As most of you know, I was extremely lucky to be sent on secondment to Tokyo for my third rotation. I know you all want an update, because my inbox is flooded with kind messages from dear friends but all saying the same thing: "HOW IS TOKYO!?!"
There is a lot to say, more than I can cover in this post, so let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start....
Being me, I packed a ridiculous amount of stuff to take with me to Tokyo. Not only filling up the two boxes allocated to us by our firm, but also taking an over-the-top amount of luggage on the plane which was physically impossible for me to carry (my friends very kindly helped me carry it up the hill to our apartments).
Speaking of apartments, I am thrilled to report that I have exactly 575% more space all to myself than I did in London - we each get a studio apartment, and my old 2.5m x 2.5m bedroom pales in comparison.
I was so happy to confirm that we had Japanese toilets in our apartment. At least ours have pictures where you can kind of gauge what their function is: bidet spray, warm seat, warm air etc. I went to a work dinner last week, and hung around in the bathroom for what seemed like forever, pressing all the buttons (and getting some unpleasant surprises) until I found the one that made the toilet flush!
A few hours after landing, we were taken out by the outgoing trainees to a delicious izakaya (type of casual Japanese restaurant, though its business card suspiciously calls it a "Specialty Store". That must mean something different here). It was not only our firm's trainees who went to the dinner, it was a group of the trainees of all the different law firms here in Tokyo. Apparently this will be my main social group while I'm here.
There's a word here, gaijin, which means foreigner. When I think of the word gaijin, I think predominantly of white "expats" who stick together and don't bother to learn the language. It's used almost like a punchline here - "a gaijin supermarket" or "ordering like a typical gaijin". It seems like the goal of those who live here long-term and speak Japanese is to be as little gaijin as possible, but it's not something you can ever escape. I really hope I can learn as much of the language and customs as I can, so that I'll at least be a respectful gaijin!
On our first whole day in Japan, we headed to the office to receive Emergency/ Earthquake training. Well frankly that scared the sh*t out of me. THAT'S the first thing on the agenda? We were told all about the Fukashima earthquake 5 years ago, and how the building swayed back and forth so much that the solicitors got motion sickness. At least they were safe! We have an "emergency pack" both at work and at home, which feature canned food, water, helmets, blankets and first aid (mine is below). Apparently there are so many tremors and small earthquakes here that I will definitely experience at least one during my time here.
We then got given our Japanese business cards (English on one side, Japanese characters on the other side). The absolute best thing was that our names had been translated into Japanese pronunciation. My last name was SOOOOOOOO fantastic. An example is watching Friends in Japanese (PS available on Netflix) - over here we get Chan-de-rah Bing.
That night, we were taken out by the entire firm for a "Goodbye old trainees/ hello new trainees" night out on the town. Wow. I mean what a crazy night. It started off with pre-drinks, followed by dinner at a restaurant where the size of your drink doubles every time you order. By the end, the size of the glasses become ridiculous!
We headed to karaoke after that, it was so much fun! The group had booked a private room, and the drinks kept flowing. Unlike in Lost in Translation, where one person has the microphone and people respectfully listen to their awful singing, we had 4 microphones and the entire group was dancing and singing at the top of their lungs - no cause for any stage fright!
There is a lot to say, more than I can cover in this post, so let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start....
Being me, I packed a ridiculous amount of stuff to take with me to Tokyo. Not only filling up the two boxes allocated to us by our firm, but also taking an over-the-top amount of luggage on the plane which was physically impossible for me to carry (my friends very kindly helped me carry it up the hill to our apartments).
Speaking of apartments, I am thrilled to report that I have exactly 575% more space all to myself than I did in London - we each get a studio apartment, and my old 2.5m x 2.5m bedroom pales in comparison.
I was so happy to confirm that we had Japanese toilets in our apartment. At least ours have pictures where you can kind of gauge what their function is: bidet spray, warm seat, warm air etc. I went to a work dinner last week, and hung around in the bathroom for what seemed like forever, pressing all the buttons (and getting some unpleasant surprises) until I found the one that made the toilet flush!
A few hours after landing, we were taken out by the outgoing trainees to a delicious izakaya (type of casual Japanese restaurant, though its business card suspiciously calls it a "Specialty Store". That must mean something different here). It was not only our firm's trainees who went to the dinner, it was a group of the trainees of all the different law firms here in Tokyo. Apparently this will be my main social group while I'm here.
There's a word here, gaijin, which means foreigner. When I think of the word gaijin, I think predominantly of white "expats" who stick together and don't bother to learn the language. It's used almost like a punchline here - "a gaijin supermarket" or "ordering like a typical gaijin". It seems like the goal of those who live here long-term and speak Japanese is to be as little gaijin as possible, but it's not something you can ever escape. I really hope I can learn as much of the language and customs as I can, so that I'll at least be a respectful gaijin!
On our first whole day in Japan, we headed to the office to receive Emergency/ Earthquake training. Well frankly that scared the sh*t out of me. THAT'S the first thing on the agenda? We were told all about the Fukashima earthquake 5 years ago, and how the building swayed back and forth so much that the solicitors got motion sickness. At least they were safe! We have an "emergency pack" both at work and at home, which feature canned food, water, helmets, blankets and first aid (mine is below). Apparently there are so many tremors and small earthquakes here that I will definitely experience at least one during my time here.
That night, we were taken out by the entire firm for a "Goodbye old trainees/ hello new trainees" night out on the town. Wow. I mean what a crazy night. It started off with pre-drinks, followed by dinner at a restaurant where the size of your drink doubles every time you order. By the end, the size of the glasses become ridiculous!
We headed to karaoke after that, it was so much fun! The group had booked a private room, and the drinks kept flowing. Unlike in Lost in Translation, where one person has the microphone and people respectfully listen to their awful singing, we had 4 microphones and the entire group was dancing and singing at the top of their lungs - no cause for any stage fright!
It was not this calm
We then headed to a club. By this stage I had acquired stickers on my face, and when we went inside and pushed our way through the crowd, the Japanese club-goers stared at my face. They were understandably puzzled as to why I had stickers on my face, but what was less understandable was when they started to push the stickers. Multiple people poked at my face as though they were pushing buttons and were curious to find out what each button did (now that I think about it, kind of like my fascination with the toilet buttons). My friend tells me not to flatter myself, and that the stickers were probably falling off and the Japanese club-goers were helpfully sticking them back on. For whatever reason, it was a strange end to a strange night.
And that concludes my tale of the first 1.5 days of my secondment!
You had so much fun,you must be enjoying each moment!
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