My Japan Adventures in a Nut Shell

2012.06.18

I have been in Japan for more than 10 months. My busy life in Japan had kept me away from keeping on my blog. Now I am having a short vacation back in Taiwan. Let me to summarize my 10-month life and share with you. I believe this story might be interesting to if you are interested in working or living in Japan.

2011.3.11 Tohoku Earthquake happened
This massive earthquake had damaged Japan badly, where my girlfriend was living and working in. Every night ever since the earthquake, my girlfriend told me on Skype that the earth was shaking again. I got so worried. So I quit my job and flew to Japan. I thought it won't be too hard for me to look for a job back in Taiwan if I failed at applying for grad school or getting a job in Japan. (Every time when I look back this moment, I always wonder why I was so impulsive and stupid brave at that moment.)

2011.8 Quit my dream job
I quit my dream job and come to Tokyo on working holiday visa. I was planning to apply for grad school and get a part time job while studying for the exam. I couldn't get any job since I could barely speak any Japanese. But I was very lucky to get a job as a dish washer at a restaurant. But the manager couldn't give me enough working hours to make enough money. I could only make 40,000 JPY per month, when my necessary monthly spending is more than 60,000 JPY.

I had spent all my savings in Taiwan in the first 2 months in Japan, since I also bought some furniture and I went to visit my girlfriend's mom to show her I was doing great. I got a little anxious. So I stopped studying for the exam and started to focus on finding other jobs. I only have 2,000 JPY in my pocket. I wasn't sure what to do. I send out my CVs on the Internet. I visited all restaurant in my neighborhood. But I wasn't able to get any job.

I was in a very difficult financial situation. But my girlfriend wanted me to step back from the stress for a while before I drove myself crazy. On my 26th birthday, my girlfriend took me to Hokkaido for a short trip. On the 2nd day of that trip, I received a email from an owner of a bakery, who read my CV and was interested in me. I was thrilled. We set up the interview right away. And I was lucky, the employer hired me and gave me many working hours. I worked as a cashier. My finance crisis got solved. I was very grateful. I did everything I could in return. I worked hard.

2011.12

My employer started to notice that I could do more than a cashier. She started to gave me more tasks which requires more responsibilities. She asked me to work at the office 2 days a week. And I had enjoyed my job  as a cashier and as a office worker.

One day a foreigner called, no one in the office was able to take that English phone call. Therefore, I took it. It turned out to be a foreign company who wanted to expand their market to Japan and they were looking for a partner in Japan. Since I could speak English, I became the man in charge of this project. And my employer printed my name card for me. I was the only part time boy with a name card.

2012.04

I got accepted by a grad school in Tokyo. A school that I had always dream to go to.
At the mean time, the parent company of the bakery wanted to hire me to help them to expand their market overseas. I was thrilled again. I was not sure which way I should take. Should I go to grad school or I should started to work. After debating with myself thousand times, I made a decision. I decided to work and give up my MBA admission.

2012.06

I took 3 weeks off and came back to Taiwan. I wanted to take a break and think before I started to work full time in Japan. Here I am, thinking back and wondering why there are so many magic happened in my life.

I was surely a blessed man.

Thank everyone who had even been in my life.
I could never made it here if you had not participate in my life.

Thank you.