Wii & Okinawa, shopping, and more...

I had a pretty good and productive weekend... Starting with Friday night dinner with Akira at a very Japanese insider restaurant, the kind where men sit cross-legged and the women with folded legs by the side (alternating left, center, right...). Great tempura, great place, I saved the address...

On Saturday, I walked around Omotesando, where I had lunch at a fantastic crêperie which reminded me of Brittany, then walked around Harajuku admiring the over-the-top outfits some teenagers were exhibiting (Halloween is over and Mardi Gras is far away, this is just a style!). I was hearing Gwen Stefani's song "Harajuku girls" in my head, and I just smiled at the wonderful eccentricity !

On Saturday night I grabbed dinner with another expat who was actually able to read a menu and order in Japanese... I can't wait to be able to order my own dinner!! It might take months or years, but it has recently become a goal. Along with trying to fit into the super-petite sized Japanese clothing...

Sunday I visited two more stores (Toys R Us in Kameido and the Babies R Us nearby), which were buzzing with weekend activities. Very cute. I saw a hybrid of two iconic Japanese characters: Hello Kitty and Pikatchu. I bought two (children) educational posters to help me memorize some basic kanjis and the katakana alphabet. I've been very lazy about the katakana, and this has to change! A LOT of posters and everyday "things" are written in katakana, if I mastered that alphabet I'd be able to read "ko-hii", oh, that's coffee!! I'm working on it. Tomorrow.

I also wanted to stop by Akihabara (electronics area) to buy a sophisticated Japanese-English translator. You know, the lifesaver. But I ran out of time and deferred that purchase. I'm interested in a version that has a writing pad, because if I don't know how to read a kanji, I'm still as helpless! By the way: that would assume I can reproduce the kanji accurately, which is not that easy either. Hmm... I'm sure that if I just tuck that device under my pillow at night, I'll wake up fluent in Japanese, right? or maybe just with a stiff neck. Then I'll have a good excuse to go get a massage.

In the afternoon, I met another expat and we went shopping in Shibuya, browsing furniture and design stores. As I saw the furniture showrooms, I was beginning to realize that pull-out couches are not as standard as in Europe or America. I hadn't picked out the furniture for my apartment yet, and I was gradually accepting the fact I might have to think of a Plan B for guests in my apartment...

Monday morning is when I went with Emi to the furniture showroom to pick out the items for my future apartment, including choosing the fabrics and colors to mix & match. A fun activity for a girl... I can't wait to be settled in! I think it's going to look great! :-))

I decided last week that, given my new line of work, I need to spend more time understanding our customers and their expectations. As a result, I think the purchase of a Wii is perfectly justified. Particularly now with the upcoming release of Wii Fit (I'm not promoting, here! just finding rational justifications to the purchase). In fact, I should submit the bill to my boss and call it "research". I think that's a brilliant idea...

Another even more brilliant idea I've come up with involves store training. Since I've never worked at a toy store before, and some coworkers who previously worked as store managers said it was a great experience to better understand the financial planning process, I was told I might do a weeklong training after the holiday season. The thing is this: I don't know how fluent my Japanese will be in 3 months, but I doubt I'll be able to advise a customer to buy a PlayStation over an X-Box, in Japanese, so my contribution might be limited to shouting "Irashaimase!!" (welcome!) at the store entrance and maybe straighten the piles of stuffed animals and align the bicycles. Given the extent of my actual contribution, I don't believe it makes a big difference whether I complete that training in Hokkaido, Tokyo, or Okinawa. Therefore... I think I should do the training in Okinawa. Maybe if we sell boogie boards at the store I can volunteer to test them in the ocean (I'm nice, like that). Right??

I'll just have to prepare a solid pitch for the Wii and Okinawa and deliver it with a straight face...

Today's lunch with my colleagues was at a Japanese place (I vote for Japanese food every day, I still can't get enough of it!). I ate a strange combination of sashimi over a rice bowl with mixed seaweed... oh, so good! The small problem, though, was that I ran out of cash today. My Suica card is fully loaded and could have bought me lunch at Nobu, my Amex was on stand-by as usual, but Japan is still a cash-driven society, and when we go out to lunch, we all line up and call our menu and pay our share (did I mention no tipping in Japan? yaay!). I had gone to the ATM in the office building earlier, but my card got rejected. Rudely spit out by the giant monster machine. Pfft! I saw the fine print on the front door informing customers that only Japan-issued cards are accepted in the machines (yet they have over 3 dozen logos of all the systems accepted in that network. Including VISA. Just not 'my' VISA. I guess it's really not "everywhere you want to be", after all). So after borrowing some cash from my adorable colleague, we visited about 5 nearby ATM's and banks, with the same answer: Gaijin card no good. You have to smile after a while, maybe look up and try to find a hidden camera... "you're kidding, right?" Not kidding. I guess my only option was to return to good old Citibank. None in Kawasaki. Had to trek to the closest branch after work, and I've honestly never been as happy to find the blue logo on what might be the tiniest Citi branch I've ever seen (2 oversized ATMs, on maybe 4m²). Did a little happy dance when I got my thousands of Yen (you feel rich, here, handling a currency with so many 000's.)

Speaking of Citibank, I wanted to mention some pronunciation variations you may encounter in Japan. As I've mentioned earlier, my name is not the easiest for Japanese people to pronounce, since it is full of "L" ... The "L" sound simply doesn't exist in Japanese, and the closest thing is an "R", so, yes, "really" often becomes "rearry", even for the most fluent Japanese people. I find it very sweet. Another sound that doesn't exist in the Japanese language is the "si" (as in "sit", or "see"). All they have is the "shi" sound. So inevitably, Citibank becomes... Shitty - Bank. Love it.

I'll close this post (finally!) and enclose a picture taken at the office this morning. The weather is still incredibly warm (apologies to the New Yorkers and to Strasbourg, but today I was walking outdoors with just a shirt on, it was over 22 degrees Celsius), and the skies were very clear. And from the West (I think?) side of the office, for the first time, I could see Mount Fuji in all its splendor... magnificent. Wish the picture came out as good as the real thing.

Oh and while I'm at it: here is a picture of the view from my desk. I can't complain!! you can see Tokyo (including Tokyo Tower), and the night view is even prettier!

And before I (really!) sign off for today, here's a video of what it feels like to cross that Shibuya crossing. The video is shaky and I was taking cover behind a Japanese girl, but walk around Shibuya and you'll think Times Square is a village...

As I go to bed, it is early afternoon in Western Europe and the day has just begun in the Americas. I'm still getting used to being on "that side" of the planet...

PS: the good news is that I won't have to pay much overnight interest for the lunch money I borrowed... If you think you're not getting enough return on your savings deposits in Europe or USA, take a look at local interest rates on savings in Japan, it's pretty self-explanatory... Shoe-shopping is suddenly a better "investment"... :-))