Tarto in Japan

The first part of my trip to Okinawa will be online very soon, but today I'll just give some news: my company is moving !

Oh, it's not going very far, we're still staying in the center of Nagoya and I'm pretty pleased with the new location. I was only ten minutes by bicycle from my workplace but from next month, it's going to be only five!

The reason is a bit sad though: my company's been having rentability problems for several months, they had to downsize and consequently the office has become way too large (and expensive). We hope to get a new start, but if things don't improve I'm afraid it won't last very long.

Besides, I have started to study Japanese again, but this time on private lessons. I have stopped improving for quite some time now and I still have trouble with advanced grammar and business Japanese.

I missed the registration to the proficiency test of december but it's not a big deal, as it is now going to be held twice a year from now on.

Being quite busy lately, I'm doing a little break with Hokkaido, I'll start again next week.

Today, just two pictures. First my mom, who came to visit me in Nagoya for ten days:

And then the farewell party of Naoyuki, one of my best friends in Japan (right behind me on the picture):

The male-female ratio is typical of Japanese parties, and no I'm definitely not complaining about it!

I've been away for nearly a month but I know you'll forgive me, as january has been especially tough. Most notably because I lost my grandfather about ten days ago...you can imagine how I feel and I don't really want to talk about that on my website.

Besides, I got sick like never and even though I've almost completely recovered (it was about time after two weeks!...), I'm still coughing. I'm a bit worried about that and I'm gonna see a doctor this week.

Also, my laptop just died and since I hadn't backed up my files for quite a while, I've lost about three months of pictures.

Still, apart from all that...I'm fine!!! I believe february will be a new start, plus I've finished arranging my new place. I don't need any other piece of furniture, now I can take my time to decorate.

That means I promise I'll start updating my site again very soon. Stay tuned!...

As the title says, I'm in France right now! This was actually planned from the start, since my working-holiday visa was only valid for a year and wasn't renewable. I'm staying until october 8th and until then, I have two friends who come to visit Paris. Which means I'm gonna be a tour guide...which I'm looking forward to!...And believe me, I'm gonna introduce them to some good French restaurants, something that lacks in Japan (even though I found a good one in Nagoya).

I have the pleasure to tell you that I've found a job! All the conditions I had defined are fulfilled:

- 100% Japanese company: because it's the best way to improve my Japanese...even though I'll most likely have a very hard time at the beginning...

- IT-related job: at some point, I was fed up with the IT field and I wanted to change, but now I feel like I regained all my motivation

- in Nagoya: I could go somewhere else and start over from the beginning, but I have too many friends here that I don't want to leave

- from november: it allows me to travel and go back to France before I actually start working

On the minus side, the job isn't technically challenging, it's mostly PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL-based web development, but it's perfect considering my current Japanese level. It'll be hard enough to get used to business Japanese that I don't think I could handle a technical challenge on top of that. Indeed, business Japanese is insanely hard! It's not enough to speak politely, there's a whole specific language to learn first. So first, the linguistic challenge, then the technical one...one thing at a time! On the other hand, it's a foot in the door, which will allow me to significantly improve my language skills! Which in turn will imply new opportunities...

Anyway, I'm still proud about taking and passing interviews in Japanese. Even if, to be honest, the economic context is favorable to the applicants. There are clearly tons of IT jobs, which makes it possible for people who, like me, don't have solid business Japanese skills (and it's an euphemism!) to get hired. I even cancelled an interview!

About this post's title: 大 means "big", and 成功means "success". Shouldn't be too hard then to translate 大成功...

I've finally implemented both RSS and ATOM feeds, and I wonder why I didn't do it before, considering how little time it took!...Please let me know if you encounter any bug while using them.

Hi everyone!

I'm back and ready to start updating this site again. I'll start slowly though, and today there's no particular topic, just a quick overview of my current situation.

I moved into my new apartment on monday. It's rather small but on the other hand it is really clean, fully equipped and very conveniently located. I needed a couple days to adapt, since the temperature climbed suddenly so I felt quite tired for two-three days, as if I were suffering from some jetlag.

Anyway, Nagoya is much different from Okazaki! I particularly appreciate the fact that I don't need to catch the last train (23:56, I'm not gonna forget that time anytime soon...) anymore, I can now fully enjoy Nagoya nights.

For the rest (job hunting) it's just as I expected, that is I'm still late. But rather than hurrying, I prefer taking my time to get prepared and maximize my chances of success during potential interviews. Concretely, it means:

- keep studying Japanese

- get updated about technologies: I've left the IT field for nearly a year, so I need to get back to programming and keep posted about new technologies

- prepare the answers to questions that are commonly asked. As my Japanese level is still not high enough to allow me to spontaneously and comfortably convey all my ideas, especially when it comes to "business Japanese", I'd rather prepare as much as I can!

- similarly, write a short description about each of my previous professional experiences, so that I can answer more smoothly during the interview

And of course, I also want to enjoy life, especially since I now have quite a few friends here. So I'm pretty busy and I'm already thinking about extending my stay, probably for like two or three weeks, which is not really a problem as I have time and (still) money.

Hi everyone!

Yes, I'll be back soon! I'm really late regarding the planning I set up, but at least I've solved most of the problems.

First, I've found an apartment in Nagoya, right in the center. I signed a one-month contract that starts on june 25th, but it can easily be extended on a weekly or even daily-basis! This is totally suited to my needs, since I'm gonna look for a job and I don't know how long it's gonna take, so I definitely need flexibility. I'll write a detailed post about renting an apartment, but overall it was pretty simple and straightforward, even though I needed to have a Japanese friend act as a guarantor.

The visa shouldn't be a problem. Since my mother is Japanese, I can get a specific visa called "child of Japanese national". And thanks to my mother and my aunt in Japan who gathered all the necessary documents for me, I just need to go to the immigration office and wait to get my reward...that's the theory, and I hope nothing actually goes wrong. Anyway that visa is really interesting as it is valid for 3 years, renewable and doesn't require me to already have a job!

As for the job, well...I still haven't sent any application. I spent a huge amount of time on writing my resume in Japanese (and it's not even finished yet!) and currently I'm browsing job offers while preparing for the interviews with my teachers. It takes much more time than I expected but hopefully I'll be ready by the end of june, so I can start looking actively.

Anyway, what I want to say is that I'll soon have more free time and that I'm gonna start updating the site again from july 1st, so stay tuned, I'll be back soon!

No updates lately, because I've decided to start looking for a job, and I'm really busy these days. I haven't actually started to search yet, as there are already many problems to solve:

- apartment : I'm homeless from the 25th june, after that I still have no idea where to go...seems impossible to rent an apartment for not even 3 months, especially for a foreigner.

- visa : another mess, since there are actually two choices for me, but it's too complicated to explain right now.

- work : first, I need to write my resume in Japanese. Then, searching in Nagoya is more difficult than in Tokyo...but I really like Nagoya, it combines the commodities of a large city with the atmosphere of a small one. Also, I now have quite a few friends here and I definitely don't want to leave. However, there are obviously less job offers than in Tokyo...

- luggage : the only problem I've solved so far. I've bought lots of small things since I arrived in Japan (kitchen stuff, blankets etc) that won't fit in my backpack but that I don't want to throw away. But it's fine, as I just found a place to store everything for free!

This week-end, I'm meeting a Japanese friend who's in charge of the recruitment for his company, and he's gonna give me some advice.

Anyway I don't lack inspiration about my blog, I still have tons of topics I want to write about, however I've decided to stop updating for the moment. I might upload some pics every now and then, but I clearly don't have time to write currently. I don't know when I'll be back, it'll mostly depend on how the job search goes. Ideally, I'd like to sign a contract by the end of june, or early july.

OK, gotta go, see you soon then! You can still wish me good luck!

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Finally, a new skin for the site! Huge thanks to my brother for making this new design!!! You can still access the old version through the "Theme" block though.

As a consequence, I haven't updated the blog lately, I was too busy with integrating the design (those who know a little about CSS will understand that I had to find tricky workarounds for shitty Internet Explorer's bugs). It has been tested on the following browsers:

- Windows : Firefox, IE (5, 5.5, 6), Opera

- Mac : Safari, Firefox, Opera

If anybody could test IE7, or Camino (Mac) and tell me what it's like...And if you notice any bug, please let me know.

Besides, I have a new mobile phone, my number is 080-3633-0853, but you can also email me: tarto@softbank.ne.jp. I updated the "Contact" block, now you know how to find me!

Now that this is done, I'm starting again to write about my last holidays...the best is still to come!...

I know, the title of this post doesn't mean anything for most of you, because I still haven't taken the time to talk about my passion for rhythm games...I'll do it, but for now I'm so happy about this accomplishment that I had to write it!

For the few who know what I'm talking about, here's the score pic:

It's not excellent, but I passed (never managed to do it before, and no bar of course) and it's still a B. Plus I passed it twice today, didn't take a pic the second time though. Now I need to reduce the number of greats and misses and I can expect to get an A...

And for the others, I'll talk about that again soon!

I've just added two links:

Ben's blog. We studied Japanese together last year in Paris for one semester, then he also went to Japan for a year...he returned to France recently but, as he told me, the Japan adventure has only started!

Guillaume's web site, a friend who loves to travel...I strongly advise you read his adventures, I particularly appreciated his bicycle trip in Africa.

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I haven't forgotten my blog, but you'll have to wait a little more for the next update. The reason? The end of the term is coming very soon and I'm partying a lot, (much) more than studying...

Plus, I've changed my plans for the next holidays. Instead of touring Shikoku, I'm going to Tokyo with a friend to start checking out the IT market. It may seem early but ideally, we'd like to work as a team of freelancers, but since there are many problems to overcome (contacts, visa,...), we figured out we'd better start early.

As a consequence, I don't really feel like writing for my blog these days, but I'll be back! Furthermore, thanks to my brother, a new graphic style is coming during the next holidays!

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Japanese people have a totally distorted image of Paris. They think it's a perfect, magic place where everybody is nice and elegant...Every year, reality comes as a shock for a handful of Japanese people in Paris. A rude remark from a waiter can trigger what is called the "Paris syndrome", a traumatic shock that can even lead to repatriation with psychological support on board the plane for the most serious cases.

The Paris syndrom was first mentioned in the 80s but became popular in the last couple years. A dozen (or a hundred, according to another source) are concerned every year. There are many articles about it on the net, for instance:

- BBC news

- The age.com

- Paris syndrome on Wikipedia

I think it's really hilarious!

The culture shock seems to be the cause of the syndrome. And also the fact that most Japanese people probably imagine the world as a huge Disneyland-like amusement park (this one's a personal opinion)...

In Japan, it's totally unconceivable that a customer might be treated in a rude way. I don't even see how it could happen unless an employee suddenly loses his mind. Here, the customer is almost considered as a god. If you have a problem, they'll do anything to fix it, even if it's entirely your fault! They apologize for making you wait for 3 seconds, they apologize if YOU make an article fall and will offer to replace it, they apologize if they're not able to answer your question, etc etc. Don't even think about leaving a tip, it's almost insulting. Indeed in Japan, the customer is grateful for the client come to his shop.

Can the opposite syndrome happen? I reckon that I love the Japanese service, but sometimes it just gets on my nerves to hear excuses all the time. But I'm not gonna get traumatized either...well who knows, some day I might appear on the national French news with an "Okazaki syndrome" title!

School just restarted today and it's already going fast! Feels like this term's gonna be pretty intense too. I had 4 elective classes to choose, this time I picked two cool ones: cooking and manga. Cooking because I like it and manga because it's a topic I hardly know anything about...

I also have 4 private classes. I made requests about the teachers I want to study with, I hope they'll be fulfilled. Indeed, teachers are generally pretty good but there are always exceptions (I had one last term) so...

Besides, I've planned a nice project for next holidays, I'm going to gather more information and I'll tell you more about it later.

And now that I think about it, I (at last!) want to thank my brother and my sister-in-law who made the graphics of my web site 3 months ago, and I just added links to their web sites.

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I had an awesome and very traditional new year party. Can't tell much now as I have very little time!...

I Wish all of you the best for this new year!!!

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It's over! The last day was really moving. First, my main teacher, Honda-sensei, couldn't hold his tears while making his final speech in class. I kind of understand, because our class was exceptionally great. We were all close to one another and I'm sure gonna regret this atmosphere...

Then all classes attended the ending ceremony. All the students who're going back home made their speech, and I felt weird seeing all those people I knew leave...

As for my grades, well I'm pretty happy and fully satisfied, because I got first at ALL tests: written test, listening comprehension, conversation and daily quizzes! Sure, Jeannie moved to the upper class recently, otherwise I'd probably be second, but I'm very happy about the way I improved: I was around the average on the first test, then I just kept improving until I reached the lead.　Yes, I'm bragging, but it was my birthday recently and it's Christmas tomorrow night, so I feel I have the right to do so ;-)

That doesn't mean I'm overall better than my classmates. Several of them have a much better ability to express themselves and make themselves understood in everyday life situation than me. It just means that restricted to what we studied in class, and on these particular tests, I did better than the others.

Last thing: you can now email me directly at tartoaujapon@softbank.ne.jp, it'll go straight to my cellphone.

I got to go, I need to find a place to stay in Nagoya tomorrow night!

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No updates for a week...

I'm having personal problems (please don't ask for details...) and I really don't feel like updating my blog. I'll get back to it as soon as possible...

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Nothing really interesting today, but I have an exam tomorrow so you can still wish me good luck! Oh, and here's a pic of my diner:

Today's menu: miso soup, salad (with tomatoes, cabbage and salmon, I even added tofu to try, and sesame seeds), rice and chicken nuggets with miso sauce. Yummy!

I'm really pissed off!...I never had any problem while leaving it for hours at the station and the supermarket, and it was stolen at the student village, right in front of the window of another student!...

It's not a matter of money (I was renting it 5000 yen, that is around 40 dollars, for 3 months...), but I don't like knowing that this kind of thing happens in Japan too. I've talked about that fact with many people and it seems to eventually happens if you don't lock your bike. According to the Japanese people, it happens VERY often: obviously they don't know how it is in other countries, because a bike wouldn't survive more than an hour in Paris in such conditions! :-)

That doesn't change my overall opinion about security in Japan, but still it's not anymore what it used to be...too much western influence maybe?...

Sorry, I haven't been able to update my blog for the last 2 days. I'm still tired because of the jetlag, yesterday I spent the whole day alternating between naps and Japanese studies. But I'm starting to get accustomed to my new life. I've found a department store 5 minutes walk from my place, cheaper than the combini (convenient store), and met a couple other students.

As for food, I'd like to prepare my own meals because I like to cook. So far, I've exclusively eaten bentos (tonkatsu, sushis), and I even had my first "instant lamen" (instant noodle soup) today. Instant lamen is the counterpart of steak-pasta in France, it's the base dish of every student :-) But I'll start preparing my own meals soon, and I'd really like to become able to read Japanese cookbooks!

Besides, I can't live without fruits, and they're much more expensive here than in France. Moreover, I don't know where all the delicious exotic fruits one can find in southeast Asia go, but definitely not to Japan :-( I remember insane prices in big department stores such as Mitsukoshi and Daimaru 3 years ago in Fukuoka, for instance melons at 30 euros and apples at 10 euros (each of course!). Of course, these are extreme examples but it's still a bit scary...However it's not the rule but still, prices seem about twice as expensive as in France. So I bought kiwis I found at a reasonable price (5 kiwis for 3 euros). As for the rest of the food, I need to make a small comparison but so far, it looks like prepared meals are cheaper, whereas base products are more expensive than in France. To be confirmed.

I also took my placement test this morning, and there's nothing to complain about the organization and seriousness of the process! It started with a written test, then we had to fill a form, and finally there was an oral test with two female interviewers (yes, only women, dunno why!). As soon as the written test was over, the correctors were already working to provide results to the interviewers, who could then tailor the oral test to suit each student's level. Everything was done well and quick...that's Japanese efficiency! Overall, I found the tests very well designed. The first exercises were a piece of cake, then the difficulty raised progressively, until the last exercise that I could hardly understand ;-) Same for the oral test: the questions used more and more complex vocabulary and grammar, and after one hour I was exhausted and couldn't understand anything :-) Thankfully, the interviewers were very friendly and did everything to make us feel comfortable. In the end, I think the results perfectly match my expectations. I'm going to start in an intermediate group. Basically, I can understand all common grammatical forms, but I get lost as sentences get longer and start combining several forms. It's right in the continuity of the Japanese course I followed in Paris prior to coming here.

I wanted to go to the center this afternoon to take pics and buy a bicycle, but I was still suffering from the jetlag and I ended up sleeping in bed all afternoon. Tonight I went to Okazaki arcade center...and was disappointed. No DDR, many games I don't give a shit about, there were pulikulas but it's meaningless when you're alone and most important, I didn't have this feeling of gigantism and amazing things I had in Fukuoka's Namco center. I still enjoyed playing Taiko no tatsujin, but the sound was too low (which sucks for a music game!). I guess most of you haven't understood my last two sentences :-), so I'll detail that later (I have one year to tell you about Japan, it should be enough...).

Tomorrow, I'm going to Nagoya with other students I met today. I've no idea what we're gonna do there, but for this first visit I don't want to plan anything and I'll see how it goes. Don't worry, I'll take pictures!

Mata ne (see you)!

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Contrary to what I thought, I have VERY little feedback from you English speakers. Please let me know if you actually read my blog, otherwise I'll just update the French section, as it's quite time-consuming to translate every single post. Thanks!

A quick hello from Seoul! Everything's fine, the 10 hours of flight passed rather quickly, but I still want to arrive soon! It's 07:45AM GMT+9 (or 8, not completely sure), and my plane takes off at 08:45 ! Nagoya, I'm coming !

A dream comes true!

I've been preparing this trip for almost 2 years, and it finally becomes reality! Now it's more concrete than ever: I'm leaving France today, and I'm going to spend one year in Japan! I feel very excited about this trip, but I also feel very sad, because my girlfriend is staying in France and we're not gonna see each other for 3 months...

As you all know, my mother is Japanese, but I've always lived in France. It's been nearly 2 years since I made the decision to go to Japan. This idea came during my first trip to Cambodia, when I met a French guy who was living in Japan. He told me about his (fascinating) story, how he arrived in Japan with absolutely no knowledge of the language, no job and hardly any money, how he managed to get a job in his field, and how he ended up spending 5 years there. Then I don't know what happened, but as the days passed I started myself to consider going to Japan. I think he had somewhat awaken a feeling lying in me...Anyway, by the time I came back to France, I had made up my mind.

However, I had no clue what to do there. Would I try to find a job, or just tour the country? How long would I stay, where would I go? Sure, I have relatives there, but they live in a small (and boring) town and there's no way I'd like to stay there for more than a month. There seemed to be too many obstacles to overcome, but in the end it all went down to three words: money, job, language. Finding a job was definitely impossible because my Japanese was way too bad. On the other hand, to afford studying Japanese in Tokyo, I needed a job that would provide an income...

I decided not to rush headlong into this project and accepted the fact that it might take one or two years to achieve. I entered a Japanese institute in Paris to improve my Japanese and went back to my mom's apartment to save up money (much!) faster. I gathered information about the visas, checked out the job offers in Japan, browsed through a bunch of Japan-related websites to gather information and read about other people's experiences...But I still couldn't find a way to put everything together.

I found the solution by chance: as I was browsing the Internet, I came up across a Japanese language institute called Yamasa. They had an incredibly detailed and informative website, and I quickly found out that it was a very serious institute with high-quality language courses. On top of that, they were located near Nagoya, which made them much cheaper than their counterparts in Tokyo, making it affordable for me...I had made my decision!

From then on, everything flowed nicely. I obtained a working-holiday visa pretty easily, which allows me to stay one year in Japan and have a part-time job. I found a flight that wasn't too expensive, took out a health insurance, resigned from my job, subscribed a new bank account to make overseas fun transfers easier, and did a lot of other little things to prepare my trip. And the most important: I met a pretty and lovely girl I fell in love with!!! :-D

So here's my planned schedule:
- spend the first 3 months at Yamasa institute
- go to Tokyo, meet my girlfriend there and spend one month with her. We'll probably stay a couple of days at Tokyo then travel around.
- maybe go back to Yamasa for another 2 months
- visit my relatives in the south-west of the country, for about a month
- visit friends in Tokyo and find a part-time job there
- meet my girlfriend again, and tour Japan with her and other friends
Of course, this is likely to change...But I'll keep you posted!

My site is officially open!!!

I don't have much to say for now, except I'm leaving on sunday and I feel very stressed! I'm almost set up and ready to go, actually I just have to pack my backpack with all the stuff I've thrown onto my bed. I leave home tonight and I'm then going to stay with my girlfriend until sunday, departure day...

I'll update this site as often as I can and I hope you'll leave lots of comments! :-)

More news coming, so check out this site again soon!