New Employee Party

On Friday, the development team here at Cybozu had welcome party for new employees. Besides me, they've hired 2 other developers in the last month or so. We ate some Okinawan food. They still called it nabe, which was a mixture of meat and veggies in soup that you heat up yourself on a hot pot in the middle of the table. Some of was . . interesting, but overall pretty tasty. They brought out a few extra dishes periodically, but I didn't get to take pictures of all of them, oddly enough.


A big hotpot of nabe.


Yes, all you eat in Japan is vegetables.


My friend Kamura and I.


Around the table.

It's pretty different hanging out with my co-workers outside of work. In the office, it's all business. Of course we don't really talk that much because I'm not fluent in Japanese, but even with each other, it seems like they only talk about work at work. Then again, since I really can't understand all of what there saying anyway, what do I know?

But especially after most of them have been drinking and relax, they become a lot more outgoing. Plenty of people who I see all the time at work but have never spoken to, finally introduced themselves and talked to me. Some even try to speak English. Don't get me wrong here, some of them are quite good at it, but then again, some just . . aren't. I know I can't say that much in Japanese, but sometimes it's easier to talk to me in Japanese if you can only say one English word every 10 seconds. I'm not complaining too much though.

Still though, this is one of the only times I've gotten to hang out with co-workers outside of work. I don't know why, but everyone here works so hard. I mean I do to, when they let me (another story), but I don't want to spend all day at the office. I get there at 9, have an hour for lunch, and leave between 6 and 7. Most people are already there when I arrive in the morning, and it always seems like I'm the first of all 150 employees to leave in the afternoon. That's what it specified in my contract, and if I don't have any pressing work that needs to get done, I usually go home and cook dinner. I hear most people are here till about 8pm, which I think is a little ridiculous. I mean they don't even have their own gourmet chef like Google. Others stay even later. And what's kind of sad is when I ask them what their weekend plans are, and they tell me they'll be in the office. This isn't always true, but for some of them it is. I'd say the average commute for them is about one hour each way on the trains. Which means they have to leave before 8am, and they don't get home till after 9pm. I suppose they are the leading groupware development company of Japan, so it makes sense that a successful company has hardworking employees. But when I "grow up," I think I can work hard, be successful, AND have a life outside of work.