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First impressions last

I’ve been here fifteen days now. And I’m slowly starting to realize that I actually live in Japan. One could think that it’s pretty obvious that you’ve moved far away from home when you can’t read a single thing, cars drive on the wrong side of the road, kids at the supermarket stare at you like you were from Mars, you’re scared to behave inappropriately most of the time, don’t know what to answer when someone unmistakably is trying to ask you something and you end up saying nothing and looking stupid. I’ve had the feeling that I’m in a dream or at least on holiday. But now it’s slowly getting to me. I actually live in Japan. Things I first found hilarious have started become familiar. And I like it.

Japan from above. I like how it looks very well-organised.

It first started at Narita airport. I was amazed by the big painted signs on the streets: smoking prohibited, please smoke at designated areas. I’ve been waiting for this a long time in Sweden. I actually asked my sister this summer when the first non-smoking music festival would come. I think it’s about time. It’s not prohibited to smoke in all streets here, but in Tokyo city there seems to be a lot of them. We saw a map in Shibuya (one of the districts of Tokyo) yesterday showing areas where you could smoke, and there weren’t many of them. The negative side of it all is that you might end up dining next to a table of heavy smokers. Because it’s still okey to smoke in restaurants and not all of them have non-smoking sections. So the Japanese government has a regulation they have to put some effort into before I’m entirely satisfied.

Next time my eyes where about to pop out was when we (I’ll explain later) arrived in Atsugi city. There on the street was an elevator for cars, rotating them and lifting them up to the car parc. Amazing! It looked like the automatic storage shelves for washed working clothes at SSAB, for you who have seen it. But the Japanese know how to save valuable space, that’s for sure.

Atsugi city is the location for the semiconductor company where I’ll be doing an internship for the next 6 months, which hopefully, if ends will meet, will be my graduate thesis of my engineering degree. When I said we earlier, I referred to Fredrik, who is a student at KTH in Stockholm, and me. We are three students here at the same time and Fredrik and me came here at the same time. I had only met Fredrik two times before we came here. Tomas, the third who fulfils our trio, and I have taken some courses together in Uppsala and he had already been here for two weeks when we came. We have turned out to be an excellent trio and I really like these guys. Both of them have been in Japan before and can speak some Japanese which is a big help for me, but I also think that it’s convenient for all of us that we’re not alone here. And they’re trying to teach me at least one Japanese word per day. They also teach me how I’m supposed to behave if I want to melt in as a proper girlish Japanese girl. Of course I made sure my mobile phone is pink and this weekend I bought the number 1 manga for girls, reading (or I mean looking closely to the pictures) it slowly so it looks like I’m actually reading it. And first train home I got some reactions from girls around me who glanced at my manga and gave me looks of liking. All to blend in among the others. I just wished I could actually understand what it is about. (And honestly I’m not only interested in what types of manga Japanese girls read but also the whole mind of Japanese people, both girls and boys; it’s part of exploring a new culture. If you try to understand how the Japanese think it makes it easier to understand certain situations. And I don’t honestly think I will mix in just by pretending to read the trendiest manga anyway. It’s what I’ve heard from others being here, it doesn’t matter how many years you’ve spent in this country. In the end, no matter how many Japanese habits you adapt, you will always be a stranger, you will never become Japanese.)

Atsugi city is a big city in Kanagawa prefecture, situated a little to the southwest of Tokyo. It is unclear if it belongs to the suburbs of Tokyo or if it’s just countryside. To me, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad I have a view over green mountains in the distance and that, instead of traffic, I can hear the cicadas play at night. And it only takes you 50 minutes to go to Shinjuku (another district in the centre of Tokyo city) by train. Work is less than five minutes away from where we live. We live in a house with what they call dorm rooms. I would call it a small apartment. It has one room with a bed, wardrobe and TV and a big balcony (compared to the boys, who live on the 2^nd floor and have a view over a garage, I have a nice view of the surroundings from the 5^th floor). In the hallway there’s a small kitchenette a bathroom and a washing machine. So there’s everything you need here.

It’s also fun to walk along the streets here. First you have an office building, next a block of houses, and then a supermarket, an industry, a rice field, a parking lot, a vegetable plantation, a house, another rice field, some more crops and then an industry. Everything is mixed up. And I’ve never seen a rice field with my own eyes before. Soon harvest is coming up, which I’m looking forward too. Maybe I get the chance to eat fresh rice?

Vending machine for 10 kg rice bags.

The company we work for is more than interesting. It’s a company that research and develop cutting-edge technology without manufacturing end user products (I know, it sound like a sentence taken from a booklet and yes, it is). The funding comes from the patents and licences they establish. The research is carried out in shifts, day and night. The company has around 700 employees and the mean age must be low judging by the look of people (even though it’s extremely hard to tell when it comes to the Japanese, they grow old with dignity). We start working at 9.00 every morning, but first we dress in the extremely bad fit, but reasonably comfortable, blue two piece company clothing. I wear size double L, the second largest, in pants and a jacket in size 9, the smallest. I look ridiculous. We’re supposed to be at our desks about 15 minutes before so we’re ready to start at nine. At ten to nine the bells ring and the company song, Blue Sky, is played in the speaker system so we all know that a new great working day is about to begin (don’t you worry I have the CD so I can play it for you when I get back). So far it’s hilarious, but soon enough I won’t even think it’s a strange thing having a corporate song, don’t all companies have one? We have 45 minutes lunch break at either twelve or quarter past, and of course the bells both ring in and out for both lunch shifts so you won’t miss it. At three it’s time for some exercise. To the tones of a piano and a brisk man counting and telling you what to do we can all get up, get a break and some more energy. But to be honest I haven’t seen anyone doing the exercise yet, except for the ones teaching us how to do it. At 17.45 the working day has come to an end and the bells ring again and we all go to get changed. And so far, none of us have had to work later than this, and I don’t think we’re expected to either. In between these hours notifications through the speaker system are heard several times, probably saying that someone is looking for a Mr. or Mrs./Ms. so and so. I still think it’s funny. And I almost know how to pronounce a polite request for someone through the speaker, even though I wouldn’t know what I was saying. I’ve learnt the most common lines I have to use during a day. In the morning you say [Åhajåå gosajmass] (a very Swedish pronunciation of good morning) preferably with a very long s at the end. At any other time during the day you exchange a well-intentional, but mumbly, [Otsukaresama des] with each other, which literally means “work harder”.

Except lunch, there’s also the possibility to eat dinner for the same price as the lunch, ¥300. In the house there’s also a barber with very reasonable prices and a shop, where you pick anything you want and scan your personal key card and the product and the amount will be withdrawn from the next payment. The shop holds everything from cup noodles, soft drinks, lollies and energy bars to stockings, sticky plasters and facemasks. My goal is to try all the different types of energy bars. Today I had one that said it contained banana (or at least that was my conclusion judging from the picture), it tasted very synthetic and almost like coughing medicine or was it the thing the dentist used to brush on your teeth when you were a kid? It’s very convenient whenever that chocolate monster in your tummy is roaring, even though I haven’t found anything like Cadbury’s or Geisha (they should definitely start importing them!) or Marabou. But so far, I don’t miss chocolate from home. I will tell you when I do and you can send me some.

The biggest surprise of them all came the very first day when we arrived. Among our 700 collegues there is one girl who has lived in Ransäter in Sweden, in the province of Värmland, and studied Swedish for one year plus another 6 (!) years at a university here in Japan! Isn’t that amazing?! The world feels so small sometimes. She speaks Swedish well, but sadly enough she doesn’t use her skills in her profession. I’ve heard it’s quite common among women who have studied at university here in Japan; they rarely work with what they’ve studied.

So that is just a little bit of what daily life here is like. I will tell you much more if you keep on reading. For all of you who fell asleep one or many times while reading: I promise that more pictures will come and I probably won’t write as much (but I can’t promise anything). I just had so much I wanted to say. The first impressions are the ones that remain.

An honest proposal

So, I like writing. But I am much better at writing in my mother tongue than in English. Not to mention Japanese. (Well, I can at least say it: [Nihongo wa chåttå…] which translates into “Japanese is a bit…”, saying in a polite way that my Japanese isn’t what it’s supposed to be. Just to clarify: I hadn’t studied a word of Japanese before I came here. (And å sounds a bit like a posh or, do you follow?)) However, it would feel unfair to all of you who aren’t fluent (in Swedish) just yet, if you had to translate every message through google translate. You would probably miss the point. So, here’s my proposal: I'll write in Swedish whenever I feel like it, but will try to write a majority of the posts in English. Ok?

En hyllning

Det började med att jag hade en diffus bild i mitt huvud, några ytterst få tankar som jag hade svårt att sätta ord på. Jag förmedlade denna vaga bild till min gamle gode, och inte minst kloke vän, Milky Way och han sa ”okej, jag ska göra vad jag kan”. Hur han gjorde är för mig ett mysterium, men av det lilla jag fick ur mig lyckades han fånga kärnan och det blev precis så som jag hade tänkt mig, fast mycket mycket bättre. För att tala klarspråk så fick han dit pricken över i:et, fast i plural. Så om ni händelsevis tycker att den grafiska utformningen är synnerligen skön för ögat, ska ni givetvis poängtera det för mig så att jag kan suga åt mig för att min diffusa bild var en sådan strålande idé, men samtidigt kan ni ju tänka lite på Milky också som kan det där med layout. För det är han värd.

Ps. Martin är bäst.