Friday January 1, 2010, 06:05
Another year, another decade. A full year in Japan. Last time I went to Holland, it was in the Christmas of 2008, and I came back to Japan on December 29th of 2008. This means I have been in Japan all the time for one year, and it feels good!
The last quarter of 2009 has been a quarter full of changes. I started my new job in November as a PHP programmer, and I am enjoying it very much. The company is a Japanese company, led by a New Zealander. The foreigner - Japanese nationals ratio is about 50-50, so a mix of Japanese and English is being used. I am responsible for a new project, an online service system that needs to be online on April 1st, and it is going well, so far.
The last quarter of 2009 has been a quarter full of changes. I started my new job in November as a PHP programmer, and I am enjoying it very much. The company is a Japanese company, led by a New Zealander. The foreigner - Japanese nationals ratio is about 50-50, so a mix of Japanese and English is being used. I am responsible for a new project, an online service system that needs to be online on April 1st, and it is going well, so far.
Wednesday October 28, 2009, 23:37
There will be another holiday in Japan, the Culture Day (文化の日, Bunka no Hi), on November 3rd. I got invited by some friends to join them on a mountain trip in Okutama, in the west of Tokyo Prefecture, near Yamanashi prefecture. It is going to be a 5-6 hour mountain trip from 9:00 in the morning to 15:00 in the afternoon, with a rest at an onsen in Kazuma no Yu. We will be admiring the wonderful autumn colours in the mountains :D
Sunny weather has been predicted, but we will bring warm clothes and rainwear with us, just in case.
Sunny weather has been predicted, but we will bring warm clothes and rainwear with us, just in case.
Wednesday September 9, 2009, 02:55
9:00 in the morning, pretty early for an interview. I went to Shirokane Takanawa, next to Azabu, to meet with the recruiter who was going to interview me about my skills and job history. Recruiters are people who look for skilled people for their customers. Their customers are for example companies looking for new employees, and usually they leave this kind of stuff to recruiters, at least, that is how it often works in Japan.
I arrived timely, at 8:45 at the office, and the reception told me I could wait in the lounge. So I did that, prepared my netbook, and waited. A tall guy came in, introduced himself and offered me coffee. He said something I couldn't understand at first, but in the end he said something about it being OK. I asked what was OK. Then he said something again, that I could not get again. Then he said in English that he was from Belgium, and it appeared that he was saying things in Dutch, telling me that Dutch would be OK. I actually expected him to speak English so I didn't get what he said at first. Surprised by this, we continued in Dutch: "So you don't speak French?" "Well yes I do, but I grew up in Gent, between Brussels and Brugge." Cool. A Dutch-speaking interviewer!
We went to the meeting room and he asked me if we are going to do it in English or Dutch. I thought it would be cool to do it in Dutch, so we did that. I felt much more relaxed actually, lipreading Dutch from him, with sometimes an English term in between which I didn't get because it was in English - and replying to his questions in Dutch, telling about my skills and work history in the language I was most familiar with.
I arrived timely, at 8:45 at the office, and the reception told me I could wait in the lounge. So I did that, prepared my netbook, and waited. A tall guy came in, introduced himself and offered me coffee. He said something I couldn't understand at first, but in the end he said something about it being OK. I asked what was OK. Then he said something again, that I could not get again. Then he said in English that he was from Belgium, and it appeared that he was saying things in Dutch, telling me that Dutch would be OK. I actually expected him to speak English so I didn't get what he said at first. Surprised by this, we continued in Dutch: "So you don't speak French?" "Well yes I do, but I grew up in Gent, between Brussels and Brugge." Cool. A Dutch-speaking interviewer!
We went to the meeting room and he asked me if we are going to do it in English or Dutch. I thought it would be cool to do it in Dutch, so we did that. I felt much more relaxed actually, lipreading Dutch from him, with sometimes an English term in between which I didn't get because it was in English - and replying to his questions in Dutch, telling about my skills and work history in the language I was most familiar with.
Tuesday September 1, 2009, 16:06
Eelco told me a while back that he forwards his email accounts on zengoku.com to his Google account. I have been looking into this, and decided I would do the same thing for morannon.org.
Furthermore, I found out that Hotmail supports POP access. So I configured my GMail to fetch my Hotmail mails via POP. It is now fetching over 1700 mails from Hotmail, and still going as I am writing this blog. :D Yahoo Japan provides a similar POP service, so I added my Yahoo Japan account to my GMail as well. Now it is fetching over 1300 mails. :D
After using Evolution for a while for my work's email, I noticed it is verrrrrry slow with filtering emails. So I decided on Mozilla Thunderbird. Very nice and pretty fast. I looked at its account options and noticed GMail. That option did not do what I wanted though, so I checked if GMail supports IMAP, and yes it does. So I added an IMAP account in Thunderbird that checks my GMail account. My Hotmail is coming into my GMail, my Yahoo Japan is coming into my GMail, and my morannon.org address is being forwarded to my GMail too, so now I am getting all my mails in one place, in my own Thunderbird. I am very happy.
Furthermore, I found out that Hotmail supports POP access. So I configured my GMail to fetch my Hotmail mails via POP. It is now fetching over 1700 mails from Hotmail, and still going as I am writing this blog. :D Yahoo Japan provides a similar POP service, so I added my Yahoo Japan account to my GMail as well. Now it is fetching over 1300 mails. :D
After using Evolution for a while for my work's email, I noticed it is verrrrrry slow with filtering emails. So I decided on Mozilla Thunderbird. Very nice and pretty fast. I looked at its account options and noticed GMail. That option did not do what I wanted though, so I checked if GMail supports IMAP, and yes it does. So I added an IMAP account in Thunderbird that checks my GMail account. My Hotmail is coming into my GMail, my Yahoo Japan is coming into my GMail, and my morannon.org address is being forwarded to my GMail too, so now I am getting all my mails in one place, in my own Thunderbird. I am very happy.
Sunday August 16, 2009, 09:54
Words of the day
祭り (matsuri) - Matsuri, festival
神社 (jinja) - shrine
お神輿 (omikoshi) - portable shrine
Summer in Japan is full of matsuri everywhere. This is also the case in Fukagawa, a district close to my apartment. I went to take a look.
祭り (matsuri) - Matsuri, festival
神社 (jinja) - shrine
お神輿 (omikoshi) - portable shrine
Summer in Japan is full of matsuri everywhere. This is also the case in Fukagawa, a district close to my apartment. I went to take a look.
