Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gansta.

August ２０、２００７


Today was my first day of training.

I showered and put on my shirt, tie and slacks. We were supposed to meet at the Ueno office at 12:30 pm, I left at 10:00 am not knowing how long it would take to get there, or if I was going to get lost.

I arrived at the office at 10:30 am. Huh. I guess it's not that far.
I was worried that I was going to get lost transferring train lines at the Akihabara train station, which is a little infamous for it's confusing architecture. As mentioned before though, most of the important signs have a small amount of English on them so I just kind of followed the number, colors and English...

While I waited for the orientation to begin a women (who's name I forget) was giving me pointers on things I should and shouldn't worry about. Shifting the conversation to things I cared more about (face it, this job is a joke to me, I'm on vacation), she also recommending I travel to Roppongi to buy my cell phone, where a major SoftBank (major Japanese cell phone provider, equivalent to AT&T or Verizon) store usually has one English speaker on hand. She also taught me the in's and out's of scamming the train system. Essentially I would purchase a monthly pass for Kameido (where I live) to Asakusabashi (where my main office will be). When I go to get on the train I put my ticket in the machine, which spits it out on the other side as usual. Then when I travel past Asakusabashi I simply bring my monthly pass to a fare adjustment machine and it will take the total charge and deduct the Kameido to Asakusabashi portion of the fare, which will save me about 20 yen...hey, it adds up!
Better yet, say I travel 15 miles away, or...um...30 kilometers..., when I go home instead of buying a roughly 500 yen ticket, I can simply purchase a 130 yen ticket (the cheapest ticket you can buy), slide it through the machine and retrieve it, and board the train. When I get back to Kameido (or Kinshicho) instead of fare adjusting my 130 yen ticket, I simply use my monthly pass to get through the gate! TAKE THAT JAPAN!!!

After informative conversation my fellow orienteers, Brett and Danika (both Australian), had showed up and things were ready to get under way. We were being trained by Henry, who had moved from New Jersey to Japan to work with Nova 15 years ago (eventually he found a Japanese wife, bought a home and car, and had kids...he's a little anchored to Japan now!).

Training was especially boring and corporate. The highlights of the day being a especially tasty ham, spicy mustard and cucumber sandwich I purchase at a nearby convenience store. Complimented with a delicious box of mango pineapple juice, which featured one of those new kind straws that is like...a tube that extends outwards from a bigger tube. Have you used one of those yet? It's like...half the size of a typical juice box straw, but it extends to be a full sized straw...
Hey, I'm impressed by them. You might not be. But I am.

Later on for our lunch break we went to a cafe and I had a pork sandwich, that was a little lackluster, along with red orange juice. I don't know where exactly the red part of the red orange juice is coming from (or maybe it's just a red orange? but wouldn't that be a color for name conundrum?) but it was some of the most delicious orange juice I've ever had.

The rest of the day was smooth, I taught the last half of a lesson, nothing to amazing.

After meeting a bunch of people at that office the need for a phone was starting to weigh in on me.

Tim wanted to go out for curry when I got home, but my jet lag was fucking me up again so I went to sleep for a few irregular hours.