system) and also ABAP programing training. For the time in Tokyo we will stay in a small but seemingly nice small apartment in Ikebukuro (very central in Tokyo). It will take only 20 minutes by subway to get to our office (something 90% of Japanese Salarymen can only dream of, they usually commute for at least one hour).

We also learned about the company, and its objective in Germany and Japan and ist projects all around the globe. I am really excited about working globally.

This week we had more time for self study. I mainly used the time to look up everything I should have learned about accounting by now. And also read about it in Japanese, so I would get used to the Japanese terms and way of working. I also practiced some Excel and learned about project management.

As a last dinner we went to a German restaurant near Frankfurt on Thursday and I had a Schnitzel with Pommes. From Tuesday onward we will only eat Japanese dishes, so a little bit of German food as a goodbye was very nice.

Becoming a consultant

Hey there,

as promised in my last post from December I will be back in Japan. Not from April, as I thought, but from March 17th. And it will be for at least one and a half years. So I think there will be a lot of new aspects about Japan to write about.
As I mentioned before, I will go to Tokyo to work as consultant. I will not tell you what company I work for, but it is a relatively big Japanese consulting company. Of course I will try and give you insight into the work of a typical Japanese company. Things are just done differently than in other countries.

I signed my contract at the end of December, and from beginning of January I got a lot of information and e-mails from the Japanese Headquarters. They asked me to register with their internal network and also to read a couple of books and take some test. For example about Keigo (敬語) the Japanese business language, Japanese business manners (which are extremely different to other countries business manners), and also MS Office tests. Doing all this in January and February was nice, since I didn't have anything else to do really. And I actually learned a lot of things I didn't know before.
I think most of you know that Japanese have some kind of ceremony when it comes to the exchange of business cards. You give and receive them with both hands, never put a business card in your backpocket etc. But there is actually much more to the business manners of Japan. One of the most surprising things for me is the very strict dresscode: As a man you HAVE TO wear only black suits and white, long sleeve shirts. Girls have a little bit more freedom, but skirts and white shirts are usually worn with black shoes with low heels.

On the 2nd of March I had my first workday in Germany. I didn't start working alone, but with two other people, which is really nice and we get along really well. As a welcome party we went to a really fancy Japanese restaurant in the night, which gave us the opportunity to get to know our new colleagues. I really enjoy the familiar atmosphere in the German office, and I am relatively sure this wont be the case in Japan.
For the next two weeks we will receive additional information on everything we will do in Japan, and of course on our career opportunities within the company.

After arriving in Japan we will have another two weeks of training to get used to all Japanese again, since your 6 month long training will be in Japanese only (yes, I am a little bit worried).