it’s golden week!

今日は初任給日。

新社会人になって、初めて給料をもらう日だ。

気持ちはただ嬉しいの一言。

自分は働く者だっ！

通帳に書いてあったお金の記録はマレーシア大使館を通じて、マレーシア政府からもらった奨学金

ではなく

自分が働いた分のお金だ。

使い道は自由。

何買う？

it’s my first pay day.

i’m no longer depending on malaysian tax payer’s money to live.

i got my own money.

for the first time in my life.

this is something fresh and new; it is quite brilliant really.

nak beli apa aa?

anyways, it’s GOLDEN WEEK in Japan right now.

i got 11 days to forget about work.

and have FUN!

and fun, i will have.

hopefully through legal and morally accepted ways.

happy holidays!

ok, maybe i can close one of my eyes on the ‘moral’ part.

だって遊びたいもん！

Internet Gets!

Finally I managed to get Internet connection to my apartment.

I am no longer living in the dark-ages!

I can now read the news, enjoy watching useless videos on youtube and even get my hands on this super high tech thing they call Internet shopping!

I’m buying myself a new desktop computer and a digital SLR camera for the first time yay!

I just have to wait for my first salary!

And…

I also want to know whether my favourite sushi-neta would taste better if paid with my own hard earned money; for the first time.

Sushi paid with Malaysian tax payer’s money tasted great btw.

初給料にウキウキ？

i’m officially a salaryman

just like many fresh graduates all around Japan who attended 入社式 (nyushashiki – company entrance welcoming ceremony), i attended mine today.

it is a japanese tradition to hold such formal ceremonies to officially welcome the newcomers on the first of april.

as this is a japanese ceremony, it was extremely formal and everything has to be done accordingly and everyone must show their ability to become one and act in one harmonious and synchronized sets of action.

anyways, the most interesting part of the ceremony is the speech by the company president.

at these troubled times when more than 200,000 japanese workers lost their jobs, i should be glad that i didn’t lost mine.

the president predicted a future that is not going to be easy, but hope is not lost.

i can only nod my head, not really grasping wether i understood the reality of the situation.

大丈夫っしょ？

first few days in kanagawa

I guess my predictions were true.

I predicted that I won’t be updating my blogs as frequently as I wanted to.

And as you can see by yourself, the rate of me posting new posts here has tremendously declined; even IF I have tons and tons of things to write about.

Like for instance, my new place in Hashimoto, Kanagawa.

For an apartment provided by my company, I was very impressed by how clean and in good condition it was.

I’m not saying that I expect less from my own company, but the place looks like it’s never been occupied by anyone else before!

Well, at least until I got my stuff from Akita here.

My job-training are just going to last until September before I get sent to somewhere else, so I plan to keep the apartment that I’m in now strictly basic; just enough for me to live in.

And it sucks though that I need to wait until the 18th of April until I could put some internet-connection magic into my Dell.

The internet provider guy said that because it’s April, the season in which a lot of people changes apartment/homes, I would have to wait in line for my turn to get their service started.

And oh, the other thing that sucks about this apartment is that it would take about 90 minutes for me to get to work.

It took like 10 minutes to walk from the apartment to the nearest eki (train station), about 60 minutes of densha ride, and then another 10 minutes of bus riding until I reach work.

Pretty tiring stuff to be doing everyday, especially riding the densha; it was inevitable that the thing would be packed with people who didn’t shower in the morning.

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I also changed my phone to iphone!

It was pretty unbelievable that Softbank is giving out iphones for free here in Japan; and I waste no time to grab the opportunity.

So I have been using my iphone for a week now, and I really understood why it was not so very well received by the Japanese users.

The thing is evolutionary as it is not friendly at the way Japanese people use their mobile phones.

The thing that irks me the most is the absence of infra-red ability to change information with your new found friends.

And the way Apple uses the 3G network to deal with internet bandwidth is also a little bit weird that it hinders with the speed receiving emails.

With all that said, I still think that it was worth the change.

Well, I DID got it for free, so I won’t be complaining much about it.

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Maybe this is happening because of the change of environment and lifestyle, but I think I’m pretty lonely right now.

As I am very new to this place, I have no friends; but I’m trying very hard to make some, as fast as I could.

Anyways, just right in front of my apartment, there is a video shop selling Japanese porn at extreme discount points.

I don’t know why I need to tell you that.

Maybe because I’m just lonely.

pic: there is big sakura tree right on the platform of sagami-hara station. pretty swett!

i love the sakura season!

moving to kanagawa

Eleven boxes full of my stuff from Akita to Kanagawa costs about 15000 yen.

It was not cheap, and I really hope I could claim that money back.

Anyways, I have finished packing up and cleaning my old apartment; and that is all thanks to the full cooperation and swift work by my kohais, who spend their precious time to help me and Zarul tidy up the place.

And bought the stuff that we don’t want to bring along.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated.
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The morning sun was brilliant.

The picture is taken while Zarul is driving me to the Akita Station so that I could take the earliest Shinkansen to Tokyo, leaving Akita for good.

I thank Affir and Mantop for letting me stay in their new, huge apartment for that night.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* My breakfast (and also lunch) in the shinkansen was a simple one.

One sake-nigiri, a bottle of milk tea and a bar of snickers.

Like always, my view is fixed to the window.

The snowy scenery outside was pretty amazing.

But I can’t really focus of the scenery because I have a book to finish:仕事の基本が身につく本 – this book teaches everything that I need to know about Japanese working culture.

Like how to bow, how to talk politely with seniors and clients, how to receive meishi (name card), how to politely refuse invitation to get piss drunk after work etc.

You know… the basis of how to become a Japanese salaryman.

My training requires me to finish the book because they are going to have a test of my Japanese mannerism and how much I know about the Japanese business manner and culture.

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I arrived at my new apartment (provided and fully supported by the company) impressed with the place. I thought it would be smaller.

This is always a good sign.

The floor was quite cold though, but I can’t complain much because they provided the washing machine, shower room, toilet, air conditioner, intercom, kitchen etc all for free.

This must be a sign of something good.

I hope.