Back in Japan

So I wasn't sure I'd ever get another chance to live in Japan, but here I am.

For those of you that are out of the loop, I recently accepted a summer internship for programming at Namco Bandai Games in Tokyo. I couldn't pass up the chance to get more Japanese practice and see what living in Tokyo, the most populous metropolis in the world, is like.

I got into Narita on Friday, and took a train down to Tokyo to check into my hotel in Shinagawa:

It's a pretty nice hotel, we're pretty spoiled I think, it's only 10 min from work too.  I met Ed from HR and another one of the interns, Karen, who already had moved in.

On Saturday, I got on the train and ended up in Asakusa:

Asakusa

Then the Japan World Cup game versus the Netherlands was that night, so I asked the front desk to find me a sports bar.  It was pretty packed, which was awesome, but Japan didn't score a goal unfortunately (though they won their next match in a big upset.

Sunday we went to Ginza and saw some weird stuff.

The streets were closed off and they put tables out for people to sit at.  This on had a litter of kittens and the mother.  I don't know why.

These people like to rock out.

Monday we started work.  The first day was mostly orientation and meeting people.  The second day they threw the interns a welcome party, and it was awesome.  Then afterward there was an after party at a local restaurant.  The lead programmer of Tekken 1, 2, 3, Tag and 4 treated us, he's awesome.

Work has been kind of tough, communication is really difficult.  I'm so bad at speaking and even worse at listening.  I really hope I can start learning faster in the next few weeks.

Friday, my team took me out for another welcome party, and it was pretty awesome too.  They are pretty interesting people, I like them a lot.  Saturday we went to Harajuku to see crazy people dance or dress up or something, but I guess we missed it.  It was still pretty packed:

Then I went to Akihabara to buy cables to hook up my ps3.  The hotel was only supposed to have crappy TVs, but they upgraded all the rooms to HDTVs on Monday for some reason.  I couldn't get Wii cables because apparently they are different for Japanese Wii's.

That night the interns and 3 of our American friends went out to Shibuya, drank at a couple all you can drink places, then I went with some of them to go to this place Club Atom.  I really never dance, but they were all going so I went, the place was packed on all 3 floors so no one could tell that my squirming in the crowd was any worse than anyone else's fortunately.  It was pretty fun, we stayed their until 3am, but it was after the last train, so we had to wait until 5AM to take the first one in the morning.

Sunday my friend from KIT Masa came, and we went to the Edo-Tokyo museum.  It was pretty neat, the special exhibit was insects though, it was for kids.  After that we went together with the other interns to a coworker Ogura's place, and he treated us to an awesome dinner, even Masa who he didn't know at all.

That's all for week 1, hopefully I can find the time to write again next week.