Hi everyone!
I arrived back in London from Tokyo a few months ago, and I've been wanting to write a post about the transition back. I'm also halfway through my fourth, and final, seat in my training contract where I'm on secondment to an airline company.
So without further ado, below are some of the uncomfortable experiences I encountered coming back to the UK after 6 months of living in Japan AND a bonus introduction to what it's like working at an airline!
1. On autopilot
Everything in Tokyo was so different - the food, the culture, the language - so it was only when I arrived back in the UK that I discovered that my autopilot function had been somewhat recalibrated to adapt to my life in Tokyo.
To launch right in, the first thing I noticed on returning to London was that when I went to the toilet, my pee was EXTREMELY LOUD. Every time the liquid hit the bowl, it was like:
I realised that it was because for 6 months I had used the Japanese "flush sound" function, which delicately covers up the sound of your pee. Go figure.
The second thing I noticed was that I kept ending up on the wrong floor when people told me to go to "Level 1"/ "First floor". In Japan, the first floor is the ground floor. In the UK, the first floor is one level above the ground floor. I can't count how many times I was told to meet someone on the first floor, so I went *downstairs* to the ground floor and couldn't find them. After searching the office for a good few minutes, I'd always end up like:
Another thing? London SMELLS. It smells real bad. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, it can definitely smell like there is some 19th century shit still lying around underground, waiting for you to innocently walk past it.
Lastly, London = chaos. Gone are my beloved elevator lift rules, which I had finally gotten the hang of. While Tokyo's attitude to lifts are like...
...London's attitude to lifts are like:
As mentioned above, I am spending my last 6 months of my training contract working for an airline company in its legal team. Here are my initial observations:
I arrived back in London from Tokyo a few months ago, and I've been wanting to write a post about the transition back. I'm also halfway through my fourth, and final, seat in my training contract where I'm on secondment to an airline company.
So without further ado, below are some of the uncomfortable experiences I encountered coming back to the UK after 6 months of living in Japan AND a bonus introduction to what it's like working at an airline!
1. On autopilot
Everything in Tokyo was so different - the food, the culture, the language - so it was only when I arrived back in the UK that I discovered that my autopilot function had been somewhat recalibrated to adapt to my life in Tokyo.
To launch right in, the first thing I noticed on returning to London was that when I went to the toilet, my pee was EXTREMELY LOUD. Every time the liquid hit the bowl, it was like:
I realised that it was because for 6 months I had used the Japanese "flush sound" function, which delicately covers up the sound of your pee. Go figure.
The second thing I noticed was that I kept ending up on the wrong floor when people told me to go to "Level 1"/ "First floor". In Japan, the first floor is the ground floor. In the UK, the first floor is one level above the ground floor. I can't count how many times I was told to meet someone on the first floor, so I went *downstairs* to the ground floor and couldn't find them. After searching the office for a good few minutes, I'd always end up like:
Another thing? London SMELLS. It smells real bad. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, it can definitely smell like there is some 19th century shit still lying around underground, waiting for you to innocently walk past it.
Lastly, London = chaos. Gone are my beloved elevator lift rules, which I had finally gotten the hang of. While Tokyo's attitude to lifts are like...
...London's attitude to lifts are like:
There are so many things I love about London, which I really missed, but I guess I had no idea how much Japan can get under your skin :)
2. Planes and Trains
As mentioned above, I am spending my last 6 months of my training contract working for an airline company in its legal team. Here are my initial observations:
- Everyone is SO NICE. It's like all the nice lawyers leave private practice and go in-house (not even joking, I think that's a thing). NB: Excluding my besties of course.
- Examples of the above observation:
- I've had to retrain myself to say "sorry" if I come within 1 metre of another person;
- I've learned to hold doors open for people - this takes up about 30 - 40 minutes of my day but it's just so darn nice that other people hold the door open for me!
- I was eating a hard boiled egg as part of my lunch one day. An employee whom I had never met called out to me:
"That's an eggsellent lunch you have there! It looks eggsactly what you need. You'll have a great eggsperience eating it I'm sure."
I replied "Eggsetera, Eggsetera?"
He said "Eggsactly!" - I get my lunch from the Arrivals terminal. The Departures terminal is an extra 5 minute walk and it's too much effort.
- I love seeing planes up close. They're so majestic, and when they roll past, the floor of our office floor shakes.
- I hate the people flying on planes. I have to hide my badge whenever I go to the terminal in case someone wants to complain about a delayed flight or ask me for directions.
- The commute is the bane of my existence: over an hour each way, compared to walking to work over the past year and a half. And if I miss the one good train that runs on time, I'm screwed. As a result, every morning is like this:
That said, a life changing recommendation was that I should take up podcasts and I am obsessed! Podcasts are the only thing I talk about anymore and I don't see this changing until I stop spending 2.5 hours on a train per day.
I hope that caught you all up and I hope you're all well! Til next time! :)
Thanks Stephanie for sharing your experience. it was indeed funny. i had great laugh reading it.
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