Because I’m behind and want to at least have some rudimentary record of the past week or so, I’m going to do this one a little differently.

Friday, July 4 marked the end of my second week at Bushu Gas. This day was a little different, because rather than go to the company, I met up with the other Ohio interns for some activities sponsored by the Saitama government. It was a little frustrating at first, because my supervisors/caretakers at the company didn’t even think about letting me take the train to Omiya by myself, despite my assertions that I’ve taken the train plenty of times before. But if it makes them feel good, it’s fine with me.

Our first stop was the Saitama Young Career Center, a prefecture-sponsored career search and counseling center. Finding a job is very different in Japan than it is in the US. Traditionally, workers in Japan work at the same company for their entire professional lives, so the job search is a pretty important process. College student spend the end of their junior and much of their senior year (in Japan, the year runs from April to March) going through the process. There are rigid deadlines, remarkably consistent from company to company, and the entire process rests on introductions to companies, often through college or government career centers. In addition to applications and interviews, extensive tests are common. The tests are not necessarily content-based; i.e. applicants to a gas company aren’t expected to have gas experience or knowledge – the tests are thought to evaluate the candidate’s capacity as a lifelong worker.

During lunch, I caught up with the other interns, which was really interesting. Everyone’s experiences have been pretty different. While I’m mostly job shadowing, one student had been selling lunches at the Saitama University co-op, another doing hardcore biology/pharmaceutical research, and the other producing straws and doctors’ masks on a factory floor.

After lunch, we went to the brand new Women’s Career Center, serving a function similar to the office in the morning, but for women of all ages. Many women in Japan stay home with their children, so there’s a big drop off in terms of women’s employment around age 30. The center aims to help women find first jobs, or get back to work.

Next was a tour of Saitama Shin-to-shin, a newly-developed area of the city. It was new and frankly not that interesting, though home to the John Lennon museum (what?) and Saitama Super Arena. Our tour guide was trying to practice his English, which was cute for about three minutes. We walked in circles, and it was hot. Oh well. Also, an NTT showroom that was like an advertisement for services none of us want or need.

Our final stop was interesting, a support center for start-up companies. It was pretty interesting to see how the government is really really trying to get people to start companies, and to help them with advise, business plans, seminars, etc. There were also a couple floors of hotel rooms converted into mini offices at low rent for people just starting out. I’ve thought about starting a business some day; this would be pretty useful. Anyway, it was an interesting, hot, and tiring day.

I was met at Kawagoe Station by Sekine-san, my host, who took me to a nearby isakaya (bar/restaurant/pub?) where his section was having a get together. It was a lot of fun to get to know some of the office workers a little better. They had me try a lot of different bar food and drinks, which is always fun. I got pretty relaxed, and had some good moments. Someone asked me “what’s your favorite part of Japan?” and I replied, “well, that’s hard. There’s a lot I like. But I’m going to have to go with the natural gas.” (Ironically, by far most of Japan’s natural gas is imported from overseas). Anyway, drank plenty, wasn’t nearly as drunk as most of the other people there, and had a pretty good time. Pretty packed day.

After sleeping in on Saturday, July 5 we ate breakfast next door (remember, my single male host in the company apartments doesn’t cook, so we did our meals next door, with an awesome couple). We headed in to Tokyo, led by Junko, the wife of the couple next door. She took us to Tsukiji, famous for the fish market. I didn’t get to see the famous tuna auctions (they happen really early in the morning, and I don’t think they’re actually open to the public anymore) but there is a great market area, full of all sorts of sea-based products. Markets are great, no matter where, and I had never really seen one like this in Japan before. Cool.

After eating lunch (I had some really tasty poached fish), we went to Shibuya, known as one of the hot spots for young people in Tokyo. It was definitely full of people, and lots of crazy, silly fashion. We walked around for a while, then wen to Tokyu Hands, probably the most fun department store in the world. I don’t even know how to begin to describe it, so I’ll just link you to Wikipedia. Later, we went to the Toden (Tokyo Denki = the huge Tokyo electric company) museum/showroom. It was partially research; Junko is one of the women who leads the gas vs. induction heating cooking demo at Bushu Gas. And, of course, Toden is all about IH cooking, and the aru-denka (all-electic home, another bane of gas companies worldwide).

We headed back (on the newest Tokyo subway line, from Shibuya direct to Kawagoe-shi), went shopping, and had yakiniku/okonomiyaki for dinner. Yum!

On Sunday, July 6, I went to Tokyo Disneyland.

If you know me, you may know that I don’t really care for Disney. I’ve never really gotten in to the movies, and, I don’t know, the whole thing is just too cutesy and commercial. But when, on Saturday, Sekine-san says to me, “how would you feel about going to Disneyland tomorrow, with a couple girls?” I of course say, “yeah, that would be awesome!”

And actually, it was a pretty good time. The night before, Sekine-san surprised me with a gift: a yukata to wear the next day. Apparently, it was some sort of theme event, where everyone was encouraged to wear a yukata. So, we did. It was very comfortable, and fun to dress up a little. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, there were tons of girls dressed up, but very few guys.

Disneyland is pretty much the same wherever and whenever you go, so I’ll spare you the details. I rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the Jungle Cruise, the canoes, the “It’s a Small World” ride, and Space Mountain. I also got 10 out of ten shots at the Western shooting game, and got a badge. Neat. Anyway, it was a pretty fun day.

On Monday, July 7, I was with the safety group. I learned about a lot of preventative things the company does, including replacing old iron pipes (in the ground and in customer’s walls) with new polyethylene pipes (more on these later), and checking customers’ appliances every three years (required by law). I ended up talking to the manager of the section about completely unrelated things for about an hour, though. For example: the best place from which to view Mt. Fuji and what kind of ingredients make the best soba.

He asked what I usually do for lunch, and after explaining that I usually eat the bento provided by the company, he said “well, want to get soba today instead?” So after going with another worker to look at a recent gas pipe replacement, the three of us went to get udon (there wasn’t a good soba place nearby). It was great, but they ordered me a large and it was gigantic (a huge platter with 700g of udon). One of the other guys ate a full large, and some of my leftovers, crazy.

The afternoon was with the emergency response section, and after learning about how they solve these sorts of problems I went out to a work site for an hour or so to watch. Water had gotten into a gas pipe, so workers were dispatched to dig it up and find the problem. There was a lot of groundwater, and the whole thing was really interesting to watch.

The most interesting part of the day was later on, at my host department’s 歓送迎会 (Kan-so-ge-kai, a welcome and farewell party for employees). Two new workers joined the department a few days earlier, and another left. Also, me. And because my department is the 社長室 (literally, “President’s Room”), guess who came! Yes, the company President, and his father the Chairman.

The party was held at the fancy Prince Hotel’s Chinese restaurant, and it was probably one of the most fascinating events I’ve ever attended. It was an embodiment of everything I’ve ever read about Japanese business parties, with the heavy drinking, pouring for each other, speeches, toasts, and so on. I didn’t really know what to do, and trusted people to tell me when to do what (they did). The chairman loves 日本酒 (=sake), so it was flowing freely. I got to know a few people from the office a little better, including the President, and that was really nice. I also learned about closing a party with a haishaku, a tradition I’m definitely bringing back to Oberlin.

One funny/akward thing about the evening was how the Chairman kept talking and talking (he was drunk) about how I used to have a beard. The picture I had originally sent to the program, and forwarded to the company was from a couple months ago, and I had a beard for most of last semester. Facial hair of any kind is a no-no at the company (it’s actually on the appearance checklist), and apparently they were worried I was some kind of hippy. Which, when it really comes down to it, might not be as far from the truth as I’ve led them to believe at this point. While it’s a little frustrating to have been so visibly prejudged, but I’m glad I’ve been able to do a good job in my role as an intern to make it something everyone can laugh about.

On Tuesday, July 8, I was with the Planning group in the morning, and the systems group in the afternoon. The planning group does a little of everything, from thinking about long-range pipeline development to internal and external PR. After listening to the section chief tell me about all the stuff they do, I was taken to the reporter room in City Hall to see if any reporters were there who might want to interview me (and get Bushu Gas in the paper). I talked to two, one from the Asahi Shinbun (one of the biggest in the country!) and later some sort of smaller business paper. The employee who drove me got upset when he realized the picture he gave one of the reporters had me cooking on an electric stove rather than a gas one, so we actually took some extra pictures to send once we got back to the company.

In the afternoon, I learned about the company’s IT infrastructure. There’s a lot, it’s 99% Windows (one Linux webserver), and it’s largely hosted off-site and BG Systems, a subsidiary IT company. I had to make a website introducing myself for the company intranet, and instead of using their silly WYSIWYG program I did it from scratch. Take a look.

After work, I went with Sekine-san and his neighbor Kei to an onsen (hot springs). It wasn’t a real onsen, but was more like a fancyish public bath. It was my first time naked in a room with a bunch of Japanese men, but I have to say that it was really great. First, you shower and wash completely, then there are a bunch of different pools, with different kinds of water, inside and outside. Totally relaxing, and it was really fun for the three of us to chat.

In the evening, I had Te-maki-Zushi (hand-rolled sushi) at the Miyahara’s (the neighbors) and it was a lot of fun. I had showed them The Japanese Tradition: Sushi, so we watched a whole bunch more Rahmens videos on YouTube. Highly recommended.

Wednesday, July 9 I was with the accounting/accounts receivable group. Because Bushu Gas is a gas company, it needs to be able to collect from its customers. Meter readers go out to all of the company’s 180,000 customers every month, the data is uploaded onto a computer, and everyone is billed. Most customers have arrangements with their banks to pay automatically (like web bill pay, pretty much), but there are some who pay in convenience stores or at the company. (Japan is still largely a cash-based economy, so people don’t use checks to pay bills in the same way that they do in the US.)

I didn’t do much for the rest of the day. The people in the department didn’t really know what to do with me. I sat in on a meeting of the meter readers, which was interesting. They were all women, who work part time. I still don’t understand why they’re called ハローマイト in Japanese. For dinner, I taught the gang how to make pizza, which was fun. It didn’t turn out quite as well as last time, but they seemed satisfied. Most Japanese homes don’t have full ovens, so we tried cooking a pizza in the small grill built in to the cooktop, and it turned out better than I expected.

On Thursday, July 10, our coordinators arranged for all the interns (including the two students going to Ohio from Japan) to meet Saitama’s governor, Mr. Ueda. I went by train with Nakajima-san (my manager) and the company president. The get-together what pretty much what one would expect. We sat waiting 20+ minutes for the governor to show up. He welcomes us. We introduce ourselves. He gives us each a gift. We take a group picture. Still, pretty awesome to meet a governor. I mean, I haven’t met Ted Kulongoski or Ted Strickland.

Afterwards, there was a lunch party with all the interns, a couple interns from previous years, and all the company representatives who attended. What they didn’t tell us was that we were each expected to talk for a few minutes (5-10) about what we’ve learned in our internships so far. It really stressed out the other interns, but I decided not to worry about it. And it turned out to be fun. I talked about how I had had a particular image of “gas company” in the US, and found that the image wasn’t totally correct. I talked about safety, and the new pipes Bushu Gas is putting in the ground, and about some of the outreach and sales stuff I’ve seen. I talked the longest, I think, and the President seemed pretty satisfied. So, that’s good!

I didn’t do much in the afternoon other than starting to finalize my week-long travel plans in August. We had a tasty, easy-on-the-stomach stew for dinner, though it was a bittersweet night – I was moving the next day. I learned about tejime something I saw for the first time at the party on Monday. I don’t know how to describe it other than a kind of hand-clapping thing Japanese people do during parties. Kind of a “Hip Hip Hurray” sort of thing. Anyway, it’s great and weird, and I’m totally bringing it back to Oberlin.

On Friday, July 11, I moved. After sleeping in a little and eating my last breakfast next door, Kei gave me a pretty funny gift. We relaxed until 9:30, when Tobisawa-san and Nakajima-san came to pick us up and bring us to work. I didn’t have any particular schedule for the day, so I mostly caught up on emails. I was taken to my next host family, the home of an executive at Sakado Gas (a smaller subsidiary gas utility in the city of Sakado), in the early afternoon.

It’s a totally different living situation, once again. The house is in the same city as Bushu Gas, but on the outskirts. It’s an old house, and actually quite large by Japanese standards. I’m sleeping in a Japanese-style room (with tatami mats and a futon) in one corner of the house. It’s wooden and creaky, which is not what I’m used to – so that’s kind of cool.

The family is also very different. There are two children, one married and moved out (with a cute two-year-old girl), and the other still living at home, but working. Also, the grandmother lives at home. The father isn’t home much at all during the week, getting home around 9:30 at night, going straight to bed, then leaving by 6:30 every morning. The mother is nice, but I don’t think she gets me, yet. We’ll see.

Anyway, I went out food shopping with the father, and we had some interesting chats. We ran into a friend of his from school, so we chatted for a while too. Surprisingly, a pretty normal day.

OK. More soon. Then I’ll write some real content.