Welcome Party

Sony Ericsson had a Welcome and Farwell party tonight. Around 40 people went to a Chinese restaurant not far from the office. It was welcome for 8 new people, including me, and farewell for 3 people. Some going back to India and some continue to work at other places.

I ahd a good time and got to know a few people a whole lot better. Mainly I talked with the people at the table, Hirota-san from Nigata, Sateai-san from Hokaido, and Nakane-san who is married to a Chinese woman.

Around 10 pm me and Martin, a Swedish guy from Sony Ericsson Lund, went back to Meguro together. He lives about 500 meters from me and Chie.

Club Leo at Hare Ginza

It’s Friday again. And Chie and I met with Club Leo at the Hare Ginza for dinner. This time Kumi-san arrived first, then Non-san, and finally a 10 kilo lighter Ryo-san came. Chie and I had already arrived and order a beer and a ginger ale before Kumi-san arrived.

Ryo-san and Non-san    Kumi-san

We had so many things to eat like liver katsu (fried liver), pickled veghetables, go-to-hell shrimps (gutsu-gutsu ebi), three different types of curry. Kumi-san really wanted to have a green curry. When she saw it on the menu she kept saying “GURIIIIIN DA YO” the rest of the evening. And the rest of us were laughing until our stomachs hurt. She looked and sounded so funny. And whenever we saw somethig green we pointed and said “GURIIIIIN DA YO”… And laughed. For dessert we had Coco-wan, kind of a pudding made of Coconuts.

GURIIIIIN DA YO

“No Overwork” Day

Today was the usual “No Overwork” day at the office. Just before 5 they call out through the loudspeakers that this is a “no overwork day so please leave your desk before 7 pm”. But in Japanese.

An old friend from my last time here, Uwe, works for NTT as a postdoc and they have the same rule as Sony Ericsson on Wednesdays. The government started this “tradition” and now many companies have taken after it to try to make people work a little bit less.

Usually I am an untypical Japanese so I leave the office around 5:30 pm or sometimes 6 pm. But today I was meeting Uwe in Shinagawa station for dinner. And he quit work at 6 pm but it takes him 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to Shinagawa. So I worked until just before 7 pm.

Uwe arrived at 7:40 pm and we met just outside of the Keikyu entrance. From there it was a short walk to TGI Friday’s where we had something to drinnk and eat. And caught up on what had happened since we last met. It was great fun to see Uwe again. And after an hour or so Chie joined us.

By 10:30 pm it was time to return home. Uwe took the Keikyu line and Chie and I the Yamanote line. It was still hot and humid outside. But that does not matter much when you just have had a good time with friends.

Mina-sensei

After work today I met Chie at the Seibu department store in Ginza. We walked to the Mitsukoshi department store to buy some bread and then we went to the Tinun Thai restaruant in Ginza 5. We were meating Mina-sensei there for dinner. But Chie and I were early so we started with some cold dishes and something to drink. We had finished 3 dishes when Mina-sensei arrived. And we continued eating for a few hours and finally finished with a coconuts ice cream.

Summer Night Festival

Although we were up late yesterday and Chie worked hard to cook all the food for our guests… And me, we decided to take a subway to Azabu-juban to visit the Summer Night Festival there. A lot of food stands. Including an area were the embassies in Minato-ku promoted their culture and food. Of course the Swedish embassy was there with meat balls and lingon berry jam.

We arrived in Azabu-juban at 2:30 pm. The festival was not supposed to open until 3 pm so Chie and I thought we were going to have to wait. And we were so hungry. But we were lucky. Some food stands was opening as we arrived. First we had kalbi (Korean BBQ), kebab sandwich from Dönner Kebab, yakitori (Japanese grilled chicken).

Azabu-juban

Then we walked to the Swedish embassy to have meat balls with lingon berry jam. It was so crowded you sometimes almost had to push to get somewhere. There was a long line, maybe 40 meters, in front of one food stand. We followed the line to see were it led. To the German food stand where they served sausage of some sort.

Azabu-juban    Swedish fod stand

It was so many people everywhere. The only place where you could be by yourself was in front of the Brittish food stand. There were no people there at all. Poor Brittish people.

Brittish food stand

It was too many people in the area where the embassy food stands were so we went back to the other area. We had some grilled beef from one of the most famous beef places in Japan (Yonesawa) almost comparable to Kobe beef. Chie had some cooked starch ball. We bought a Coke. Then some Sasai sea shell. I may have forgotten something but you can understand that we were quite full.

By 6 pm we returned back home. Just in time before the rain started.