Bracing through the jet lag
Heya!
The 3rd full day of the trip is at it's end now, and thanks to staying with the family of a FST employee, I've already experienced many interesting things of Japanese daily life - or at least, the daily life of this family. What I haven't experienced, though, is a clear mind and proper rest, as jet lag is still affecting me badly. I'm hoping to get some good sleep this night, so I might leave some things out of this post or tell only a part of them, and tell them in length on a later™ date.
My arrival to Narita Airport went without much of hassle, and I was only asked the most simple questions of my internship. From there, I took the Narita Express train for an hour to Shinogawa, where I changed to the Shinkansen bullet train and traveled a few stops, another hour, to Shin-Yokohama. This is the city where the main branch of Fujitsu Software Technologies resides, and there I got to meet the two people who had done the work behind my internship. The day consisted of going to lunch with them, signing a don't-share-our-secrets contract, going through a security presentation that my handler painfully translated on the spot, receiving company phone with no data limits and that I have permission to call even to Finland with (!), a Skype call to Shizuoka branch, where I would be doing the actual work, and discussing some very general work details, sleeping in a meeting room waiting for the company president, talking with company president about Finland while he was trying to find some very specific picture in his phone to show me, and receiving the contract/food money for the first month.
We also discussed my accommodation. The very first night I would spend in a business hotel next door, but the following week I would stay with a host family, as discussed before, after which I would move on to stay in an apartment rented by the company. We had actually discussed in the emails before that I would stay with host family for two weeks instead of one, but I didn't want to press the matter: it might have been a miscommunication or a slip up, but there might be some actual reason behind it that I wasn't told, and I might embarrass my handlers by forcing them to tell me about it.
Either way, the host family's house was a town over from Shizuoka, in Hamamatsu, so I would need to take the train to get to work and back. Apparently, my handlers felt that the train trip was their responsibility to take care of, so I was supplied train tickets for the following week to get me to Shizuoka and back every day of the week. It was kind for them, though I was ready to pay my commuting expenses myself. The funny part, though, is the fact that even though the father of my host family, Osakabe-san, travels also to Shizuoka from Hamamatsu by local train for one hour, I don't travel with him. The train tickets I have are for the Shinkansen, which means I only spend 20 minutes commuting instead if the hour, and I don't even pay for it myself. I remember jokingly hoping to get business class tickets for my flights, and this almost feels the same, really. It's very nice. 😁
The following day, Saturday, I traveled to Hamamatsu to meet the host family. They consist of Osakabe, the father working at FST, Huji-san, the mother, and their 6-year old boy Yu, who goes to an english evening school. They all speak English to some degree, but Yu speaks it almost fluently (for a 6-year old, anyway). They day was mostly spent by eating, going to do the groceries, and me resting and doing some overdue work from back home. Yu grew very attached to me very quickly, so I entertained him by playing a bit with him. I don't have much experience of 6-year olds, but at least Yu is extremely perceiving, kind and imaginative: I feel like writing a whole post about imagination and ex tempore storytelling after going along with his plays.
We had plans to do proper sightseeing in Sunday, but I thwarted it by sleeping in - or rather, I woke up for breakfast, I said I'd take a quick nap before shower, and 5 hours later I realize that the family had decided to let me sleep my jet lag away instead of taking me to see the sights. After I woke up we went for a late lunch, managed to see the Hamamatsu Castle (which was, due to the late hour, already closed), went to see the Pacific Ocean, and a visit to a ¥100 store (which I consider a sight to see, yes). We didn't make it to the Temple, as it closed earlier already, but I proposed that I would come visit them again another weekend, so we could finish the sights properly then.
And now, here I am, at a too late of an hour finishing up this post. I think that by tomorrow I'll be mostly clear of the jet lag.
Until next post! Good night!
-Ilmari
The 3rd full day of the trip is at it's end now, and thanks to staying with the family of a FST employee, I've already experienced many interesting things of Japanese daily life - or at least, the daily life of this family. What I haven't experienced, though, is a clear mind and proper rest, as jet lag is still affecting me badly. I'm hoping to get some good sleep this night, so I might leave some things out of this post or tell only a part of them, and tell them in length on a later™ date.
My arrival to Narita Airport went without much of hassle, and I was only asked the most simple questions of my internship. From there, I took the Narita Express train for an hour to Shinogawa, where I changed to the Shinkansen bullet train and traveled a few stops, another hour, to Shin-Yokohama. This is the city where the main branch of Fujitsu Software Technologies resides, and there I got to meet the two people who had done the work behind my internship. The day consisted of going to lunch with them, signing a don't-share-our-secrets contract, going through a security presentation that my handler painfully translated on the spot, receiving company phone with no data limits and that I have permission to call even to Finland with (!), a Skype call to Shizuoka branch, where I would be doing the actual work, and discussing some very general work details, sleeping in a meeting room waiting for the company president, talking with company president about Finland while he was trying to find some very specific picture in his phone to show me, and receiving the contract/food money for the first month.
We also discussed my accommodation. The very first night I would spend in a business hotel next door, but the following week I would stay with a host family, as discussed before, after which I would move on to stay in an apartment rented by the company. We had actually discussed in the emails before that I would stay with host family for two weeks instead of one, but I didn't want to press the matter: it might have been a miscommunication or a slip up, but there might be some actual reason behind it that I wasn't told, and I might embarrass my handlers by forcing them to tell me about it.
Either way, the host family's house was a town over from Shizuoka, in Hamamatsu, so I would need to take the train to get to work and back. Apparently, my handlers felt that the train trip was their responsibility to take care of, so I was supplied train tickets for the following week to get me to Shizuoka and back every day of the week. It was kind for them, though I was ready to pay my commuting expenses myself. The funny part, though, is the fact that even though the father of my host family, Osakabe-san, travels also to Shizuoka from Hamamatsu by local train for one hour, I don't travel with him. The train tickets I have are for the Shinkansen, which means I only spend 20 minutes commuting instead if the hour, and I don't even pay for it myself. I remember jokingly hoping to get business class tickets for my flights, and this almost feels the same, really. It's very nice. 😁
The following day, Saturday, I traveled to Hamamatsu to meet the host family. They consist of Osakabe, the father working at FST, Huji-san, the mother, and their 6-year old boy Yu, who goes to an english evening school. They all speak English to some degree, but Yu speaks it almost fluently (for a 6-year old, anyway). They day was mostly spent by eating, going to do the groceries, and me resting and doing some overdue work from back home. Yu grew very attached to me very quickly, so I entertained him by playing a bit with him. I don't have much experience of 6-year olds, but at least Yu is extremely perceiving, kind and imaginative: I feel like writing a whole post about imagination and ex tempore storytelling after going along with his plays.
We had plans to do proper sightseeing in Sunday, but I thwarted it by sleeping in - or rather, I woke up for breakfast, I said I'd take a quick nap before shower, and 5 hours later I realize that the family had decided to let me sleep my jet lag away instead of taking me to see the sights. After I woke up we went for a late lunch, managed to see the Hamamatsu Castle (which was, due to the late hour, already closed), went to see the Pacific Ocean, and a visit to a ¥100 store (which I consider a sight to see, yes). We didn't make it to the Temple, as it closed earlier already, but I proposed that I would come visit them again another weekend, so we could finish the sights properly then.
And now, here I am, at a too late of an hour finishing up this post. I think that by tomorrow I'll be mostly clear of the jet lag.
Until next post! Good night!
-Ilmari
Hamamatsu Castle
Me and Yu
(Pun partly intended)
Me, Yu and the Pacific Ocean
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