JAPAN - PART 1

It’s been almost a week since I touched down in Malaysia after a about a week of living in and a 6 hour flight from Japan. What’s really funny was I thought I found back my muse in Japan, especially when we were on the limousine bus from the airport to the nearest train station. There was this really long bridge, and the view from the bus was simply magnificent… the streets unbelievably clean and sea birds perched at the sides of the bridge as though they were waiting for an unseen sign to fly away together. Alas, I lost it again on the flight back when I forced myself to watch 3 in-flight movies back to back (slept through ¾ of 1 of them, though… hehehe)

Our cups of coffee

The Training….

Anyway, the main reason I went there was to train about static electricity, which seems to be one of the major causes of workplace related accidents, and we were there to be trained on proper prevention methods. Despite the serious tone of the training, we had coffee breaks every hour or so. In those five days, I had turned into a black coffee junkie (back home, I must have it with creamer)

None of the trainees speak fluent Japanese… most of us can handle simple conversations regarding directions, or ordering food, or maybe even describing ourselves, but when it comes to technical matters, we completely lack the language skills to comprehend whatever’s being said… which led to many hilarious situations. What my colleague and I thought would be the most boring thing that could happen to us ended up being one of the most exciting ever!

This is the route we took everyday for training

Getting around…

We walk. A lot….

Every morning after breakfast, we gather round at 7:45 to walk to the training centre together… In the cold crisp mornings, and with the company of so many different people from all the different countries, it’s quite a bit of fun. With the temperature being pretty cool and all, you don’t tire easily (unlike here in Malaysia, where the smog will most probably kill you first) And at 5 pm, we walk back to the dorm together…. Pretty much like school kids :)

The streets are safe, and the cars and vans give way to pedestrians (wherever there are no special crossing places such as small streets)… If such a thing happened over here, we’d probably have pigs flying around. And there are special walkways for people who walk (which are shared by cyclists who are equally as polite on the road)

Other than that, there are busses and trains and when you get the hang of the train loops, intercity travelling is a breeze. Even when you don’t know how to read Japanese :D

To be continued….