My First Working Month of Working in Tokyo

The work visa process was nerve wracking and even when I received my certificate/stamp, I was still nervous about something blowing up in my face. In my 2nd work situation, my work visa did have a small amount of controversy where I was taken to the back to deal with some technical issues. But luckily, this period went a lot smoother. At Narita, I still had a few extra things to process to receive my full work visa stamp but once that was over, the normal routine of getting through customs and heading into Tokyo would take place.

I think at this stage, I still hadn’t discovered the Narita Airport Limo Bus. Since we’re on the topic at this time, let me just say that the advertisement as being “easy” is absolutely true. They manage your luggage, take you to your drop off point (usually a major hotel) and from move your luggage off the bus once you’re done. In addition, you get a nice view as you head into Tokyo and the bus has a restroom in the back, which is great after a long flight. On the way back, instead of dealing with a passport inspection at the airport, the bus handles that aspect directly. So you’re getting pretty hassle free care for about 5000-en or so (last time I used it at least) which is totally worth it. First time travelers going to Tokyo should absolutely use this. So that’s one tip from me.

At any rate, the other major concern from me was getting my key back from Kudo-san, who was still staying at my place. Since I might’ve been on a prepaid cellphone still, most of the communication was handled through email while I was back in the states. I can’t recall exactly how I got my key back though. It could’ve been a meet or maybe it was him leaving the key under the door or something like that. But if there’s one thing about the Japanese, it’s that they’re generally pretty trustworthy about these things and if the key was left under the door, I could almost guarantee it would be there (unless some shady foreigner knew about it or discovered it).

I’m sure once I received the work visa related stuff back in the states I had to continue correspondence with my future boss as well as the bank’s HR to ensure I wasn’t going to flake out though. So I don’t know how much time I had in between getting back to my flat and starting the new job. But it was still pretty cold as it was probably the beginning of April when I returned.  Also, when I was in the states, I probably had to pack new clothes because the job required professional clothes (no tie nor suit, but you needed dress pants and a collared shirt)

Regardless, my first day for work was absolutely one of the most exciting days of my life. Yeah, in retrospect, it would seem like an average day for anyone, but to me I was entering a whole new world. I was finally here. I made it! I know I woke up early because work started at 9am on the dot (which is something that would affect me down the road) but at that point in my life, I had far more vigor and enthusiasm and couldn’t wait to start my new Japanese job.

My apartment was located 10 minutes away from the Ebisu station. I tried to trace where my old place was but it’s been over 20 years and so much has changed that I recognize almost nothing in the area besides the train station and a Yoshinoya that I might’ve eaten at a few times. But the whole place is completely different from what I remember and it makes me sad in a way. Nevertheless, the way you’d get to the station was a straight walk from the quiet neighborhood. I didn’t appreciate that the location was actually peaceful until later when I would move to Harajuku and nearly lost my sanity for a year dealing with the constant street traffic of Meiji-dori. So I wish I could’ve appreciated the zone a lot more.

Because you had numerous businesses in Ebisu (even Morgan Stanley at the Beer Garden), you would see people dressed up walking to their respective companies. I think Fujitsu might’ve had a satellite office as I recall that morning a fleet of people coming from the station to that office. It was pretty impressive as I was used to people casually driving into work in LA. In fact, most people take the public transit to get to work as parking is costly and owning a car almost prohibitively expensive in Tokyo. In fact, for all the trouble it’s worth, I can’t see why anyone would want a car in Tokyo outside of it being a status symbol.

By the time I got to the station, my heart was racing both from being out of shape and from the general excitement of the morning. To get to my office, which was located at Akasaka next to the TBS building (yes, the TV station), I needed to use the Hibiya-sen and transfer at Kasumigaseki for the Chiyoda-sen. It was really annoying because it was a roundabout way to get some place that was central. I’m sure if I wanted, I could’ve walked but I wasn’t as familiar with the streets of Tokyo by that point. Also, who wants to walk in pants especially during the humid summers? (I could’ve changed once I got to the building but that’s a different story)

The Akasaka station itself isn’t really that impressive compared to other lines because there’s no transfers intermixing. The Akasaka-Mitsuke station though has more overlap and later on it would be one I’d use to get around more conveniently. But I was still a novice with the trains and subways so that wasn’t an option. Also, I still had been buying my train tickets and probably would do so for a while because I wasn’t familiar with the monthly passes nor Metro cards like Pasmo. Most of that probably is gone in favor of using mobile devices but that whole system was a pain because everything was fast pace and you had to insert your ticket, rush through a gate that was open until you grabbed your ticket on the way out. And if you lost your ticket for whatever reason, well, I’m fortunate that I never did that. But getting those doors slammed on you once in a while sucked.

Getting out of the station was easy but getting up to my building was a pain. Once you were out of the station though, you occasionally could see the weather woman from TBS outside, which was kind of cool because TBS was such a big thing to me back then as we’d get some of their J-dramas back in the states. With the hundreds of TBS employees ascending the stairs or taking the escalator, I kept thinking to myself looking up at the massive buildings, “Will I ever get to meet Norika Fujiwara in person? Maybe Ryoko Yonekura?” I was such a fan back then and my head was filled with dreams that would eventually get crushed by reality.

The stairs/escalator itself was massive, going up probably 2-3 stories themselves. This is significant because later that year during the winter, I had a major incident which I won’t discuss here. But it was something I had to get used to especially because I had to get back down and still have bad acrophobia. Either way, it’s something I had to deal with for a year and a half.

I don’t remember how the exact morning went for me at the new office. I do know there were badges and you might’ve needed to show them to the guard to get in. But the building’s bottom itself had other businesses like a conbini (convenient store) and a health clinic, maybe a restaurant as well. Nonetheless, I didn’t have direct access to the office and would go through HR, spending the morning filling out paperwork for my insurance, etc. Also, I didn’t have a Japanese bank account so I needed to get setup with that as well and an ATM cad.

The HR head was a bit of a controversial figure in the company. One of the guys who work in Market Data used to call the HR director Catbert (from Dilbert) because he was EXACTLY the same in character, except Japanese. Apparently, he never smiled either and I might’ve said some joke that caused him to laugh. But I can’t remember. The rest of the day I think was just getting setup and meeting my new coworkers. The group was the Unix systems group and inside we had teams for different purposes. Mine was going to be Unix Data where we were building an inventory management system for all the parts and information on each of the servers (for which there were roughly 1k for the company). I wish I was more politically savvy back then because I should’ve done more to try and fit in but I think I’m simply anti-social and focused on my new group.

I do remember grabbing lunch with my little group over at a Thai tabehoudai (buffet) spot which was really good. I doubt it’s still around but we had several versions of curry. But it was to get introduced to my lead and two other coworkers, one of who was a Japanese native and another guy sharing the same last name as me named Bryce who was from Hawaii. Bryce was a really funny guy too and super laid back as you might expect from someone coming from Hawaii. He reminded me of various other Japanese Americans I grew up with back in LA so it was easy to talk with him.

After work, it was just another day and I don’t think we ended up doing anything except going home for the evening. But somehow I survived the first day of work and probably went back home. During that first month though, financially things were really rough. My boss at some point had asked me if I needed any money but I had no idea what he meant. I thought he was just going to spot me a few bucks to get by. Later, I learned that larger firms that imported talent would give packages such as paying for a good chunk of their rent or maybe even their living expenses to a degree. Certainly, at the executive level, people were getting pretty good packages. Part of the incentive here was to help alleviate taxes (especially for a shitty country like the US where they still expect you to file even if you make under the allotted amount). So a company might pay for a portion, which would be taken pre-tax, effectively keeping you under the radar. The other reason for paying for rent was to keep employees near the office. For instance, I knew a bunch of people over at Morgan Stanley that were getting pretty good pay but living in Ebisu with 80% of their rent covered. But that’s also because Morgan Stanley’s offices were in that vicinity. So there’d be almost no excuse for being late or scrambling in an emergency.

Regardless, being the proud, naive idiot back then, I refused the offer. But that meant my life for the next 2 months would be hell because the Japanese pay cycle is completely different from the bi-weekly pay a person might receive in America. Also, you would be put on a “trial” period for several months before receiving any benefits. Now, that practice was done in America, which is stupid because it would be a way to pull a string along for employees so they’d behave. Some people usually would use that period to pretend to behave good; once that period ended, their true selves would emerge so I think that system should be killed. If you really want employees to behave, just have a contract-to-hire policy so there’s no false expectations and pay them more and give overtime. That way they can choose their own insurance and necessities.

Anyway, the real meat of the matter here was that my life would be very harsh for at least a month while I waited around for my first paycheck. My main means of survival related to food were the convenient stores, Matsuya and the onsite cafeteria that would serve fairly cheap lunches (around 500-en). Matsuya was my personal main life savior at this point because they had this crappy chicken curry priced at 290-en. Okay, it wasn’t really that crappy compared to the average American fast food joint but I think this was the lowest of the low when it came to curry quality. Sometimes, I might’ve eaten at Yoshinoya, which they did have at Ebisu and I might’ve even had a meal or two with Kris out there once we got back in contact (he kinda disappeared as per his usual) but I learned the art of Gyudon + raw egg. Really great and everyone should try that BUT ONLY IN JAPAN WHERE YOU CAN TRUST THE EGGS.

For the convenient stores, I typically hit up this Circle K on the way home. Around that period we had the World Soccer Cup going and Tokyo was infected by soccer fever. I remember going with some friends I made at that Comm Inn English Conversation Cafe going afterwards to a British pub and watching the game (even though I’m not a fan of sports). And I do have a few stories about the cup that I’ll get to but I want to stay on the top of food. The main feature of Circle K around this period was that you could buy a coca cola drink (the bottled version) at Circle K where it came with a small World Soccer Lego set. These were REALLY cool because they not only had the little figures but added play elements. And this was before Lego went ballistic and started charging up the ass for their products.

In addition to Coke, I would buy bento box dinners. One thing guaranteed in Japan about convenience stores is that the bento on average is at least good and sustaining along with having a nice variety. You could easily survive on bento alone because it’s just that good over there. Along with this, occasionally I’d try what I called the “mysterious baked” section. I call it that because my Japanese wasn’t great and once in a while you’d find some disgusting oddity or an item that you became completely hooked on. The worst items for me was anything mayo-corn or natto oriented (like harumaki/spring rolls) while the best thing I discovered was curry-pan (bread). The curry-pan is something I dream about still as it was these donut-like pieces of bread with curry filling inside. Heat that up for 30 seconds and it was a fantastic snack.

Dessert-wise, this is the main area truly lacking for me. I think I just prefer American sweets like donuts and cookies far better. Japanese desserts are a real mixed bag. The donuts taste more like bread with wax on top (like you would find at Mister Donuts), the cookies bland like cardboard. If you’re into Japanese sweets, some that I liked as a child but gradually became disgusted by are mochi filled with azuki/anko (red bean paste). However, the ice cream can be pretty good so that’s worth trying, especially the mochi ice cream (if you can vaoid the azuki ones). I think I just am sensitive to texture and azuki reminds me of poop.

The cafeteria at work was decent though. They had a nice little meat sauce spaghetti lunch, ramen or udon curry. Some companies have these bento carts downstairs. When we eventually moved to the Harumi Triton Tower in Kachidoki, I would start hitting up more of those carts. But I learned down the line that it generally wasn’t good to eat from those carts since the food might stay out for a while (and I did get food poisoning on two different occasions). But those places generally are pretty cheap for what you get and decent tasting.

However, Akasaka has to be the best place I’ve worked for food. The sheer variety and upscale nature of the restaurants were amazing. Maybe the best restaurant I’ve eaten in that area was a French spot called Asterix. I don’t think it’s around anymore but they used to do the whole 5 course meal thing. It was 5000-en (~$50) but amazing food. Working in this zone certainly spoiled me and made me realize just how bad American cuisine was especially because I had been eating fast food almost all my life (after the fact that my mom hated cooking and probably the only person on earth that could burn water)

At any rate, I had to pull back on going to puroresu quite a bit at this stage just from lack of time and the need to conserve money. In fact, as time went on, my budget grew exceptionally tight and sometimes, I would only eat once a day if I was lucky. And if I ate, it probably would’ve been Matsuya or bento. Part of the reason for my tightness was that Japan is (or was) a heavily cash based society. Even if I could use my credit cards, it wasn’t justified not to mention they might put a lock on my card. Not to mention, I was already heavily in debt and unable to send money back home and I had zero desire to burden my parents with more of my financial woes (they had their own). So I did my best to avoid using my credit card and would scrounge up change to eat.

In addition, I had no internet. My apartment was old and not setup for an internet connection. Work had internet but it was heavily filtered behind a reverse proxy (Apache Squid). In that manner, they could cache content as well as catch anyone trying to view suspicious sites. I’m sure at this stage, the net is even more heavily monitored as things were increasingly become stricter by the time I left. So once in a while, I was using an internet cafe to connect.

Truthfully, I wasn’t as big of an internet addict at that point because the content wasn’t as good compared to now (or maybe the last 10-15 years especially with the growth of social media and especially streaming services). Instead, my entertainment was for once having an actual life. I would go to that English conversation cafe fairly regularly and make friends there. I’d pay less than the typical Japanese guy because I was still considered a foreigner. People generally liked me there though because my English was fluid and I had a background in teaching and could explain things well. Sometimes you’d meet other gaijin who were trying to find their way or make a little extra money.

I met one male model over there who mentioned he worked with Norika Fujiwara. At one point, I did see a commercial of his with Norika Fujiwara. That made me a little jealous I must admit. Then there were these two Irish kids who came over on a hope and a dream. Neither had a degree and were probably just surviving in some crappy flat or a spot like a New Koyo. But the conversation cafe paid them enough money to survive and eat. I remember hearing one guy telling his sister/friend that he made some money one day and was really happy. But it was clear they were both directionless and just looking to escape their homeland sadly. That made me appreciate having a real job (despite not getting paid the entire month and starving most of the time)

Sometimes after Com Inn closed, I might’ve hung out with some people from there. I had a small group for a week or two and we’d go over to the pub for checking out the World Soccer Game. I know everyone at the office was really into it and someone even brought in a TV to check out the play offs. But living around Ebisu during that period was something else. I remember one morning on a Saturday, I had just gotten up and started wandering the streets. Unlike most days, Ebisu that day was just dead. I thought we were hit by a bomb or the plague because it was unusually dead silent. All of a sudden, a massive roar erupted where tons of Japanese people were screaming, “Yatta! Yatta!” (we did it!) as Japan had won their game for the day. Some kids on a motor scooter drove around yelling as I stood around dumbfounded realizing just how attentive the Japanese were for this series. And they did really well too but didn’t edge out Turkey and another country from my memory.

All I could think about in this period was just how lucky I wasn’t back in America where Bush was fucking up the economy and things were going to absolute shit with everyone’s rights being slowly eroded as the war against the Al Quaida was about to pick up. A shame I couldn’t escape back to Japan but at my age and energy level with all the shit going on, I doubt I could these days. Le sigh.