SAP

Dear all,

I am in high spirit, while my Japanese colleagues are on the brink of insanity. Why is that? Because the SAP Finance training has started last week and it is in English. Which means everything is considerably easier for me (compared to the Japanese core training we had before) but a whole lot harder for all the Japanese who do not feel at home speaking or even listening to English. The whole thing gets even more complicated, because our teacher, as much as we all like him is not a very good English speaker and the topic we are supposed to learn within the next month is challenging in any language. BUT I on the other hand have no problem following my teachers broken English, I can read the (badly translated) English script and seem to have a natural understanding for the German SAP program. So now I just try my best and give all the kindness that I received in core training back to everyone by helping and explaining whatever they did not understand during the days class. It turns out this is also a good way of checking my knowledge and reviewing everything we have to lern for the test we have to take next month. It also gives me the opportunity to make friends, and I think the impression people have of me has changed rapidly over the last week. They started calling me Lena Sensei or even Master (as in "Teach me Master").

Staying late every day to explain SAP to my friends and colleagues has reduced my free time even more, but I really don't mind it. Sitting at home alone doesn't really do me any good anyways. Last weekend I was alone at home, cleaning and studying. Not really exciting.

Yesterday on the other hand I went hiking (yes me, hiking, my own free will). I seem to have needed a little nature and work out. We went to Mount Takao (高尾山) west of Tokyo, the climb was really beautiful along a river and took about one and a half hours. At 600 meters hight we ate lunch and icecream and then went back down by cable car. At 3 o'clock we took a bus to the nearby Onsen where we cleaned up and relaxed for two hours and afterwards went to an Izakaya to have dinner. It was the first time that I felt like I belonged with my colleagues.

Here are some impressions:

The beginning of our hike left to right (Taichi, Sha, Saori, Saku, Zoe, Anna and me)

At the top

 My pet on the way

Some holy tree (there were a lot of temple on the way, very beautiful) 

Lunch

Golden Week - Kyoto

Hello everyone,

I have been busy for the last couple of weeks, and of course I want you all to know what I have been up to.

So last week the only noteworthy event was a 女子会 a Girlsnight with my female colleagues. We went to a restaurant in Shinjuku and had 3 hours of all you can drink with a 6 course menu. I wasn't expensive and tasted fine, but when we left we were still hungry, so we decided to go have desert and then go home. We talked mainly about boys, what else can you expect when 10 girls come together. But the atmosphere was really great and we all had a lot of fun!

The day before we had our first party with almost all members of our class, which was also a lot of fun. I am trying to make friends, but its not easy to really get to know any of my colleagues. In Japan relationships are usually very shallow.

No to the really interesting part! From Saturday until Wednesday was the so called Golden Week in Japan, the longest national holiday and the opportunity for Japanese people to go traveling for a couple of days. So everything is really expensive and packed no mater where you go. 

I had been planing to go to Kyoto from the day I knew for sure that I would be in Japan for Golden Week and booked my Shinkansen Ticket one month in advance! It wasn't cheep but I was there within 2,5 hours!

I met a friend from my german university and a mexican friend from my time as an exchange student. The highlight was my meeting with my hostmom from my Kyoto-stay last autumn. She is in the hospital right now because of a knee operation in March and took the time to meet with me anyways, I was so happy.

I went to a lot of Temples and Shirnes, as always (Kiyomizudere, Ginkakuji, Kamigamojinja and Shimogamojinja etc.). We also went hiking in Kurama north of Kyoto. I got my first sunburn of the year (on Saturday it was 29 degrees celsius). I also went to the public bath and just enjoyed my free time with a lot of delicious food and sunshine!

Here are some pictures.

My bento on the way to Kyoto - 4 kinds of Fish on rice (sooo delicious)

Kiyomizudera - one of my favourite

Ginkakuji - the Silver Pavilion that is not silver because they ran out of money

Steak-rice-bowl yumyum

A sheep with omikuji (sheets of paper that tell you your luck) as fur (It is the year of the sheep)