After we picked up wb- we headed to a 300yen bar in Ginza.. Since we got there about 12, we ended up missing the last train. In these cases you have to commit and make a full night of it. So we drank till 3 and then went to some japanese style restaurant and continued drinking till the first train.
The next day started maybe about 4 in the afternoon, meeting up with Momochan and heading to Meiji jingu and harajuku. Always a fun time. After that we went to a friends apartment and she made dinner for everyone and we chilled watching some movies and relaxing.
Continue reading ‘a bit more..’
Been a few weeks since a regular post, been really busy! Between work, hanging out with new friends and a visit from wb-, there just hasn’t been a lot of time.
I’ll start with hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. This is my third hanami in japan. The first two time were in hiroshima. I have to say, it is a much more splendid affair here in Tokyo. The cherry trees are much taller and much more abundant. There are pictures in the flickr gallery. Friday the 30th was one of the best times to see them here. After waiting for wb-, I went with some friends to Nakameguro. There is a large river that runs through the town and the cherry trees line both sides of the river. Pretty amazing looking through the trees, like snow was falling and froze as it came through the trees.
Continue reading ‘been a while..’
Sakura is blooming in Tokyo. It is really fabulous around my home and office. Very beautiful and the weather is great. I spent 3 hours walking around Suginami last night.. I am ready to pick another part of tokyo!
tumblr blog. I am keeping a second blog here.. this is a quick post and m0blog..
I had another welcome party friday night. It was also a going away party for one of the pinos I work with. This one was a lot smaller, just the guys from my group and about 5 of the office ladies that we interact with a lot.
The party started at a all you can eat/drink chinese restaurant. The food that I could eat was pretty good and I kept myself from over drinking. Mainly because I spent most of the night talking to with one of the ladies that is also a rhythmic gymnastics coach and dance instructor, and these women can’t drink very much (think 5′8″ and barely 120.)
The dinner was fun, but due to projects the three other guys from my group didnt come till about an hour after it started, so I basically sat around listening to the women gossip and talking about america and dance to Hirano-san.
Continue reading ‘A new start…’
Well, I didn’t embarrass myself to badly at the party. Everyone was friendly monday and only a few people made comments about how strong of a drinker I was. The judo girl just giggled and hasn’t talked to me.. So pretty typical in japan if someone gets really drunk at a party.. So I am relieved, and now I know that if you miss your train you can sleep in Denny’s in japan. Good to know.
So hungry…. I have roughly 20 bux to last me till the 16th till I get paid from my old job in Hiroshima. Too bad there are no hiroshima banks here though, I will have to pay the stupid withdrawal fees, but it will be nice to have money. I cannot wait to eat some mexican and sushi from tsukiji.. fresh tuna and hamachi..
I miss Hiroshima a lot, you are reading this. You know why. I have not made it to aikido or yoga, due to lack of funds. So I have been doing a lot of walking. Luckily the area around my apartment is fabulous for that. There are a lot of parks and quiet suburbia type areas, all 10 minutes from the hustle of shinjuku. Again, I really like this area alot.
Anyways.. job is good. Today I started doing atm line build outs and layer 3 testing. Thursday I am taking a field trip to a data center to run some cabling and familiarize myself with the L2 and L3 hardware we use. Should be fun.
Well, my apartment has free fibre internet, up to 100mbit for free, or up to 500mbit for a 40 a month fee. Aside from hosting a server farm in your apartment, who the hell needs over 100mbit? Anyways, I have to wait till thursday for them to come out and install the adapter box. I am still abit confused how they are running this over phone line. I will have to follow the tech around the building to find the demarc and see what kind of setup it is.
In the mean time, I have found a cheap internet cafe near my apartment, 100y every half hour and free drink bar. So I can get my internet fix on.
Continue reading ‘Weekend…’
Well I started work Thursday. I have to say it is a nice change being in a high tech sector again. I have not started doing anything yet besides getting familiar with documentation and lay out, and due to NDAs, all I can say is that I am doing provisioning for the worlds largest provider of IP, VPN and MPLS networks.
For the technical side, I am working the managed network services from layer2 to layer3 delivery at the the customer premises (usually the router.) Frame Relay and ATM circuit build outs and testing. What this means for everyone else, when the internet leaves your office, I made that!
I used to hate MCI and Sprint when I had to deal with them to fix circuit problems…now I am one of those monkeys!
Anyways, my team is the only gaijin team and kind of diverse. Hong Kong, Batangas (Pinos x3!), 2 Indian or Pakistani guys, a guy from Myanmar (Burma) and your’s truly. The guys are really laid back and the environment is interesting. We are the 11th floor with about 60 or so other japanese people. I am pretty sure I am the only american, I have had a steady flow of people coming to talk to me (mainly women.) But most of the people that interact with my group on a friendly basis are women for some reason. I guess we are so intimidating.
It’s nice that I have been to the Philippines and Myanmar, it gave me a good in with the guys, plus I have some lumpia coming.. Can’t beat that.
Continue reading ‘Work and Tokyo’
Well the Hiroshima chapter of my life is closed. I have made the move to Tokyo. After spending three days looking for apartments and dealing with my company saying they will sponsor my apartment, and then not, I have found an apartment. Or so it seems. Right now I am living in an hotel waiting for the apartment lease to be formalized, which is supposed to be tomorrow. Which means I should be able to move in Wednesday, the day before I start my job. Not ideal, but the apartment is really nice.
I wanted to live in Ogikubo, which is west of Shinjuku by about 10 minutes on train. Very convenient and I will only have a 27 minute train ride to my office, without transfers. This made it pretty ideal, plus the area is where a lot of college students and younger people live. Anyways, I looked at a bunch of places around the area and went with brand new apartment. Just opened maybe a month ago.
The apartment isn’t large by anymeans, 8 tatami living room and 3 tatami kitchen, but it has a walk in closet, separate toilet and bath, and double pane insulated windows!! The best part is that it has free fibre internet. The rent is on the cheaper side also, only 74000y a month. This is about 680usd a month.. The only downside is that the apartment is about 15 minute walk from Ogikubo station (but only 5 minutes from another line.) This isnt a problem though, even though for japanese it seems to be. Besides, I won’t have to pay 5000yen a month for internet or phone now.
The only downside is moving in costs… it is really expensive to move in to apartments in japan. You have pay a security deposit (normally two months), a thank you payment (usually another two months, nonrefundable), a realtor fee (usually 1 month), first months rent and insurance. So moving in is really expensive. You can usually negotiate the thank you money and sometimes the rent.
So hopefully I will get a call tomorrow from the real estate agent, saying, start moving in! Pictures will come soon, I am excited.
据え膳食わぬは男の恥。
すえぜんくわぬわおとこのはじ。
Shameful is he who doesn’t accept a woman’s invitation.
According to the Japanese man, this is true even if you are married.
Just got the results… passed the 3rd Kyu Japanese Proficiency test. Of all the things that have had me bothered recently this was about number 3 or 4. So one of the list, just a few more to go! w00t.
So, now should my goal for next year be 2nd kyu or 1 kyu… Maybe first kyu. Of course that is equivocal to being fluent, so I don’t know if that is possible without some major investment in schooling and time.. we’ll see how Tokyo goes. High fluency = more money and better job.