Firefly in Japan on the Your-Japan Blog Network

One day, to indulge my interest in performance cars I was doing a Google search on Tokyo and Skylines and I stumbled onto a site. This site was run by a guy living outside of Tokyo with a Nissan Skyline, and he was talking about this place called ¡ÈDaikoku Futou¡É. Apparently it was a highway rest stop mainly designed for trucks until a couple of years ago, when suddenly it became the ¡Èunderground¡É place to show off your performance car, and get together with your petrol-headed friends. This guy was writing about some crazy experiences he had there, and about all the amazing cars on display. I quickly made up my mind to see this place for myself. Unfortunately, Daikoku Futou apparently only got crowded quite late at night, around 12 or 1. The schedule wasn¡Çt fixed either – it happened sometimes Friday, sometimes Saturday, but sometimes no-one even showed up. Apparently, the police often showed up as well and shooed everyone away. Sounds a bit risky, but oh well, I thought, I¡Çll just go and try my luck.

Back then, my girlfriend had a very nice BMW. I called her up, and told her about Daikoku Futou and the site I had found. She excitedly agreed to come with me, which was good since you can¡Çt really walk onto a Highway rest stop. She is a petrol head too, and drives a manual car better than any woman I¡Çve ever seen.

Friday came quickly, and she came over to pick me up in her car. I took the wheel as normal, and we were quickly underway. Her beemer was a very expensive car, but frankly it¡Çs a pretty flat experience to drive it. The car itself is very smooth, and comfortable, and it has safety features up the exhaust pipe, and that¡Çs exactly why it¡Çs boring to drive. Those German engineers saw me coming from a mile away - every time I tried to do something vaguely fun in the car, it stopped me. For instance, once I was turning a corner at a good speed, and I thought it would be fun to do a handbrake slide. With a gleam in my eye, I casually reached over and gently pulled the handbrake on. I grinned in anticipation of the familiar tire screech and sideways motion. *DING*, the car chimed. Nothing. Frustrated, I applied more pressure to the handbrake. *DING* the car responded flatly. Nothing happened. An image popped into my mind : a nerdy German BMW engineer wearing glasses and a white professor coat. He was rubbing his hands together and giggling at me. Annoying.

After a few mistakes and getting off at the wrong exit, we finally arrived to Daikoku Futou. The circular road curled around us, as we spiraled down and down into the car park. We heard Daikoku Futou before we saw it: a dull sound of rhythmic beating bass and muffled music. Finally, we turned the last corner. A car park full of people and incredible cars, and people milling around everywhere sprawled out before us. Eyes wide, we found an empty space, parked, and got out of the car. It was almost like a club – a few people with vans outfitted with huge speakers were playing music loudly. You could select the kind of music you enjoy, and hang out near the van playing your genre. A few people were dancing on the road near the cars. The underground vibe permeated the whole parking lot. People walked around talking about their cars, or other peoples cars, or cars they were going to buy. As a foreigner, I somehow blended into the throng of people, and no-one seemed to really notice me.

The whole place seemed to run on a value based system – who was the hottest car? Who spent the most money? Who has the most LCD screens installed in completely useless places? One guy was showing his car to someone. It was a regular sedan, but had 9 LCD screens. Two mounted on the inside of the front windscreen, one in the middle of the dashboard, two mounted in the headrests of the front seats, two mounted in the headrests of the BACK seats (to allow the car behind them to enjoy the movie they watching?), and as he eagerly displayed as he opened the boot, two mounted under his boot. Surrounding people nodded and looked on, as they wished they had more LCD screens in their own cars.

Suddenly one guy drove into the car park, with a completely normal, boring Nissan sedan. It was a dull green colour, and a completely uninspiring car. He drove it into the middle of a very large crowd and started revving the engine. People looked at the car in disgust. Someone started booing. He kept revving for a while longer until he had a sizable audience. Then, he pressed a button on the inside of the door, and the door opened – straight up, like a Lamborghini. He got out of the car with a big goofy smile on his face, and was greeted by cheers and clapping as the crowd realised he was one of them.

Impressed, I walked around, taking everything in. I stumbled across a set of three identical silver Skylines sat together, parked in perfect parallel. They were spotless, extremely well looked after, and breathtaking. I walked over with my jaw on the ground, as I examined the cars and peered into the side windows. A Japanese guy walked over, a bit nervous that someone else was standing around his car.

¡ÈHello, how are you?¡É I greeted him warmly in Japanese.

He peered at me suspiciously.

¡ÈUm.. I think you have a really nice car. I love Skylines.¡É I said.

They seemed to be the magic words, as suddenly a grin spread across his face and he walked over and shook my hand.

¡ÈThanks! I¡Çm Jiro. Nice to meet you! Do you have a car?¡É he asked.

¡ÈNot really. I¡Çve always wanted a Skyline, but I don¡Çt have one. We came in my girlfriends car though,¡É I said pointing out the BMW.

Jiro looked at the BMW, completely uninterested. The conversation quickly returned to Skylines. After a few minutes of chatting, I asked him a question.

¡ÈI hope you don¡Çt think this is a rude question, since we just met and everything, but if you have time, would it be alright to take me for a little ride? Would that be ok?¡É I asked hesitantly.

He almost fell over. ¡ÈOf course it¡Çs ok! Absolutely¡Ä. sure!! Hop right in.¡É Jiro opened the door and gestured.

¡ÈWow, thanks very much. Can my girlfriend come as well?¡É I asked.

¡ÈNo problem. Lets go!¡É Jiro said excitedly.

We all sat down in the Skyline. He turned the key, and the engine roared to life. A smile played across his face as he reversed the car. In his excitement, he stalled it.

¡ÈSHIT.¡É Jiro cursed as he forced the engine to life again. He peered around at his friends outside, hoping they hadn¡Çt seen his mistake. Of course they had, and were laughing at him. Jiro frowned, but quickly brightened up as the engine started getting louder. We ascended up the circular ramp.

¡ÈThe engine can get a bit loud. When it¡Çs going full-pelt, you can¡Çt even hear people shouting in the car. It¡Çs good for my girlfriend, when she starts talking. I just rev the engine. Haha!¡É Jiro said. I could imagine my girlfriend frowning in the back seat.

We continued up the ramp. I checked the speedo. 30km an hour.

¡ÈWatch this,¡É Jiro said, as he increased speed to 65km an hour. The engine was strangely loud for 65km an hour. I looked at him questioningly. He grinned at me, and pointed to the gear stick. My eyes opened in shock as I saw we were in first gear. He changed to 2nd, and the car became quiet. We got onto the highway, and drove. The car felt smooth and table. The speed limit on Japanese highways is 80km an hour (I know. It¡Çs stupid). We quickly accelerated to 110km an hour. He kept accelerating. Suddenly, we were going at 160km an hour. I was shocked at how smooth and stable the car felt. I mentioned this to Jiro.

¡ÈRight. Skylines are built for speed. That¡Çs why I love them. Actually¡Ä why don¡
Çt I show you a bit of speed now? Is that ok?¡É Jiro asked with a devilish grin.

I looked at the speedo wavering around 160km an hour – already twice the speed limit. A bit of speed? What the hell does that mean? I wondered.

¡ÈUh, ok, sure. I guess.¡É I gave my reserved consent.

Jiro floored the pedal. I was pasted back into my seat. Jiro started laughing, a deep, terrifying belly laugh. I was shocked we could accelerate so fast from 160km an hour. We quickly reached 200km. The engine was getting loud. Really loud. A car was in our lane. Jiro flashed his lights at the car, which quickly moved out of the way. We sped past them like they were standing still. 220km. 230km. 240km. The highway was flashing past at ridiculous speeds. Jiro¡Çs previous laughter had turned into grim determination and intense concentration. One mistake at these speeds¡Ä..

I shook away those thoughts. 250km an hour. The speedo was working hard for its gains now. The engine was so loud I couldn¡Çt hear myself think. The thin, two laned highway suspended above the streets of Tokyo seemed narrower than ever. I shouted loudly, just to see if I could hear myself. I couldn¡Çt. I wondered how my girlfriend was going in the back. Although, at 250km an hour, if we had any kind of accident it wouldn¡Çt matter where in the car you were sitting. The engine was deafeningly loud. 255km an hour.

As the speedometer neared 260km an hour, I realized this is one of the dumber things I¡Çd done in my life. Oh well, you only live once, I reasoned. Yes, and I might not be living for as long as planned, depending on the outcome of this car ride. I had a sudden impulse to tap Jiro on the shoulder, to make him slow down. Actually, I thought, that would be suicide. If Jiro was distracted for the briefest of seconds, we¡Çd end up as organic highway paste. I gulped, turned pale, and redundantly checked my seatbelt again.

We hit 260km an hour. This seemed to satisfy Jiro. We started slowing down. I noticed I had been holding my breath, and with a gasp, I started breathing again. We were quickly back at 150km an hour. My heart was beating fast, and I was squirming as adrenaline shot through my body.

¡ÈLets stop and get a drink.¡É Jiro suggested.

I nodded numbly.

We got on the next offramp, which was very long. All of a sudden, we heard police sirens. A wet thump sounded throughout the car, as all of our hearts simultaneously jumped into our throats. Jiro started sweating. We looked over, and saw a police patrol car on a regular road. Exiting the offramp would take us directly to the police car.

¡ÈFuck,¡É Jiro said. His breathing sped up, and he grit his teeth. About 50 meters down from us, a overhead bridge extended over the road. Jiro pulled into the emergency lane and we sat in the middle of the overhead bridge. He switched off the car, and the lights. We sat as quietly as possible. Only the sound of our fast raspy breathing broke the uneasy silence. We waited for the inevitable police officer, police siren, police bike, police cruiser. I wondered what happened to foreigners in Japanese jail. I gulped hard. We waited for 10 minutes, but it felt like a month. Finally, Jiro gingerly started the car, and we moved off slowly. We exited the offramp, and pulled into a convenience store. Jiro turned off the car. I opened the door and almost fell out. My whole body was shaking, my throat was dry, and my head felt dizzy.

I went into the convenience shop, and bought a coke. It took me a minute to pull the change out of my pocket with my quivering fingers. When I finally managed to get the lid off, it was the best tasting and most refreshing drink I¡Çve ever had in my entire life.

I stumbled back to the car, and sat down with my girlfriend. We looked at each other, and wondered together how close we just came to death and imprisonment. A heavy silence hung between us, one of many silences we shared that day. After a few minutes of starting at each other, I cracked a smile, and snorted a laugh. She broke too, and started laughing. We shared a feeling of shock, relief, adrenaline, excitement. We laughed together, and felt alive.

10:45 am. I sat on the floor in the middle of my apartment in Tokyo, listening to the crickets chirping. I shifted uncomfortably. The neighborhood seemed strangely quiet. I dimly realised this was because almost everyone was at work, being productive, contributing to society, helping clients, getting paid….. A fly buzzed around the room. I frowned at it, and at myself. I needed some external input.

I walked out of my little guest house. There was a public phone outside a shopping center that I occasionally used to call overseas. The first time I made an overseas call, it took me 10 minutes to figure it out. It’s surprisingly difficult. First you have to put in money, then dial. I was fine up to this point. Next was the number to access an overseas call. I went through every permutation of 00, 0011, 001, 01, 0001, 00011. None worked. It just kept spitting back out my 100 yen coin, as if it was mocking me. "I don’t want your stinkin money, gaijin." I kept going until a kindly old man noticed my frustration, and walked over.

"Phone ok?" They asked.

"Phone no ok!! Phone no ring. FUCK." I said.

"Ah. This phone no ring to oversea. It only Japan phone." He said kindly. He pointed at a small sticker, where I could only understand the word "Japan" in kanji, and nothing else.

He gestured me over and showed me a different phone. "This phone ok. Have good day!" He said warmly. I thanked him many times, and spent another 3 minutes messing about with the international dialing codes. Finally made that call, by the way.

I entered the small, odd smelling booth, and picked up the handset. By Australian standards, the handset was impeccably clean. By Japanese standards it was pretty dirty. I spared a second to wonder how I would fit again into Australian society. It’s only been a few weeks over here, but I’m already taking many of Japan’s comforts for granted. I dialed home.

"Hello?" came a voice.

"Hi Dad." I said.

"Oh hello there. How are you going? Is everything alright? Did you get the job? Do you have enough money to eat?" He asked in succession.

I cleared my throat. "Actually, well, I’m fine. I got a job offer, but it was pretty low. Lower than I would need to survive and do what I’m here for."

"Your kung fu stuff?" Dad asked.

"Kung fu is Chinese, Dad. So I’m feeling a bit drained right now. I feel like I’ve run a marathon, I’m absolutely exhausted, I’m running on zero, but the finish line is two steps away. I also feel like theres a guy waiting to kick me in the balls once I finally cross the line. Actually he’d kick me in the balls every month on pay-day." I lamented.

I imagined my Dad nodding his head, and reflecting on my problem.

"Well… theres no reason why you couldn’t get another job offer," My Dad began.

"Thats impossible," I complained, missing the point entirely. "Don’t you remember I told you about all of the interviews I went to?"

"Yes, but theres no reason that one of those companies can’t call you out of the blue and offer you a generous package. It sounds like these guys are taking the piss anyway with this low offer." Dad said.

I paused for a second while his words sunk in.

"You’re telling me to lie to them? And possibly mess up my only chance of getting a job?" I shot.

"I didn’t tell you to do anything. It’s just a possible thing you might decide to say." He returned.

My eyebrows furrowed with stress. That would be a risky proposition. At any point, these guys could withdraw their offer, and I’d be completely out in the cold. And on the fast track back to Australia. Argh. What to do.

"I don’t know Dad… I’m not sure I could do that." I said, depressed.

"Well best of luck either way mate. Let me know if you need a lift from the airport." He offered.

"Thanks… but I’m hoping I won’t need a lift from the airport for a while. Talk to you soon. Bye, Dad." I hung up the phone, deep in thought.

Frankly, I’m a pretty bad liar. I’m by nature an honest person, and it’s hard for me to look someone in the eye, and tell them something I know is false.

"But, they did try to mess me around with this low offer…. " the little devil Firefly sitting on my left shoulder said.

"Thats not an excuse to lie. Besides, what if you piss them off and they withdraw their offer? Then we could be really screwed." The little Firefly clad in white sagely whispered in my ear.

As often happens, the little devil Firefly hopped over to my other shoulder, wound up, and unceremoniously drop kicked angel Firefly.

"Time to make the call." The devil Firefly instructed.

I sighed and picked up the phone. I put in my card, and dialed the office number from memory. I asked to speak to Shane.

"uuhhh, hello?" Shanes voice.

"Hi, this is Firefly."

"Oh, yes, hello. Have you thought about the offer?" Shane asked, somewhat nervously. ("See? He knows its a low-ball offer. He’s nervous. Stick it to them." The devil Firefly whispered venomously.)

"Yes, I have, I’m very grateful and I’d like to accept it…."

"Oh, thats great," Shane said excitedly.

"However," I continued, "I’d like to discuss some things in a bit more detail."

"Oh. Really?" Shane deflated. "What kind of things?"

"The package, the job, the responsibilities, those kind of things. Can I arrange for a meeting with you and Bill?" I asked.

"Hang on a minute." Shane put me on hold.

I waited for 3 or 4 minutes. Irritation bubbled up again. I relaxed as best as possible. Just as I was wondering how long I’d be waiting this time, Shane returned.

"Tell you what, we’re excited that you’re joining, so we want to take you out to dinner to celebrate." Shane said.

"Thats great, but I do want to discuss things before signing a contract. If we can have a discussion at dinner, it would be great to join you." I said.

"Uhhhh, sure I guess thats no problem. Uhhh, sure." Shane coughed nervously. "So, lets meet at Shibuya at 7. We’ll take you to a nice Italian restaurant."

"Great. I look forward to seeing you there." I hung up.

My suspicions were confirmed - it was a lowball offer, and now they’re going to try to butter me up at a nice restaurant. We’ll see about that.

I arrived at Shibuya at 7pm to be met by Shane and Bill at the station. They warmly greeted me and shook my hand, and then slapped me on the back in a friendly way as we took off towards the restaurant. They were laughing, smiling, joking and happy. I joked along, but I wasn’t buying it.

We got to the restaurant and sat down at a nice table. They ordered a meal for me. I glimpsed the price : it was a 3,800 yen set meal. Recently, to save money, I’d been eating 5 riceballs a day, costing about 150 yen each. I was eating through 750 yen in one day, and they just ordered me one meal worth 5 days of food. I pushed the menu away from me.

After eating, and laughing some more, Bill stopped, and stared right at me. There was a very noticable shift from friendly and warm, to all business. "So." Bill began somewhat coldly. "I believe you had a question about the package."

Shane and Bill both became silent, and stared at me. I think I would have been very intimidated if I didn’t know what was going on. There was silence, during which time I was supposed to feel uncomfortable. I didn’t.

"Right. I want
ed to let you know that I have received another offer from a different company." I said, slowly.

A look of surprise flashed across Shane and Bill’s face. It was gone quickly from Bill’s face. It lingered a moment longer on Shane’s. (Yeah, thats right, bitches, the devil Firefly helpfully added.)

"They’ve offered me 400,000 yen. Actually."

Bill chewed his teeth. His mouth turned into a scowl.

"Alright. And?" Bill said, coldly and aggressively.

Time to get this pointing in the direction I want, I thought.

"Well actually, I’ve had a chance to work with you, and see your office and the kind of people you have working there." (And there is a hot secretary, devil Firefly pointed out.) "And I really like what I see. I like the people there, and you seem to be doing interesting work, at interesting clients. I could really get into that kind of work."

Shane and Bill looked at me suspiciously. Fuck. I began lightly sweating.

"This other company is a much larger and more established company." I coughed, nervously. "Um, the other company offering me the job, I mean. They’re bigger. And, probably um, they’re also, um," I started to trail off. Uhoh. Bring it together.

I mentally slapped myself. My life in Japan from this point forward depends on the next thing to come out of my mouth.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…." I said.

They both stared flatly at me. Very flatly.

"So I would be very keen to find some kind of arrangement where I could feel comfortable at your company. I came to Japan to do martial arts, and it would be very difficult for me to live in Japan, which has a much higher cost of living, and participate in my classes on the package on offer. So for that reason alone, I would really be forced to accept the offer from the other company."

Bill continued to stare at me. He knows I’m lying. I held back a gulp.

"I really like small companies." I said, suddenly inspired. "The variety of work and having various interesting responsibilities is very exciting for me. If we could work out some kind of deal that would allow me to do what I came for in Japan, I would much prefer to make a big difference in a small company, than be a cog in the wheel of a larger company."

Shane looked at Bill, and then suddenly raised his hands in a "surrender" motion. "Your call." Shane withdrew.

Bill raised an eyebrow. I stole a look at my meal - the equivalent to 5 days of food, and I smiled nervously.

It felt like an eternity, as Bill eyes burned into mine, searching out any hint of a fallacy. I returned his gaze as best as I could, but I could feel myself losing it. I had a sudden impulse to leave, before I was found out. The muscles in my legs tensed up, ready to walk right out the door, and out of Japan.

"400,000 yen?" Bill said. "Thats a bit much."

"Yes, I was surprised as well," I lied.

Bill opened his mouth, and said…..

"Connection Successful. You may now share information between domains." My cursor wavered over the "Ok" button.

Bill and I both looked at each other. He blinked, and coughed. "Hmm. Not bad." He said suspiciously.

"Not bad?" I queried.

"Pretty good." He said.

I beamed.

After I managed to fix that problem, he set me a list of other tasks to do. I went around happily working through my tasks, with a really good feeling about what I just managed to do on the server. The kind of feeling you get when you just know that something good is coming your way.

As I was working through my list, I occasionally made an idiot out of myself by trying to communicate in Japanese. This particular company housed a number of very impatient and "strong willed" individuals, who in hindsight were not going to be the most appropriate Japanese teachers.

I went up to one office lady, swallowed, and dove in with my best Japanese.

"sumasen, chodo jiakan aru ka?" A best rough translation would be something like "sscuse me do you have just right time, huh?"

She looked at me. I looked back expectantly.

"What?" She said in hard English.

"Oh, um, I just wanted to know if you had some time, because, I need to look at your…" I replied in English.

"Was that Japanese?" She pointedly asked.

"Yeah. Well, um, it was supposed to be…" I started.

She cut me off again. "It was terrible." She said, her lip curling up slightly. "In the future, you should say ’sumimasen, chotto computer wo haiken shitemo yoroshii desu ka?’" Her clear polite Japanese bounced right off my head.

"Right! Thanks. Uhh…. sumiashen, uuhhhh," I desperately tried to copy her.

"Forget it, I don’t have time for this. Just get on the computer. And HURRY UP." She said, throwing down a file and walking off to presumably go make herself a coffee.

As concealed as possible, I peered around the office to see if anyone else witnessed my harsh Japanese lesson. Well, anyone who might report it back to Bill anyway. Everyones head was down, working busily. I guess I’m alright.

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, which turned into a feeling of intense pressure as the office lady came back with her coffee and stood over me at the computer, clearly waiting for me to finish. She started tapping her foot.

"Um, chodo mati kudas sai" I said. (pleash waitashecond)

She exhaled through her teeth, and shook her head. I waited for my next Japanese lesson, but it appeared as though she’d given up already. I finished up my work and quickly moved on.

I noticed that I had worked through everything on the list. I looked at my watch, only 11:45, just before lunch. Great. I bet Bill will be happy everything was done so quickly.

I returned to the server room with my list of tasks, each one ticked off.

"Hi Bill, I finished all of my tasks." I said proudly as I handed him the sheet of paper.

He pulled his attention away from the server, and looked down at the paper. His face twisted up. "That was supposed to take you all day. Shit, why’d you finish it so quickly?"

"Oh, I, um, " I stammered, not having a good answer to the question.

"Hm. Don’t worry about it, I guess. Just go back and see if anyone is having problems and try to fix it." Bill pointed at the door.

I turned and walked out, feeling a bit depressed. That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting, after completing a days work in an hour and a half. Hm.

I wandered around the floors, getting to know the office and the people that worked there. Without the pressure of having a list to go through, I talked to many more people who were much more friendly and warm than the initial user. I managed to fix many problems, made some friends along the way. Three people had offered to make me a cup of tea or coffee for the work I performed. "What a nice place," I thought to myself. "I could definitely spend more time here."

In that office in central Tokyo, being able to offer my skills to help fix problems for people was very satisfying and enjoyable for me in a way thats hard to explain. Maybe it was because I felt my karma bank balance growing - if I help enough people, surely I’ll get a job! Or maybe it was the feeling of somehow knowing I was on the right track. That at this point in my life, being there, and doing that work was EXACTLY what I was supposed to be doing.

In any case, I knew things were out of my hands now. I just had to be friendly, do the best work I could and let the chips fall where they may.

Soon, it was nearing 6:30pm, and things were winding up. I had gone around fixing many problems, and people were talking about me very positively. Bill even happened to come down while I was having a friendly chat to one of the company’s directors, as I fixed a problem that had been bugging him for weeks. All in all, a very good day. Bill called me over for a moment.

"Hey. I was watching you today. You did a pretty good job." He praised me.

I beamed again. "Thanks, Bill."

"So, do you want a job or something?" Bill asked, remarkably offhandedly.

I cocked my head slightly, the words not sinking in.

"A job. Do you want one?" He repeated, loudly.

"Yes, that would be nice." I politely smiled, and internally did a 20 step gymnastic routine.

"Ok. Why don’t you talk to Shane about the details. Drop by the office tomorrow morning." Bill said, turning away to collect his equipment.

I stood there. I could feel the whole world revolving around me. This was a major turning point in my life. Then I thought, actually hang on, what about salary? Benefits? Holidays? Hm, I mused. Maybe I’m not out of the woods just yet. I guess Shane will give me the details tomorrow

I collected my things and Bill gave me a lift to the station.

"You did a good job today. I’ll see you tomorrow." He said, as he dropped me off. I nodded, smiled, and walked down into the station.

On the trip back I was thinking in detail about the kind of salary and job I could expect. I came over to Japan to study Martial Arts - if I don’t have enough time and money to go to class, the whole thing is almost pointless. I frowned as I sat on the train. I’ll have to work everything out. I’ll need to make… a budget. How much will everything cost? How much will I need to survive?

I returned back home, and got out a notebook, and started listing everything that cost me money in Japan. How much would I need to pay my rent, go to martial arts, have a small amount of spending money, pay my mobile phone bill so my family can call me, buy some clothes, pay back my friends, buy enough food, essentially, how much would I need to scrape by and survive in Tokyo.

After calculating everything, I came up with a monthly figure. 314,000 yen per month.

I lied down on my futon and stretched out. I opened the window, and the warm Tokyo air spilled into my room. I went to sleep with the number 314,000 yen floating around my head.

I woke up the next day. The guy down the hall wouldn’t loan me his suit. Shit. I put on my best "casual" gear, hoping it wouldn’t matter since I’d already gotten a verbal job offer.

I made my way to the office. I walked through the door at 9:15 to give the 9am people a chance to settle in.

Shane came over to greet me, and I noticed his eyes squinting as he critically looked me up and down.

"No suit today?" He said.

"Uh, right. It’s in the wash."
I lied.

Shane raised his eyebrows and led me to a small meeting room.

"I spoke to Bill last night, and we’re ready to make you an offer." Shane said with a smile.

My eyes widened slightly. "Thats very good news, " I said. 314,000 yen. 314,000 yen.

"Looking at your skill and experience, we’ve come to a number and a package we think is reasonable." Shane continued.

314,000 yen. Thats all I needed. Thats a very reasonable salary for a Foreign Tokyo IT worker. They’re an established company, I’m sure they’ll offer at least that. Just 314,000 yen.

"Your starting monthly salary will be… " Shane said. Time froze.

314,000 yen. 314,000 yen. 314,000 yen. 314,000 yen. 314,000 yen. 314,000 yen.

"270,000 yen." Shane said. The weight of his statement slammed into me, leaving me stunned.

Without at least 314,000 yen, there’s almost no point to being in Japan. I won’t be able to do what I came for, I sadly realised. I might even have to work extra hours. How can this be happening.

Shane looked at me, trying to gauge my response. "Does that seem reasonable?" He asked.

"Well, um, I very much appreciate the job offer," I sighed in disappointment, but tried to stay bright. "So that means that I’ll get 270,000 yen in my bank account every month, right?"

"Actually, after various taxes, the real number is probably closer to 240,000 yen." Shane said.

240,000 yen. What did I do to deserve this? I thought in emotional turmoil. That wasn’t even a fair offer. I had to pay 68,000 yen just in rent. Before I do anything, I’m down to 172,000 yen. Which doesn’t go very far in Tokyo at all.

I sat in silence for a moment. An intense feeling of sadness washed across my face. I bit my lip.

"Thank you very much for the offer. I’ll think about it, and let you know." I said, as I began to put on my jacket.

Shane looked surprised, as though he was expecting me to accept on the spot. "Sure. Have a think about it, and give me a call."

I nodded, smiled, and walked out of the office, feeling lost and alone.

Next few hours.

If you’re new to this series, please click here. Start from the bottom.

———

I jerked awake. I groaned and made a grab for the phone, which was lost somewhere in the covers. I swore as I fumbled about in an early morning haze. After 10 seconds of ringing, right before voicemail, I managed to pick up the call.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hello is this Firefly?" Came a vaguely familiar voice. A moment later, I recognised him as Shane.

"Yes, this is Firefly."

"This is Shane. Look, I’m really sorry about yesterday. Bill was really tired." Bill? Oh the president. He was tired? Pfft. Poor bastard, I thought sarcastically.

"Uhm, no problem. Sure." I crammed down a wave of annoyance.

"Well I’m calling because we might need your help today. We have an important project at a client site today. Are you busy?" Shane asked.

I woke up fast.

"Sure, I have some time today," I said. I felt a shimmer of excitement, but mostly a sense of resignation after all the recent events. I’d put in so much work, and I’ve had so many let-downs. Whats going to be different about this opportunity. I sighed to myself. Come on, lets give it a good shot at least. If I’m going down, it’ll be in a blazing fire of glory.

"Can you be at Kamiyacho station at 9:00am?" He asked.

"Hang on," I looked down at my watch. 8:43am. Oh, shit. "Um, can we make it 9:30am? I’m not sure I can make it."

"Sorry, you have to be there at 9am. Thats when Bill will be coming past the station. If you want a chance, thats the best I can offer you." Shane said apologetically.

17 minutes?! To borrow a suit, iron a shirt, brush my teeth, have some food(scratch that, no time for food), pack my bag, get to the station, and then go to Kamiyacho? The trip from Tsukiji to Kamiyacho takes 11 minutes, and thats not including waiting for the train. HOLY SHIT. This is it. I began to scramble around for my things as I talked to Shane.

"Uh, alright! 9am. I’ll do my very best to be there. Thanks very much! See you soon, goodbye," I said with the phone wedged between my shoulder and ear, as I ran about my tiny apartment.

"Ok. See you later." Shane said, and hung up.

I continued running about. My heart beat faster, I broke into a light sweat, and things slowed down slightly as my body helpfully provided me with a shot of adrenaline. I was simultaneously doing 5 things at once for a few minutes, and then ran out in my boxers and banged on my "friends" door.

"Hey man, open up. I need to borrow your suit again." I bounced from foot to foot.

"FUCK OFF." He said.

"Come on you bastard, I need it. Hurry up. Come on." My voice raised an octave or two as the time ticked away.

"Look, you Australian mooching prick, this is the last time. Do you get it?" He said gruffly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Come on, open up."

He flung the door open and threw the unwashed suit at me. I caught it, paused, and looked at it before gingerly sniffing it.

"Take it or leave it. Preferably fucking leave it." He deadpanned.

"No, it’s fine. It’s great. Thanks man, I owe you big time," I said as I jumped about the hallway pulling on the pant legs. I picked up my bag, and ran off at top speed with the shirt flapping open. I ran down into the station, and out of luck, managed to get straight onto the train going to Kamiyacho with no waiting time. The doors closed, and I stood on the train, in front of tens of horrified Japanese. I looked down, and realised my shirt was completely open. Oops. I turned to face the wall and buttoned up. I had 11 minutes to cool down before the doors opened at Kamiyacho, and I bounded out from the station. I got up onto street level, and checked my watch. 9:03am. Oh shit. I hope he hasn’t left.

Shock set in. He might have left already. I started sweating more. I stood there, looking as together as I could. I rested my bag on the ground, and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked terrible. I tried to fix my hair with my hands, and adjust my suit to be as clean cut and neat as possible. I looked at my watch.

9:07am. I gulped.

I looked at my phone.

Full reception. No missed calls. No emails. No voicemail messages.

I bet he’s left. Bastard. Unbelievable. I waited 2 hours for him. He couldn’t wait 3 minutes?! I considered calling the office.

9:10am.

My stomach grumbled. Hungry.

9:15am.

I snapped. I called the office.

"Hello, can I please speak to Shane." I asked.

"One moment please," someone said. Music. I stood, sweating and shell-shocked in front of Kamiyacho station. Music. "I’m sorry, Shane is not available right now. Can I take a message?"

"Please ask him to call me. Thanks," I said, hanging up.

I continued to wait. I reflected on the fact I’ve been doing a lot of waiting recently.

I don’t mind waiting normally. It gives me time to think, imagine, come up with new ideas, work on problems. However, every moment I was waiting, was one less second I could spend working on a way to stay in Japan. A bead of sweat ran down my face. I impatiently wiped it away.

At 9:30am, a car pulled up in front of me. The occupant reached across, and opened the door. I looked down, and recognised Bill from last night. Bill?! He’s LATE?! I was simultaneously intensely relieved that he came, and extremely irritated he kept me waiting AGAIN.

I got into the car.

"Hi there. Sorry I’m late. Crazy morning. Sorry about last night too, eh. I had been working for 20 hours straight and I was totally spaced out." He said, as he pulled into the Tokyo traffic.

"Oh," I said. I didn’t really accept his apology. I suppose he’s not to blame for all the other crap I went through. Cheer up a bit, why don’t you. "Don’t worry about it." I said, finally.

He brightened up a bit. "So, you just got here huh? How are you finding it so far?" He asked, excitedly.

"So far?" I reflected back on my experiences. "It’s been…. pretty crazy."

"Isn’t it?!! Tokyo is a crazy place. It’s totally nuts. Most of the people are crazy too. Look at that old guy over there." He pointed out an old Japanese guy with white hair walking slowly down the street. "He’s totally crazy. But the weird thing is, if you put him in a foreign country, after a few years, he’ll be normal!!" He said quickly with a big smile on his face. "Hm, actually, maybe not him. But most Japanese people, anyway. You take them out of the Japanese box, and they can see the system for what it really is. Bullshit."

I nodded, feeling a bit uncomfortable. I wondered what he meant by ‘the system’. He continued to brief me on his views on Japanese society.

We arrived at the clients, and we went upstairs. I was treated to a brief glimpse of tens of people working in an office. It felt good to be inside a company. I could feel the hum of commerce, and I felt incrementally closer to getting a job and staying in Japan.

We continued upstairs, and we walked into a server room. The hum of server fans and the slightly warmer air greeted me as I walked over. Bill’s face blanked out, and he walked over to the servers and started working. I peered over his shoulder, and tried to get an idea of what was going on.

"Hmmmmmm", Bill hmmed.

I sto
od there, trying to look helpful. Which is quite hard to do, when you’re not doing anything, and you don’t have anything to do. Bill continued working in silence for about 25 minutes.

"Whats with this stupid error," Bill said under his breath. I got a glimpse of the error before he clicked it away.

"Should I, um, do anything? Can I help you somehow?" I asked him, thinking about the error I just saw.

"Nah, you can’t do anything. Just wait a minute. I have to fix this first. This is what kept me up yesterday - this goddamn error. Piece of shit, I don’t get it. It worked fine on a different machine." Bill was barely concentrating on what he was saying. "I did some research and I thought this would fix it. But it didn’t, " he growled, as his focus returned to the server.

I saw a spare computer in another corner of the server room. "Um, excuse me," I started. I gulped as he looked at me with fierce irritation, but pushed myself to continue. "Do you mind if I use that computer over there for a bit?"

"That computer? Uh, yeah whatever sure." He said with obvious impatience. He jogged over and put in a username and password and logged me in, then promptly returned to the server. I walked over, took off my jacket, and once again rolled up my sleeves, as I dived into Google. The mouse cursor shot about the screen as I ran some initial keywords and the error message. 5,000 pages popped up. I narrowed it down. 4,000 pages. I added the type of server and hardware. 1,200 pages. I added some more keywords relevant to the problem. I continued narrowing down the search piece by piece. Finally, I came across a page where someone talked about a possible solution, and gave me a couple more keyboards to work with. I ran those with my original search. After 10 minutes of intense googling, I had a possible solution.

I looked at Bill. I could tell he was going to be irritated by my interruption. I interrupted him.

"Um… Bill?" I ventured.

He whipped around again and looked at me. The irritation was turning into anger. Uhoh. "WHAT."

"I’ve.. found something… I’m not sure if it’ll help but, um, why don’t you give it a shot." I nervously showed him the results of my research. His eyes narrowed.

"I tried that." He snapped.

"Um, I’m sorry, but I think you tried something a bit different. Can I have a shot at it?" I asked.

He stood in front of the server guarding it like a leprechaun guards a pot of gold. "You can watch what I do," I said in an effort to be re-assuring.

He slowly moved aside. "….alright.." he said hesitantly.

I entered in the new settings, and I clicked enter. I ran a test. The server processed. A message came up on the server. We both peered in to look………..

Gotta run for now. I’ll try to write more soon.