Four Days

I'm going to warn you that this is a long text-oriented post covering roughly four days. Okay, you've been warned. 

Anyway. Thursday, June 21, was my first official day of working in the corporate offices at Co-Op. Rob and I met a little early before our first meeting so that we could check each other’s office attire and see if it was appropriate. I wore some brand new heels that my mom gave me and felt as though I was being smart by wearing sandals to commute. The commute was fine, but the second I put on my “office shoes,” (this was literally RIGHT OUTSIDE the front door of the office) I caught my left heel in a drain guard which caused the little rubber part of the heel that protects the metal screw of the heel to come off. Mom, if you’re reading this, I plan on taking those shoes to a cobbler when I have time and getting them fixed, don’t freak out and kill me, please. 

I think I mentioned what happened while we were at the office on Thursday (check post titled “The First Days”), so I’ll jump into Friday. 

We showed up to our second day at the office ready to hit the ground running. The first thing that our boss had us do was translate the company policy and union procedures from English into Japanese. Let me tell you, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Not necessarily because I couldn’t figure out what words or sentence structures in Japanese to use, but rather because it seemed like policy was originally printed in Japanese, then thrown into Google Translator for the English, then given to us in a jumble of confusion. The whole thing was a test by our boss to see our abilities and luckily, we both passed with flying colors. 

Our boss decided that that was enough at the office for the day and he took us to the University branches that would be our first assignment. Rob now works at Waseda University and I work at Keio University. Both Universities have reputations in Japan for being outstanding schools, so it’s been an honor to be able to work there. 

First, we stopped at Waseda where Rob met his supervisors. We were able to take a tour of the places and offices he would be working in. His campus is beautiful. There’s a gorgeous auditorium that’s the central focus of the campus and just behind it is a park that is seriously the greenest park I’ve ever been to. If I was a student at Waseda, I would make it mandatory to visit that park every day between classes. It was so amazing. 

I told you it was beautiful..... 

Once Rob felt comfortable at Waseda, we stopped at Keio University in the goonies of Tokyo. Ironically, it’s not even in Tokyo, but rather in Yokohama in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. Not Tokyo. At. All (I'm bitter about my 6am commute). Keio is slightly smaller and older than Waseda with dated buildings, but the campus is still gorgeous. It is located right outside a subway stop and has a huge tree-lined road that leads to the main part of campus. It provides the perfect atmosphere for my morning and evening commute. When we arrived, I met the supervisor of the entire Keio Co Op. She was extremely tall for being Japanese, I was so surprised. She took me around to the cafeteria, convenience store and bookstore where I am stationed. 

At the cafeteria, I met my 店長(tenchou: branch manager) and who they introduced to me as スポート　(supo-to: support). They were both very friendly and explained the basic policies in the cafeteria. I’m not allowed to wear any jewelry, minimal make-up and my hair has to be up in a tight bun every day. They also showed me my shoe locker, regular locker, and the uniform I wear. I was very excited to start and thanked them profusely for the extensive instructions. Unfortunately, I have a tragus piercing in my left ear that I for the life of me could not figure out how to remove, so I broke the rule of no jewelry, and put a bandaid over it. (Shhhh.... don’t tell them, they didn’t even notice it.) 

After we left my school, we parted ways and headed home for the night. I was exhausted so I passed out immediately after dinner. 

So for the weekend, I didn’t do anything terribly extensive because I wanted to be refreshed and ready to go on Monday when I started my first assignment. 

Saturday I slept in (8:30 am WOO) and had breakfast with Rio. Rob’s host family had so graciously invited me over to their house for dinner on Saturday, so after I got ready, I met up with Rob to go alcohol and fruit shopping. I didn’t want to show up to their house empty handed, so I bought wine, whiskey, peaches and a watermelon.  After a long walk back to his house, we sat and skyped with some friends back home and blogged. 

When dinner was ready we went upstairs and met the neighbors who were joining us. They were so nice and had the cutest kids. One of Rob’s neighbors is a strict vegetarian, so I got in a big discussion about how hard it was for her to be disciplined when Japanese food has so much meat in it (meanwhile Rob’s host mom was serving fried chicken, shrimp, and meat, lol). We adults (it’s weird that I’m of drinking age in Japan) exchanged turns pouring each others drinks. I’ve only seen that done in Asian dramas, so it was so cool to actually do it in person! After talking a bit and eating and drinking our fill, I decided it was time to go home. One of the neighborhood kids, on the other hand, wanted me to read him a book about vegetables and translate all the vegetable names into their English equivalents. When I said it was getting late, he refused to get off my lap and started stuffing his face with chocolates that one of the neighbors brought over. When I finally pried him off me, I made my rounds to all of the neighbors and the family members and headed to the station.

He was so fidgety!

Much to my dismay, the Chuo Line that normally takes me home was down for the night, so I had to cab it back, making me super late. I called my host mother a billion times, apologizing profusely and she promised she wasn’t mad, but I think she was just being a typical Japanese person and not complaining about anything. 

On Sunday, my host family took me to my host dad’s favorite ramen place. The broth was made of pork bone and not the typical soy or miso that us Americans are used to. Hands down, without a doubt, that was the best ramen I have ever eaten in my entire life. I finished it in about 5 minutes, and I ate the entire thing (a normally impossible task for me). I am seriously obsessed with that ramen and cannot wait to go back to the restaurant. 

Host Father's Ramen, Nao's Ramen and Mine. Heaven-sent. 

After we finished lunch, Nao wanted to go to the mall and buy a friend a birthday present. We all went to the local mall and browsed. I loved the fact that there’s a Zara so close to my house (as opposed to the other ones I found in Harajuku and Shinjuku). I stay focused though on the fact that I want to go places and don't have enough room in my suitcase and didn’t buy anything. 

While we were there, there was a fan signing for a girl group that my host mom said as popular when she was my age. I couldn’t believe how young the girls looked for being almost fifty (curse you, good asian genes). They performed their new song and took pictures with their fans. We didn’t participate, but I got a good picture of the group that turned up to see them.  

Fan-signing.

We took a break in Starbucks to relax. The Starbucks in Japan are busy no matter where or what time you go. I don’t get it, their coffee is fine, not great though. After a round of frappuchinos (did I spell that right?), we headed to a revolving sushi bar. Oh my god it was so good. I have never been to one before, so it was truly a cool experience. I sat by my host dad and Rio and he set us up right. He would pull everything off the belt and put it in front of me. “It’s good, I promise” he would say. I’ve always been an adventurous eater, so I ate everything he put in front of me. The Natto (fermented soy beans) and the Uni (sea urchin) were the two that were the strangest to me. I really enjoyed the Natto, but the Uni made me want to throw up. I thanked him on his second offer of Uni, but declined to accept it. We headed home kind of early so that I could head to bed and get a good night’s sleep for work on Monday. 

Rio thoroughly enjoying her strawberries and cream frap. 

I’m finally caught up to this week! Yay for diligence and getting out of work early! :)