Everyone at Komatsu
I can say that I have had a great experience with Intrax Intern Abroad. Sangikyo, the company with which I interned, has gone above and beyond my expectations. They have really taken care of me throughout the program. I have gone to company events, such as drinking parties, karaoke, and the occasional dinner. They adopted me into the culture and helped me feel as if I was a part of the Sangikyo team.
I have been asked by company employees what I look to do in the future. ”How do I see my life unfolding?” has been a question that the other employees often ask me. I have come to realize that the Japanese are a pretty deep thinking group of people. I have had to think hard about my future and where I want to go. I have decided to get some more work experience and go to graduate school. I think this a good step to any future job that I would like to pursue.
However, back to Sanigkyo’s culture; I believe that they have taken great care of me as an intern. I don’t really have any regrets or qualms about the program. At times I hoped for a little more freedom, but given the nature of the program I believe it is understandable. If anyone is curious about whether they should do an international internship or stay home, I believe they should ask themselves if they are going to miss much by being at home. If the answer is no, then I believe they know the answer. Go abroad and experience the world.
Ready to take on the world
I believe I have learned some lessons in this internship. Being at work from early in the morning until late at night is something that I have gotten into the habit of doing. I’m at work from around 8:30am-6pm. Given that I am at work for a good majority of the day I understand that time management outside of work is just as important as when I am at work. Being able to do things like get haircuts, keep a working cell phone and all that small stuff takes time management. This doesn’t even include seeing friends from my previous experience studying abroad. Without a doubt, time management is a crucial skill that this internship program has reinforced.
My Apartment in Japan
Another area where I feel as if I have grown is the level of responsibility that I am able to handle. I am able to live by myself and be alright. Not to mention that I have been busy for the larger part of the internship. Sometimes things around the office were slow, and there wasn’t a lot for me to do. However, I have been extremely busy the last couple weeks with a horde of meetings, projects, and a particular 25-30 minute presentations in Japanese. It is something that I didn’t’ think I would be able to handle at the start of the program, but I guess the level of confidence in own ability has risen. I have independently handled any problems with phone contracts, work load, and any other issue that has come up. Essentially if I sum it up, I feel more like an adult that is ready to go out into the world.
I had a pretty interesting day where I was able to cover a lot of ground. I went with a co-worker to see a giant gundamn that was overlooking the Odaiba bay area. I also took a picture of te Fuji television TV tower. They had some type of kids’ festival going on where there where a ton of video game ads and some type of life performance.
Fast forward to later on that day,where a Japanese friend,from when I studied abroad, and I were walking around in Shibuya.
We were killing some time till later on that night where we went to Nagoya. It was reminiscent of old times being back in Nagoya. I took a picture of the station, hopefully it isn’t too blurry to make out. We walked around the Nagoya station a little bit then crashed due to the long day for both of us.
The Yokohama area isn’t particularly known for any famous food, like the regions Osaka and Nagoya. I have yet to find a Yokohama original dish in the same way that Osaka has Tackoyaki (fried octopus and other veggies mixed into a pancake form) or the Tonkatsu (battered pork cuts) from Nagoya. I do however find the food that I have eaten to be delicious. I have gone out with colleagues to eat sushi at a revolving sushi restaurant and eaten at other restaurants throughout the city. I generally eat at quick, cheap restaurants near my apartment. My usual meal includes rice, Miso soup and some main dish such as Oyakodon or Gyuudon. It is relatively healthy when compared to the American counterparts like McDonalds’s or KFC.
As I expected, I have lost about 10 pounds eating Japanese food. The portions of food are about the same size depending on the food. But, the big difference is how fast it digests and what is in the food. I find that Japanese food digests faster and is leaner than a lot of food found in the U.S. The meat in most dishes is relatively small compared to the amount of rice and veggies. Being that I am a meat loving male, this is a difficult aspect to get used regardless of the number of times I have been to Japan. Aside from this minor aspect, I love how much fresh salmon, shrimp and other types of fish are readily available at the supermarket near my apartment. Within a matter of minutes I can go to the supermarket and find fish at prices ranging from $3.00-5.00. I normally try to buy the fish when its cheap, cut it up and freeze it for later use. Overall when I cook, I usually buy ramen and try to make healthy meals at home. I find that this is probably the number one tip I could give anyone attempting to live fairly cheaply in the land of the rising sun.
Baseball Field in Yokohama
I have lived in Japan for over a month working at Sangikyo. The company decided to set me up with apartment in Yokohama. It takes about an hour and half to reach downtown areas of Tokyo, such as Shinjuku and Shibuya. Yokohama is the second biggest city in Japan and there seems to be a lot going on in downtown Yokohama near the station. I have walked around the area a couple of times browsing through the stores. There are many nice hotels and expensive areas to shop within view from the Yokohama station. Given the amount of stores and restaurants within walking distance from this station, it reminded me of Shinjuku. The Yokohama area also has a large stadium which is the largest in Japan. I found out it was where some FIFA world cup or large soccer event was hosted. Apparently the stadium can seat nearly 70,000 people. I find that to be impressive. I wish there was something close to that scope and size in Iowa.
Yokohama at Night
The closet thing we have there is the Wells Fargo arena downtown, which if I recall correctly, seats up to around 25,000-30,000 people. It’s a far cry from the Yokohama stadium in nearly all aspects. However, given that Iowa is a small state it is easily understandable.
Aside from the stadium and shops, Yokohama has an area called Mirato Mirai 21. It is a newly developed area of downtown Yokohama that has an extremely large ferris wheel, many upscale shops and an assortment of high-class restraints. I couldn’t believe some of the views that area creates at night. Anyone that decides to come to Yokohama is pretty much obliged to visit this area.
Things at work are progressing smoothly. I have gotten a schedule for my last 4 weeks of the internship. It looks like I’m going to be extremely busy doing some more management related work and learning more about our broadband products and getting a better idea of the services we offer in the mobile field. At the core my company is a technology company that believes in being able to optimize every aspect of a business. This means that we help companies create a more efficient organization in terms of work environment, the products they are offering, the organization structure, and even the layout of chairs and desk in the work place.
I like the idea that our product is to optimize companies, and the way they do business. As an economics major it ties in very nicely with my studies since the very definition of economics is the optimal use of scarce resources within a society. In terms of a business, time, money and labor are scarce resources to a company in which they strive to allocate in the most efficient manner. I’m really looking forward to next week when I get to learn more about how our company is managed. I have had the opportunity to observe many things in my company. Much of what I have seen corroborates with concepts mentioned in a management class I recently took before coming over here.
An instance would be yesterday when we did a teamwork exercise involving Legos. We broke into two groups of three where we would rebuild a Lego robot. The stipulation was that drawing the picture wasn’t allowed. One person at a time could check the picture of the robot then come back to tell the group what they observed. The difficult part about this was that the person who had returned to the group from looking at the picture couldn’t touch the Lego pieces. They had to tell the group what they saw and how they believe the pieces fit together. Our group wasn’t able to finish the robot in the 15 minutes given to our group. We didn’t communicate as well as we should have. There had been an array of underlying issues we didn’t hammer out to work smoothly. At the end of the session, a director of the company talked to everyone about a process that we should follow in any activity, whether it is related to the company or not.
Specifically, he mentioned this process:
Objective
Organize
Planning (5w’s. 3H’s)
Do
Check
Revise
It was a concept we had focused on in my management class, but had somehow slipped out of my mind up to this point. I found it a great example of how this process is useful and a good way of reinforcing what I’m learning in my classes at the University of Iowa. I find it interesting that the exact concepts I have or am in the process of learning in school translate well all the way over to Japan. It was a powerful experience that emphasized the importance of what I learn in class is very much useful.
I had an interesting visit in Western Japan which is also known as the Kansai region. During the 5 days I was Kansai, I got the opportunity to visit many companies and famous tourist sights. I had been through this region before so it wasn’t the first time I had the chance to see the Golden Pavillion or visit Osaka Castle. Sometime during the spring of last year when I was studying abroad, my school took the exchange students to Kyoto. After that some friends and I decided to head to Osaka for a day to get a glimpse of the city. I would have to say that this trip with Intrax was a better chance to explore Osaka. Our group had a majority of the day to walk around sightseeing, to go shopping and eat at a restaurant which serves Osaka’s famous Okonomiyaki. Since it is a fairly difficult food to describe I have attached a picture to get a better idea.
Food From Kansai
Besides taking the time to sightsee and enjoy the area, we took around two company visits each day during this mid-term orientation. We visited K-logistics, Rohto Pharmacy, Komatsu, and Shimazu. K-logistics is a technical company involved with logistics; Roho is a pharmaceutical company involved with skin–care products and eye drops; Komatsu is a construction equipment company whose primary business is building cranes and bulldozers; and Shimazu is a medical device company. Out of all of these companies that our group visited, I enjoyed Roho pharmaceuticals the most. I believe that they had the most relevance to my major of economics and interest in marketing.
The Company Office Where I Work
The past week has been fairly interesting at work. I received my first project of the internship, which was business intelligence work. I didn’t have much experience within the subject at the start of the project, but I believe that after finishing it I have a better understanding of what it is and how to do it. If I get another assignment that is within the same area I believe I can put into practice what I learned, and reduce the mistakes I might have made on my first assignment. I also got a chance to help fix the English version of the company website. I still believe the English website needs to be reformed by adding many of the additions on the Japanese website. It will most likely happen sometime soon, and I think I’ll probably get to help play a role in that transformation.
I was also preparing for an introduction presentation that I gave two weeks ago. I described what I had learned at the company
Presentation Board Room
after about 2 or 3 weeks, my goals for the future and how this internship experience is going to be beneficial for those goals. I spent a couple of days working on the presentation and it turned out alright. I learned that I absolutely need note cards to deliver a presentation in Japanese. I sometimes use them in English presentations, but I have realized they are a crucial tool in another language. I originally was thinking it would be good practice to use my power point presentation and present without the use of any crutches. However, I didn’t take into account that actually during the presentation I was going to get nervous, which made my mind completely blank out. It was a good learning experience that I can take into account in the future.
I’ve been in Japan roughly two weeks. Throughout the past week I went through the orientation program, and today just started my internship at Sangikyo Corporation. I have met many nice people at Sangikyo in a short amount of time. I look forward to getting to know the people there more. I also have become friends with most of the interns this year, and at the bare minimum acquainted with all the others. We have already gone all around Tokyo sightseeing and taking in the interesting contrast of beautiful scenery and vibrant cities that Japan is famous for.
We all had an interesting experience taking Japanese class. I thought the advanced Japanese class had excellent instruction. I felt as if I learned a lot of keigo just from the past week of Japanese class. The text book titled Business Japanese and the video that played alongside the text was an excellent resource that I would recommend to colleges and anyone that wants to improve their Japanese business manners. I know other interns in my class told me they felt the same way.
The past week was exciting and exhausting at the same time. I felt like we needed at least a day to recover from jet lag before launching into the orientation. I arrived on Friday, classes continued essentially up ’til Monday, with only one day of rest before the beginning of the internship. I feel like a little more rest and time to adjust to Japan would have been helpful.
Intrax, the company that found me my Japanese internship, asked me to write a short essay about why I want to intern in Japan this summer. Here is what I told them.
An international internship is a chance, an opportunity and an opening into the professional world. In addition, it can push a promising student to improve their language skills before they finish their studies and start working full-time. Ever since high school I have taken Japanese language classes with the ultimate goal of working for an international company that has headquarters not only in the U.S. and Europe, but also Japan. I see myself ultimately working in a large metropolis, such as Tokyo, Chicago, London, etc, using my language and professional business background to conduct international business deals.
I see this internship as a way to gain the experience necessary to begin the path towards my goal. The experience is a once in a lifetime chance that can turn an inexperienced student into an experienced professional that is confident in their ability and believes at the end of the day they can succeed in their job. Thereby, helping the company grow and become successful in whatever industry that they are in. It would be near impossible to find an employer that didn’t want an employee with that frame of mind. I intend to pick up this type of mindset along with the necessary experience that employers will appreciate. By already being an undergraduate student that has the experience along with the educational background to get things done I improve my chances of obtaining a job.
Given today’s economic reality, work experience is what an employer is going to be requesting. An international internship succeeds in those areas and beyond. Working in another country and understanding the cultural nuances of the work environment will prove to be my biggest challenge. However, it also will give off the biggest reward. I believe that I will be able to look back at the end of summer on the overall experience, not just the work, as a chance that I took where I got to grow emotionally, in knowledge and in ability.
