The Womb

Another week in Tokyo, another week of exciting new experiences. I think I am become less of a tourist and more of a resident. Yet, at the same time, as my hair keeps growing longer I seem to get more stares from the residents of Tokyo. It seems that my handsome good looks and flame colored hair are just too much for the old ladies to resist. But enough about me lets hear some more about ...me.

This week I was able to learn even more about my company as I was given the opportunity to ride in a garbage truck for two days, go on some sales calls, and see client's new incineration facility. During my free time I was able to go out with co-workers, finally meet up with a friend from back in the states, went to the zoo, and wilded out at one of the best clubs in Tokyo.

To begin, I first wanted to write about my experiences at work. As strange as it sounds, I now have a small obsession with the waste management field of work. Was it the ride in the garbage truck that inspired me? No. That shit was about as exciting as anyone would expect it to be. However, the truck ride did give me the opportunity to see both the front office side of the business and the 'dirty' part of the company's work. I believe that this was the effect my boss, in all his infinite wisdom, wanted to create. I now see that despite the fact that the waste management field is far from glamorous, it is still extremely financial lucrative and has the potential to do good for the environment. All of these experiences have made it more interesting to go to work and have the opportunity to learn more about the industry. Additionally, meetings with a number of clients have also planted an entrepreneurial spirit in my head. Granted I meet only the successful businessmen, but it is still very inspiring to want to run your own business, something I have never really found appealing before.

After work on Thursday I went out with a coworker to a bar named The Pink Cow. I finally got to interact with more Japanese people in a relaxed setting as well as had the opportunity to meet some people from the states. Needless to say I caught the last train at night and work was not fun the next day. On Friday night I met up with my friend Gina from Washington DC and was invited to stay at her host-parents house. This was the first house I have seen in Tokyo with a front yard and grass. And yes it was traditional Japanese architecture with paper-thin walls, but their toilet was really cool so it’s all good.

Saturday continued my fun filled weekend as Ryota, Hide, Steven, Yan (the Dutch AIESECers) and I all went to the Ueno Zoo. Though it was interesting experience to see all the animals, the highlight of that trip was when instead of taking pictures of the animals several Tokyo residents proceeded to take pictures of us. Steven has blond hair, Yan has brown, and I have red. This was the trifecta for several zoo visitors and they happily snapped away, with very little subtlety. As the night wound down we walked around Tokyo some more and saw a festival where old Japanese antiques were sold, and a parade was hosted. Regarding the parade, it seems that even here in Japan, it is an absolute must for a marching band, cheerleaders, and color guard to be present. And as in the US, the color guard is......has really nice personalities.

Sunday the Dutch and myself attended a water park, which was a noteworthy activity for two reasons. One, the lines are extremely long and the slides are less than stellar. Two, I have now been sunburned on three continents.

Sunday night was probably the craziest night of my trip thus far. My coworker, Yuko, told me that she was going to a really cool club on Sunday night (Monday is a national holiday), and I was welcome to come. Never one to turn an opportunity to wild out, I happily obliged. We left her house at around 12AM, at which point I realized I was not catching the train home. We arrived at club "Womb"(pronounced ooomb by most Japanese) and waited to get in. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The DJ was phenomenal, the facilities were fantastic, and the drinks were reasonably priced. If you have questions about how well the Japanese crowd dances please ask me in person.

And so I stayed at the club till 5 AM until the subway started to run again. It appears that 95% of the people on the subway at that hour were in the same boat as me. The "I couldn't afford a cab at a reasonable hour of night, and so I waited till 5" boat.

I will leave you with some pictures from this week.



View from the zoo.



Beautiful house surrounded by Lillis .




Parade dress.



Ryota, Hide, me, random waiter, Steve, Yan.



Tokyo is full of tiny streets.

The first time he threw up

My first week in Tokyo and at work has reached a climactic conclusion, no not the one you are thinking of, but it was good times nevertheless. After a week I am better adjusted to the time difference, I can find my way around a little better, I have done some touristy things and I have had a great time at work.

First things first, my presentation to my company was well received by all of the employees, especially my boss. So much so that I had to do the presentation over 7 or 8 times this week. I felt like I was the company's prized talking American doll, I was introduced to every client and asked to do my presentation over and over again. I believe that by third time my boss, Takiguchi Chiaki, had memorized it. So when he helped me translate he would go from memory rather than what I said. Presentation aside, my first day at work was absolutely phenomenal. In all honesty, I could not have asked to work for a better company, with better coworkers, or have a better boss/CEO. On Monday all the staff and management received me very warmly. After meeting with several clients I was asked to present information about myself to the staff. After the presentation the company had a welcome party for me where everyone went around introduced themselves and told me a little about their lives in English. The highlight of this little event was when one of the staff decided to tell me a few English phrases her friends taught her. The first few were standard, 'how's it going,' 'we should go party after work,' etc. Then when the room was quietest she said 'I'm so fuckin horny.' No one knew what she had said but my facial expression gave it away.

For much of the week my job was to travel around Tokyo with my boss and find out more about the recycling facilities. I visited several sites, of which a paper recycling plant was absolutely the most impressive. It converted sensitive documents such as company budgets, employee records and various secrets to toilet paper. The plant had 100% efficiency, meaning that there was absolutely no waste in the process, but more importantly it meant that you could be wiping your ass with an investment bank's financial date or employee records.

Meeting with clients and with my company's partners was all very exciting but I must say that this experience is made all the better because of the fact that the people I work with were so amazing. I can honestly say that I look forward to work much more than I look forward to having my own free time. My boss is extremely welcoming and generous to me, and my CEO is always ecstatic to see me. On my first day my CEO greeted me with a hug and a speech about how excited he is to have me work for him. I thought he could speak English and started a conversation with him. It turned out that he spoke very little English, and had in fact prepared the speech ahead of time. These sort of little things make this company very welcoming and unique.

After having read some literature regarding the issue I decided to ask as many Japanese people as I could about the usual structure of companies in Japan. The overwhelming consensus seemed to be that they are almost all based on hierarchy and seniority. It seems that throughout Japanese society there seems to be this system in place. You can see it in filial piety, you can see it in school, you can see it in government (the same party has been in power for 60 years) and you can definitely see it at work. From my conversations with people it seems that the consensus is that this system is there for several reasons. The biggest reason being the stability of the society it provides. However, I believe that more and more Japanese people are starting to realize the possible faults of a society where such a system dominates all parts of life. I got very lucky to work for a firm that is the complete opposite of the aforementioned stereotype, but is instead open and flat in structure. When I asked Takiguchi why he decided to leave his prestigious government job to work for the Shirai Group, he simply stated that he was tired of the fact that there was no flexibility and original though was not valued.

On a slightly lighter note, you all must be wondering who threw up for the first time. If you are not, you should read the title more carefully next time. Thursday after work I caught the train to an AIESEC meeting at Tokyo University. After chatting with a few AIESECers about how their work was going I accompanied them to have dinner and drinks (a more accurate description would be drinking with some snacks thrown in). Everyone was very curious as to whether the fact that Russians had great drinking prowess was true. I said yes, and a gentleman by the name of Hido decided to challenge me. Not being one to turn down a few extra drinks I accepted the offer. About four drinks in I came to two conclusions. One, that I would easily win this challenge. Two, Hido would most likely throw up. I informed Hido of the fact that in the past, when my friends got to the condition that he was in, I would usually wager on whether they would throw up or not. In his slurred English he replied that he had never thrown up from drinking and that he was giving up on speaking English because it was far too difficult for him at this point.

Needless to say, Hido spent much of the night on the floor just outside of the restaurant. On the one hand I felt bad because I helped contribute to his condition, on the other hand I had a great time teaching this young man a lesson. So all in all....I had a really good time and don't regret anything.

This past Saturday I finally got the chance to explore Tokyo and visit some touristy places. I was accompanied by Ryota, Hido (who was feeling better), and two AIESECers from the Netherlands when we visited the Tokyo government center and their tall observatory. I then visited a Shinto Temple right in the middle of Tokyo and concluded the day by having dinner with my boss, Takiguchi. The week concluded by us having scotch on his roof and talking about the cultural differences between the US and Japan. This is once again a testament to his hospitality and great generosity.

Below are some photos of the past week, enjoy:






The CEO and me.


My coworkers.

I usually have no idea what I am eating.


Outside of Shinto Temple.

Lucky enough to witness a wedding.

The flight and arrival

It is now late Sunday morning as I sit in my 'apartment' in Tokyo. While it is a lazy Sunday here, my laptop still shows east coast time and it is about 1030 in the evening on July fourth and I imagine most of you have been 'celebrating' our independence. I have finally found time to sit down and reflect a bit about the hectic couple of past days and summarize what has happened.

To being with, my flight was rather uneventful which I suppose is a good thing. Luckily I did not get stuck in the back, but instead sat in the front. Unfortunately, the gentleman that had the window seat refused to open the window and I did not get to see Alaska, the arctic, and the Bering Sea from 38,000 feet up. Needless to say I was disappointed. I arrived in Narita Airport at around 215 pm Tokyo time (115 am eastern) and was met by two aiesec members. Here I hit my first little snafu of the trip in trying to get money out of the ATM. I tried to withdraw about 700 dollars because I owed Ryota for putting a deposit down on my 'apartment.' Much to my dismay the ATM would not allow me to withdraw money and rejected my card. Ryota, being the generous person he is, spotted me money until I figured out the whole situation.

We then proceeded to take the train into Tokyo because Narita airport is about an hour away from the city itself. We took the train back and forth between the office where I paid for the apartment and the apartment itself. If any of you have ever been to my apartment in Brooklyn try to picture my kitchen, then cut that in half and you have my place of residence in Tokyo. I have a bunk bed (not sure why), a table, and a 10-inch television. Despite the fact that I am used to living a life of luxury, liberal spending and all around ballin, I am more than happy with my accommodation. What is most important is that I only have a 20-minute commute to work and that I am in a nice neighborhood.

After dropping off my things in my closet I was taken to my office to meet everyone I am working with. This was without a doubt the most pleasant experience I have had to date. Everyone in the office greeted me and made me feel extremely welcome. My boss was extremely happy to see me, introduce me to everyone (I remember absolutely no one's name) and eagerly took me to dinner. Ironically enough my first meal in Japan was Italian food, which included pizza, pasta and salad. Towards the end of dinner I was starting to feel the side effects of having been awake for about 26 hours straight. I got back to my closet at around 11 pm and promptly fell asleep for about 14 hours.

The next day I took as an opportunity to procrastinate some more and walked around my neighborhood. The reason I say procrastinate is because on Monday I will have two presentations which I have t adjust a little, I meet with the Shirai group CEO, and I am judging a business contest the company held for local college students.

Upon arrival I began to notice several things that make Tokyo starkly different from New York. The first thing that you notice is just how much cleaner everything is in Tokyo. The trains smell like cleaning solution, the streets have no garbage on them, and the people don't throw their cigarettes on the floor after they are done smoking them. That being said, there are a surprisingly small number of garbage cans on the streets, I think I have seen two in total... The second thing I noticed is rather small but important, it is the fact that people will not cross the street unless there is a green light, regardless of whether there are cars coming or not. There seems to be much more respect for laws throughout the society in Japan than in America. I asked Ryota as to why he doesn’t cross the street when there are no cars coming, and I asked another aiesecer, James, why he doesn’t just throw his cigarettes on the floor and the response seems to be along the lines of 'the betterment of society.' Thought they have clearly not pondered these questions beforehand, what seemed evident was that they both felt a responsibility not to do these respective things to their fellow citizens. This is seemingly a collectivized sort of notion within a heavily capitalist nation). Something that seems lacking in our own society.

Today I must finalize my assignments for tomorrow and get ready for the long week ahead. I have figured out the situation with the ATM and am now able to get money, which is important in order to obtain food. On that subject-I have no idea what the fuck I have been eating; I have only been able to identify noodles. But I don’t really care, as it all has been delicious.

The calm

It is now less than twenty four hours before my departure for the land of the Rising Sun. Less than 24 hours before I leave my home in the United States and go on a mini-adventure in Tokyo Japan, which according to my flight manifest is about 6,000 miles away. Less than 24 hours before I immerse myself in a culture I know next to nothing about. Less than 24 hours before I begin to challenge myself by going completely outside my comfort zone.

I know you may say, 'Dimitry, you handsome devil you, something can phase you and take you outside your comfort zone?' It may be difficult to believe but your beloved Dimitry, despite my smooth talk, calm demeanor, and nearly unshakable confidence, can in fact be taken far outside my normal zone of comfortable daily operation. Lucky for me, most of you will not be able to see such an event as it will occur half way around the world.

For those of you who have not heard of my planned trip I will provide a brief synopsis. I am working in Tokyo, Japan for a recycling firm named the Shirai Group Inc. as an a sort of all purpose 'playa pimp (been hit with a few shell but I don't walk with a limp).' I will engage in both financial job functions as well as a little accounting. The other major job requirement will be to leverage my English my speaking, writing (as you can hopefully tell by now), and reading for the benefit of the company. From what I now understand I will be continuously improving the speaking skills of the Shirai Group's employees, doing a fair share of translation, and perhaps most importantly meeting with the company's clients. At this point in time, it sounds to me more like pleasure than work and I look forward to meeting my employer and fellow employees.

Lets get serious here for a minute and recognize the fact that a trip would not be a trip without doing some proper partying and traveling. For your benefit and enjoyment I will exploit all my local connections (which right now stand at 2 people) to find out more about the party scene in Tokyo as well as other cities around Japan. Furthermore, I look forward to exploring the different temples and shrines that have become famous throughout the world.

It should be noted that I plan on getting involved in the Local Community of AIESEC in Tokyo University as much as I am permitted. I wanted to thank them for they have already been gracious hosts and have been extremely helpful. Also a thank you to Ryota Nakashimi who has helped me get the job, helped me get my Visa paperwork, helped me find housing, and will meet me at the airport. One can't think of a more helpful and resourceful @er.

Perhaps most importantly, or at least what I find to be most interesting, I will attempt to reflect in this blog some worthwhile observations about culture, society, people and how they vary throughout the world. I am excited to be given such an opportunity where I will finally be on the outside looking in. Though it will be for a rather short period of time, I will do my utmost to present to you what I find to be interesting observations and on occasion original thought. As American's we tend to see the world through a very specific lens, and one that is often very narrow. In traveling to Japan I hope to not only expand my understanding of Japanese culture, but world culture. I want to know the way others see the world for what it is and how they see America as fitting into it.

I don't plan on having regularly scheduled posts, however, I think it would be fair to expect about a post a week. So either add me to your RSS feed or Google reader and prepare to have your mind blown by the sheer amount of greatness that shall grace this page. It is now about 18 hours before I leave from Newark Airport and I think I might be becoming excited.

PS-I swear to god if I get stuck at the back of the fuckin airplane again....