My internship is at Bushu Gas in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. Bushu Gas is a utility company that supplies natural gas to Kawagoe, Tokorozaka, and a number of other nearby towns. There are about 200 employees (not including the subsidiary companies, which I’ll write about in a later post).
Although I’ve come to Bushu Gas via an internship program, this has definitely not been what I think of as a traditional internship. It’s really more of a company-wide job shadow. Here’s why: although I have a desk and supervisor, I’m assigned to a different group every day. So far, it’s pretty much worked out so I spend the first hour or so in the morning learning about the particular group’s functions, then either job shadow within the company or then go out in the field and see first hand what the group does.
Last Monday was mostly an orientation day. I was given a company uniform and locker, and tour of the offices. (I’ll write more about the uniforms in a later post, but almost everyone in the company, only excluding the chairman, president, and top-level management wears the uniform every day. Also, I think it looks pretty funny on me, but definitely in a good way.) I watched a video about natural gas and the company, and was given a lot of information about the company’s structure and my schedule.
I have a desk in the “Executive Secretary” group, where my supervisor and manager work. I haven’t exactly been able to figure out what everyone does yet, but for the most part they do administrative work for the President and Chairman. I leave my host family’s house at 7:45 on bike (a crazy electric powered hybrid/cruiser that I need to take pictures of), change and check in around 8. I often have a few minutes to read the newspaper and check e-mail before morning exercises and the brief department meeting. I start the day’s activities at 8:30. I have an hour off for lunch, usually eating the lunch the company provides, then I go back to work. At 4:30, I head back to my desk and write a summary of my day in Japanese. While time-consuming, I’m really glad to be practicing written Japanese, especially because I’m getting feedback: Matsukawa-san, my supervisor, checks what I’ve written and helps me out with grammatical mistakes
Tuesday, I was with the Service group, which provides background support for salespeople. I learned tons about gas appliances. I like machines, so it was fun to see the differences in Japanese and US stovetops and water heaters. (Example: in the US, I’ve never seen a talking stovetop.) I went to one of the company showrooms and saw all sorts of great and convenient products! Even fun things like under-floor heaters and mist showers. In the afternoon, I participated in a cooking demo comparing a gas stove and oven to electric induction appliances. The three (uniformed) woman who do the demo every day were totally shocked to find out about my cooking experience, and it ended up being fun. Anyway, I’ll leave it to you to guess which food tasted better. I also learned about the Eco-Will, a home water heater and gas powered electric generator for your own personal fresh power.
Wednesday, I was with the maintenance group, and learned about GHP and TES. GHPs are gas heat pumps, which functionally are gas-powered air conditioners. TES is the Total Eco System (but used to be called Total Economic System), a single hot water heater for two purposes: heating via radiator and regular hot water for kitchen/bathroom use. I went out with maintenance workers and helped service industrial GHPs at the Bushu Gas office in Tokorozawa. It was actually a lot of fun. GHPs operate the same way as normal air conditioners, except that a natural gas engine (rather than an electric motor) powers the compressor. And like any internal combustion engine, these needs to be periodically serviced. I switched out air filters, put chemicals in the engine to clean carbon off the innards, and learned how to switch out spark plugs. Fun!
Thursday was the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, so everyone in my office was pretty busy getting everything taken care of. I was actually invited to observe, which was totally cool because I doubt I could have that experience as an intern at a company in the US. I didn’t understand much of what was said, but it was interesting to see how nobody asked any questions throughout the entire presentation. In the afternoon, I watched a work crew convert a customer’s home from propane to natural gas. Propane is still widely used throughout this region, and many customers are switching because natural gas ends up being significantly less expensive. A few houses are converted every day; most of the work is done by outside contractors, but they work closely with company employees.
Friday, I was with the housing group. This group does everything relating to getting gas service into new homes. Like in the US, there’s been a trend toward all-electric housing, so this group has to do some degree of PR with construction companies to stay viable in the marketplace. The group also takes care of arranging for new gas mains, and through contractors will even get gas lines in your new home. It was really interesting to see how this group has formed relationships with a number of water utility contractors in the region. By communicating during new construction, gas and water pipes can be laid at the same time, reducing costs, service disruption, and road work. I went out to see a number of new construction sites. I also helped mark up part of a road that needs to be re-paved because of pipe work.
Today started with a company-wide meeting. After giving a number of employees awards (and serious bonuses) for good work, the President gave an interesting speech about oil prices, safety (it’s national safety week), and politics. I also had to introduce myself, in Japanese, in front of the entire company. Afterwards, I joined up with the group that handles Bushu Gas’ largest customers: factories. While there are only a few dozen factory customers, they make up a large share of the company’s gas sales. Notable names include Honda and Citizen (the watch company). I went out with one of the office workers (and my host starting later this week) to two factories. We met with the company president at one, and a higher-up at the other to inform them that their gas prices will be going up. It was fascinating to see how these sorts of things are handled in Japan (not that I know how they would be in the US, really). I ate delicious Ten-don Udon for lunch (cold udon with tempura donburi). In the afternoon I went to one of Bushu Gas’ ECO STATIONs, gas stations for natural-gas powered cars.
All in all, my experience so far has been pretty awesome. Bushu Gas has been extremely warm and welcoming to me. I’ve been meeting new people every day, and I’m starting to get a feel for what the company does. It’s pretty cool to be able to have a chance to try on the shoes of everyone in the company – I can’t think of another way I could ever have a chance to do anything like this in the US. It’s neat seeing first hand differences between Japanese and US companies, but it’s also fascinating just to see how this company – or any company – works as a whole. As I develop my thoughts a little more, I’ll be posting about some of the differences I’ve noticed.
So that’s work so far. Things with my host family have been good. They’ve shown me a lot of interesting things in and out of town. They took me to Mt. Fuji on Saturday. It was kind of foggy, but I did get some great views of the mountain – we drove up to where most people start the climb to the top. We also stopped in Hakone on the way back. It’s an old checkpoint on one of the roads from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). My host father took me out for drinks with a business associate on Friday, which was totally great. I tried horse sashimi, and found that shochu can be really tasty. Sunday, I taught my host mother how to make pizza from scratch. It turned out pretty well. I’ve been eating a lot of great food – they’ve taken me to most of their favorite local restaurants. I had hand-made soba the other night here, and have also gone out for okonomi-yaki. My host mother is also a pretty good cook. I’ll be moving to my my second of four host families on Thursday, and I’m a little disappointed to have to move on. My next living situation will be totally different – with a company underling in the company-owned apartments. I’m excited to be with someone younger, though and to keep trying new things.
Anyway, it’s way past my bedtime. Hope this keeps you going for a while, and I hope I won’t take so long to write next time.Finally. I do have a mailing address, if you would like to write me. Just send me an email,and I’ll give it to you. Or just send me an email anyway, because I want to hear what you’re up to.
P.S. I showed this video to my host family and it’s become sort of an inside joke in the house. Check it out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0b75cl4-qRE
are you still open?