Enjoying work, A Jog, and finally some tourism
Hello!
Two weeks have gone by in a flash, and while things could be more active and productive for me, life is starting to set to a regular rhythm.
The weekend two weeks ago, after the earlier post, I spent in Tokyo with friends Matias and Tobias from Slush, from my work back at Finland. We ended up going to the same restaurant I went with Lauri two weeks prior, and it just as much a blast as it was the first time. This was Matias' and Tobbes' first time eating at an izakaya, a traditional japanese pub/restaurant thingy, and I was glad that I could introduce it to them. I'm still thinking of doing this big write up of Japanese food and restaurant culture as far as I'm familiar with it, but long story short, izakayas are the place where a local salaryman goes with their friends after a day at work, either for a few beers and some snacks or a party with all kinds of Japanese food and an all-you-can-drink deal (for two hours, at least). In the izakaya culture food is at an even footing with the drinks, so you don't really ever end up drinking to an empty stomach. Bars without food do totally exist, especially as small local bars, but they are not popular in the same level as izakayas.
Like said, this second visit was great just like the first one, but there was something different, too. While we were leaving, we realized that the big company of people that was sitting next to us and seemingly having a birthday party was not only dressed very well for a Saturday night out with their suits, watches and jewelry, several of them very also pretty tattooed, and showed it pretty openly. I'm glad I was sitting my back towards them, so while Matias and Tobbe had some suspicions during the meal, I had to think only after leaving the restaurant that we probably sat next to a group of people from the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Still, a great restaurant, and I think I will definitely go again. I guess after talking about this Yakuza thing I don't feel like telling directly which restaurant that was, but if you are visiting Tokyo and are around Shibuya, this is definitely a great local restaurant to visit, so send me message somewhere and ask me more.
Sunday was a bit tired, but I spent a long while sitting in an internet cafe in Akihabara, and doing some work as well as relaxing. I had, intentionally, left my passport home, but I had totally forgotten that to get into most internet cafe's you need to become a club member, which means registration with some kind of reliable ID, which my Finnish driver's license was not, but which my passport totally would have been. Luckily one of the places I passed happened to have an actual cafe section, instead of the closed booths they usually have, and this open area didn't need club membership, even though I paid by the hour for the time I was there, using the wifi, air conditioning, and electricity (I had my own laptop with me). So, there I spent a few hours, waiting for my friends to wake up, after which we went to eat some really fine sushi and really cheap burgers, before I took my late evening bus back to Shizuoka. It was a really nice Tokyo weekend once again, but even more costly than the previous ones, so I won't be doing them for a while now, unfortunately.
Next day it was back to work for me, and, let me tell you, that thing about work being pretty dull I said in the last post? Despite those feelings, I'm actually having a pretty good time at work as it is. The communication is still quite a problem, but the work I've had as of late is actually pretty interesting and inspiring in some ways. What's more, it's nice to notice that even if communication can be difficult, the problems and strong points of the team are being addressed and discussed effectively, and we are meaningfully changing the ways we are working in after every iteration, or sprint in the lean software development lingo. I'm also getting compliments for my speed in programming, which I feel quite taken aback. Nevertheless, it's much nicer for things to have turned up this way, rather than all the work being monotonous and uninteresting. I look forward to see what kinds of things I get to do in the weeks to come!
Last weekend there was supposed to be a fireworks festival where we'd go with people from work, but that all was, unfortunately, canceled - the typhoon Jongdari was closing in, so the wind would be too powerful for any fireworks shows. That also meant that, as per instructions from coworkers and from my very kind and worried host mother, I was to prepare to spend my weekend locked inside my house, as the winds could get very strong and even dangerous. The end result wasn't as bad as I thought it could be - while it was really windy and raining hard at times, and I totally wouldn't have wanted to go out at those times, the storm passed after late Saturday, and most of Sunday it was clear skies and very regular weather of 32 degrees.
Despite this, I stayed home most of Sunday as well, as I was too lazy to do much more, even after a full day indoors. My great hopes of life changing activity surge due to being all by myself here have ended up being mostly hopes so far. While the week after the last post I did end up going to jog along a river, and I did manage one morning yoga, I quickly found myself lazing off on both of them, not making proper meals for myself, and not writing this blog as I thought and hoped I would, and instead watching series on Netflix and interesting Youtube videos on top of playing games. Today I at least managed to clean the house and do laundry, but there is something I'm missing with being a functional human being by myself, without pressure to perform from outer sources. I have, at least, managed to be active in doing in some hours to Slush, as well as driving forward some student organization projects I have, but ultimately I don't feel like I'm really making the most of my time and the potential I have here. I don't have any inspiration here on what to do differently, either - I feel like I can only wait and see.
The work week was quite normal, and quite lazy as well, but Saturday, that's yesterday now, was pretty great and interesting, as we went with some people from the work and with some of their friends to some local sites for traditional Japanese things - we went to experience the Japanese tea ceremony, and visited a hand crafts center, and I would finally get to do some actual tourist stuff!
The tea ceremony was actually shorter than I had initially though, only 20 minutes or so, during which the hostess explained about the tea and the history in Japanese, and a colleague's friend translated some for me. We drank one kind of tea two times, one with lukewarm and the other with hot water, and in between there was a small sweet as a snack. The tea was extremely good, and both the tea house and the surrounding garden were wonderful. The crafts center was very nice as well, and we got to see all kind of Japanese hand crafted goods out of wood, clay and glass, as well as an assortment of toys from 70s to 90s. We also paid some money to participate in a workshop to make some art on glass with a sand blower, and I managed to create a really nice tapir on two sides of a glass soy bottle. I'm still really proud of it. 😊 Afterwards, we went to a yakiniku restaurant, an izakaya where you get to grill your own meat on stoves integrated to the table, and had a really nice party, ending up at karaoke once again for the rest of the evening.
This Sunday was very slow once more, but I did manage to do some work, and finally wring out this blog post. Of the future, I know to say that the coming week is actually only four days, as the company's summer vacation starts on Friday, lasting for a whole 10 days. I still don't have solid plans for the vacation, but I'm sure I can come up with some during the week. Hope you enjoy these blog posts despite their irregularity!
See you in an amount of time!
-Ilmari
Two weeks have gone by in a flash, and while things could be more active and productive for me, life is starting to set to a regular rhythm.
The weekend two weeks ago, after the earlier post, I spent in Tokyo with friends Matias and Tobias from Slush, from my work back at Finland. We ended up going to the same restaurant I went with Lauri two weeks prior, and it just as much a blast as it was the first time. This was Matias' and Tobbes' first time eating at an izakaya, a traditional japanese pub/restaurant thingy, and I was glad that I could introduce it to them. I'm still thinking of doing this big write up of Japanese food and restaurant culture as far as I'm familiar with it, but long story short, izakayas are the place where a local salaryman goes with their friends after a day at work, either for a few beers and some snacks or a party with all kinds of Japanese food and an all-you-can-drink deal (for two hours, at least). In the izakaya culture food is at an even footing with the drinks, so you don't really ever end up drinking to an empty stomach. Bars without food do totally exist, especially as small local bars, but they are not popular in the same level as izakayas.
Like said, this second visit was great just like the first one, but there was something different, too. While we were leaving, we realized that the big company of people that was sitting next to us and seemingly having a birthday party was not only dressed very well for a Saturday night out with their suits, watches and jewelry, several of them very also pretty tattooed, and showed it pretty openly. I'm glad I was sitting my back towards them, so while Matias and Tobbe had some suspicions during the meal, I had to think only after leaving the restaurant that we probably sat next to a group of people from the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Still, a great restaurant, and I think I will definitely go again. I guess after talking about this Yakuza thing I don't feel like telling directly which restaurant that was, but if you are visiting Tokyo and are around Shibuya, this is definitely a great local restaurant to visit, so send me message somewhere and ask me more.
Sunday was a bit tired, but I spent a long while sitting in an internet cafe in Akihabara, and doing some work as well as relaxing. I had, intentionally, left my passport home, but I had totally forgotten that to get into most internet cafe's you need to become a club member, which means registration with some kind of reliable ID, which my Finnish driver's license was not, but which my passport totally would have been. Luckily one of the places I passed happened to have an actual cafe section, instead of the closed booths they usually have, and this open area didn't need club membership, even though I paid by the hour for the time I was there, using the wifi, air conditioning, and electricity (I had my own laptop with me). So, there I spent a few hours, waiting for my friends to wake up, after which we went to eat some really fine sushi and really cheap burgers, before I took my late evening bus back to Shizuoka. It was a really nice Tokyo weekend once again, but even more costly than the previous ones, so I won't be doing them for a while now, unfortunately.
Next day it was back to work for me, and, let me tell you, that thing about work being pretty dull I said in the last post? Despite those feelings, I'm actually having a pretty good time at work as it is. The communication is still quite a problem, but the work I've had as of late is actually pretty interesting and inspiring in some ways. What's more, it's nice to notice that even if communication can be difficult, the problems and strong points of the team are being addressed and discussed effectively, and we are meaningfully changing the ways we are working in after every iteration, or sprint in the lean software development lingo. I'm also getting compliments for my speed in programming, which I feel quite taken aback. Nevertheless, it's much nicer for things to have turned up this way, rather than all the work being monotonous and uninteresting. I look forward to see what kinds of things I get to do in the weeks to come!
Last weekend there was supposed to be a fireworks festival where we'd go with people from work, but that all was, unfortunately, canceled - the typhoon Jongdari was closing in, so the wind would be too powerful for any fireworks shows. That also meant that, as per instructions from coworkers and from my very kind and worried host mother, I was to prepare to spend my weekend locked inside my house, as the winds could get very strong and even dangerous. The end result wasn't as bad as I thought it could be - while it was really windy and raining hard at times, and I totally wouldn't have wanted to go out at those times, the storm passed after late Saturday, and most of Sunday it was clear skies and very regular weather of 32 degrees.
Despite this, I stayed home most of Sunday as well, as I was too lazy to do much more, even after a full day indoors. My great hopes of life changing activity surge due to being all by myself here have ended up being mostly hopes so far. While the week after the last post I did end up going to jog along a river, and I did manage one morning yoga, I quickly found myself lazing off on both of them, not making proper meals for myself, and not writing this blog as I thought and hoped I would, and instead watching series on Netflix and interesting Youtube videos on top of playing games. Today I at least managed to clean the house and do laundry, but there is something I'm missing with being a functional human being by myself, without pressure to perform from outer sources. I have, at least, managed to be active in doing in some hours to Slush, as well as driving forward some student organization projects I have, but ultimately I don't feel like I'm really making the most of my time and the potential I have here. I don't have any inspiration here on what to do differently, either - I feel like I can only wait and see.
The work week was quite normal, and quite lazy as well, but Saturday, that's yesterday now, was pretty great and interesting, as we went with some people from the work and with some of their friends to some local sites for traditional Japanese things - we went to experience the Japanese tea ceremony, and visited a hand crafts center, and I would finally get to do some actual tourist stuff!
The tea ceremony was actually shorter than I had initially though, only 20 minutes or so, during which the hostess explained about the tea and the history in Japanese, and a colleague's friend translated some for me. We drank one kind of tea two times, one with lukewarm and the other with hot water, and in between there was a small sweet as a snack. The tea was extremely good, and both the tea house and the surrounding garden were wonderful. The crafts center was very nice as well, and we got to see all kind of Japanese hand crafted goods out of wood, clay and glass, as well as an assortment of toys from 70s to 90s. We also paid some money to participate in a workshop to make some art on glass with a sand blower, and I managed to create a really nice tapir on two sides of a glass soy bottle. I'm still really proud of it. 😊 Afterwards, we went to a yakiniku restaurant, an izakaya where you get to grill your own meat on stoves integrated to the table, and had a really nice party, ending up at karaoke once again for the rest of the evening.
This Sunday was very slow once more, but I did manage to do some work, and finally wring out this blog post. Of the future, I know to say that the coming week is actually only four days, as the company's summer vacation starts on Friday, lasting for a whole 10 days. I still don't have solid plans for the vacation, but I'm sure I can come up with some during the week. Hope you enjoy these blog posts despite their irregularity!
See you in an amount of time!
-Ilmari
I actually went for a walk for the first time around Shizuoka,
and saw this castle they have right next to
the University campus.
Koi in a pond a the tea garden
The first tea was sweet, the second bitter.
Both tasted exquisite.
A Japanese craftsman with a iconical
head wrap.
Me going to karaoke. I can confirmedly
sing two different Japanese songs, both
anime series opening songs.
Heips
ReplyDeleteTulipa mielee siekailusi jaappanissa!
Mahtavaa ! Miten oot viihtynyt? Varmasnkin mahtavat kokemukset ja jotain tarttunutkin sieltä?
Kuukausi jäljellä?
Näkyillään ...
Terkuin Timo kummitus