First Day: "The Company"

The First "Company" Encounter

For more posts similar to this one, see The Series of Firsts

Somehow or another, you need to get your keys and actually in your apartment sometime soon after your flight arrives. That means that merely hours after you arrive you will get to have your first encounter with the company staff. Hey! This could be your first encounter with your supervisor! Lucky you!

Total Moron FOB

This could also be the first time to rub elbows with some fellow FOBs. Stick with this blog. I'll be detailing the fellow foreigners later.

If you have a keen eye, you might notice some ‘OMFG Who Hired You?’ people and perhaps a few of the ‘dazed and confused.’ (More about them later) But, you are probably a bit too overwhelmed with everything going on around you to really care about anything other than the immediate dose of Japan that you are main-lining. You are just going to be happy to be there and excited about getting settled in.

Flu Season

After finally making it to wherever it was you picked up the key…crud!! Do you still have your luggage? Uh oh! Didn’t someone from your company’s staff tell you about the luggage delivery services at the airport? If they did and you were by yourself, the experience of filling out the forms at the desk without assistance may have made you say, “Screw it, I’ll just take them with me." However………………

If you’re in a big city, the decision to travel around with your luggage in tow may have led to another first: The first time you look like a complete and total moron in Japan. An unsuspecting FOB with WAY too much luggage and no idea how IMPOSSIBLE it is to navigate crowded Japanese train lines (with any kind of suitcase other than a small carry on) is a rare but always an appreciated sighting for the veteran gaijin-san living in the land of natto.

Back to the first encounter with the company staff. If you had to go to the head office, there's really not going to be much to see there except for a bunch of over-friendly faces in suits. You’ll get to learn their true natures later, At first the over-friendliness will seem like a nice gesture; the office staff will go WAY out of their normal routine to make you feel comfortable and welcome during your first moments in Japan (don’t expect much after this). You’ll get your keys and perhaps even an actual living human to give you a ride or hold your hand to your apartment. You’ll perhaps receive some paperwork, pamphlets and other assorted packets of spectacularly useless information. Then you’ll be off to your first apartment.

You will not under any circumstances be aware of how freaking busy the staff is during your first encounter. You will still be on vacation time and you will want to chat, ask some questions and move slowly. However, the staff wants you out of their hair ASAP! You will not be aware of this….. until much later.

Anyway, on to your first apartment.............

Do you have a question about Japan or a topic that you are interested in that you haven't found on this blog? If so, please tell me about it in a comment. I will get a post up about it as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!!