It's almost over??

Well, I have one more week left. Kimi left today, she has work. I think I am getting a bit of a look at what going on business trips must be like. I can't say that I will be sad to longer be a full-time employee. Working for a summer makes me realize how nice school life really is. But I also can't say that I don't like being busy at work. There are positives to both.

This week I should see the results of my work this summer. My projects are coming to completion. It's nice. Although I have been working on quite a few different things, I have had a couple of projects that I have been working on the whole time I have been here. It's good to see completed projects.

On thing I hope I take with me is a greater value of relationships. Having had the opportunity to visit old areas and people that I knew from before has made me realize that I need to stay in touch with them. I need to be better at contacting all these people. Those relationships and renewing them has been one of the things that I have enjoyed most about being here.

Well, I'll see you all around this fall.

最後まで耐え忍ぶ

Well the last week is over. I am happy it didn’t stretch out really long that happens sometimes. I guess that means I enjoy being here somewhat. Well this week just like all the others I have been translating things and just trying to stay focused after about 2 hours of it. It kind of feels like I am not leaving. Kind of interesting. Anyway just one more weekend in Japan and I am on my way home. I hope everybody else has a safe trip home.

Updates

To see my updated journal please link to

http://tokyointern.blogspot.com

Long Time no Post

Gomen!!!!
Well, I haven’t been excellent at posting on the weekly page. I have updated my journal though, and posted all of it on my other site today. Here is the massive backlog.

August 7th 2006
Kimi gets back from a trip to Nagoya tonight. I guess she just has a strong love for that part of the country. She is even turning into a big Chunichi Dragons Fan.

I spent most of the day today sitting at other desks. I sat for a while at the Credit Derivatives Desk. Ren Kuroda, who was working with Landon last year gave me a great overview of what his area does. We talked for almost an hour and a half. It was pretty fun. I am set up to sit with a couple of other people in his section. I’m looking forward to it.

Now, on with the backlog. . .

June 26th ___

I finished one of my books today. This fulfils part of my professional goals and personal goals. The book is called “The wisdom of crowds.” My boss Brad suggested it to me. The book talked about how, under the right circumstances, a crowd can make exceptionally accurate and intelligent decisions. Pretty interesting thought, very good delivery. I’m not sure I believe everything that he has said, but a lot of it makes good sense. The best part of the book are the case studies.

July 3rd ~~

Got a bit closer to one of my professional goals this week. I have been talking with one of my supervisors. He seems keen on having me come back. I don’t know about the position, but I guess it is good to have the options.

I have forgotten how hard it was to find my way around to someplace new. When I have just and address, it is really tough to find a place. So far I haven’t really need to find anything that wasn’t a landmark. This weekend trying to find a restaurant just off the address was tough. Props to the missionaries trying to track down referrals. That was fun that I’m glad to forget.

July 10th ~~

Greeting from Tokyo:

Today I was assigned a bit more challenging project. It is a credit report like the others, but it is not necessarily just a standard review. We don’t do a whole lot with the company, so the margins are not that high, the risk is not that high, but I get to assign the rating by myself. Of course before it is submitted my boss, Thomas, will look over the whole thing and make sure it is okay like all the rest, but this time, he said I should find out what the rating I felt was warranted by the company. This feels like a significant increase in responsibility. I feel very grateful that they are very concerned in seeing me progress. Thomas has been particularly helpful, and I think that he hopes just a little bit that I would come back for full time work.

I started by getting all the relevant information. I started with Bloomberg: major news stories over the last year, plots of equity price and other securities issued by the company: information on their credit rating. Next I got the Moody’s/S&P/Fitch rating analysis off the web. I guess a lot of my opinion will probably match what they say on their reports. Normally I guess a credit officer would us the ratings to determine if there was consensus, not as a basis of his report, but I’m not really a credit officer. Finally, I got the annual report and spread their financials. Just getting, and going through all the information took the better part of the day, so I guess I will start my analysis tomorrow.

July 18th~~

Howdy to Josh and Jon, it was good to see you in Gifu this week.

I finished another book this week. It was written by the President of Monitor group, and was about the Japanese financial revival, he called it a renaissance. It was very interesting. He said that we need to be Modern Samurai that are strong with the sword and pen. It was very much a different take that what was written in the “Inside the Kaisha book.” I can’t say which argument I agree with more, and despite their conflicting paths, they actually came to similar conclusions about Japanese business. I would definitely suggest this as a read.

My work in CRM continues much the same as before. I update credit reports, file rating reviews, and spread financials. All good things that I’m glad I had the experience to do. I think that it will help in the future.

We had a great dinner tonight with the Regional head of Credit Risk Stefan Boecker. We went to a really expensive feeling Italian place that Akemi Yamaguchi (the office staff secretary) has connections with. I ordered what I was going to have last Friday.

I started off with a trio of appetizers. Melon with smoked salmon, a foie gras mousse thing, and a salad with raw ham. It was all very tasty. Then I skipped the wine, but really enjoyed the assorted meats and cheese platter. The meats were amazing, sausages, a bit of meat cut from the smoked leg of a dear, really tasty pepperoni, more raw ham, and a couple of others. Then I had a great pasta, that was a bit small for how much I wanted to eat, and a piece of fish that had bacon on it. Wow, that was an amazing taste. Finally, I had a crème brule and a piece of chocolate mouse cake for dessert. Amazing. Amazing that it was only like 40 dollars a person. I guess I would have felt like I was really getting my money’s worth if I drank wine. Some people had four or five glasses. But then some didn’t drink really any as they had to go back to work when it was done.

More interesting than the food was the conversation. Thomas is a great guy and I have had fun working with him. He basically offered me a job in CRM, I don’t know if he was serious, but he said that he thought I would be good in the position if I wanted it. I like the people that I work with. I like the hours and the pay that I would get. But I don’t know if I love the work. It is interesting in some respects, but it just isn’t what I’m looking for.

July 24th ~~

It is weird to be on the downslope. I feel comfortable in my job and responsibilities, I feel like I have learned a lot.

I really love Japan. Working in Japan and Dendoing in Japan are of course very different, but both provide similar experiences. In both you have an opportunity to really get into the none-tourist Japan. You have opportunities to get behind the tatemae. You see the parts of Japan that doesn’t show up in Lonely Planet. I have loved getting to know my co-workers. Brad, as I sit next to him every day has been an excellent mentor. Armin and Thomas, two of the Germans in this German Bank have been very good at teaching me new skills. Among the Japanese, Kohei is an a typical salaryman, but a good example of what I think the modern Japanese businessman will be like. Ken is a really typical salaryman (I think he stays at least an hour later than anyone else) has been a great resource to discuss the company and working in Japan. The three OL’s have been a lot of fun. Very helpful always with a lot of stories, and they all keep on telling me to come back again. Very good people.

As for work, I was originally planning on being in CRM for the next couple of days, I spent most of today going back and forth between desks working on a couple of things for Brad and for Armin. It was okay. For Brad, I was working on follow-up with Honma-san and the OR-Losses. We don’t want to have to teisei the teisei, so we were triple-checking the numbers today. For Armin, I was finishing a rating review. A very busy day, and I got home pretty late today.

July 31st ~~

Well, Today was lunch with Warnick Sensei. He is traveling around doing kaisha-kankei stuff. What a restaurant. The grill was called Lawry’s. I had a giant piece of prime rib that about put me to sleep when I got back. It was a good lunch. Mitch talked for a while about what it is that they are looking for in the interns. Dr. Warnick talked for a while about what the interns are looking for. Rebecca and I talked for a while about our experiences in Japan. It was good. I felt bad a bit though when it was done as I forgot to really thank Dr. Warnick for providing the experience.

Anyway, things have been good at work. I finished another month. Averaged about 65 work hours this time, so a bit of an increase, but I didn’t really notice. I guess it was a bit easier to stay a bit later now that the Lewis’s have gone. I was trying to get home earlier to see if I could be out doing things with them. But now, I just work till I’m done. Crazy that it is already August. I can hardly believe that I have two weeks left.

Also, next week, Brad has encouraged me to visit other areas while he is in Taiwan for the rescheduled workshop. I have already set up a couple of appointments, so I hope that I can use the time well.

あと一週間

This week was largely spent creating and modifying my presentation. I think it is funny that I have to give a presentation on software I have been using for three months to people that have been using it or similar for years. At least it will be more interesting than a “what I learned here” presentation. It was good to see some of the other interns again at the closing lunch function. It was really good to get most of the day off to drive there and back to work. It was about three hours round trip. I am taking a night bus to Tokyo tonight and spending the weekend with one of my old companions. It should be a fun trip and good to see some more different areas of Japan. I have only been to Tokyo once and that was just for a late dinner about 5 years ago. It will be fun with a friend and now that I can speak Japanese. I am definitely ready to go home and don’t want to translate anything for a long time. Just one week left and I am out of here. I will try not to slack off too much. It hasn’t helped that my boss has been gone for two weeks on business trips. 頑張るしかない！At least for one more week.

Hang In There!

Just a week or two left for everyone -- you're almost there! Thanks for blogging faithfully. Someone asked if you'll get docked for missing an entry or if you get graded on the quality of your entries. It is mostly a completion grade, and I imagine one missing entry won't be a problem, but hopefully you have something written for every week.
I'm flying out to Hong Kong on the 8th, spending five days there picking up my brother from his mission, then heading over to Japan for the rest of August. If anyone is still around by then (about the 14th?) let me know. Have fun out there while you can!

The Back Log For weeks 11-13

I didn't know we were getting graded for our reponses. Is that true Landon?
Anyway I think I forgot two weeks worth too, but only because two weeks ago I found out I'm going home 2 weeks early. YES!!!! And I had a lot of errands to tie up my experience here. So, I'll give you the last three weeks and my last day so you know what I've been up to.

July 10 – 14, 2006
I’m translating more catalogs into English. (these are catalogs that won't be sold in english countries, they're really reaching for thing for me to do.) They won't need the translation for several more years at least.

July 17 – 21, 2006
Same as last week. Except I get to go home early because apparently they figured I would rather go home to see my wife and new born baby, than sit around doing worthless translations. Praying helps. So does a little bit of discussion.

July 24 – 28, 2006
On Tuesday, they gave me two reports that NBK employees had written about a subsidiary company they toured recently in Indonesia. They wanted them translated before the weekend. I had no time to do anything else this week because we also had our pool side party and I helped clean the pool. That was the funnest day of the whole internship.

July 31, 2006
It's my last day of work and I feel great. Only a meeting to endure then I'm off to America. I spent the day wrapping up my translation assignment and getting ready to go home. There's still no end to how much money Japan is squeezing out of my pockets. That's my final complaint for you. If you can live in this hole without signing up for anything it's better that way. At least you don't have to pay for months of stuff you're not going to use.

I Love Fridays

I spent most of this week translating pricing manuals and reformatting them. I think my co-workers are finally starting to check all the things I have translated up to now because they keep asking me questions. Most of which I don’t remember or don’t have the answer to anyway. My boss was gone on a trip to America all week and it looks like he will be in Germany all next week. That is pretty intense. I have to do a few things before I leave here. I have to write a report about the work I have done and give a training session on the translating software I have been using. Both should be pretty interesting. Anything other than translating all day is interesting. Also I should be going to Meiji Mura tomorrow and Tokyo next weekend. Now that it has finally stopped raining I can go do some adventuring. I hope everyone else has had a good week. Just 2 left.

Every week should have a holiday in it!

I came to work for half a day on Monday even though it was a holiday. We were working on translating a big project that had to be done by today. At least my boss bought me lunch. Plus I might get to take half a day off later. I finished my part and they really didn’t give me anything else relating to that project to work on. So I went back to translating my good old manual friends. I had one other small assignment in the middle of the week but it didn’t take long to finish. I guess that means that we finished the project okay. I am excited that time is getting short. It has been fun to work here but I am missing home. Okay more like I am missing my girlfriend. Anyway just a few more weeks and I will be home. Hope everyone else is doing great.

Week 10

July 10 – 14, 2006
I’m translating more catalogs into English.

Another week bites the dust!

I spent two days visiting a customer site in Saitama and doing nothing. It was really nice to get out of the office. It would have been a little better if there was somewhere I could have taken a nap. It was pretty much like two days off with a 4 hour train ride. It was interesting enough just to see the facility. It was empty because they are just starting receiving. It was also really slow cause they didn’t receive that much while I was there. The rest of the week I have been working on translating part of a proposal into English which needs to be done by next Friday. It is a little more exciting than translating a manual because it has a deadline and is directly related to a sale.
I also went to Kyoto over the weekend. It was really fun. We didn’t have a lot of time down there because there was a traffic jam when we left and we spent like 2 hours eating lunch at Shakey’s. We ended up going to Kinkakuji and Kiyomizudera. All day the thunder was really cool and loud and it only rained when we were in the car. I also got to go to a Japanese rest stop. It was more like a mini shopping center. I guess it is more convenient that way. That is all for now.

Short Report

July 3 – 7, 2006
Not much has changed. I still haven’t been given anything to do, so we’ll see. I’ve been working on my homework and getting a lot done there.

July has come

This week I worked on some English to Japanese translation at the beginning which was actually kind of fun. Once I finished that though it was back to the catalogue. The more I translate this thing the easier it gets and the faster I can do it. However it is also really boring translating the same thing over again. One good thing is that my boss told me I will probably be doing a presentation on the translating software that some of the people here use and all the things I have learned about it so far. So I spent half of the day yesterday figuring out more stuff about the software. It is pretty cool in theory but a lot of the functions don’t work the way they should. Anyway it will be interesting to continue studying that and give a presentation on it.
I also found out I will be making another trip out of the office. YES!! I am going to visit one of our customer’s sites in Saitama on the day they start receiving. I am taking my boss’s place as a translator if they really need it. Hopefully nothing goes wrong and I can just chill there for two days. It will be cool to see how it works when they start receiving stuff though. Well that is about it for this week. I am really hoping the weather is nice this weekend. This sames like a pretty dry rainy season but you never know.

The weeks are lessening...

June 26 – 30, 2006
I look at all of the blog posts and I think, Dang, I've been here forever and some of you got here after me and are going home before me. It's not fair. Today (the 4th of July) is my two month mark and I still have another 6 weeks. I can't wait to get out of here.
My entire weeks blend together; a good and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because things are finally starting to go quickly. It’s a bad thing because sometimes I don’t remember that I was supposed to post a posting until Tuesday of the following week. At least, if things keep going quickly I won’t have to deal with my extreme “trunkiness” for very much longer. I know a couple of you know exactly what I mean. I’m over this experience already, it wasn't fun and I have so many better things I want to get to…
Ok. Last week, I finished the translation of the catalog and started my final revising. I’m finished as of 9:00am on Tuesday, July 4, 2006; just in time for the deadline. Actually, I put off to giving it to them until I was sure they wouldn’t be able to revise it all without messing it up profusely. But I guess even if I gave it to them now, they could force someone to stay up all night and destroy what I’ve accomplished in the last month. Maybe I’ll delay it until after lunch, that way I can also enjoy my freedom. This is the first time I’ve found myself caught up since I got here. I’m finally in the situation that every other intern before us said we would be in when we got here. I have nothing to do. So, I don’t really feel bad about doing homework during work, because every other intern wasted time at their company, and this is my first chance. It’s actually a big relief compared to normal. Anyway that’s my week
I’m also scared that if I tell them I have nothing to do they’ll send me back to the factories. I won’t put up with that. If they do, I’m not staying in Japan. There’s no way in Hades that I’m staying here another month and then some just to work in the factory. I could do that in America. Actually, thus far all of the work I’ve done could have been done from America. If being a part of a Japanese company was the purpose in an internship, I got the point. I kept thinking an internship would be some cool experience where everyday counts, but internships stink, the only thing I find purpose in is Payday. Payday’s in a week. I won’t even bat an eyelash if I decide to go home. (That’s only if they send me back to the factory) So we’ll see.

Hey, Landon, if they send me to the factories, do I need to talk to you about that before I make a decision?

Long week

I spent this week translating and checking translations of a price estimation and configuration guide. It was interesting at first but having to translate the same thing with just a slight difference gets old after a while. Luckily for me the software I am using helps me out a lot. In other words it is making me lazy. Since everything is pretty much the same it just shows me the similar sentence and I just have to change the few words that are different. The good news is that my boss gave me a new job today that will take priority. I need to translate some software integration scenarios into Japanese. So far this has been more interesting than I thought it would be. But I am probably just sick of working on the manual. I like translating from English more I have realized. It is just so much easier to understand what the person actually means. I can’t believe that it is the end of June already. Just a month and a half left until it is time to go home. I hope everyone else is learning a lot. Don’t let the heat get you down. Later.

A busy week

Today was an interesting day. We've been having weekly meetings with all the other interns where we have lunch and someone comes and speaks to us. Today, a headhunter from A.T. Kearney came and talked about career development. Turns out he was a mission president in Nagoya a few years back and a former BYU teacher. I liked the presentation. It was pretty interesting.

This evening there was a reception at Goldman Sachs. Also very interesting. I talked to people in varioius divisions of the business and enjoyed their building on the 47th floor of the Mori Building in Roppongi Hills.

We are going to a baseball game on Thursday, Swallows vs. Dragons with the interns.

As far as the actual work, it is going good. I compare my job to a person who learns about cars by being a repair mechanic rather that someone who learns about them by assembling them in a factory. I see all the things that go wrong, and have to understand why they when wrong and how to fix them.

I went to Kamakura with Omar and my wife's sister and brother in law. Good times. I went to Karaoke for the first time. It was this really cool, quirky, fun room in a Shidax. We belted some tunes. I really love this city.

Week something or other

June 19 – 23, 2006
This week was basically more catalog translation. I was also given a deadline of July 5th. I have about a week and a half left. Thirty pages left to translate and about that many to revise. I’m thinking it will be busy but doable.
I had a few meetings with the Product Development Department and Sales Department heads to go over and finalize the License Agreement. I realized I have way too much pride in my work, because despite all the time I spent on drafting it instead of translating, I was still angry when they made me change my translation back to Japanese-ish ways of speaking. I realized half way through these meetings that the Germans who will read that document have about the same reading level as the Japanese do, (well, actually a lot better in some instances) so I was left to ponder as to why they wanted me to fix their English if the original was what they wanted anyway. I guess in that respect I had too much pride because I dumbed it down a lot and wasn’t very happy about it. Maybe that’s a cultural difference and maybe it would be frustrating for anyone, who knows?

You can't take a picture of a firefly with a keitai

I went to this place where you can see fireflies on Sunday. Everyone was trying to take pictures with their cell phones. It just doesn't work people. At least I got a laugh out of it. Well this week has just been translating sections of manuals. It gets old really quick but is kind of fun because I get to see the final product. It is also fun to learn the programs they use to do this type of work. A lot of it is pretty simple but very useful. Without it formatting these documents would take quite a while. My boss is still looking for a good place to take me to go visit some customers. I am getting pretty tired of the office. I was really glad when I got to leave and get my gaijin card last week. Anyway nothing much else is going on.
I think it is interesting how people react to the world cup. My section was talking about it yesterday. All of the Japanese people agreed that they needed to get up at 4 am and watch the game against Brazil. It was funny because Japan had no chance of defeating Brazil and to wake up that early to watch it is strange to me. Especially since I don’t really even like soccer. Just anything cultural difference I guess. Later.

Keep it up, fellas!

I say "fellas" because only males have posted so far, but Rebecca, Kyoko, and Saori: if you are reading this you keep it up too. It was nice to see that everybody posted last week - everybody has started and is working the summer away now. CONGRATULATIONS to Josh on becoming a father just in time for Father's Day! Excellent use of the webcam.
Reading all of your posts makes me want to get out there myself. I'll be in Japan in August, so anyone that is still out there and close enough to Tokyo, you'll have to come eat dinner at my house.
Dewa, mata raishuu.

Tokyo

Here are a couple of pics to kind of break up the text on this page.

Rainbow Bridge as seen from Tokyo Tower.

The view from our Balcony













My wife and I on a bike-rigshaw at a museum. 

Sorry, I'm finally starting

So, I've finally slowed down a bit. Here goes on my first couple of days. The first day, I got in just a couple of minutes early and talked to a couple of the new interns. The group that was there was very diverse. We had a couple of engineers from BYU, an accounting major from Bucknell, Finance from UCLA, Asian Studies from Princeton, Law at American University, and MBA's from Vanderbilt, Cornell, and Sloan.

The first day and the second day were both full of training. We had heads from nearly all the departments, and a few members of Central managment come and speak. Musha-san, who is the chief economist also gave us an over view of the economic situation in Japan. I asked a question about Post-Office privitization, but he felt it was to broad a topic to discuss in the little time we had. So he gave me his short answer and moved on.

The first day was broken up by a lunch at the Tokyu Excelsior Hotel. There I met my buddy for the summer, Brad Stewart. He is Australian, and a really cool guy. Having been in Japan for 11 years as a student, member of the foreign service, and a professional at Lehman and Deutsche, he knows a lot about the industry and the region. Plus, he is a lot of fun to talk too.

At the end of the first day I found myself on the 27th floor at a resturant with a great view. Nariko, the person who has been helping us with all of the orientation and preparation before the program, said that the dinner would be social time with drinks and fingerfoods, I didn't know that fingerfoods included tons of nigiri sushi, karaage, great fried foods, and cool desserts. This resturant, called shunjuu, was kind of small, but there, over drinks, I met the Chariman of the Bank, Mr. Hashimoto, and other high ranking members of the bank.

The second day was more training. I felt bad, because I didn't know a whole lot about the things people were talking about, and the people that did know a lot weren't really participating in the training. So the presenters didn't really get a lot of great feedback from us. Plus, it was a little weird, but we never clapped for people. I guess I should have started the trend.

That evening was capped off with dinner with Kimi. We got to hang out a little in Shinjuku and had dinner at a fun little Chinese place.

Wednesday morning we went to Bloomberg for a training on their equipment. I have to admit that I didn't get all the nuances of the setup, but it was really effective. That building was fun because they had the Bloomberg news going on right there on the first floor, and had an open resturant on the second floor. Nice place.

Today was my first day of work. Lots more to learn. I've started a couple of projects though, and I think there will be a lot of great things for me to do coming up this next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

Week somenumber

June 12th – 16th, 2006
My daughter Lilia Rachel Keanaaina was born on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 7:34p.m. I participated via Webcam. She was born at 8lbs. 0oz. and 20inches long. That’s 3638 grams and 50.8 cm in the Japanese version. My wife and daughter are both happy and doing fine. Happy Father’s Day!!!
This week I worked on more catalog translations which was major boring crap. (Can we write crap in our reports? If not, just pretend I said stuff.) I was also asked to draft a License Agreement for rights to a German clamp design that My Company is planning to or already using. Basically, the gist of the operation is that, even though in Japan it’s not necessary to worry about patents or copyrights, in order to maintain a desirable business relationship between the two companies, My Company wants to show forth their willingness to pay royalties to the amount of 5% of the gross income of every product (hereinafter referred to as the Licensed Materials) in compliance to German and International Laws which govern the use of said patents and/or copyrights, to accomplish that end.
That is all for now. Although, I noticed that if I tell my company what Jon’s doing at his company my company tries to follow suit, so maybe they’ll be sending me to Tokyo soon too.

I want to go to Monkey Park

I like monkies. I was in Shiga for Monday and Tuesday. It was a lot of fun. Monday was basically just translating lectures. But it was okay. The presentation that I translated was really difficult. I can say it wasn’t my fault because the guy that made it just kind of made up all this special words that don’t mean what they general do in Japanese. How am I supposed to know that? Anyway there was a guy that knew English and knew what was going on so he saved the day. On Tuesday we went to two different sites where Daifuku had installed distribution systems. It was really cool to see all of those things working. I came back after that. I lost my umbrella on the trip and of course it rained the next day. The rest of this week I have been working on the manual I was assigned right at the beginning. Mostly I just revised it and formatted it to how it looked originally. They have some cool programs that run off of Word that make it really easy to do all that stuff.
I had a lot of fun talking to the American guys. They were really nice and one of them bought me dinner on Monday. One of them had been to Japan before so he knew what was going on but the other two goys were clueless. It was really funny to watch them try and figure out what they were eating or complain that they hadn’t had normal food forever. They were even complaining that the breakfast at the hotel was toast. But it was just interesting to kind of make friends with these guys that had kids my age. It was also interesting to see that they still had a lot of stereotypes about Japan. Hopefully their children know a little bit more than the parents. It also felt really good to finish the translation and formatting of the manual introduction. It is satisfying to know that it is almost completely finished. The only thing left is to add the drawings and that type of thing. I guess it just feels like I did something useful. Well that is all for now. Hope everyone else is having fun too.

Something New

This week was pretty interesting. It started out pretty slow just working on the same old translating. I finished up the project I was working on right before they needed it. Then I spent the next two days checking the English on one of my co-workers translations. She is pretty good but sometimes you can tell that she still needs some work. But overall I would say she knows way more than I do. She has been doing this a lot longer than me. Then I got to go down to Shiga on Thursday. It was the first time I got to ride the Shinkansen. So that was pretty cool. I translated for the meeting on Friday and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But it worked out okay.
I finished the required amount of reading this week. I still have a Japanese history book that I plan on reading though. There were a lot of insights in what I have read as to how the Japanese people view themselves and others and why this is so. It is pretty interesting to think about. I want to get a better idea of the history of Japan to maybe put some things into perspective in my head. And also to better understand geographical significances and better appreciate the places I go. I will be translating next week as well for this same group Monday and Tuesday. I am looking forward to that. That is all for now I hope that everybody else is having a good time.

Week 5

June 5th – 9th, 2006
This week has been fair. Mostly I’ve been having computer problems which have prevented me from spending large amounts of time revising and translating. Since I use my own computer, it’s hard not to focus attention there when there’s a problem, because otherwise I’ll be spending the rest of my time here with a pencil and notebook, writing out English translations that take infinitely longer than they would if I spent a week fixing my firewall settings and cleaning viruses from the registry. Not to mention we’d miss our deadlines by leaps and bounds and all the work I do would have to be typed and revised several times before they could actually use them in a catalog. So there’s my justification in a nutshell. Hopefully, I’m not breaking anyone’s heart.
But, that was my week. It’s Friday at 5:00pm, I finally fixed things to a usable level, and I was still able to translate 30 and revise 20 pages. When I finish revision, I hope I won’t have to come back to these files again to update the translations. Up to this point, I’ve translated a little over a third of the 200 page catalog having two total weeks to do so, despite my computer problems. The translation and revising process takes ages. Otherwise, I present it to them and they “fix” it and give it back to me to revise, like they did with the first 25 pages I translated. Ridiculous!!!
I really wish I had something better to do than complain about work. I’m a bitter old man who doesn’t want to spend his time doing ridiculous tasks. I got paid this week, and that’s worth the 5 weeks of crap, just for the satisfaction of stickin’ it to the man; by paying tithing but not paying taxes. All right!!! Plus, a baby is about to be born with my name on it. What else really matters?

Hurray for June!

I am continuing to learn a lot about translating and how things work. I am basically finished with the translation that I have been working on. I just need to polish it off and I will be done. My boss and I tried various programs to try and set up the WIKI that he wanted to make for our company but nothing seemed to work out for us. So that project is kind of suspended for a while. I am going to be in Shiga translating for 3 days. That will start next week on Friday and then the following Monday and Tuesday. That will be interesting. I really need to start going over the materials that will be discussed. I can do that after I finish what I am working on right now.
I have been going sightseeing almost every Saturday with one of the members here. It is pretty nice because he knows where all of the cool stuff is. I have pretty much adjusted to life here I think. I am trying to think if I would want to work here again but I think it would be just as different to live here with a family as it is to be here not being a missionary. I don’t know if I will come to a conclusion on that one for a while but oh well. I am not looking forward to the weather getting hotter. But there isn’t much I can do about that.
I hope that everybody else is having fun and enjoying their summer.

Week 4

May 30 – June 2, 2006 First week of Work
This week has been infinitely more interesting and helpful in my efforts to be better in Japanese. I have been translating and revising translations of their catalogs. It takes a while to look up all the words I don’t know on the internet, since I have to wait until I get paid next week to buy an electronic dictionary, but I feel better about my ability to translate complicated Japanese sentences into clear and concise phrases; especially when I look at the kinds of sentences a Japanese mind comes up with in English. For the success of their business, I’m glad they try to at least run things by a Native speaker. Some of the things they come up with could rival the funniest on Engrish.com. I’ve been making a vocabulary list. If any of you want it I can make it available, though it might be easier to just use a dictionary. Translating words like Transverse Elastic Modulus, or Nitrohydrochloric Acid, or (Pozidriv, Frearson, or Phillips) Crossed Recess Pan Head Machine Screw has been some of my favorite memories of working here. Though it may not bring a tear to your eyes, the pure joy of freedom from sweatshops makes me appreciate the smaller joys of white collar tasks. Mono no aware means a little more to me than it ever has. (Though, I wear short sleeve shirts so my wrists are drenched.)
I was also able to expand my working base this week by translating technical/legal documents which specify the type of relationship our company has with another company. It took most of the week, but it was pretty cool. The other thing I was able to do was get my foot into their English advertising department by volunteering myself to help name a product line for Flat Panel Displays. It’s been a hectic week, and I feel myself falling behind in translating the catalogs, which is supposed to be my first priority.
I skipped Church this week for something I may never get to do again in my lifetime. I hope I don’t get kicked out of BYU for it. I went to Ise to help in the rebuilding festival for the Shinto Inner Shrine, called the Shikinen Sengu. Those of you, who know of what I speak, know that it only happens once in 20 years. Which is only partly true; it takes 7 years to build and this year and the next are the only ones that involve the general public until it’s finished. At least that’s what they told me. A friend from work invited me out of the blue to go to his home town in Ise to help. His family is one of the biggest supporters for the continuation of this tradition. So, I got to see a ton. I also got to share a ton of gospel principles especially with my friend. So, for those of you who may be thinking it was a waste of time…Hey, at least I got to share a bit o’ gospel with them, including basic beliefs about God and Christ. Anyway, like I said, this week was infinitely better than the last three. Next week should be sweet, Payday at last.

Week 3

May 22 – 26, 2006
Like I expected, there was nothing really to report about this week. Mostly, it was doing the same things over and over. I made spacers for couplings that run $40-50 a pop. If I actually made the kind of money I’m making for the company, I’d have thousands already. On average, I make about 10-15 of these an hour, depending on the type, for 8 hours a day all week. So if your following with a calculator or in your head, that’s roughly about $4000 a day and $20,000 for the whole week. That’s just this week alone too. Who knows how much money I’ve made these past three weeks? Maybe that’s why they had me do this experience stuff, so just in case I’m not profitable at one point in time or another, it doesn’t really cost them much to keep me here for the specified times. So, in a sense I’m in exactly what my wife feared I was in; a sweat shop. It’s actually not so bad, at least I get paid, which won’t happen till the 9th of June. And in some twisted way I feel a sense of accomplishment at making these things all day.
I didn’t realize that I’ve basically been here on my own expenses since I got to Japan. Not to forget though, (Company name) does give me three meals a day M-F and I stay in their dormitory and they gave me clothes to work in said sweat shops. Even though they’re not the best in quality I at least don’t have to pay for them… at least until I see how much they siphoned from my labor stipend. Then we’ll see whether or not this company is actually generous or not. Either way, if they extend a job offer to me, unless I’m getting paid a real salary, I’d have to be completely insane to say yes.
I’m happy that I won’t have to keep doing this for the entire time I’m here. At least I hope not… I’m scheduled to be in the office next week and my schedule isn’t set after that. I expect to do more translation when I get there. We’ll see how it turns out.

Week 3

Stephen here,
I have been pretty busy translating more documents and presentations. That is about all that I have been doing around here. I found out that I will be going down to Shiga in a couple of weeks to do some translating for some English speakers so that will be a nice break from sitting in front of a computer all day. Also I will be able to see the big demonstration building that Daifuku has in Shiga. The other nice thing is that I will probably be interpreting for the presentation I am translating right now. So that will really help with knowing the material. I did get some feedback this week from one of my co-workers which is pretty good. It was actually funny because the document she was giving me feedback on I had already gone over with my boss and fixed most of the problems. I don’t know why she had the old one but we caught a couple more mistakes that way so it was good.
This weekend I am going to go to a translation training meeting at church on Saturday. There are lots of non-Japanese in the ward so translation is a big deal. Also on Sunday I will be giving my first lesson to the Sunday school youth class. I still have a lot of preparation to do for both but it will be interesting to see how things turn out. I think that after this weekend things will really start to get routine and the time will fly by.

Thanks for Blogging!

Thanks to everyone that has posted so far. Our TSB and DB interns will be starting soon, so we can all look forward to hearing from them too. Sounds like there has been a fair amount of frustration for many of you in the first couple of weeks, but also some good experiences - keep us posted on how things go, and ganbatte kudasai.
Wes asked what I would like everyone to write about. Basically whatever you want, but I guess I'm most interested in hearing about what you're doing, problems or challenges you're facing, and any insights you have about Japan, work, or life in general. Again, it's up to you. The posts have been great so far.

I have one request - make sure the date appears on your post so I know when it was posted. Some messages have the date in blue above the message, and some don't. If the date isn't showing up on your messages, go ahead and include it in your text.

Thanks and good luck out there! Take advantage of the time you have in Japan! It will be over before you know it.

Week 2

May 15 – 19, 2006
It never ceases to amaze me how deficient I must seem to my supervisors. They stare over my shoulder endlessly, check and recheck everything I’ve checked and rechecked, and talk to me like I’m the biggest idiot that ever walked the face of the earth. The person (and when I say “the person” I know exactly who that is) who decided I need more than one day in a section to get the idea of what they’re trying to do, also underestimated my intelligence quotient. This体験 has been the biggest waste of time in the history of the world with maybe the exception of the wanderings of the Children of Israel and the Dark Ages.
The weird thing is standing up for 8 or more hours a day is better on my back than sitting on a stool with no back rest. They let me use a stool for four hours or so on Friday. All this time I thought it might be easier for me to complete my tasks if I had the comforts of those who have to work in an office, but now I realize once you start giving everyone a seat, then all the sudden everyone has back problems, especially when you don’t get the expensive chairs with a back rest. It’s got to be ethically wrong to make someone sit on a stool for 8 hours a day. It’s better to train all your workers how to stand for 8 or 9 hours a day. That way the biggest problems you run into are sore feet and minor injuries sustained from falling asleep on the job doing the most mundane tasks that smart people can think up. Also with stools there’s all the money you’ll have to invest into a company chiropractor, especially since the tea they serve is supposed to create calcium deficiencies and it’s served at every meal. That’s probably the only reason why their workers haven’t broken in half yet. They’re just like me. On the week ends I crave calcium products and buy accordingly, I don’t drink the tea but I don’t get calcium any other way.
If you’re as bored reading about this week as I was experiencing it, you still have no idea how torturous these days have been for me. I don’t expect anything to change next week. Maybe the only redeeming value of Tuesdays and Thursdays is that I’ve started teaching English Conversation Classes and the students are somewhat anxious to learn. But these are still tainted by the fact that I have to spend an extra 2 hours working to accomplish this task. I hate devoting myself to some company of people I’m never going to see again in this life.
Family’s where it’s at. I’m surprised how much time these people spend doing things for their company. Working shouldn’t overpower so much of your life style, should it? It should be a part of the big picture that helps you to pass the woes of this life; not create new ones. There are newlyweds that work from 7a to 8p everyday including Saturdays not including traveling time. When do they see their spouses? For maybe 4 hours a night and an hour in the morning? No wonder members here take time out of Sundays to go to an運動会during sacrament meeting. Otherwise, when would they ever spend time showing their kids they love them? It’s hard enough to spend only 5 hours every 24 hours trying to keep your marriage alive, especially when you get home and don’t really want to do much but hang out and relax. Whatever my occupation is in the future, I’m glad there are places that can understand that working for the success of companies isn’t as important to society as building families. This experience has reinforced this idea to me more than I thought was humanly possible. I hope I don’t sound too bitter… I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

Week 2

Things are starting to pick up around here. I finished a couple of projects this week and my boss came back and told everyone to make me do stuff. So I am still just translating but I am getting faster as I understand the subject matter and the corresponding English and Japanese. My boss also asked me to do a project that I basically have no idea how to do but it will be fun to try. He wants me to set up a WIKI for the company so it will be easier for the people translating. It will be a dictionary of specialized terms and things and the contexts in which they are used. And the user will be able to modify it or at least add to it. Anyway I have to figure out about servers and WIKIs and all sorts of things I don’t really know about. But it will be a really good experience.
I went to Osu on Saturday with a member and we had fun going to the various shops there. I also tried miso-katsu which was pretty good. We also stopped by Ichirou’s house, it was pretty fun. I hope that everyone is doing well and having fun. It is starting to get uncomfortably hot around here. Anyway that is all for now.

The First Week

May 8 – May 12, 2006

This week has been interesting. I guess it always is when things are new. I was given the Grand Tour on my first day and from the first day I never would’ve guessed what the week was going to bring. Going into the experience with mistaken notions of what to expect, I thought I would have plenty of time to do what I wanted and would have to go foraging for things to do. Everyone who could give me answers to my questions toward what to expect said something to that effect. To my surprise I was put into a schedule of practical experience in every department in the company. Even the employees I worked with this week said it was rare to see someone like me, a Japanese Major from BYU, in the machine shop, which is where I was the latter half of the week.
So I guess in a way, it wasn’t interesting because it’s 8 hours a day of making couplings… (A the connecter piece from a motors to a bar or other parts in a machine that need to move by means of a motor.) It was frustrating because no matter how good they are of fast you’re getting them finished, you always have the supervisor looking over your shoulder telling what you’re doing wrong. It’s like the inner circle of Dante’s Hell for 8 hours a day and I kept thinking that to the Japanese it’s normal and for an American it’s as I explained. And I got really mad on the last day, which taught me a great lesson…, that they don’t like having to deal with rigid conformity as much as I do. It’s kind of a long story which I recorded in my daily journal. Anyway, it just goes to show that perception affects experience, because once I understood that they are similar to me, I had a different attitude towards everything they were trying to accomplish. I finally understand 共同運命体制.

Hello Minasan

This is Stephen Hawker. I am working at Daifuku in Komaki near Nagoya. This first week has been interesting. First living in the dorms is an interesting because it almost seems like no one else lives there, except around meal times. The meals are great because it is like Japanese cafeteria food. Which I haven’t had before but I’m sure I will be sick of by the time the summer is over. The dorm it self is comfortable and quiet. Work is also interesting because my boss is American and his job is not directly related to what the rest of his section does. He is a salesman and the department is more of a supporting role. Half of the division translates customer claims and concerns and the other half translates sales and pricing manuals. I get to be involved in all of these activities so it will be a great experience for me. I will have the opportunity to make some sales calls with my boss and visit the big factory in Shiga. They are moving most of the manufacturing from this plant down to the one in Shiga so lots of people will be transferred while I am here. Up to this point I have just been translating. I did some of the complaints but am mostly working on a pricing manual right now. Despite the technical aspect of the material it isn’t that hard to translate. But I am glad that I took Japanese 321 before I came. It is basically the same as translating an article for that class. I also saw Jon and Wes at a stake event so that was pretty interesting. Good luck guys. Well that is about it for this week.

Looking forward to summer

OK, thanks to David I have figured out the blogging thing and will be able to communicate with everyone like this over the summer. I have decided to stay in Utah, just so you know. There's a chance I'll get to go out to Japan in August, but we'll see. I look forward to hearing how everyone's internships go - hope you get off to a good start.

Welcome BYU Japan Interns

Hey, Thanks for joining the blog. Please start your first blog by telling everyone where you are going and what you will be doing in Japan.

I will be working for Deutsche Bank Securities in Tokyo. I have been assigned to the Credit Risk Managment Department. I look forward to sharing your experiences with all of you.

As you can see, we can add links to the page. I would like to add the link to your company to the column on the right. Please email me your link.

Purpose

Post on this blog will be from members of JAPN 399R at Brigham Young University. The posts will be weekly updates about the members experiences, insights, and goals as interns for various corperations in Japan.