Big world small me

It was late at night, and in the drizzle I leaned back on my recliner by the sea and listened to the sound of the waves, wave after wave, taking my thoughts into the distance.

In October 2003, I was about to enter the internship period, and I chose to go to Japan to study, at that time, I was still very young, I didn't have too many ideas, I just wanted to go out and see, the world is so big. At that time, the family conditions were not good, my parents had a hard time putting together the deposit and handling fee, before leaving, my father took a train from my hometown to Yantai to send me, but unexpectedly, the hateful thief stole the living expenses prepared for me by my father on the way, and I had no choice but to take the only few dollars I had on the ship to a foreign country. Although I was a little nervous in my heart, I seemed to have the courage of a newborn calf not to be afraid of tigers, which did not affect my excitement too much. I remember what fees I needed to pay on the road at that time or borrowed from my classmates. The ship departed from Tianjin and floated for three days and three nights, and before that, in addition to going to Yantai from home to school, I had not been to other cities, and I did not expect to go out again to go abroad. The feeling of floating on the sea is really indescribable, standing on the deck with the evening wind blowing at night, the dark sea is boundless, the heart is good to have no landing, fortunately, with the dear classmates, all the way down is also quite pleasant.

Just after getting off the boat, I took the Bus that the Japanese came to pick me up and my classmates, the Japanese greeted us kindly, but I couldn't understand a word, I couldn't remember anything I learned from the Japanese training that I had attended for more than a month before coming, fortunately we had an interpreter, saying that it was asking us if we were cold, excited we were chattering along the way, without noticing the surprise of the Japanese. Before we got off the bus, the Japanese kindly sent us 10,000 yen of living expenses for each of us, and at this moment my anxiety did not exist at all, I really did not expect that they would think so thoughtfully, knowing that we did not have yen, so they gave us an advance salary.

After arriving at the dormitory that was arranged for us, it was already night, and the dormitory area was very small, but it was really small but complete. We immediately began to pack up our things and prepare for bed, entered the bedroom but found that there was no bed, only to sleep on the floor, it turned out that this was the legendary tatami, although not used to it can only fall asleep, found seven people but only six mattresses, everyone received just without me, I can only sleep on a bed and sleep for a night, this is the first time I feel the grievance of going out, but also can only be strong. After a night, I slept with a sore back and insisted on getting up to take the shuttle bus to report to the company. We asked the translator to give the Japanese to react to the fact that they were not used to sleeping on the tatami, and soon equipped us with a bunk solid wooden bed, and finally had our own small space and a full set of futons, and began the life of Japanese training.

I was assigned to the airbag cutting class, that is, the raw material cutting department of the car airbag, and coincidentally, all the people and translators were arranged in the car cushion production workshop, only I was alone in the airbag workshop, I worked directly with the Japanese, and I had no foundation in Japanese, so I had to attend their meetings and work according to the gourd. My partner is a Japanese middle-aged woman, her name is Tongu, she is very strict with my work requirements, completely disregard I do not understand Japanese, only care about self-talk, I am angry and anxious, can only go back to the dormitory every night after work to check words, a word after a sentence, so check every day to remember, until about half a year I can basically understand her working language, but also master my work content. The past six months have really been a torment for me, the language barrier is not used to life, and the Japanese blame, but I really survived. Since my first day in Japan, I have been writing a diary every day, and the contents of the diary for half a year are almost all about work and the Japanese woman.

To be continued...