Diary of my global internship in Tokyo (part 3)

15th May 2024

June 16th (Supermarket and Japanese Hot Pot with the boys)

In the morning I worked on more content for Kisuitech and asked everyone if they wanted to go with me to the supermarket. Ishmael agreed and while there I picked up the last bit of Okonomiyaki material I needed. It took forever to find Baking Powder there and when I did, I found way too much. While at the store I found some cute Sumikkogurashi gum that I could get for my mother and sister. After getting back home I went back to working until everyone decided to go out for Japanese Hot Pot. It was very late but we all managed to get in because of Arian. The hot pot there was super delicious and since it was too late the staff gave us free ice cream when we left. Since CRCC had an event at the middle school the next day in the morning we all rushed back home and slept fast so we could get up in the morning. “おやすみなさい!”

June 17th (Volunteer event at middle school)

We all got up very very early in the morning to be able to make it to the volunteer event on time. I dressed up in my vest and CRCC shirt to represent CRCC and make myself look more professional. I also wore my Sumikko Gurashi merch which a lot of the students pointed out during our conversations. While talking to everyone in English, I had some trouble recognizing what they said because of the ambient noise level. So I sometimes would ask them to tell me in Japanese and then once that was clarified I could answer their questions in English. Sometimes the word Color would sound like Car in English when they say it, but when they say “色” in Japanese it is very distinguishable from “車” which helped me soo much. All the kids were very very sweet and I had a lot of fun working with all of them. In addition to talking with 5th graders, I got to speak to 6th graders as well and see how well their English has developed. There were also a ton of parents there watching over their kids. I go into much more depth about this even on my personal Journal. I might send those as separate instances because they are more related to CRCC events.

June 18th (Fathers day)

I had some miso and ramen for lunch today and had a couple of things planned out. One was to go over to Akihabara for both laundry coins and figurine browsing (Since I wanted something from Genshin Impact). I also plan to cook the Okonomiyaki for dinner tonight. After working on my presentation and some INTS material I headed back out to Akihabara to browse and pick up laundry coins. Unfortunately, after a lot of searching, I couldn’t find the figurine I was looking for, so I will ultimately have to buy it from Amazon. Regardless, I have a Miku Statue that came from Japan so it isn’t that mandatory that I get another. After getting back home I prepared everything for the Okonomiyaki dinner. Since I couldn’t find any measuring cups anywhere I took matters into my own hands. I used my knowledge from calculus to approximate the volume of one of the paper cups in the kitchen as a solid object revolution and parametrized its height as a function of R. I then put this into a volume integral and got a nice little function that could tell me where to put marks on the cup for different measuring sizes. I used this cup to make my Okonomiyaki, and it tasted perfect. I also shared some with my housemates Ishmael and Aiden and they both said it tasted really good. Later on, I prepared my Monday presentation and finish up some Kisuitech work. Today was Father’s Day so I showed him the gifts I got him as well as I got to see my family in video call and saw the presents they got him.

June 19th (Karaoke Day)

I brought some of my leftover Okonomiyaki to work for lunch. On the train I got a lot of Japanese practice done and at work, I got a lot of work done regarding animating a simulation of the system I was working on with C code. (I wish I could show everyone what it is but I’m under NDA for a while, though I could show it if the content is vague but I want to be safe.) Later on in the day, Arian invited all of us to do Karaoke. Since I transpose a lot of music I gave a couple of suggestions for what I should sing. I chose the songs “Demons” – Imagine Dragons and “Wherever You Will Go” – The Calling. We had 5 total at Karaoke (Me, Ishmael, Aiden, Arian, and Wesley.) That was very fun plus it was close to Yoyogi station so it wasn’t too far from home.

June 20th (Arian’s last day)

Today was another work asynchronous day where I had to present online and got some good feedback on my work. After finishing up work I relaxed for a bit but a bit later I was invited by Arian for dinner. Since today was Arian’s last day all of us had dinner with him and his roommates at an authentic Japanese restaurant. Me Ishmael and Aiden met with Arian at this very traditional-looking Japanese restaurant with these square pillows and low tables. It also had wooden doors and wooden structures. Inside were lots of plants and bridges windows lights and streamers. It was a very memorable last dinner with Arian before he headed to Hong Kong.

June 21st (Tokyo City CRCC Asia’s office drop off)

Today was another Bi-Weekly meeting where I would have to present all my material to most of the members in Kisuitech. I spent most of my work doing that and getting everything set up. Beforehand during the train, I couldn’t stay awake because of the late dinner from yesterday so I slept partway on the train after practicing a lot of Kanji. After the meeting was done I headed to the CRCC drop-off event by myself while Ishmael headed back home, I don’t know what Aiden was doing. I didn’t quite know exactly where to go but it was alright. Luckily WhatsApp is very useful for getting up-to-date information and in addition, I’m used to getting to locations very early. As a group, we walked up near the Imperial Palace, took pictures of the sunset and city, and talked about how our trips were going. It is always nice to catch up with everyone.

June 22nd (Mother and Sister arrive in Japan)

I let my work know that family was arriving in Japan so I notified them about delays on my end.

In the morning I made myself some ramen with Inoki, Imitation Crab Meat, Nori (Basically anything really tasty), eggs, onions, bean sprouts, etc. I met my mom and sister at the hotel and exchanged some gifts for them that I had gathered. After chilling and talking with them in the hotel I helped them choose and find a sushi restaurant. When we found it I helped them talk to the waitress who assumed I just spoke Japanese because she immediately noticed that my mom and sister could only speak English and still spoke Japanese to me. After eating there and telling my family how my trip has went we headed back to the hotel (We actually saw a cat right outside the sushi place.) After getting back to the hotel I took some of their extra luggage back to my accommodation for temporary storage. They would meet me at my accommodation periodically so I was expecting them tomorrow.

June 23rd (Big dinner with the housemates and family)

In the morning I invited everyone to the grocery store but only Ishmael joined me. At the grocery store, I bought some snacks specifically for when my mom and sister would arrive at my accommodation. I even got them cute Sumikko Gurashi gum for them because it had Sumikko Gurashi stickers inside. After getting back home and getting everything stored away I got a text from my mom that they were going to be at the Sendagaya station at a certain time so I made sure to be 30 minutes early. When they met me at the station I directed them back to the accommodation. Once settled in I made some plans. One was to let my sister sleep on my bed because she was severely jet lagged, the other was to go to Akihabara with my mother to get the next hotel set up. After all of that is done I would then invite everyone to dinner together. When me and my mom got to the hotel in Akihabara I helped my mom a lot when she was talking to the hotel receptionist. After getting the hotel all set I took my mom to Don Quijote and showed her some sections that she might like. After that, I helped her navigate to the sushiro in Shibyua where we would meet Ishmael, Aiden, and my sister. After getting into Sushiro I had dinner with my family and my housemates Ishmael and Aiden and it was super fun seeing everyone getting along and talking.

June 24th (Unofficial CRCC volunteer event at daycare and Ikebukuro mall)

Today was the daycare event at the college. I went with Ishmael and Aiden and tried once again to get them to wear their CRCC shirts but with no success. When we got there we saw soo many cute little kids running around doing kid’s stuff, poking spiders and bugs, running around shouting, touching everything, staring at adults, etc. Also, there was a big bamboo slide for Nagashi Somen. I helped the woman in the kitchen there prepare the utensils, deliver the noodles, prepare the broth, and retrieve dishes. I actually had a woman say “お疲れ様です” to me and I bowed to her and said “どもありがとうございます!” It was cool to see all the kids having fun with all the CRCC interns and everyone was having a lot of fun. Right after the volunteer event, I had Takoyaki with Ishmael and Aiden. Later on, I met my mother and sister at Ikebukuro with Aiden and Ishmael. We had a lot of fun shopping in the mall together and I showed them all the cool stuff there like the Ghibili shop, Pokemon center, and Bandamico Cross store with endless Gachapon. While there I saw a ton of people in Cosplay and it made me extremely excited to see characters I recognized. When I arrived back home I worked on my INTS course material and transposed the song “Wrecking Ball” – by Miley Cyrus because of the Karaoke we did on the 19th.

Image 1 & 2. Community Event with CRCC Asia

June 25th (PIGS!!!!!!! 豚たち!!!)

My mom and sister arrived at the Sendagaya station with white and pink dresses which would rival the dresses you would see in Harajuku. What was even cooler was that as we were walking back to the house I saw two little girls wearing pink and white dresses just like my mother and sister, it is a shame that they didn’t notice but I didn’t want to take a picture of them for privacy sake. Later on, I made my way to the Mipig Café in Harajuku with my mother and sister. There we got to pet the little pigs and a lot of them liked to do silly things like run their faces into the pillows under people’s butts or ram their faces into the blankets on the small couch in the corner. I got to feed one of the pigs by holding a bowl over my head. All the pig employees were very sweet and guided the pigs to us. With Aiden, we went to an interesting sushi place that served sushi on an open leaf. I got to try Natto for the first time, Sea Urchin, Tuna, and Squid. (P.S. I don’t like Natto) while in the Harajuku area, I shopped at Uniqlo to get some stuff for my family back home and some shirts for myself. When I got home I prepared for Monday which is another work day.

June 26th (Catching up with people in the US and US dinner!?)

My Monday presentation went very well and no one had questions for me. I also included my internship work in my resume and had them check over it so I would still be abiding by the NDA. This is the perfect job that really pulls everything I have an interest in into something tangible and really expresses my experience in the field. I also talked with my cousin about my trip later on in the day after work. And after that I was invited to eat at Pasta Company with Aiden and Ishmael and the vibe there was very different than usual. It had a very American feel and inspired me to take my mom and sister there later before they would leave. I got a good mushroom pizza there. At the accommodation, I chatted with Aiden for a while about my future plans including maybe doing grad school in Japan. I also talked with my Dad about the company I was working for. He was very impressed with what I was able to achieve.

June 27th (お好み焼きはみんなさんのために!!!)

Today I wanted to show my mom and sister the supermarket I buy everything from. When they got to the station I let them do their laundry at the accommodation and I took them out for lunch to a nearby ramen shop. I again helped them speak to the waitress there and order food. After that, I showed them the supermarket and took the time to buy some more Okonomiyaki materials while I helped my mom and sister browse for items (Since all the signs are Japanese). While at home I transposed another song “Fireworks” – Katy Perry, and cooked the Okonomiyaki with my mom in the kitchen. Both my mom and sister said the Okonomiyaki was extremely good. After that, I sent a message to CRCC about my trip to Kyoto on Friday with my mother and sister.

June 28th (Family meeting)

I both notified my work and CRCC about future travel plans and everything went extremely smoothly. And at work, I was wrapping up so I gave some time to help other interns at work with their projects, and my help was greatly appreciated. After work me and Ishmael went straight to Sakura-Tei after taking a 2-second break back at the accommodation where we would meet Aiden’s family. Both my family and Aiden’s family ate at the same place I had Okonomiyaki first when I started the internship at a CRCC event early on. I showed everyone my cooking skills and helped everyone make the dishes there. I helped make the Yakisoba and Okonomiyaki. It was fun having both families here in Japan and everyone had so much fun meeting each other. We said goodbye to each other after visiting some places in Harajuku and having fun in front of the Harajuku gate. Both me and Aiden’s family planned to go to Kyoto.

June 29th (The day before Kyoto, Tokyo Tower, and Hololive building visit)

Today was scorching hot and humid but that didn’t stop me from having a good time. After getting my work done and while my mother and sister were at the Ghibli Museum I took some time to go visit the Tokyo Tower. To my surprise, there were soo many people outside with long clothes on and masks (well me too XD) while down near the Tokyo Tower area. I had my Sumikko Gurashi shirt on and had my jacket on over that. So looking like a total sumikko gurashi fan I headed to the Tokyo Tower. I bought myself a tour ticket for the topmost part of Tokyo Tower and got tons of pictures up there from all angles. I chose the highest level because my mother and sister don’t like heights that much and I could share all my photos with them once home. Unfortunately, again Mt. Fuji was not in view because of the clouds. It was still cool to get pictures of the city from soo high up. After that, I went to the Cover Corp build where Hololive members record. The reason I wanted to visit this building soo badly was because it was the birthplace of my drive to learn Japanese. I’ve always been so fascinated by these streamers trying to speak English and being soo brave to use it and sometimes messing up. It inspired me to learn Japanese which would unlock a whole world of wonderful and sweet people. So it felt special being there and seeing the building in person, I didn’t need to meet anyone, just being there was enough to satisfy me. After that, I had some sushi at a local restaurant in the area and then headed home. While walking I saw a bunch of Go-Kart riders on the streets in costumes. Back at home I worked on INTS course materials and researched things to do in Kyoto.

June 30th (First day in Kyoto)

I went back to Tokyo station and met my mother and sister there for the Shinkansen trip to Kyoto. When I got to the station early I bought my mother and sister some food from the store. After finally finding them we got ready to go. The Shinkansen was totally cool because it went by many parts of Japan I would never see normally and also I finally got to see Mt. Fuji in full without fog. It also went like 200 mph so you got to see how the landscaped parallaxes before your eyes in real time. I ended up sleeping on the train again, you might as well call me “眠ーさん“ since I sleep on trains all the time. But lately, I’ve been trying to practice Japanese on trains whenever I can so I don’t sleep. When we got there I saw probably the biggest station/hotel ever. It looked like some futuristic steampunk factory. After getting settled down in our hotel we headed out to a shrine we saw out of the window. When we got to the shrine, I saw how huge it was. It made us look completely small. After the visit, we went to the ramen shop we passed by. While on the way back my mom got me some green tea ice cream which started to melt fast. It got the sidewalk all messy and I had to somehow get into the hotel without dripping. Later on at night my mom and I went to Kyoto Tower where we got to see a lot of different buildings and the whole city of Kyoto. I also got to see the Nintendo building and my mom got distracted by all the gachapon things up there. When I got back I did some work and finished up INTS course work.

July 1st (Shrine and Castle)

After getting up in the morning me and my family went to a sushi place in the food court near our hotel. I got an assortment of different sushi with my mom and sister there and also discussed plans for the day. After lunch, we went to another shrine in Kyoto, the Inari shrine which had thousands of gates and a bunch of Kitsune statues. We walked under all the gates as a family and saw the thousand paper cranes. After the shrine, we headed to the abandoned castle. When we got there it still looked magnificent even though it was fading away slowly. Funny enough there were a couple of tennis fields and a baseball field near it. My mom and sister and I got a soda from a random Coke-Cola machine near the castle. After finishing up we headed back to the food court and got some food. My sister and me got Chinese food and my mom got some beef. We got ice cream again and saw a woman there with the beginner’s symbol on her vest. I was able to order normally but both her and my sister and mother had trouble getting the orders. After getting back to the hotel I worked on my Monday presentation for work.

July 2nd (Chill Day)

After getting on the Shinkansen and heading back home I used the local line from Tokyo to get back to my accommodation. I actually almost missed a train because I forgot the Chuo rapid service line is on the same platform as the local line. Regardless when I got home I worked on my presentation again and then transposed another song “Say Something” – Christina Aguilera, A Great Big World. I think I also did “We Found Love” – by Rihanna, and Calvin Harris and “In The End” – by Linkin Park but I forgot their exact dates of transposition. I also did a bunch more songs after that but I have them listed somewhere else. The rest of Sunday I just rested and chilled.

July 3rd (Street pasta with family)

My sister and mother wanted me to meet with them after work to get stuff packed up in their suitcases. When I got to work I saw someone new there and introduced myself to them. I got a lot of work done and a lot of Japanese practice on the trains. When going back I saw that my mom and sister were already at the accommodation so I rushed back home so they wouldn’t be waiting forever. I managed to speed walk home pretty fast and witnessed my sister and mother folding paper cranes on the kitchen table. (I guess they were inspired by the shrine) and I helped them make cranes. My sister told me to transpose the song called “What Makes You Beautiful” – One Direction so I made sure to do that for her. After a bit, everyone decided to have dinner in Yoyogi together. We went back to the street pasta location with Ishmael, my mom, and my sister. They got to see how the American culture has influenced this shop. After dinner, my sister and mother took the remaining of their luggage and I researched things to do in Yokohama and got some suggestions from the guys Aiden and Ishmael (The Yokohama experts).

July 4th (Independence Day but not celebrated in Japan so no fireworks everywhere, Yokohama)

I spent today tucked in bed in the morning and then did some work. I worked up until 2:00 and then headed to the Yokohama station. When I got there I met my sister and mother at the northwest entrance. All of the items I chose were to the east so we had to walk down for about 40 minutes. On the way my sister saw the Cosmo Clock and we both went up together. Both me and my sister took tons of photos up there and I saw the entirety of Yokohama. After the Ferris wheel, we headed to the mall and browsed the items there. After that it started to get late fast so we went to Chinatown and got some Dim Sum for dinner. There we got to see the Chinese Temple with lion dance music playing. I got myself a Baoding ball and my mother and sister got their trinkets at the Yokohama shop. When I got on the train I hugged my mom and sister goodbye because I would only be seeing them when I get home back in the U.S. I finished up some work when I got back home.

July 5th (Last Bi-Weekly meeting at Kisuitech and CRCC drop off at Ebisu)

Today’s biweekly meeting went much faster than usual because everything is wrapping up for the interns. After doing some Blender animations for my assembly I headed with Ishmael to Ebisu for the CRCC Drop off event. When we got there, we got there 30 minutes early but didn’t see a statue for Handshake. When we walked around the entire area we went back because I checked the map again. When we met up with the CRCC employees we talked about our Testimony and Experiences in Japan. After walking around the Ebisu area we went up to the observatory. There we got to see another angle of Tokyo but at night. Also up near the observatory were a ton of restaurants that Arian would have wanted to eat at. After finishing the observatory I talked with CRCC about some of my experiences cooking and being in Japan. It was definitely a unique experience that produced a lot of good memories. After returning home I convinced everyone to eat at Mc-Donalds in Yoyogi because I haven’t tried fast food in Japan yet. I got myself a Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich I wouldn’t be able to get back in America. When I got home I just fell asleep.

July 6th (Another Asynchronous day and ramen with Aiden and Ishmael)

I worked at home again and cooked on the clock because my clothes were in the dryer in the building across the street. I somehow finished cooking as soon as my timer went off for my clothes so I just covered my food with a pan and went to go grab my clothes in the heat. Today was the day I finished the songs “In The End” and “What Makes You Beautiful.” And after that, I joined Ishmael and Aiden for ramen dinner. It was a ramen shop I went to with them during the first couple of weeks in Japan, I almost forgot how long it was. After eating I looked into Career Bridge and looked at the Ghibli Museum information. I had it scheduled for tomorrow so I needed to get out with enough time.

July 7th (Unfortunate circumstance)

I got up early to get over to the Ghibli Museum. I headed out all packed up and ready for the museum, It was so extremely hot that an umbrella didn’t really help. While walking to the museum I saw a bunch of people playing Tennis in the scorching weather. While standing and waiting for the 12:00 entrance I had to keep myself cool by standing under the tree and drinking lots of water. When I showed my barcode to the guy there and said 1 person for 12:00 in Japanese he said sorry that they couldn’t take me in today. I looked at my ticket and instead of saying 23/07/07, it said 23/13/07 which was the wrong day. Since there was no way for me to get in and it was extremely hot I just headed straight back home. There was a zoo there but I wasn’t prepared to meet animals in scorching heat. I just took the train ride straight back and practiced a bunch more Kanji. Feeling disappointed I grabbed myself some food at the convenience store and got to work. Later on in the day I headed out with Ishmael and Aiden for Chinese food. I cheered myself up by listening to Okayu (Hololive) sing on her Karaoke stream and worked more.

July 8th (Kansai volunteer event)

I got up early in the morning and cooked myself some dumplings. I tried once again to get everyone to wear their CRCC shirt but alas I think it is impossible. At the area where the volunteer event was hosted, we came across a KFC and a bunch of shops we wanted to go to later on. When we got to the meeting location we saw Jessie at the shrine meeting location and the three of us and him talked. We mostly talked about upcoming events and what volunteering is like. We also shared stories and Jessie notified me of my Career bridge being fixed. When it was our time to go we saw the director of ARK (Animal Refuge Kansai) explain everything about the company and its goals. We had some questions about exotic animals, adoptions, languages, and reasons for leaving pets behind. Once ready we all headed in and got to see all the adorable pets. There was this one in particular shiba who was sleeping on the owner’s foot for the whole time. All the dogs there were super friendly, especially the golden retriever mix. In the back, I saw a couple of cats huddled up in the loaf position and pet them as well. After that me, Ishmael, and Aiden headed off to the Arcade we saw and ate at a ramen shop there. We also pit-stopped at a museum in the area. Once home I worked on INTS materials and transposed another song.

Image 3 & 4. Community Event with CRCC Asia

July 9th (Team Labs and Gundam Statue)

I made some more dumplings for myself for lunch today and worked a bit on the Testimony. For lunch, me, Aiden, and Ishmael had curry for lunch and it was very good. When arriving in the Tokyo Bay area we saw the water, a ton of cool bridges, and a location that looked like it was plucked out of America. There were barbeque tents everywhere, tall grass and wooden fences, and a lot of American brand tents, grills, and a trailer that had an American highway on it. After that, we went to the Team Labs Planets museum. This museum is totally cool because you get to interact with everything. There were parts where you were wading in the water or parts where you were stepping on bean bags. There were also plant exhibits and infinity mirror rooms. Everything in there was well worth the price of entry and since the whole system there was streamlined, although there was a large line, it was fairly quick to get in. After the museum, we used the monorail system to get to the Unicorn Gundam statue. I took some pictures of that and also went to the rainbow stairs. While walking towards the small Statue of Liberty we saw a funky building with lots of large gaps everywhere and a large sphere up on top. At night we saw the mini Statue of Liberty and a bridge that almost looked like the Golden Gate Bridge. Everything in that area was very cool to look at. After getting home I set up for Monday’s workday.

July 10th (Jefri’s [Kisuitech coworker] trip to Omori and the last day I would see him)

Today was extra hot and when me and Ishmael got to the office, there was no one there. We waited 30 minutes in the heat and I just sat down and played songs. When our lead engineer arrived we got to work wrapping everything up. The final assembly for Ishmael’s project came in so we were outside once again testing and working with it. During lunch, we had Chinese food with everyone in the office at that moment to wish Jefri a good trip to Omori. I got myself some Katayakisoba and Gyoza. After that, I headed home and got some dinner at Family Mart, and finished up the rest of my testimony. I also had a Virginia Tech (The college I will transfer into) meeting for transfer students at 2:00 in the morning. So I worked on items up until that point.

July 11th (Gift Shopping)

In the morning I went out with Ishmael to the Grocery store with our CRCC shirts, gray shorts, black sunglasses, and black sneakers. We looked like twins at the store. While there I picked up the last round of food for me to cook throughout the week. I wanted to go back to the Unicorn Gundam statue during the day to get gifts for friends back in the US. I also wanted to pitstop at Harajuku for shirts for my cousins. It was extremely hot out today but I was determined to get all these gifts for everyone. Mostly because my days are dwindling here I wanted to get some mementos before my days are out. When I got there I noticed there were way more people there than normal. I originally thought a hot day would drive people away from shopping (forgetting that I was shopping too). I got a ramen shirt for my younger cousin, and I got an ocean wave shirt for my older cousin. When I took the train down to the Gundam statue I was able to see everything because it was daytime this time and I got a Gundam figure for a friend back in the US who works at a Korean bar. After getting home I worked on getting everything finished.

July 12th (Last in-office work day, two more days at Kisuitech)

I forgot to bring my charger somehow even though I swear I touched it in the morning regardless I had to get into the office today to work on my report and finish some things for my final presentation. While at the office I managed to keep my battery above 50% but I had to move to my phone for part of the time. Since I wanted to show the CRCC employees some of the music I’ve transposed, I wanted to keep a reasonable amount of charge on my laptop. When it became lunchtime our lead engineer invited everyone in the office to ramen because this was the next to last workday at Kisuitech. The company wants us to arrive there on Tuesday but for certificates and photos. I got myself some ramen but with Heikki, the lead engineer at Kisuitech who knows much more Japanese than me, to let me know if any of the ramen there had beef. (Also since he has been in the Nishi-Chiba region for much longer.) After ramen, I worked on a couple more things on low charge and my phone before heading to the CRCC Dropoff. When me and Ishmael got to the drop off it was very hot, it wasn’t even that sunny out either. The drop-off was on the top of a shopping center with a Starbucks and a skatepark. I just sat on the ground and played music. After that, I had plans to go to the MEGA Don Quijote with Aiden and Ishmael plus Sushiro. Aiden reserved us a seat and we headed to Don Quijote. There I got my mom a little Studio Ghibli gift and after I got Sushiro with Aiden and Ishmael, the same one we went to when my family was over. When I got home I worked on Career Bridge, my final report, and my final presentation.

Image 5. Yabisu sky deck

July 13th (Ghibli Museum)

Today was the time to go to the Ghibli Museum for real. I had already messed up the timing on the 7th so I made sure this time to make sure I got the right time. I saw a ton of wonderful stuff at the museum including an exclusive film by Studio Ghibli, tons of artwork by the original animators, tons of stop-motion exhibits, a big shop, and tons of really cool architecture. I watched the movie there in full Japanese and it was still enjoyable, though I still can’t understand 80% of it. The movie ticket actually had a film reel for the Ponyo movie in it. When heading back home my phone stopped working for some reason. I navigated back without a map and ended up getting on a train that morphed lines. I eventually got back fine. After arriving back home I finished up all my reports and presentations for Kisuitech and started to plan what to do with all the materials in the fridge. I ultimately decided to just sauté them in the pan and then mix them with beaten eggs to make a huge omelet, that way I will not be wasting any materials. I also worked on some VT items (My transfer college) in the evening.

July 14th (Big CRCC dinner)

This morning I made sure to sauté all the mushrooms and beansprouts and then make an omelet. After getting all that finished I packaged it up and put it into the fridge. With that done I was relieved to not have to throw away any perishables. Right after I had to join the Kisuitech Zoom call to give our final presentations. I went last so I made sure to give a really good presentation to end on. I included everything I’ve done for my internship, what I’ve learned, how I’ve grown, and included how I’ve felt about working for Kisuitech. All the interns there including the supervisors sang praises for my determination and never-ending passion throughout the entire two months. They also thanked me for going out of the way to help other interns at the office with things they were struggling on. I also stated how it was a pleasure to work and see everyone progress in their own way at the internship and that helping people helped me learn more and get to know people. After that, I got my laundry done and headed over to the Tokyo station to get the Shinkansen tickets for Osaka, me, Ishmael, and Aiden planned. After getting those set up we all headed to the CRCC dinner. There we watched the departure presentation, took a survey, looked at memories, and ate some good food. In the end, I got my two certificates and took a group photo with everyone. After a last bit of talk with the CRCC employees, we all headed home. Back at home I packed for Osaka and started wrapping everything up. My time here in Japan is starting to be limited and it was going to dwindle fast.

Overview:

Throughout school, I get many opportunities to further boost my resume. An internship boosting a resume is a common reason why students want to go somewhere foreign but for me, it is so much more than that. I chose Tokyo as my internship location because:

Tokyo is located in an Asian country which exposes me to a lot of cultures related to my Chinese heritage.
Everyone in Japan is very kind and the country is generally much safer to travel within.
Everything is in close proximity so you can get to a grocery store and laundromat by walking.
Japan is known for having both advanced technology and ancient building style. The blend of cultures is extremely interesting.
Streets and Trains are extremely clean and quiet which makes commuting easier and more comfortable.
All Japanese people use Katakana which means they will likely know some words in English, this means the majority of people will have some ability to help you.
Lots of people in the media have high praise for Japan as a country.
I can really immerse myself in the language there which has been my goal since middle school. I’ve always wanted to learn the Japanese language.

I believe my favorite thing about my internship is meeting new people and making new friends. I’ve had so much more fun talking to people here in Japan than I would get by silently sightseeing. The community in Japan is extremely nice and supportive and it is always a pleasure to speak with them. Also, many of the interns under CRCC are very nice as well. It makes Japan feel more like a home rather than an exotic place I’m exploring. CRCC employees as well have made this trip truly special by organizing events and providing the support to get us to experience the best things the country has to offer. They have been available for support 24/7 and have made drop-off sessions that are very refreshing to attend because I get to catch up with everyone. In addition, CRCC has provided experiences I would have never had before because of their connections. Without CRCC I would have never been able to speak to Japanese students learning English, help a cook feed a daycare with Nagashi Somen, or be able to talk to foster families for an animal refuge. All these events I would have not been able to participate in without CRCC and I’m truly glad they provided these events for all interns. I would definitely recommend a trip to any country under CRCC because of their streamlined schedule, helpful employees, and unique experiences under the guidance and being catalyzed to really get the most out of our experiences. In addition to gathering a lot of wonderful experiences, I’ve gathered a lot of skills from being in a foreign location. I’ve learned how to manage my location through all the train systems, I learned how to plan properly and manage my days, I’ve learned a healthy lifestyle, and I have learned how to properly balance work and fun. Under CRCC I’ve received so much more than just a trip, I feel like being in this internship has really changed my character for the better.