It’s been one and half month in Delhi. Everything is great and life has been good for last 6 weeks. As some of you know, I am flying out to Japan at the end of this month, so the company has organised Japanese language training. So, everyone of us landed in Delhi on 1st of June. Within one week of the training, all of us become good friends.
Well that was supposed to be the opening for this blog which I intended to post a while back. Fast forward to 5 months…and now let’s begin the story from the start…
The daily schedule was probably long but the classes were very interactive and fun. From starting out to learn numbers, simple words, self introduction to writing two scripts - Hiragana and Katakana. We all even know a little life saving kanji. Being able to understand people talking in japanese around you feels nice. The teachers have put in their best efforts to make us understand enough japanese to survive in Japan (Don’t worry it’s going to be fun !)…I survived and I’m having fun!.
Every week one or two team managers come to live with us for a week. We have really nice conversation with them, about life in Japan, their earlier experiences, their roles in Fast Retailing. We all even had chance of interacting with many executives during this 6 weeks. Personal interactions with many people from the organisation gave everyone relief and excitement for their roles. I even had some luck to pull off lunches and dinners with almost everyone. All in all, a great idea from the management to meet the new graduates and know them.
So, the usual schedule for the entire week is Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. classes. Not our usual college lectures, the lectures consist of some vocabulary, some sentence patterns of the language, all of us conversing in Japanese, making small plays entirely in Japanese, etc. On the weekend, we had holiday.( Yay !)
The weekends are the part where we all gather and had fun. It can either start with playing billiards, singing songs, dancing in the classroom or even conversing over the entire night. We have had some crazy nights filled with fun.
The entire stay was very pleasant. Everyone took great care of us. I struck some nice conversations with many chefs, staff people, etc. Made some new friends in Delhi. I have hit the gym daily as a personal goal.
14th July was a very special day for all of us. The company had organised an event for our families here in Delhi. All the parents were flown in and everyone had a chance to spend time with their family after long 6 weeks. But as fate would have it, my parents flight was delayed by more than 2 hours and they came in very late in the middle of the event. So, they missed an entire hour in which we all were officially introduced, videos and pictures of our stay and the things that we all did in those 6 weeks were shown. But, it’s always good to meet your family after an extended stay away from them.
Learning a new language is an achievement and challenge in itself. For two months, starting as novices in Japanese to learning enough to strike conversations, interact with people in markets, I had great experience of learning about the language and the japanese culture. The entire course was designed to give us a through knowledge of the language as well as the culture in the stipulated amount of time that we had. Another personal goal or achievement was hitting the gym regularly for two months. All the hard work started to show and I intend to continue this after going to Tokyo(written in past!).
Being in Delhi after so many years(17 to be exact!), refreshed some old memories. I used to live in Delhi as a kid and started my school life from Delhi. To begin my professional life from Delhi, well that’s what you call the cycle of life. Visiting all the places such as Red Fort, India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chandni Chowk, etc. after so many years felt really good. Also, I was able to see how the city has changed over time. And don’t get me started over the Delhi street food…Chole Kulche, Chat…oh my!
So, two months passed swiftly, I had time for a small visit to my parents back home and I went to visit them. I couldn’t meet anyone else either in family or in friends. For that I am sorry, next time I am going to meet everyone possible.
Aug 4, 2019. I landed in Tokyo, Japan. And, I felt a nice shock from seeing things around me. I lived at a place called Omori in Tokyo for the last 3 months. It was a nice place with a lot of things going around all time of day. I roamed around the streets at night many times. Small, cozy and beautiful houses around the locality…gave that Doraemon feeling. Overall, we all had great time at Omori and we still continued to have parties and fun times there too (shout out to all the FR newgrads!!).
The company took good care of us over the period and is still doing the same. Work-wise, I am working in the Enterprise Development team, specifically working on the Supply Chain Management Systems. I admit this is entirely new to anything I have done or worked with in the past but that what makes it more interesting. The opportunity of learning business processes along with technology makes it a very rare opportunity for me. Also, now that I have a taste of the business side, I am actually interested in learning more about that too. Part of working at an awesome place is the always happening expos and exhibitions around the office. Tokyo Motor Show, Comiket (Cosplay and comic market), etc. just to name a few.
Tokyo also gave us small jolts like earthquakes and typhoons. We had a one on the day we had landed and just had entered our apartments. Over the past few months, some 4-7 earthquakes and 2-3 typhoons maybe. Yet, we persevered and yes, no doubting the Japanese construction technology.
Last month in November, I along with everyone else, moved to our new houses from Omori. Over the period of almost two months, I think everyone has settled in well. The whole process of doing things on your own makes life a little different from what it is back home for many of us. Getting new things, cooking your own food, cleaning and every other chore one can think of, well now has to be done by yourself. In the beginning it’s a little hard but one gets used to it over time. I can also attest to the fact that I didn’t know much of cooking before (only knew the usual things a university hosteler knows) but over the past few months, I have learned to cook and now, I can almost cook anything. Also , I have started to like and enjoy cooking over the time(Yeah, strange but true!).
So, is it all work and cooking food, that’s it? No, there more to living in Japan than those to things. Well, Japan presents itself as such that you can’t really ignore anything. I have been to couple of places in Tokyo, outside Tokyo for short day trips and there’s only one thing to say, it’s mesmerizing anywhere I go. Not just the place, the scenery but the food, clothes people wear, fireworks and all those illumination effects around christmas and New year, WOW, just WOW ! And yes, I click tonnes of pictures wherever I go. Yes, after a long time, I am on Instagram and I do post some of the clicks there from time to time.
I gave the N5 exam for Japanese Language at start of December. I am hoping to pass this one and in mean time preparing for the next level. I learnt a lot about Japanese culture over this time and everyday I am learning something new…Japan is really something else that one has to experience once in life!
So, what’s next for me? I honestly don’t know, but I do have a vague idea for what’s next.
2019 has been a crazy, fun, adventure filled year for me. If at the start of 2019, someone would have told me that it is going to be this crazy ride for 2019, I wouldn’t have believed them at any cost. But, then nobody knows what can come up. I did things I wouldn’t have thought of doing before, made new friends and travelled new places. All in all, a fantastic year !!!
What are the goals for 2020 then? Well, to list a few -
- To grow in the current role and organization
- To get better at the Japanese language - better verbal communication and understand more Kanji
- To get in a better shape (Yeah, I missed my mom’s food and lost weight 😭)
- Read some books, watch some online courses, pursue the new found interest in other domains
- Add things to this list in time…
- Most importantly, Have fun and Explore Japan as much as I can !
Well, as 2019 comes to close, I wish everyone a very Happy New Year ! May everyone be happy and prosperous in life! Enjoy and have fun in 2020 !
The title [斜視ぶりですね] (shashiburi desu ne) means ‘It’s been a long time’. Earlier, the title thought was [しばらくぶりですね] (Shibaraku-buridesu ne) which means ‘It’s been a while’. Apprently the latter phrase is used very rarely these days. The first phrase is trending these days in Japan when you meet someone after a long time. Wonderful language, isn’t it ? _From top to bottom:
- Garden near Mori Building, Roppongi
- View from Tokyo Midtown, Roppongi
- Trek to Mt. Takao
- Playing billiards in Delhi
- Some of my new friends
- Trek to Mt. Takao
- More friends !
- Tokyo Tower
- Halloween in Tokyo
- Walking after typhoon Hagibis passed through Tokyo
- A mall’s entrance in Harajuku
- Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba
- Koganei Koen, Koganei
- Old Warehouse Lane, Kawagoe
- Hikawa shrine, Kawagoe
- 500 Disciples of Buddha at Kita-in Temple, Kawagoe