Andrew + Japan = Awesome

A long time coming

Andrew — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:14:35 +0000

Wow, almost two months since my last post, but in that time a lot has happened, I’ll try and bring anyone still reading this up to speed.

Â About two months ago (when I stopped posting) I decided that my time in Japan had come to an end. I realised that I wasn’t really happy in Toyohashi, and due to the worsening exchange rate my financial situation was getting worse instead of better. I was looking for a new job in or near Osaka, but failed to find anything that really captured my interest, and again finances were working against me. So I decided it was time to come back to New Zealand.

I told my parents, and Mum decided she wanted to come over and meet me, to go for a holiday around Japan before I left. So the next three weeks before I finished work were spent making plans of what Mum, my sister and I would do for our two week vacation travelling around Japan. There was so much to plan, where would we go? What would we do? Where would be stay? How would we get there?

So I worked out my last three weeks until the end of the Japanese school year, and then I went to pick Mum and Amber up from Nagoya Airport. For the next two weeks we travelled around Japan, we started in Tokyo (Disneyland! Ueno Zoo), then went to Hiroshima (Miya Jima, A-Bomb Dome, Peace Park) and then up to Luke’s house in Sanda where we travelled to Kobe, Himeji, Kyoto, and Osaka from. We went to the Osaka Aquarium, Himeji Castle, Osaka Castle, Kinkaku-ji, Nijo-jo, and a whole bunch more I can’t remember right now, and did a lot of shopping all over the place. After a very busy two weeks, we hired a car and I drove us from Sanda to Kansai Airport so we could fly home, that was an interesting drive.

Anyway, before I left Japan I started browsing the available jobs back here in Wellington, and I spotted one that caught my eye. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted to do when I left university, a consulting job with a modelling component to the work. A job that uses my Computational Modelling degree. I didn’t plan on applying for a job from Japan, but when you see one that is exactly what you want, you don’t miss the opportunity, so I applied. And I was on the phone with the recruiting agent within two hours (from Japan, he paid). We had a nice chat, and decided we’d meet when I got back to Wellington.

The flight back to Wellington was nice, but long. Once I got back I gave the recruiting agent a call, and we had a meeting in town. He met with the company and they liked the sound of me, but there were a few concerns about my grades (A’s mixed in with a few C’s, and a single F. Nothing in between). And fair enough, but I assured them that the C’s were just when I was bored of a subject, and not actually because I couldn’t do it. So they got me tested.

Testing involved going back into Wellington and meeting another lady, from a different recruiting firm, who gave me four tests. A simple problem solving test, a verbal reasoning test, a numerical reasoning test, and a psychowhatsit test. The first was to assess my ability to learn, the second and third were to assess how good I was with words and numbers, and the fourth was to make sure I wasn’t crazy. I called her back the next day and the results were awesome, which had been passed onto the company I was trying to work for.

So then, after I’d passed their intelligence test, I finally got to meet the people in charge of the company. That was a laidback, but at the same time intense meeting. They asked me lots of questions about what I’ve done in the past and what I want to do, which was fine, and then the grades came up. I thought that the test results would have cleared me of suspicion, but they only made it worse. Now, instead of thinking I wasn’t intelligent, they decided I was intelligent, but the C’s indicated that I was either lazy, or give up when I get bored. It’s the second, but I had to convince them that the work they do is the work I enjoy, and I won’t get bored working there.

I left that meeting feeling a little uneasy about my chances, but I was worrying for nothing because they called me back later that night and asked me to go in the next night to meet everyone else who works there. When I got there the next night they took me out to a bar around the corner, and we had some food and drink, while chatting and getting to know each other. Everyone seemed pretty friendly, and it was a good night.

Then, the next day, they offered me the job and sent me out the contract. So, long story short, I start my new job at a company called DY Consulting as a Business Analyst on Monday (in two days). It’s a long way from teaching English in Japan, but hopefully it’ll be just as fun.

I’m not sure if I’ll update this much anymore, we’ll have to wait and see how things pan out. Thanks for reading this, I know there’s about 15 people who come here each day. I have no idea who you are, but thank you.

Crazy Japanese Food: Spaghetti Bolognaise Chips

Andrew — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:15:07 +0000

You didn’t read that wrong. I found these gems in a 100 yen store near my house, I knew I had to try them and surprisingly they weren’t too bad. Tasted more like spicy corn chips than spaghetti bolognaise though.

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The Mysterious Stream

Andrew — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:08:40 +0000

So I was riding my bike around the other day and exploring places I havn’t been yet when I discovered this strange little road that was paved differently, right down the middle of the road was a stream with bridges across it, and rocks making ponds and waterfalls all the way along it. Photos after the link.

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Crazy Japanese Signs: Pervert Dogs

Andrew — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:16:03 +0000

When I was taking the photos in the previous post, I found this amusing sign. Apparently my area has a problem with dogs pulling down the pants of young boys. Presumably he wanted the baseball for himself.

Luckily, I’m yet to run into one of these dogs.

The Pond

Andrew — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:08:06 +0000

As you might remember, my apartment in Sanda had a rice field beside it. My apartment here in Toyohashi has a pond across the road. I took these photos a while ago, I think I was bored one day and just wandering around taking photos of things.

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The Natto

Andrew — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:51:13 +0000

I’ve finally done it, I’ve eaten Natto.

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Panorama Crazy

Andrew — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:58:21 +0000

So my phone can take Panorama photos, and the way it does it is really cool. It’s like recording a video, and I turn in a slow circle trying to keep a horizontal line in the middle of the screen. Then through some digital trickery, it stitches it together into a pretty good panorama, albeit at a rather low resolution. Three examples if you click on the link.

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Crazy Japanese Food: The Best Kit-Kat Ever

Andrew — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:10:03 +0000

So I’ve posted about quite a few Kit-Kats, but there’s one in particular that I’ve been saving, for this is the best Kit-Kat ever. It beats the pants off every other Kit-Kat, yes, even the White Chocolate Kit-Kat Chunky. Intrigued? You should be.

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Packaging in Japan

Andrew — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:21:24 +0000

I might have mentioned it before, but back in Sanda there was a bakery I used to visit. I could never work it out, but somehow by buying just two items, I ended up with four bags. It turns out bakery’s aren’t the only places in Japan who have an obsession with packaging.

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Nothing to see here.

Andrew — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:13:47 +0000

Just a giant monkey statue on a roof. Nothing out of the ordinary about that at all. No, I don’t know why it’s there, how it got there, or what it intends to do now that it’s there.