First day of training. I purposely got up early and attempted the alternative route to the training center. Breakfast was mentaiko pasta, but I made the mistake of buying it before checking to see if my room had a microwave or not, and it didn’t, unlike the room I stayed in during my previous stay. So it was cold pasta for breakfast.
Took the train and changed at Tenkubashi for the monorail to Shinseibijo. It’s rather far actually to walk from the station to the technical center out in the cold. Decided that it would have been better to take the bus instead. Was the second to reach there, with the first being the staff from Shanghai. She wanted to come in early like I did, because we had to go through the hassle of getting change, plus our hair and makeup needed to be done the way the company regulated, or we risked being called out in front of the rest. For this training, only 3 of us were foreigners, the last one being a girl from Canton station.
We were then divided into groups, because the instructor wanted the Japanese to interact with us foreigners, so she split us up to ensure every group had a ‘foreigner’. My group mates were pretty friendly people, though one couldn’t help but to feel there was an undercurrent going on among the female Japanese staffs. Every line uttered by them was insinuated with something else, and it was pretty tough navigating it.
By lunchtime, I was tired out by it all, all those sly words, sly pick on others through words, it was all very suffocating. Wasn’t feeling very hungry either, so just went with some potato salad, shumai and inari sushi. The two Chinese staffs saved a space for me by the window, and insisted that I join them. They were also both tired out by the morning events. We stopped trying to fit in with the rest of Japanese staffs. Honestly, we were just tired out by it all.
Sat through the second half, and I couldn’t be happier when it was all over by 6pm. Quickly took the bus out to Shinseibijo, then the monorail to Tennozu to meet my ex-colleague who promised to bring me out for dinner. He was running late, so I was searching high and low for a payphone to contact him, but had no luck. Finally he showed up, and apologised for being late because he was bogged down with work.
We took the train to Oimachi, but my colleague made a mistake and we ended up on the wrong train, so we had to change trains again. Poor dude’s been like that since his divorce. It was a sad experience for him, because his ex-wife cheated on him, and eventually they divorced before he was able to go on with the wedding ceremony. He was down in the dumps ever since. To cheer him up, we went for Miyazaki food, since he was from Kyushu, he might find some comfort in them.
Had raw horse meat! My favourite! At his urging, tried the raw chicken meat too after he guaranteed that I won’t end up with a food poising like how I did in Okinawa. One of our favourite staple was the nanban chicken, as he related his sad story over drinks. Told him to cheer up, as he was one of the nicest guy I’ve met, very gentlemanly, which is a trait you don’t usually come across in Japanese men often. Obviously he was still very much broken-hearted over the turn of events, and he missed our company back in Malaysia a lot, but he stopped short of crying. All I could say is, little did he know how much his life would change soon.
Went to a place serving parfait for dessert, and we shared it between both of us. S had always been like my older brother, back in our station in Malaysia, taking care of me when I first joined, so it was heartbreaking to see him like this. Also, when the shop plays ‘Aung Lang Syne’ it means they are closing up, so we paid and left.
He walked me back to my hotel, and it was a nice hot bath before packing up my things to check out the next day.
この長い旅で 