Mark Cooke’s G-Mixer

The weirdest thing about this experience so far was that it didn’t seem real – like I was actually going – up until very near when my flight left San Francisco. With about 45 minutes before boarding, I was talking to my friend Steve on IM at the airport and suddenly it hit me. I was really nervous for a few minutes! Nervous excitement though so it is all good.

I’m writing this first part of this entry from the plane. Right at this moment there is an hour or so to go before landing. I flew ANA as usual and early on downed some of the coveted “Suntory The Premium Malts” beer as tradition dictates.

Enjoying “teh malts” in September (previous trip).

I watched the latest Die Hard movie, which was better than I expected, and then tried and failed to sleep. Here comes jetlag! Woo! If all goes according to plan, I’ll arrive at my new apartment in Shinjyuku around 7 PM Japan time, which will be 3 AM California time. Booyakasha.

Allright, I have to turn off my computer for landing. I’ll finish this post once I reach home… hopefully it’ll be easy to find some free wifi access!

About 18 hours later…

I’m in my apartment, it’s 6:30 am, I’ve been up since 5:30 so the jet lag is definitely hitting me. The apartment is better than I expected but is expensive for what it is – I’ll give more details in a post later this week after I take some pictures. There is no wifi access but wired Internet does come with my mansion so I’m good to go in that department. I had to go out and buy a LAN cable – I went to the 5 minutes away by foot 8 story Yodobashi Camera electronics superstore (woot!) – but unlike the US it was reasonably priced. It’s 9 feet long and was about $5… what would that have been at Best Buy, like $30? If I remember correctly they were massively ripping you off.

Last night I met up with some coworkers and went out to dinner. We ended up going to a place called Tonchan which was a Korean BBQ place but kind of different from what I’ve had in the US. They specialize in pork. The pork that they were grilling looked straight up like bacon… it tasted soooo good. Great marinade and accouterments. For whatever reason the Korean BBQ places over here use way better quality meat than what I’ve had in the Bay Area and it’s not all that expensive either. Good times!

Today I’m heading to the Grasshopper office to check in and also I’m going to try to apply for my alien registration card. That’s needed to get a bank account and cell phone so I hope it comes soon. Until next time.

On Monday I picked up my finalized visa from the Japanese embassy in San Francisco. It’s glued into my passport and looks basically like a different version of the first page with your picture of the USA passport.

Now that I have my visa, plane ticket, and “mansion” in Shinjuku I’m good to go!

Just have to finalize moving out of my current place – sorry for all the mess I’ve been pushing around while organizing, roomies. One of the things I have left to do is shipping some programming/game design/language books to Japan tomorrow to the Grasshopper office. The shipment is compromised of three boxes, none much bigger than about 12 inches long, 8 inches tall, and 11 inches wide. It’s going to cost at least $300… wtfbbq!

Talk about a kick to the bean bag.

Well, until next time… I’ll report back hopefully with some pictures of something cool once I get to Tokyo on Halloween.

I’m taking a plunge. Probably the biggest risk of my life so far.

I’ve decided that after living in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 22 years that it’s time to try something new. In two weeks I’m moving to Tokyo, Japan to start working at Grasshopper Manufacture. I’m really looking forward to trying something new, life had begun to feel a bit too routine. “Rock fuckin’ GHM” indeed (click previous link!).

Immediate disclaimer: this blog is not going to discuss the internal details of Grasshopper Manufacture or what they are working on unless it is already public knowledge. My plan is to highlight life and work experiences in a more general sense to keep friends, family, and any interested parties privy to what is going on.

I’m in the midst of preparing to leave right now. What that means is spending lots of time listing auctions on eBay, trying (unsuccessfully for the most part) to deal with people on Craig’s List, figuring out which clothes I’m going to take with me and what I’m going to donate, finalizing my work visa, etc. At times it feels like a job in and of itself. I’m getting fairly close to being finished and I’d better be – my flight leaves for Tokyo on October 30th. I’m arriving on Halloween… so that should make it easy to remember at least.

At the end of this preparation process I’m going to own very little. I’ve been a pack rat for a long time so it has been tough to really have to pair down my belongings to what is really necessary. On one side of the coin it feels pretty crazy to be moving to a foreign country with two suitcases of clothes, a laptop, and a camera. At the same time it’s liberating. I won’t have to wade through stacks of junk that I haven’t used in years that was clogging up my home or have to worry about what to do with all of my stuff. I won’t really have stuff. Not having lots of distractions at home is also a great motivating factor for getting out of the house and exploring which is a nice side effect too.

My current plan is to live in a monthly rent apartment when I first get to Tokyo to get the lay of the land (well, I’ve been there a few times already but still) and to look for a longer term apartment. The place I’ve decided on is a furnished apartment in Shinjuku and is quite expensive, especially considering it is a paltry 210 sq. ft. or so! For what it is it does look nice though. That is going to take some getting used to but is apparently completely normal. My favorite part is that many normal apartments are called “mansions” (マンション), this one included. I’ll be living in a 210 sq. ft. mansion like royalty.

I’m definitely excited overall, with a bit of trepidation related to my Japanese language skills. They exist but couldn’t be called anything over beginner. I can certainly get by day to day and ask simple questions – “how much does this cost?”, “where’s the bathroom?”, “how do I eat this?”, and the most important “get me the biggest beer on the menu”. My concern is most certainly at communicating on the job. I have high hopes that my language skills will improve quickly under total language immersion but I want to say thank you to my future coworkers ahead of time for their patience and understanding.

So, in summary:

Excitement level – high
Amount of stuff owned – minimal
Apartment – tiny
Japanese language skills – beginner (better start studying!)

I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.