Week 3, Mundane Rain
Nothing too crazy happened this week. There was a lot of rain, though, and it’s gotten a bit more humid. I didn’t go to Tokyo this weekend, instead opting for a quiet few days inside. The next few weekends are going to be filled with Japan adventures, so don’t worry. Lots of stuff in the works.
A few days ago I gave my first presentation to a few people in my department – my supervisor, the group manager, one of the production team leaders, and a guy who could translate English to Japanese if necessary. The presentation was for the first phase of my assigned project, which I had finished up earlier in the week. This coming week I’m going to start the next portion which should last for two weeks or so. After that I’ve asked if I can work with some of the new brushless motors that Mabuchi is trying to develop.
There’s been a production setback, where the testing equipment in the factories overseas aren’t giving the same values as the tests here at HQ, so everyone’s been in a fuss trying to get the data to agree. As a result, the welcome party that my group had scheduled for Friday (yesterday for me, right now it’s Saturday night) had to be postponed :(
Next Wednesday I’m going to help one of the HR employees with an English conversation class in the company. I’m looking forward to that, it’ll be interesting to see who shows up and what the interactions will be like. And next Sunday I’ll be helping out with the Mynavi international job fair in Tokyo! That’ll be another unusual experience – I’m interested in how the hiring/recruiting practices here in Japan differ from the US.
My temporary name tag. The top line says “R&D Group 7”, the middle line says “Mashiuu”, and the bottom line says “Fedaasen”.
Green Tea Pocky! It tastes like an off-flavor white chocolate coating, which is probably precisely what it is.
Sushi here is ridiculously cheap for the quality you get. At the supermarket, these 10 pieces cost about $5, which is similar to the conveyor belt sushi prices. We went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant again earlier this week, by the way. Still excellent. I ate crab, salmon, fried shrimp, octopus, tuna, and yellowfin sushi. It cost about $13 for 25 pieces.
A real high class sushi bar would not be this cheap, but even this common-grade sushi in Japan is better than most every sushi I’ve had in the US. It’s all oishii (delicious), as the Japanese say.
A quick note on the words for “delicious”. The common word is 美味しい, pronounced おいしい/oishii. A less formal word is うまい/umai, which in casual conversation sometimes becomes umehhhhh. Regardless, it’s still spelled with the same characters, just a tiny bit different: 美味い. So if you see those characters in writing, you have to be able to differentiate between the two pronunciations.
While I’m talking about languages, there’s one more phrase I learned this week. おさきにしつれいします, or osakinishitsureishimasu. It’s something that you say when you’re leaving work early, and acknowledges that you’re leaving while other people are still working. It took me about a day of practicing to get it fluent. Regardless, I haven’t had the opportunity to say it, since I never leave early. I just say otsukuresamadesu, which is what you’re supposed to say at the end of the day while leaving work.
Sakura Mochi, or cherry blossom flavored mochi. The leaf is salted and edible, and the filling is red bean paste.
Agar Mochi. This isn’t strictly a mochi, since the base is agar gelatin instead of rice. But it’s still shaped like a mochi with red bean paste on the inside.