Firefly in Japan

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 “Daikoku Futou”. Apparently it was a highway rest stop mainly designed for trucks until a couple of years ago, when suddenly it became the “underground” 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’t 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’ll 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’t really walk onto a Highway rest stop. She is a petrol head too, and drives a manual car better than any woman I’ve 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’s 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’s exactly why it’s 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.

“Hello, how are you?” I greeted him warmly in Japanese.

He peered at me suspiciously.

“Um.. I think you have a really nice car. I love Skylines.” 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.

“Thanks! I’m Jiro. Nice to meet you! Do you have a car?” he asked.

“Not really. I’ve always wanted a Skyline, but I don’t have one. We came in my girlfriends car though,” 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.

“I hope you don’t 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?” I asked hesitantly.

He almost fell over. “Of course it’s ok! Absolutely…. sure!! Hop right in.” Jiro opened the door and gestured.

“Wow, thanks very much. Can my girlfriend come as well?” I asked.

“No problem. Lets go!” 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.

“SHIT.” Jiro cursed as he forced the engine to life again. He peered around at his friends outside, hoping they hadn’t 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.

“The engine can get a bit loud. When it’s going full-pelt, you can’t even hear people shouting in the car. It’s good for my girlfriend, when she starts talking. I just rev the engine. Haha!” Jiro said. I could imagine my girlfriend frowning in the back seat.

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

“Watch this,” 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’s 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.

“Right. Skylines are built for speed. That’s why I love them. Actually… why don’t I show you a bit of speed now? Is that ok?” 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.

“Uh, ok, sure. I guess.” 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’s previous laughter had turned into grim determination and intense concentration. One mistake at these speeds…..

I shook away those thoughts. 250km an hour. The speedo was working hard for its gains now. The engine was so loud I couldn’t 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’t. I wondered how my girlfriend was going in the back. Although, at 250km an hour, if we had any kind of accident it wouldn’t 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’d 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’d 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.

“Lets stop and get a drink.” 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.

“Fuck,” 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’ve 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 wanted 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 stood 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.

So heres what happened. A really good friend of mine came to Tokyo. It can be easy to go a bit stircrazy in Tokyo without being able to speak English and being able to see your friends, so those of us in Tokyo LOVE IT when friends come to visit us. Anyway, we were excitedly planning out our week.

"Hm, I suppose I should take you somewhere that has something to do with culture." I mused.

My friend sipped a beer, and looked at me.

"I know, I'll take you to Kyoto! It's the cultural centre of Japan, and it's a beautiful place. You'll love it." I said. I made a phone call, booked our bullet train tickets, and booked a hotel in Kyoto.

A few days later we arrived and unpacked. We left our belongings in the hotel, and went out to explore Kyoto. We had a blast going to the different temples, taking in the culture, and waving to all the school kids, who seemed to think we were foreign celebrities.

We woke up early the next day. "What should we do today," I wondered out loud. Then I realised that Japan's second biggest city, Osaka, is a short train ride away. "I'm gunna take you to Osaka!" I told my friend, and we were underway.

Osaka city is pretty big. It's a huge metropolis actually, and we became lost almost immediately. This was not a major problem, because we didn't have any fixed destination, so we wandered around. After a while, we came across a really interesting looking shopping centre with a massive ferris wheel sticking out the top. We walked in to check it out. After looking about the shopping centre, I looked over my friends shoulder, and suddenly froze.

I've seen that guy somewhere before. Surely thats not possible, I've only ever been to Osaka once before. I don't know anyone here. But somehow I know that guys face. I was racking my brain trying to figure it out. All of a sudden, things almost audibly clicked into place. That guy bears a striking resemble to a small photo I saw of Azrael on his website, Outpostnine, before it moved to Gaijin Smash.

No way, I thought. The chances of meeting Azrael are so infinitesimally small, it's ridiculous. Even if we both lived in Osaka (and we don't) the chances are still ridiculously small. But it really looks like him. Crazy. Lets go talk to him.

I walked up.

"Excuse me," I said. "This might seem like a really weird question... but are you Azrael?" I looked at him expectantly.

He looked at me. "Uhhhhhhh," he said.

Oh, shit. It's not Azrael. And this guy thinks I'm nuts. Then I noticed a girl standing next to him, who was looking at him with a confused look on her face.

"Actually," he coughed and cleared his throat. "Um, yeah. Thats me."

Wow. I wasn't expecting that.

"Seriously? Wow. I didn't know you lived in Osaka." I said.

"I don't, I'm just here for the day." He replied.

We made some small talk, and then parted company.

Once again, let me pause here to re-iterate the low chances of this event taking place. On the same day, Az and I both independently came to Osaka on a day trip from completely different parts of Japan. We both happened to go to the same district, at the same shopping centre, on the same floor, at the same location, at the same time, and he happened to be facing me so I could identify him. I was floored.

Then I realised I might have put him into a weird situation. If I was shopping with a girl, and some guy came up to me and said "Hey dude! Are you like, firefly? You are, right?" I know I would feel a bit awkward. I can only imagine the conversation Az and that girl had after I walked off.

"Um, who was that?"
"*cough*, who?"
"The guy, who just asked if you were 'Azrael' ?"
"Oh, him? Um, nothing. I've never met him before. And, um, it's nothing to do with a website about my personal life. And it's not like you've been mentioned on that website and labeled with an embarrassing nickname or anything. Don't do a web search for Azrael btw. Thanks."

I later checked the forum at Outpost nine, and I found Az had wrote a post detailing our encounter. I went back to try to find it, but it wasn't there. Looks like Az upgraded the message board and lost some of the older post (this happened May 2005).

Japan, the land of coincidences.

PS - More Saga coming soon !

Ok guys, I have to come clean with you. I've been sitting on something for a while. It's totally crazy, and I'm sure no-one would believe it. It's simply too improbable. In fact, if I told you, you'd think I was bullshitting.

Actually, on second thoughts, I just talked myself out of telling you for now. I think I'll post it, just a bit later. All I can tell you right now, is that it has something to do with Azrael from Gaijin Smash.

Also, I was on TV. I was walking over the Shibuya crossing, and I saw a knock-out blonde talking loudly. I slowed down, and surveyed the situation. There was no- one in front of her, or around her. But she kept talking, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings. Oh shit, she's crazy, I thought with a start. There was about 20 seconds left before the lights went red, and cars started coming. I was trying to figure out the best way to drag her off the road, when I noticed a tiny camera crew off in the distance, up in Mark City, filming her from behind a plate glass window. Oh, right. Hah.

So if you're watching a TV show about Japan, and you see a blonde talking from the middle of a crowded Shibuya intersection, then you see a concerned gaijin walk up, look around, look confused, look at the camera, look sheepish, and walk off, thats me.

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

---------

Many people have kindly left some great comments. I will personally respond to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment, even if it takes me a few days.

So, I had a good interview with Shane. No, a GREAT interview. I felt really good about the whole job. I was sure that Shane liked the cut of my jib, and I was certain that meeting the President was a formality. A job offer was sure to follow. Once again, I was riding Japan's emotionalroller coaster , and I was again on top of the world, bouncing around and excited about my future prospects in this fascinating country. I returned home, and had a few drinks to celebrate with my victory. Who cares about 1,350 yen worth of beer? Soon I'll have a proper full-time paying job, with benefits. And maybe a bonus! Yeah. And probably a free computer. I wonder if I get a free phone? I drunkenly wondered as I passed out in bliss.

I woke up to a slight headache, but the same feeling of jubilation. Today is the day!! Today I get a job in Japan. I get to stay in Japan! My enthusiasm bubbled up from inside me. I tried not to get my hopes up. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, and all that. But dammit, I felt it. This was it. All the signs pointed in the right direction, and that direction was a full time job in IT! The momentary lull in my enthusiasm overrode my hesitation, and I was bouncing around the room again. I forced myself to be still and sit down, and did whatever preparation I could. The hours dragged by like years, but finally, it was 4pm. Time to go claim what was mine. I borrowed a suit again from the same guy who was getting kind of shitty with me, and left.

I arrived at 4:50pm, and stood outside the office, watching people go in and out. I wonder when I'll be a part of that crowd? Tomorrow? Maybe next week. I hope they don't make me wait 2 weeks. I shook away the thought of trying to survive for 2 more weeks on cup noodles, empty interviews, and borrowed suits. I went up to the office, and waited until the time on the phone read 4:58pm. Not too early, but sharp, and on time. 4:58pm was a good time to call reception, I decided. I picked up the phone.

"Hello," I said with confidence. "This is Firefly, and I have an interview at 5pm with the president."

"Oh! Ok. One moment please." A thin, attractive woman opened the door. Woow, I thought. I mentally shook myself and summoned back my professional veneer.

"Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Firefly." I smiled and extended my hand.

She returned my handshake with a soft moisturised hand, and smiled sweetly. FOCUS.

"Please wait here." She directed me to a seat right next to the door.

I nodded graciously. Moments later, Shane from yesterday walked past.

"Ohh...... Um... Hello. How are you?" He said stiffly.

"I'm great thanks. I'm very much looking forward to meeting the president." I said.

"Yeah...... Well he is coming soon. So could you wait a bit?" He asked.

"Absolutely!" I said, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Shane awkwardly excused himself and walked off. I took the opportunity to examine the office. It was a smallish office, seating around 12 people. It was mostly empty though, there were only four people. Out of those four, the thin, hot girl was talking on the phone. I wondered if she was a secretary. I forced my gaze away. There were a couple of other people working quietly. There was an odd atmosphere in the office; everything looked normal, but there seemed to be... something under the surface. I shrugged my shoulders in response to my suspicions. I didn't care. All I wanted to do was work there. I would do anything.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. 5:08pm. 10 minutes already? That was fast. I wonder if the president is running a bit late. I continued looking around the room.

5:19pm. Hm, the president must have been held up. No problem - I'm going to blow him away as soon as he walks in. It'll be the best interview he's ever seen. I smiled.

5:31pm. I ran out of things to look at. I caught myself staring at the hot girl. I deliberately looked at the ceiling.

5:35pm. I started to get a little concerned. I thought about walking over to Shane and asking him about the delay. I decided against it.

5:44pm. I started thinking about talking to Shane again. I coughed. I reluctantly stood, and walked around the corner to Shane's desk.

"It's, um... I really don't mind waiting, or anything, but um.... uhh, should I do anything? Or just hang around? Or?" I nervously asked. The last thing I wanted to do was offend my ally.

"Oh, he's probably just been a bit held up. Don't worry about it. Uhhh.... just have a seat." Shane said.

"Sure, ok, no problem. I'll be just over here." I sat down.

The clocks ticking somehow seemed to get louder. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I looked around the room. I looked at the hot girl. She caught me looking. I flicked my eyes away.

6:00pm. I've been sitting on a chair, waiting for an hour. Hm.

6:10pm. Did he forget the appointment? Is he coming? I'm starting to get a bit depressed. Maybe all of my excitement about getting a job was for nothing?

6:30pm. The hot girl left. Damn.

6:54pm. Is this some kind of joke? Are they waiting to see if I just leave by myself? I've been waiting nearly 2 hours. Is this part of the interview somehow? Surely not.

My thoughts were interrupted, as the door flew open. I immediately stood up. In a split second, I recognised the president of the company from a group photo pinned up on the notice board. Here it is, my time to shine. I extended my hand, and with a large, warm smile, I said :

"Hello. Pleasure to meet you, my na..." I was cut off, as he pushed his way past me, completely ignoring me. I was shocked into silence, frozen on the spot with my hand extended, looking like some kind of pathetic wax figure.

He walked over to his desk, sat down, and presumably, started checking his emails. I sat down, feeling dizzy. I briefly considered talking to Shane, but immediately decided against it. I'll just wait here, I thought. No problem.

7:10pm. The president was focused on writing some kind of document. Everyone else had left the office. It was just me, Shane, and the president, who was still completely ignoring me. I deeply sighed, as I felt my previous certainty of getting a job evaporating. I started to feel sick. How much money did I have left?

7:15pm. Shane stands up, and walks over to the presidents desk.

"Uhh... he's been waiting... don't you want to... uhh... interview him?" Shane tentatively probed.

"What? Who?" The president snapped. My heart sank.

"Australian guy. Called Firefly. Seems pretty good with IT." Shane said.

The president paused for what seemed like a very long time. Finally he uttered a long, embattled sigh. "Ok, fine. Whatever. Lets hurry up and do it then."

My previous concerns, worries and depression vanished, as I stood up with a smile on my face, and confidently walked to the table, and sat down in front of the two men.

"Hello, pleasure to meet you." I said with a smile.

The president regarded me coldly, as though I was stopping him from doing something he really wanted to do. I internally frowned.

"So. Firefly, from Australia, huh?" He said.

"Yes, thats right." I confirmed.

"Soooooo...................." he paused.

I sat there, trying to look professional, when I was actually feeling stupid, like I'd been trodden on, and then made fun of.

"Soo.... what do you do?" He finally asked.

"What do I do? Um, is that in reference to work? Personally? What do I do in Australia? or Japan?" I tried to get more information to better answer the question.

"Yes." He said.

Shit. Pull it together. Come on.

"Well, in a personal sense, I came to Japan for martial arts. I also studied in Australia. Professionally, I worked in Australia doing IT. I gained experience and skills in various sectors of IT, " I spent a few more moments explaining my skill and experience in IT. When I finally felt as though I had satisfactorily answered his general question, I stopped talking.

The president swivelled back and forth on his chair. It didn't seem as though he was paying attention. Why won't he at least look at me?

After the silence drew on for several more moments, Shane started to feel uncomfortable.

"Aren't you going to, ask him anything?" Shane asked quietly.

"I did ask him something." The president said, defiantly.

I sat there and tried to gauge my chances of staying in Japan. I looked at the president spinning back and forth on his chair, and I felt my chances shrinking even further. Then, he kicked me while I was down.

"Do you really want to do this?" Shane asked, slightly pertubed.

"Hmm... actually no. No, I don't really want to do this." The president decided, rolling his eyes and sighing. He fixed an apathetic look onto me. "Can you like, come back some other day, or something?"

I sat there, awash with emotion. My previous certainty of getting a job was crushed, and I felt upset, like I lost something important. I was angry too. After waiting more than 2 hours he just doesn't feel like continuing? Thats BULLSHIT. My anger flared up, but was washed away with grief and shame, as I realised I wouldn't be able to pay back my friends anytime soon. Then I was hit with a wave of regret, after I realised I spent all my food money on drinks last night. Shit. Shit, shit. SHIT.

"Oh, I see." I restrained a sudden urge to fly across the table and grab him by his shirt, shake him and scream, "you bastard, this was it, this is my chance in Japan, and you don't even give a shit? you don't even care? whats wrong with you?" I was brought back to reality by Shane.

"I'm really sorry, about all that," Shane said. The president looked out the window at nothing.

"No problem. I.. guess you guys must be... tired. I'll just.... come back some other day. Nice to meet you. Thanks." Looking back, after I stood up, it was like I was dreaming. I robotically walked out. I was so emotional my motor functions weren't even working properly. I walked.

I walked, and walked. I was in a state of pure shock, depression, anger, fear, rage, depression, uncertainty, denial. All the emotions relentlessly attacking me. So I walked. I kept walking. I was vaguely aware of stopping for red lights. And walking on green lights. I walked. My head throbbed, but I kept walking. Very slowly, the emotions lost their edge. I kept walking. The emotions were still there, waiting for a chance to be aired out, and re-examined. I kept walking. The strength of the emotions lessened slightly. After some period of time, I stopped walking. My head still hurt, and my face was wet with tears of anger and disillusionment. I looked around, and realised I had no idea where I was. Uh-oh, I thought. I was tired, and my feet hurt. I checked my watch - 11:20pm. I'd been walking for nearly 4 hours. I asked the closet person where a station was, and I walked there, and got the train home. I collapsed into bed, my crushed hopes weighing down on me. I fell into a trouble sleep, to be awakened by another phone call the next morning at 8:30am.....

To be continued.

I want to continue writing my story about how I got started in Japan and what happened to me, but as I write I'm remembering a lot of other stories and happenings that I want to share. So I will prefix the Firefly saga with "Saga:", and intersperse this blog with stories that happened to me as I recall them. This particular story holds a special place in my heart. For a brief moment, I transcended culture and social programming with a Japanesesalaryman on a crowded commuter train.

It was 8:40am, and I was late for work. My heavy bag weighed down and dug into my shoulders as I ran through the crowd. My stomach grumbled, a rude reminder that I hadn't eaten any breakfast. I paused, as I very briefly considered my two options. Go to work starving, be extremely unproductive and in pain until lunch time - or run into one of my local favourite shops and pick up a sandwich and a coffee.

Food.

I altered course, and crossed the road. I jogged into the crowd, and for a moment caught a glimpse of a hundred tired, sagging Japanese faces, marching across the road in unison, heading to their workplaces to power the Japanese corporate machine. I absentmindedly wondered if I fit into that crowd. I arrived to the sandwich shop called Cafe de Crie, and ordered the egg sandwich and cappuccino set. 8:43am. Time slowed down as the staff casually constructed the sandwich.

"Excuse me, I'm in a rush," I said, as the clock ticked 8:44am.

"I understand! We'll make it faster!" The young Japanese girl enthusiastically chirped. She calls another Cafe de Crie girl to come over to help out. The other girl immediately begins making the cappuccino.

As a side note, one of the many things I love about Japanese culture is taking pride in work. In Japan, you can be a garbage cleaner, but godammnit, you're going to do everything your job responsibilities require and more - and you're going to do it with HEART. These ideals apply to people at every level of the workforce. I really love this attitude, and it really pisses me off when I go overseas and I see people at work just slacking off, and not caring about the work and the customer.

8:44 and 50 seconds. The girls work together as one team, efficiently assembling my set breakfast. They perfectly pack my breakfast into a small bag, and include serviettes and sugar. "We're very sorry to have kept you waiting!" They both chime together at the same tone.

"Thanks!" I grab the Cafe de Crie bag, and I'm off again, running through the street crowds. I arrive at the train station, and after fumbling with my metropass, I push my way through the gates and bound down the stairs, careful not to spill my cappuccino.

I turned the corner, to see a train. Judging by the droning noise, and the train official waving to another official, the doors were about to close. 8:46am. If I made this train, I would arrive to work at about 9:04am, which was pretty forgivable. If I missed this this, I would arrive at 9:08am, which would definitely get me a reprimand. I cursed under my breath, and took off at a run.

The Japanese people that were paying attention and looking ahead suddenly froze as they saw a gaijin flying towards them at top speed, with a large backpack and a Cafe de Crie bag. They wisely moved and allowed me to sail straight through the narrow, crowded station. The doors were beginning to close. Shit!! Faster!! I jumped, and landed inside the carriage, just as the doors closed. I breathed a sigh of relief. I will get to work pretty much on time, I get my egg sandwich and a coffee (coffeeeee), and I probably will manage to avoid a reprimand. I smiled a relieved, happy smile. Great start to the day. But....

My foot feels oddly warm. I look down. My mouth opens in shock. I made it onto the train, my backpack made it into the train, but my Cafe de Crie egg sandwich and coffee bag wasn't quite as lucky. The doors had closed forcefully on the bag, crushing my sandwich, and exploding my coffee. The bag had lasted for about 3 seconds before it had a mini explosion in turn, and was dripping down my pants into my shoe. I then directed my vision to the left, to see a Japanese man reading a newspaper. He was standing next to the door, on the left hand side. And his pants and shoes had taken most of the fury of the exploding cappuccino. I gulped, as I waited for the coffee to seep into his shoes.

The coffee seeped into his shoes. With a start, he put the newspaper down as he looked down at his cappuccino coated pants and shoes.

"What the," he started, as he looked up to see me. I was standing there with an embarrassed, sheepish look on my face. He looked over at the train doors, to see the Cafe de Crie bag suspended halfway between the floor and ceiling. The coffee continued to drip onto his shoe. Then he looked at me, with a shocked, angry look on his face.

I frowned, raised my eyebrows into a sympathetic expression, and shrugged my shoulders in the international "whoopsie, I don't quite know how that happened!" gesture. I braced for a punch to the head.

I knew from experience these salarymen can be dangerous. 40 years of working in the same company doing the same things, going home to a family they don't know, and drinking night after night to relieve the stress and pressures of their job.... they're like tickingtimebombs of frustration and anger. Anything can set them off. A rude comment. A loud noise. CERTAINLY a sheepish gaijin with an explosive cappuccino bag.

I recoiled slightly to give myself time to react if he attacks me, and I looked closely at his face to try and gauge his expression.

He was still in disbelief. He looked from his soaked pants, to the bag, to me repeatedly, until the reality of his ruined pants and the clumsy gaijin finally set in. He looked me right in the eyes. I looked back with an expression as innocent as I could muster, given the fact I was preparing for a punch to the head.

He guffawed. He guffawed?? "Heh."

My expression of innocence suddenly shifted to match his previous expression of disbelief.

"Hehhe. Heheh. Hahaha." He started laughing. "HAHAH".

I looked at the whole situation again. And suddenly I found it very funny as well. My pants were also soaked and pleasantly smelling of coffee. We had coffee squishing in our shoes. My sandwich was ruined. And this Japanese guy, who I just sprayed with cappuccino was standing there, laughing like a crazy person. Despite myself, I joined in. "Haha. Hahahah."

For a few seconds, we shared in a laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. The rest of the train people looked at us like we were nuts. After a while, our laughter died down. The coffee started to feel a bit colder in my shoes.

I started to apologise, "Um... sorry, uh,"

Still with a smile on his face, he just shook his head and waved dismissively in a good natured way.

The doors opened, and I was able to retrieve my coffee soaked sandwich bag, as I waved goodbye to him and ran off to work.

Oddly and inexplicably, I feel like I connected with him on some level. For a brief moment, we transcended culture and social parameters, and just laughed. I also ate the coffee/egg sandwich, and it wasn't as bad as I thought.

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

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The scene : Tokyo, Japan. I'm living on borrowed money, cup noodles, rice balls and a pure sense of fierce determination to survive, and pay back my friends. After being fired from a job teaching English, I had completely run out of prospects. I became depressed with my dismal situation. Then I kicked my own ass, and went to an internet cafe and applied at 115 companies. I got one interview with an odd old Japanese guy, which I failed in short order. I got countless rejection notices from companies, but finally I had a request for an interview at an IT company. Now begins part 3.

I felt like Japan was testing me. Seeing if I had what it takes. One guy at martial arts often talked about the “martial arts god”, who looks after people who come to Japan with the serious intent to learn martial arts. “If you just commit yourself to martial arts, things will happen,” he told me, as we sat on a train speeding through the Japanese countryside. “You’ll find a way to stay. After a while, the martial arts god will say ‘this guys got enough mettle to handle budo, and Japan. I better sort him out with a place to stay, a job, and a woman.’, and then you’ll be fine”.

His words echoed in my head, as I was doing internal somersaults of joy. An interview! For IT! I was happy beyond words. An IT job would surely pay more than an English teaching job. And I’m really good at IT. The interview will be easy. I can’t believe how lucky I am! I went around to all my friends at Sakura House, and told them of my good fortune with my job search. I called my friends and family at home, and told them a shortened version of the story you’ve been reading. At first they were shocked with what happened to me, but eventually were surprised and happy that I managed to get an interview. “Good luck, we’re on your side!” they encouraged me. Their warm words from hundreds of kilometers away warmed my heart and calmed my nerves.

I spent the next 5 hours into the night researching everything about the company. Management, services, products, contact details, location, goals. I went through hundreds of sample scenarios and questions in my head. I was ready for absolutely anything that could have happened. Except what happened.

I arrived to the station 2 hours before the interview. I found the office quickly with the map I had drawn onto paper. I walked around, and noted the distance and location of several surrounding train stations. I calculated the fastest and most efficient train route from my station. I looked at my watch. 15 minutes to go. My heart started beating slightly faster, as I remembered my friends and familys words of encouragement. 5 minutes. I stood in front of the office. Here we go. I walked into the building, and took the elevator to the 4th floor. I walked in, and picked up the reception phone with one clammy, nervous hand.

"Hello," my voice cracked. "I’m… I have, an, interview. For a job. At 5pm." I gulped. Get it together, you fucking wuss. Come on.

"Sure, please wait there." A friendly female voice chirped back. I selected a seat, and waited. It was only 5 minutes, but it felt like 10 years.

Finally, a man walked out. He was tall, and looked generally uncomfortable. He looked me up and down, and frowned. My internal organs shrunk slightly. "Uh, I'm Shane. Uh... this way." Shane guided me into a meeting room. I smiled as gracefully as my nerves would allow, and managed to seat myself at the table without knocking over any plants or breaking any equipment. This is my final interview in Japan. Better make it a good one.

He stared at me from across the table. I returned his gaze with a uncertain, nervous smile. My blood pressure continued rising. For one irrational moment, I was worried that Shane could hear me sweating profusely. My throat went dry. My head became weightless, and threatened to depart from my shoulders and float back to Australia.

Suddenly, I was relaxed. I was calm, and controlled. My nervousness was immediately replaced with a cold determination, and intense feeling of confidence. I had only a moment to figure out what was happening to me, before Shane started talking.

"Nice to meet you. Hm. I checked your resume again, and you didn't have quite as much experience as I remembered. I hope this interview won't be a waste of your time," he said in a reserved tone. I could tell he was having second thoughts after meeting me face to face. Previously, this statement and realisation would have frozen me into silence and inaction. However, inexplicably, I knew exactly what to say.

"Shane, if I was in your position, I would probably think exactly the same thing." I said with a hint of a smile, and a calm, relaxed confidence. "What I feel I should tell you though, is the experience and skills that I have. The skills that your clients need." Shane almost imperceptibility raised an eyebrow. In a detached way, my previous nervous persona tried to figure out what was going on.

"I was browsing the jobs available section of company site after your email yesterday. I noticed a disproportionate trend towards requiring technicians with skill in these technologies, " I listed various technologies from the website. "Let me tell you about my experience in these areas." I described some project work I had done.

Shane asked me a few questions. My mind was so focussed, and working so hard that time just slowed to a crawl. I had a leisurely amount of time to consider the best answer among 5 different combinations my mind offered. After some consideration, I repeatedly selected the best of the 5, and replied as such. He asked me a few trick questions, but I could see them almost before he started talking. My previous nervous persona was becoming excited. This new, cool relaxed persona was nonplussed.

I finished talking. He finished questioning. He looked at me curiously. I evenly returned his stare. I could see him thinking. Oddly enough, I already knew what he would say.

"Well, uh, hm. I think, you should probably meet the President of the company." Shane said, finally.

"Right," I said, expecting this turn of events. "When is he around?" I asked.

"Uhh, I think, uh, he is around tomorrow. About the same time. Uhhh." Shane said.

"Alright, I'll come back tomorrow at 5pm. It was a pleasure meeting you. Thanks very much for your time." I said, shook Shane's hand, and left.

I walked outside, to feel the hot summer air on my face. I deeply inhaled, closed my eyes, and smiled. "Thanks, god of martial arts," I said with genuine gratitude, as I began the walk back to the station.

Well that was easy. All I need to do now, is meet the President. I'm sure it will go just as smoothly.

I was very, very wrong.