RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

I have finally loaded up the whole Japan diary entry. The last count on Word was 78xx words altogether and yet I feel that it cannot describe fully all the new sights, sounds and tastes I experienced, not to mention the insanity that struck the whole lot of us. It could be that being a process engineer in the paint manufacturing sector can lead to serious damage of brain cells what with the smell of solvents wafting around and all. A few things I forgot to mention in the previous posts includes how open minded the Japanese are... coming from a country where everything is censored (this includes the cleavage you see in pictures of actresses - some of our newspapers blur the cleavage - as if people don't know what it is), and I was incredibly intrigued by the so called dirty magazines on display (despite being a woman myself), and wanted to get one, but didn't. But I do think they underestimate women... JC and I had to put up with several rather sexist remarks, which seemed to ...

October 19, 2009 Training resumes Had a long and tiresome lecture about a (banyak songeh – nearest translation I can come up with is very annoying) customer’s audit form. Their English can be incredibly confusing. Miyoshi is cold, cold and cold. The room is freezing. Went shopping at the supermarket (a 15 minute walk only, this time. We must have been exhausted yesterday) for some sweets. (I’m falling asleep in class) and ended up a while later in CK’s and Kenny’s for some Alaskan crab which CK cooked (steamed over boiling water) on one of those electric stoves they borrowed from our apartment. Why the hell is their place so warm? Tuesday, October 20, 2009 We have a new trainer in today, and a new training lesson, one of particular importance. Just realized that quite a lot of current practice needs to be revised. Now, due to a certain food restriction of mine, the chef at the dormitory has been attempting to turn me into a vegetarian. He served me a fried egg this morning...

October 18, 2009 The journey across *half of Honshu I woke up early to pack my remaining stuff and clean up the room I had seeked shelter in for the past two weeks. There was enough hair on the ground to give a doll a head full of hair. It is indeed very difficult cleaning up a room without a broom! My luggage had been couriered on Friday night, so I only had my backpack and a hand carry. This was the time I regretted my decision for lugging my laptop around. We switched trains so many times I have some difficulty remembering them. The best part though was I got to ride the Shinkansen, the ever famous bullet train (shaped like a bullet, interestingly) Somewhere in the middle of the journey, our trainer who was with us beckoned us to a back window, and pointed out Mt Fuji to us, a little speck that disappeared within a minute. I can’t say how incredibly glad I am that we actually went up Mt Fuji instead of relying on getting a peek at it from the train. Upon reaching Nagoya, we t...

Saturday, 17 October, 2009 Over 2000 metres on top of the world. So, it’s supposedly Diwali/Deepavali today, aside from the few texts I received from a few friends (too few indeed, not even from some of the usual suspects - nobody likes me! :(, but then again, I didn't send out any either) and my sister (my parents have yet to learn the fine art of texting) as well as a few of my training buddies (in person), the day was spent in the most unconventional way for what is well known as a traditional holiday with supposedly traditional activities – in my case eating and sleeping (because you would be lacking sleep the few days before as you stay awake to bake cookies and clean the house, etc) We went all the way to Mt Fuji!! As I might have mentioned earlier, the idea of going to Mt Fuji was not very well received by our trainer. He tried to talk us out of it by saying that you could die there, falling off the cliff, and how cold it would be, etc, but we would not budge. He finall...

Monday, 12 October 2009. Back to training The skin is still awful, and I found a whole bunch of hair fall off my comb while combing my hair. Is it the MSG, or the water, or my shampoo? Anyway, training today was pretty dreary because the whole lot was conducted in the classroom. Turns out, the PEs in Japan too are sometimes faced with unsolved mysteries in terms of product problems, so we are not alone. After training, we headed out together for dinner, all the 7 of us because the cafeteria was closed (It was apparently a holiday in Japan which we and the trainers were not involved in!) As CK, JC and I had travelled the streets of Hiratsuka on practically a daily basis, we seemed to lead the way to the place we were supposed to go for dinner. It was hilarious seeing CK being all tour guide-ish, informing our other 4 friends what restaurants there are and what they serve and the price range. Finally, we ended up at a very cozy looking place which served ramen noodles, but the vari...

Sunday, 11 October 2009 Kamakura I looked at my face in the mirror today in shock, not that I don’t look in the mirror every day, but I had on my contact lenses and could clearly see my skin peeling around the left side of my nose. I blame it all on the cool wind (despite the sun shining at your face) Today we visited Kamakura, an ancient place with shrines and temples aplenty. We checked out Engaku Ji, a shrine that houses Buddha. Unlike the last time where we did an Amazing Race type visit, this one was very relaxed and laid back. Personally, I preferred the Amazing Race type. At least I managed to get some background info on all the places I visited, but I shall refrain from complaining. These people sacrificed their weekend to take us around. After the shrine, we took a train to the town, where we had lunch at McDonalds. As weird as it may seem, I welcomed the idea because a)    Their menu is different from ours b)    Change is good c) ...

Saturday, 10 October 2009 Yokohama! From the very beginning of our visit, our trainers had been asking us where we’d want to go for the weekend. Even while back in Malaysia, while busy compiling stuff (work related) to take CK and I had planned that we should check out Mt Fuji and Disneyland (this was CK’s idea. For some unknown reason, Disneyland wasn’t part of my itinerary, me being more interested in the cultural or historical aspect of things but I was cool with it. After all, chances are I might never be able to get to Florida to go to the real one) However, we were soon to find out that Disneyland needs at least two days, and that everything would be in Japanese. And somehow, the Japanese were not too keen on Mt Fuji, stating that we could see it from the Shinkansen when we travel from Hiratsuka to Nagoya. Why would we want to just see Mt Fuji? Going to it would be a better bet, aight? Anyway, we met with the trainers at the train station at 10 am to go to Yokohama. I absolu...

Thursday, 8 October 2009 The Typhoon I was awoken at 5 am by a loud sound, but refused to get up until after 6. The sun rises early here, and you tend to wake up with it regardless if your curtains are drawn or not. Looking out of the window, I could see the effect of the ‘tempias’ (can’t find the perfect translation for this in English, sorry) of the typhoon that hit Tokyo. The wind was so strong that you could see trees swaying like crazy. There’s a motorbike parked right beneath my window, and the sheet that supposedly protects it was blowing with the strong winds and looked as though it was about to fly. The walk to the training place was challenging compared to the other days as the wind threatened to blow us away. Surprisingly by noon, the sky was clear once again and we saw the sun. According to our trainer/translator, the sun comes out when the typhoon ends. Later that evening, we headed out to town. ***We took the bus to the train station, which is like the most happening...

Monday, 5 October 2009 Hiratsuka Dorm and Factory Our trainer, M-san who is also co-incidentally the person in charge of us showed us the dorm cafeteria and informed us about breakfast and dinner, which we will be having there throughout our stay. I opted for the bread for breakfast with the side dishes that comes along with every Japanese meal. Realised with horror that even among this bunch, I am indeed the slowest eater. Why do people have to eat so quickly? Doesn’t that take the joy out of eating??? The work place/training centre is about a 7 minute walk away. Anyway, training proceeded after we took our uniforms. Thank goodness the M size fitted me well, although I found the pants a wee bit short when I sit. I could see that space between where my socks end and the pants begin. Hehehe…  A question that remains unanswered is why do they not make women’s pants straight cut? Why does it have to be that horrible A cut which gives the impression of skinny ankles? Is there a co...

If we are meant to learn our lessons from history, it is without question that after every journey I take, be it a holiday or a work related item, my muse stays behind to enjoy itself while I wonder why ideas don't stay with me long enough to transform them into readable posts. I suppose then it was a good idea on my part to become a temporary electronic diarist while I was there so that I could relate the things I saw and did - live. Sunday, 4 Oct 2009 From Narita Airport to Hiratsuka, Japan The touchdown was smooth, and despite the lack of sleep for two days running, I was still pretty upbeat. CK and I hung around the big A waiting area as we were requested to do, wondering where the hell the others were when we saw the other Malaysian from our sister company. We wanted to check out the airport while waiting for the Singaporean and the Indonesian, which we did while the girl from our sister company (who will after this be referred to as JC) offered to keep an eye on our lugg...

The Kyoto Road Trip started early in the morning. By this time, our Indonesian friends were on the way to the airport. Our friends from Thailand were with us until the train station where we parted ways. Those left were the Malaysians and the Singapo rean. We were requested to take the 7:52 am bus from the bus stop near the dorm, but thanks to the unofficial party the night before and a bad case of having the wrong time on the handphon e by one of our party (Japan is 1 hour ahead of us, so go figure) the 7:52 am bus had come and gone. Nevertheless, we got into another bus which brought us to the Hankyu train station. From there, everything was a blur, as we were practically running from one train stop to another, switching trains at unbelievable speeds, and racing through t he tourist destinations as if there was no tomorrow… which is partly true, because we were bound to be back in Malaysia on the next day. If we had participated as a group in the Amazing Race , we’d win hands down. ...

Monday, the first day of training was pretty uneventful… here we found out what damage literal translation can do – make you laugh till you can’t laugh anymore! Anyway, after 5 pm, we found ourselves activity-less, so after dinner which we had at 6:30 pm, we decided to head out to the local area to check out their v ersion of Carrefour and visit the 100 yen shop. Tuesday night dinner – The training division decided to have a dinner together for all the trainers and trainees that night. We had a chance to dine the proper Japanese way on the low table. The food was amazing. We had steamboat, salmon, octopus (this is a must try!) and a var iety of mushrooms. The low table where we had our dinner After eating we were ‘forced’ to participate in some games like to use 3 matchsticks to make 4 triangles, or try to ‘push’ off a 1000 yen note of the table without actually touching it, and the local version of rock, paper, scissors. Next, each country had to go out and sing a song. Why???? The ...

Day 1 – touchdown and some adventures in Osaka We touched down at Kansai International at 7 am Japanese time on Sunday morning after having a ridiculous attempt at sleeping in the plane. “Would you like to have Malaysian fried rice with chicken satay or the omelette with potatoes for breakfast?” asks a very chirpy flight attendant at 4 am . Groggily I say I would prefer the fried rice. Anyway, who on earth (besides people who really have to) has breakfast at 4 am? We waited a bit for other trainees from other cou ntries, got to kno w each other and took a long ride in an airport limo bus to the train station nearest to where we were supposed to stay throughout our training… a boarding house also known as a dormitory. The rooms were really nic e and spacious, and at that moment the *sun was actually shining into the room and the effect was just lovely! The room without the sun... The floor is lined with Katami - (something like a mat that helps keep off the cold) While some of them s...

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 (sle pt 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 r elated accidents, and we were there to be trained on proper prevention methods. Despite the serious tone of the training, we had coffee breaks every ho ur or so. In t...