My work

When I first arrived at Chiikikagaku, I was drenched in sweat, I carried my suitcase from the station to the company, which is not that far but it was still very hot. Maybe not the best first impression, but as soon as people saw my suitcase, everybody understood what went down. I was introduced to some people in the company and was told to come back on Monday, 8.30 sharp.

 On the follow Monday I was introduced in the traditional Japanese way by giving a small speech about my self, my hobbies, my hometown and until when I will be staying with the company. And afterwards it was time for my introduction interview. This was conducted entirely in Japanese; I somehow managed to understand everything and realized what I am going to be doing here. I will be basically be doing whatever they tell me to do. Haha. This means the day to day business of the company, I will be shown around and work in most of the departments helping in which ever way I can with my limited Japanese but fluent English.
My goals during my stay here are simple but very hard. I want to improve my Japanese reading and speaking ability, as well as understand more about the Japanese way of running a company which I believe is very interesting. I am very glad that I went the usual route of going to a Japanese University first and then to the internship, because even though my Japanese is limited now, it feels like it is a million times better than it was in February. I am able to answer and ask my co-workers a lot of questions in Japanese, this hopefully will enable me to fit in the company really smoothly.
The people in the company are all very nice and for some reason very interested in Holland, so it is easy to talk to them about Dutch or European things. Plus it seems that a lot of people here have not been to Tokyo or want to reminisce about Tokyo, so I can talk about that too. But besides that I think am willing to try and do a lot of things, for example I want to climb a mountain whilst I am here! There are some hiking enthusiasts at the company so that is a bonding factor. Other than I am pretty much down for what ever, I love drinking and playing soccer so I plan to do those things here too! Even though I try to adapt myself to the Japanese culture I will also try to be myself, I am able to function in  Japanese society, but am still so very Dutch. I think being Dutch is a quality when you use it with good measurement.

Current mood: Excited and Coffee is keeping me awake for the ride