A Milestone?

I haven't been blogging for very long or very often, but today I feel I have reached a significant milestone as a blogger. Today's previous post attracted the first spam comment. I've turned on word verification for comments. Hopefully this will deter Professor Howdy and his friends.

「日本はどう？」

Where one might ask "did you have a good time?" in English, in Japanese, the question I usually hear is a more open-ended "how was it?" My 3-year-old equivalent vocabulary seems to cover most cases well enough; I tend to stick with using "good" or "fun", sometimes throwing them both together for "goodfun", and this seems to be sufficient. But yesterday, when a coworker asked, "How was Japan?", it was not my vocabulary that made answering difficult. How can I sum up five months of exploring, traveling, studying, sightseeing, working, learning, and living in Japan? "Goodfun" just doesn't seem to do it justice. Tomorrow I will return home and although I am very much looking forward to the comfort of familiar places and people, I will miss this place and these people.

I don't think I would have it any other way.

Goodbye Japan. Thanks for all the goodfun times.

台風

For me, the typhoon has meant little more than crowded trains and some rain, but it is having more severe effects on others. Read more about the typhoon in the news.

More is Less

The more Japanese I learn, the less I feel like I know. For example, when I first arrived I was having trouble understanding anything spoken at a normal rate. Now, after 4 months in Japan, I am often able to group what I hear into distinct words and phrases, turning one featureless blob of sound into smaller, more manageable (although no more understandable) chunks. I can often pull out a few (typically small) chunks I can understand (usually things like 'today' or 'I think'), but with most sentences, that still leaves me with about a dozen words I don't understand. That's 12 times as many things that I don't understand!

分かる？

One of the great things about coming to Japan is being immersed in the Japanese language. It seems there is no better way to learn a language than to be surrounded by it on a daily basis. Not surprisingly, my language skills have improved considerably since coming to Japan, but, like many other things, my ability to understand others varies a little from day to day. Of course, there are days when I feel like I will never understand this language. And then there are days when I feel like I will never ever ever ever understand this language.

Perusal.

All of my email at work is, not surprisingly, in Japanese. This means I can hardly understand any of it so I have resorted to using Google Translate to quickly get a rough idea of what an email is about. If the topic appears important enough for a more careful translation, I'll start looking up individual words and picking apart the grammar into understandable chunks. Although the Japanese to English leaves much to be desired (it is in beta), what comes out is almost always amusing. Here is today's translation.

The web [kurieitazu] September edition of July 29th sale has reached. “The design part 62 which with main special edition style seat &JavaScript is expressed” “WEB chestnut thornback tar second life enrollment” giving brown machine side, the magazine rack it leaves upper. Perusal.

Benifits of Living Alone

Japan's summer weather — hot and humid — makes the commute home from work in long pants and long sleeves a little bit miserable (although I'm lucky enough to not have to wear a suit every day). One of the good things about living alone, however, is that after I'm home, pants (and all other clothing for that matter) is strictly optional.

社長

On our second day of work, the company president treated Richard and I to lunch. Along with the President's secretary, the CTO, and one of the division managers, we headed up to the 25th floor of our neighboring building. Once inside the restaurant, the chef came to ask what he should prepare. Kimura-san, the president, asked the chef to make foods that foreigners could enjoy. We were not disappointed. The meal included some tempura, grilled eggplant, a few unidentified items, and the most delicious sashimi I have ever had in my life. The pieces were large and thick, a beautiful deep red color, and a taste that was simply too amazing to describe. This was definitely one of the best meals I've had in Japan, right up there with the Bing lunch and dinner. In addition to our amazing food, we chatted (mostly in Japanese) about our experiences in Kyoto and what we wanted to do in Tokyo. It was relaxed and pleasant; a nice way to meet the president. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work at KBMJ. Since it is such a small and young company, there are a lot of opportunities that wouldn't be available in other places — I don't think most people get to eat lunch with their company's president on the second day of work!

自己紹介

Every Tuesday morning KBMJ holds a company-wide meeting. Everyone more or less works in a single open room so such a meeting is fairly easy to hold — a portable PA system is set up and people stand in front of their desks to listen to announcements and introductions. Everyone tends to pay close attention (as you might expect in a Japanese company), so it was very noticeable when Richard and I walked in a few minutes late to our first real day of work. Unfortunately, this embarrassment didn't save us from the task of giving short self introductions very shortly thereafter. (Hello, my name is Jeffrey. I'm a 3rd year student at Stanford majoring in computer science. I'm from Utah. doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.) After the company-wide meeting was over, I was shown my desk and introduced to my supervisors. I had barely sat down when a brand new MacBook was handed to me, mine to use for the summer. I don't think I could have been more excited to get started! The only bad thing about this is that I'll have to give it back in 2 months. I spent the rest of the day configuring my new computer, installing software, and learning to type on a Japanese keyboard (ALL of the punctuation is in a different place and THERE IS NO BACKSLASH). I was also given the task of learning Ruby, a programming language that has gained some popularity recently, and my neighbor, Shin, helped me get my computer set up for developing in Ruby on Rails, KBMJ's framework of choice for writing web applications. Altogether it was a good first day of work.

First Day at KBMJ

This will be my second time in Tokyo, the first coming at the beginning of Golden Week a couple of months ago. I still remember my first impressions of the city as the Shinkansen made its way into Tokyo. The gentle female voice announcing in proper British English that "very soon we will be making a brief stop in Shinagawa before arriving in Tokyo" stirred me from my sleep and as I awoke, I took a look outside the window. The Shinkansen had already slowed to snake its way through the giant glass and steel buildings, beautiful and impressive in the early afternoon sunlight. Little did I know that in a couple of months I would be working in one of those buildings! KBMJ, my company, has offices on the 14th and 16th floors of the Shidome Sumitomo Building (汐留住友ビル). After getting off the train in Shinagawa, correctly Transferring to the Yamanote Line, getting off on the wrong stop, getting back on the train to get off at the right stop, navigating nearly a mile of poorly marked underground pedestrian walkway, we made it back to the impressive building we passed on the Shinkansen. Mr. Moriwaki from the HR department met us and after taking care of some paperwork and a brief introduction, we were sent to find our apartments in nearby Akihabara.