Staying in the Company Dorms

My 2nd day back to work this year consisted of a trip south to visit my boss in his office. My boss works in an office located at one of our factories outside of Nagoya. It is about 250 miles from Tokyo and takes a little over 2 hours to get there. To get there I rode a Bullet Train for 1 hour and 43 minutes, than took 4 local trains for about 1 hour. It was interesting as I had never been there by myself and had never ridden on those local trains before. To be honest, I was worried about making all the connections on my own and getting there on time, especially when local trains outside the cities rarely have much English. All went smooth and I made it.

After meeting with my boss and meeting the other members of my team for the first time, we had the usual business review meetings. After that was done, we ventured out for dinner. Japanese love to have dinner and drinks and relax. We enjoyed a great time of getting to know each other, and of course, it was just another opportunity to practice my Japanese as none of these people were experienced at English conversation.

After a night out, it was time to turn in for some sleep. Since we have a factory in that city, we also have a company dorm. To save money, employees visiting that city often stay in the company dorm. It was very much like the dorm I lived in at the Univ. of Oregon with almost the same furnishings and style, which gave me a strong sense of deja vu. The one exception was that the dorm had a huge, traditional Japanese style bathing area. I found this to be perfect after a night out; sitting in the bath warming up and sweating a little before turning in.

The next morning I found myself on my own, out in a light snow, in a place I had never been before, with a cold and a slight headache, looking for a train station. This was not the area that I had arrived at the previous day, so I set out on an adventure trying to figure out where the train station was. Luckily I found someone opening a shop nearby and they sort of steered me in the right direction. Eventually I found the station and made my way back home. It was a good adventure, but once again, it reminded me how much I enjoy being in a new place with no knowledge of what I’m doing and trying to figure out how to get somewhere. It’s a fun challenge, especially when you don’t have any specific deadline for getting somewhere.