Well, my summer escapades are over and it’s time to return to school (and NMA) full time again. Might as well update this thread for now.
I think I did everything I set out to do for the summer, which I’ve been planning since January. I had a full time job from June ‘till mid September, took an online university course, 2 week vacation in Italy, and of course a month and a half of work and fun in Tokyo.
This time around, the trip was a lot more work oriented. I had more responsibilities that demanded more time and effort. The original plan was for me to start doing some actual options trading, but that didn’t get fully realized. I did get to have my own trading station and I would sometimes take over for a trader during the slower evening sessions, but that mostly involved “babysitting” their current position and making sure none of the auto-trading programs go wrong.
I was invited to many company outings after work; much more than last year. Even though this was an American firm, there are a lot of Japanese employees and going out with co-workers is a very Japanese thing to do. And this isn’t like going to get a few drinks at the bar across the street form the office. This means having dinner at one place, then drinks at another, then grabbing a taxi to the other side of town to go to hostess clubs until 1am. But then the challenge is to get enough sleep so you can be ready for work again tomorrow morning.
I didn’t have problems with hangovers, but it was difficult to stay focused in the mornings after nights like this. The double espressos didn’t help either. After a while I decided to calm down on the work-nights. The Japanese have an interesting way of coping with this, which is taking a lot of power naps. This is why when you walk into a subway train in the morning, almost everyone is sleeping. Even during lunch breaks in the office, it wasn’t unusual to see someone sleeping in their chair. That’s how they would charge up so they can go out after work again.
On the weekends I went around the city. I saw a bunch of museums, festivals, and took several boat rides along the Tokyo Bay. It was immediately clear to me why there aren’t any beaches nearby:
I went though all the essential foods again: Yakinikku, Yakitori, Shabu-Shabu, Sushi, Sashimi, Tempura…. The new thing I had this year was Fugu (that poisonous blowfish thing). It was prepared and served in a variety of forms and they even put the fins in the sake. I was actually surprised that it was all pretty tasty, and I didn’t even need to go to the hospital afterwards.
There’s one interesting thing I noticed about restaurant and café in general. It’s very hard for the employees to deviate from certain sets of “rules”. For example, if a set of food includes a particular drink, it’s very unusual if for some reason you want something different. Here’s a particular situation: I come in the Excelsior Café for a soup and sandwich set, which comes with a choice of either coffee or tea. I didn’t feel like either, so I ordered a soda…
Girl: But sir, the set doesn’t come with a soda. Only coffee or tea.
Me: Yeah, I know. It’s fine, I’ll just pay extra for the small soda.
Girl: But….the set comes with either coffee or tea.
Me: That’s OK, you don’t need to serve me that. I’ll still pay for the whole set.
Girl: *confused pause* you don’t want coffee or tea?
It’s amazing. It’s as if the soup and sandwich cannot physically exist without a coffee or tea because that’s what the menu says. But even with these minor annoyances, as Cimmerian Nights mentioned, the level of service and hospitality is at such a higher level than anywhere else.
Some of the other Gaijin I’ve met say that they wouldn’t live anywhere else. I know this Cuban guy who grew up in Chicago who has now lived in Tokyo for 11 years. He told me about how he’s often very disappointed when he comes back to visit the States. If he goes to some Chicago restaurant once and then returns after a week or two, no one will notice and even if someone did, no one will react differently to him. In Tokyo, when he comes back to a place, people always remember him and make him feel much more comfortable and welcomed. It’s not just because of the higher service level, but because in Japan, he’s the other, the different guy, the guy that everyone will actually remember. After a while he got use to this, I guess, and now there’s no going back for him.
I’m not sure how I feel about the whole thing yet. Next year I’ll be done with college and I’ll be looking for full time employment. There certainly might be a possibility that I may join the firm I have been interning in, but living in Japan seems unlikely. The most important reason for that is the fact that I still need to get my U.S. citizenship. Before I can apply, I need to go through the residency phase which I just kind of started last year. After that, who knows? It’s still nice to know that I may have that option.
. A night out in Tokyo can be cheap if you know the right places to go to - you can generally find or negotiate a couple hours of all-you-can-drink service at a Izakaya, karaoke bar or restaurant. Beer Gardens in the summertime are lots of fun too. I have to think the folks who calculate the profit/losses of these kind of events don't factor in the strength of the gai-jin liver when it comes to processing alcohol.
