October 2nd 2012 - Day 26

Second day of work, and started by trying to take a slightly different route to work. It's basically the same route but on different trains and apparently cheaper. Unfortunately the downside is A) it takes longer and B) there is even less space. If I thought the train was cramped before, It was nothing compare to this new route I have to take. Why take this route? So that I can get the company to pay for my commute. Worth it for a saved penny or two.

Most of my duties today involved learning how the company works. I had some vague details before but Today was all about properly understanding the process. In a nut shell where I work is the reverse of a standard recruitment agency i.e. instead of focussing on the people looking for jobs, they focus more on the company who have a job to fill. They have all kinds of counselling  programmes and outsourcing schemes so as to help those companies find the right person for the job. As well as understanding all this, I had to both simplify it in English, and then translate what I understood into my own shoddy Japanese. The sempai who is in charge of me if easily the most patient man I know, considering he had to put up with me taking note and asking for translation help every few minutes. He did give me the chance to stretch my legs and join him for some fresh air. Which was awkward because he was smoking, but I made sure I was down wind and enjoyed the chance to stretch a bit.

At the moment I'm not sure how much I can talk about on here, so I'll leave that there for today and talk about other events. For lunch the sempai from yesterday had arranged for me to go out with a couple of different people from the office (and apparently plan on me doing the same thing all week) so I had a really nice time meeting these new people and chatting to them about interests and things.

Of course I didn't end the day on a high note. There is apparently a special rail pass one can buy here for commuting to work, kind of like a selective oyster card. I was told to buy that because its cheaper, but after getting back to Akihabara they told me they couldn't sell me it there, and so had to get back on the train and ride it even further away. And panic because I had to get it done before 8 or I'd have to get it done tomorrow morning, and that is too much stress to handle. I did get it done and dusted, though I was fuming quite a bit because to be honest I don't see the point in it. Just another one of those Japanese details that had to be adhered to I guess.