celebrations

I didn't expect that returning to Japan would open up new opportunities for me. 

I'm already a 1/3 of my way through the holiday and time as usual, time will go by too quickly when one is abroad and never fast enough when one's back home doing exams and assignments. With the time remaining, I figured that I would not have much time to even sort out an internship interview, but after several emails and Skype conversations later, I was offered an internship in Japan!

I was very much comforted by the window display...

Yesterday, I took an hour long train ride to East Ginza for my first ever job interview. This company specializes in property investment abroad for Japanese retirees who want to escape the everyday stress of gyoza making, all you can eat sushi, and noodle slurping. 

I was quite stressed out about not being able to properly converse in Japanese, or making mistakes with my "keigo" and/or addressing Sato-san (my boss) incorrectly. My 10-month exchange back in 2010 taught me a lot, but it certainly did not teach me how to converse with potential employers. I haven't ever prepared for an interview in the conventional sense in English because it's not exactly hard to answer questions that concern your own goals and aspirations. 

Sato-san occasionally tested my knowledge of the company, but nothing's too hard to deduce from "Global Property", so understanding the content of the interview was not my main challenge. I'm already aware that they have branches all around the world (including New Zealand), so it wasn't difficult to link up what areas of the world Japanese people would be likely to invest in, and what kind of property they would like to invest in for the short term/long term. My internship would require me to converse with lawyers abroad and explain legal procedures to the native Japanese regarding the ins and outs of buying property in a certain country. Granted its not your conventional summer clerkship, but to be honest I'm much happier doing something away from New Zealand for the summer. 

Although Sato-san could speak English, I don't feel very comfortable speaking English to a Japanese person in Japan. It's completely different speaking Japanese to somebody in New Zealand. Obviously one has made the effort to go on exchange/internship to further develop their linguistic skills. And hey, if I can contribute to that? I'll be happy to babble on in my native tongue for an hour or so. But otherwise, I've always thought it slightly disrespectful if I don't at least try and converse in Japanese with the minimal proficiency I acquired over my exchange in Japan. I surprised myself though! I could actually sit in a professional environment and speak in somewhat "polite" Japanese (the lazy way of course; all I did was change the verb form to ます), and he just grew more and more impressed with my "skill set". Did not realise I had one of those.  

The internship will start around January till about mid-March, so I might have to skip the first week of university to finish up my internship in Japan. I'm sure missing orientation would not put a huge dent in my academic progress for 2013. There are still a TON of paperwork and application processes to go through. Facebook used to be my most visited website (how sad is that), but it's quickly been replaced with Gmail in the recent months and will continue to hold its place at the top for the rest of the year. 

After I went for the interview, I decided to go do some window shopping. I headed off to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara and stopped off in Ikebukuro for a few hours. This experience was nostalgic to say the least. All I ended up doing was spotting all the things that have changed, and the things that have remained constant. I kept on reliving memories I had with friends. After school karaoke, after school shopping, eating, and just spending ridiculous amounts of money on things that were unnecessary. Life was grand. 

I was also reminded of silly things like how "First Kitchen" is pretty much "f*cking" abbreviated in Japanese! It was a massive effort to keep a straight face when I took this photo. The locals were not impressed with me, to say the least. After all, why would you travel 11 hours away from home just to take a photo of a local chain store? But the inner ryugakusei in me had to do it. I just had to. 

nooooooo..... whhhhyyyyy.... 

It was unpleasant to discover that the Taiyaki/Takoyaki store has now been replaced with a 'rent-a-dog-for-the-day' pet store. The poor dogs look so exhausted and sleepy in their little glass cages. I'm sure it didn't help that I hoped they'd turn into Taiyaki instead. Yum. 

I ended up buying a cake for Maki's 18th birthday from a cute little bakery hidden in Shinjuku. Apparently this bakery is famous all around Japan, but the fact that this cheesecake was baked and not 'raw' was the only reason I bought it. Raw cheesecake? Biggest blunder in baking history. Ever. Maki hasn't celebrated her birthday in six years because of exams and school work. Poor girl. In New Zealand and many other parts of the world, turning 18 is a huge deal because you can vote, drink, buy your own ciggies (although I do not know why you would want to), and do 'adult' things, 20 is the official age one becomes an 'adult' in Japan. She wants to take purikura (sticker photos) with me today, so later I'll be heading out to Ueno. Maybe take a nice walk in the park before hand? Apparently the panda's are back in Ueno Zoo, but they won't let visitors see them because the mummy panda is pregnant. If I stay till late Feb/March, I'll be able to see the cute baby panda cub! Can't wait.  

I swear two of the best things in life are baby animals and brunch. 

All my love always,

April