Last week, we had an afterwork dinner some of the people who are in the project. It was in the japanese way: a place close to the office, with lots of food and drinks, and a way to talk with your colleagues in a different environment.
According to what I had read, people in this kind of events normally speak more about work, but in an informal way. But, in this case, we talked about work (of course), but also about other stuff, like similarities and differences about cultures, languages, companies, etc.
Very interesting experience, apart from being an excellent teambuilding activity, always needed when starting, and a new oportunity to taste exquisite food and try the famous sake.
By the way, in the restaurant we went, I faced something a colleague from Spain told me.., Going to the toilet, and find these two doors:
Which one would you choose? My colleague told me: “you’ll have to wait until someone else enters, so you know which is for you”… He was right: I didn’t wait and I chose wrongly the first time.
Or at least, that’s what I think it was what I found last thursday when I arrived to my station. The “main square” full of people dancing like this:
After 10 minutes of looking and listening to this music, I came back home whistling this… I will try to get the MP3. 😉
Any way, I agree with the japanese. It’s a once-in-a-life experience. There will be no second time, that’s for sure. 😉
First full-day in Tokyo, completely free for walking around and trying to realize where I am. 🙂
Before coming, I collected some useful information about Japan from some friends. I remember Inda told me that in Tokyo all life is focused around the train stations, and when you are far from them, they are normally peaceful residential areas… and he was completely right. 🙂
I live in that part of the neighbourhood, the peaceful residential area (apart from the big avenue behind my building)… and then when you start walking to the station, you start finding more and more people, as well as shops… until you get to the station. (see pictures as follows, all taken in the same street)
Close to the station, I found our friend Mc (my first visitors will love it :D), and Café Sands. Maybe they are my relatives and I had no clue about that. 🙂
Today I liked what I saw quite more than yesterday. But I still think it’s quite chaotic, without any order… But that mess looks nice… apart from the cables. I see cables all around the place. Is it just me?
Tomorrow it’s time to start working again… I am even eager to that. O_o
I promised you some daily life japanese… Ok, here it goes.
Imagine you arrive to your new apartment, and you start moving around checking everything. You go to the kitchen and you find this:
Then, you take a look to the washing machine…
… you find this in the door of the bathroom …
… and this next to the bath.
And last, but not least, this is the controller of the WC!!!
I am on my way to study the different user guides I found under the TV. That is something I could ask to be removed. I have 12 channels, and all of them are in perfect Japanese. =) I hope the Olympics can be watched using the original infography. 🙂