Phase 1 is over so I have a bit of time to myself – time to write to friends. I have been working on an int’l project in an area I have little experience in. I had 2 weeks to make a decision on which computer to use, and while the list of 5 was quickly culled to 2, the last became a political battle between 4 groups – all of which are my seniors. It was in my power to choose, but life could have been hard from now on – especially if I chose a failure. I was starting to think it was an impossible task because everybody had valid arguments – there are risks on all sides. Then on Tuesday, I called a meeting and hammered everyone to stand by their data. Miraculously, some of them supplied reasons for going the other way. A few little nudges and we had concencus (though I suspect a little help from upper management). My first foray into managing projects so big that I can’t do any of the actual work is starting off well.
P&G must also appreciate my accomplishments as they finally got me a pen and some paper.
Next week will also be hectic as we complete the system design and place the order, but for now I have a weekend to relax. Or rather, I have a weekend to find a house which is not at all relaxing.
HOUSE HUNTING
I’ve written some on this before, so I’ll tell you about something different. Japan is a very service driven country, so the process is completely different to back home. In Australia, you have to look through the windows of the estate agents to find a place you’d like to see. In Japan, you call the estate agent and tell them what sort of place you’re looking for – size, location, aspect, distance to station etc. Oh, and how could I forget price! The agent then faxes you through a list of places that are available that roughly meet the criteria you are looking for.
In Australia, you have to go to the estate agent to pick up the key, make your own way to the house / unit and then take the key back. And you have to give them some money for the experience. In Japan, they pick you up and drive you around to all the places they have chosen and give you a bit of information about the area, history of the building etc on the way. The experience is all part of the service.
In Australia, you have to take a day off work to catch the estate agent or risk doing it on Saturday when the key isn’t available because everyone else is looking at it. In Japan, they work from 10am to 9pm 7 days a week. You choose a time that suits you. And of course, even if I felt so inclined, they wouldn’t let me tip them. They won’t even let me sit in the front seat.
HOMESICK
For all this, I still haven’t found anything great. Everything looks good on paper, but when you get there you find it’s on the ground floor, or it faces west (the hottest direction) or it doesn’t have enough room to put a 36″ wide screen TV. OK, so I’m being fussy. I think it’s time to drop my standards – but not until I’ve seen what the agent has to offer today. I gave up on the company known agents and found one myself that is offering good places at better prices, but in remote locations. In this area though, nowhere is really remote. The city is a strip of land about 3km wide and there are 3 train lines running along it.
I got blown up the other day by the secretary who said that I was being extravagant and selfish looking for a place so big while the other people in the department were living in tiny places. It shook me up a bit, but I don’t want to have to come home after a hard day to a prison cell. The way I see it, I earn the same as these people, but we have different priorities. They want to eat out every meal, and I want to have space to put my stereo system. Every Australian I’ve met over here tells me how important it is to get a big enough place to keep you sane. Even HR recommend getting a bigger place now because although they give you more money for rent when you’re married, you have to pay the moving costs yourself. Well… there’s always a possibility that I’ll get married if it gives me an excuse.
I may have to take a smaller place though just to keep my sanity now. I didn’t realise how materialistic I was. I always thought it was just my stereo, but I also miss having my own books, my own clothes (no I’m not borrowing, but I don’t have much), my own pillow, even my own crockery and of course my family and friends. Maybe it’s not materialism. Maybe it’s sentimentality.
I’m embarrassed that it took me so long, but I finally got myself some music. I suddenly remembered the other day that I had the cables to connect my walkman to the stereo with me. At the same time I also realised that TVs have more than one input these days. I plugged my walkman into the game port and now I have ‘Leonardo’s Bride’, ‘SuperJesus’, and ‘The Whitlams’ to keep me company while I write. Of course, I remembered all this after I’d bought the extra speakers for my walkman. It must have been the extra sanity they brought that gave me inspiration.
COLOUR
The other thing that I always miss when I’m in Japan is colour. The clothes are black or grey, the buildings are grey, the skies are grey and the birds are… pigeons. Actually, I can’t blame the skies this time. I’ve only had about a week of sun since Easter. Rain seems to follow me where ever I go. It rained in Sydney, it rained on the bike ride. It rained when I arrived in Japan and it rained in Korea. It will start raining as soon as I walk outside in the morning. It will start raining when I’m ready to come home in the evenings. And this month, the rainy season begins! I can’t say I’m upset. It’s nice to cool off a bit, and I’m only ever out in it for 10 minutes. I’m more worried about what it will be like when the rain stops and summer settles in with all the moisture around. I think I’m in for a long, hot, humid summer.
Rokko Island, where I work, is a kind of foreigner’s haven. Because a number of large foreign companies have their Asian HQs there, there are many shops and services catering to foreigners. This in turn attracts foreigners to live there and the circle begins. Someone smart has realised that foreigners like to have more colour around so they’ve done just that – in a typically misguided Japanese way. One of the older attempts at colour was to intermingle red bricks with the grey. All this achieved was an ugly kind of muddy brown. Now, they’ve built houses in red, green, yellow, purple and blue – an effect that looks a lot like lego when you look down from the 17th floor. They couldn’t afford to make buildings all in colour, so they have grey / white buildings with sticking out bits in green, or 1 floor (the 6th) of red – and the best parallel I can come up with here is of a very tall albino peacock.
ENTERTAINMENT
So, what am I doing for entertainment? Not a lot. I generally get up in the morning and do email until it’s time to go to work. I have lunch with my boss and the topic of conversation could be social or it could be work. I leave work fairly late and have about enough time to cook, eat dinner and wash up before exhaustion takes over. While I’m cooking and eating, I’ve been watching TV or videos. I’ve found that I can buy movies for not much more than the price of a blank tape, and much less than the price of going to the movies, so I’ve done that a couple of times. On the weekends, I’m generally house hunting or looking around to see what furniture I’ll need and how much it costs.
Last weekend though, I had a great time. I went with one of the American guys from work to a music festival by the side of river nearby. He met up with a large group of his American friends. I can’t say anything too bad about Americans – right Chris? – but I ended up spending more time up watching the bands than sitting talking to them. It was like a small version of the Big Day Out with three stages and multiple bands. The music was mostly foreign – some American and lots of Latin American. Needless to say, everyone was in party mode. Oh! and it rained.