Beginnings

Hello World!

This is a blog about me working and living in Japan for the summer.

Everything started with my girlfriend, Jutta, going to a job expo co-arranged by our university. There, Fujitsu had a stand where they were looking for people interested to do internship in Japan for Fujitsu Software Technologies (FST for short). Jutta, being as interested in Japan as I am, talked with the folks at the stand, and wrote down her name on a list to attend a further info session next day. She soon realised, though, that they were looking mostly for software developers, which was quite far from her field, so she told me to go in her stead.

Next day, when I got to the place (just another classroom in my university), I got in to the info session with little hassle, and I got the details - 3 months in Japan, flights paid, accomodation paid, some food allowance per month. I was sold.
I filled the application they provided, and managed to get an interview for the very next day. I thought interview went well, though afterwards I realised their reactions to my answers were actually so neutral I had no idea what they might've thought. Then I waited for two months until december '17, and I got an email with congratulations for being chosen for the internship.

The purpose of the internship, as far as I've understood it, is for FST to internationalize, get to know how things are differently overseas, and get a chance to use english more in work enviroement. I myself am going to take it as a wonderful chance to see the famous Japanese work culture from the inside, though of course in the role of a foreigner, and also as a chance to experience everyday life in the wonderful country of Japan. I can't wait! 😁

Summarized, I think this blog will be mostly about
-Working in a Japanese Corporation
-Living in Japan
-Japanese software development
-Some travel related stuff, depends on the time I'll have for it! 😅

While this is my first time working in Japan, I have visited it before three years ago, and I have also lived and worked abroad in Australia five years ago for a bit longer than this coming three months. Both of those have blogs as well, though in Finnish. In case you're interested, look em up:

fareasttapir.blogspot.com
tapirdownunder.blogspot.com

(Based on how well I wrapped those blogs up, it might be that the last post for this blog shall also never be written. Maybe by doing so, the trip never really ends...?)

There's one more thing to say here.

I'm not good with social media. I'm mostly too lazy to make updates, and I find myself struggling to follow anyone actively or at all even. It's not exactly the worst thing to happen, and surely better than being hooked to it, but I feel like I'm missing some interesting ways our social lives work in the world of today by not being involved or knowing what it means to be active in social media.

So, for this trip, I'm doing an experiment: on top of writing this blog, I'll do my best to keep my Snapchat and Instagram blazing as much as I can. I want to see how hard it is to actually do for me, and if I can actually produce somethig worthwhile with that instead of just angering all my friends with spam.

If you are interested in this quest for social media skillz, my Snapchat is tapiiri and my Instagram tapiiritapsa. And while at it, my Telegram is @tapiiri, in case you have some weird need to pm me.

That's it! I think. I was supposed to compose this carefully, release it at an appropriate time, do things in good time etc., but, well, some of you know how it often goes for me. Right now I'm on a train from Narita Airport to Shin-Yokohama, where I will meet the FST people. Sleep has been rare and short. Hope all goes well nonethenless!

Thanks for the interest in this adventure, and hopefully I'll write sooner than later again!

And now, to finish off with the cliche of trying to seem like you know how to speak local language:

Ja, mata!

-Ilmari