Bahariah Baharin

That (Work/Life) Balance

Hey everyone

Just a week and a half left in RBS Tokyo and this has led to an accumulation of mixed feelings!

Nevertheless, a cycle in Marketing and Communications under Michiko and Natsuko has proven that this firm goes that extra mile to show their gratitude towards the employees and to maintain their relationship with the clients. After all, an institution's best asset is its PEOPLE.

I was immediately impressed by the quality of events that have been organised by the two ladies considering the size of the team. They offered me to join them for the monthly conference meeting of A-PAC Marketing and Communication team during the first day and RBS regional rebranding was the highlight. September is just around the corner and preparation needs to be done till the very last detail.

Excellent interpersonal skills are needed to be in this area since outsourcing negotiations are constantly done with event managers both local and international.

I remembered the elated feeling I had, having being informed of the placement in RBS Tokyo. I went straight to the PC to check on the local website and my finding was to no avail. Apparently,  they have been working on it since February and I had the opportunity to review it and do the amendments for the site.

Having to speak the matter above, I had my share of that life balance as a true local last weekend. Why? Because, I climbed Fuji-san unplanned and half-equipped overnight! Big APPLAUSE to Sandy and Zach for being able to convince me that we would not die over exhaustion. I literally did.

What thought as a day plan escaping from Tokyo Urban Jungle to the Five Fuji Lakes turned out to be the trip of a lifetime. Quoting  Zach after walking for at least six hours, steadily, "I'd never feel this miserable. It's way worse than the worst hangover!'

Not fully recuperated on Sunday after walking non-stop for more than 15 hours and not sleeping for at least 24 hours, I rushed to Tokyo-Dome to catch THE match of the month with Colin. YOMIURI GIANTS vs CHUNICHI DRAGON! Go Go Ramirez! The only chant I catched and was able to imitate, proudly.

I have been pre-occupied in Compliance and looking forward for a visit in TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) tomorrow!

Ta for now.

Tsubo sugoy!

Hey folks

So 5 weeks have passed and I had just completed my rotation in Real Estate Finance. It was a busy week for the team of 8 but I did my best in grasping the business of property and real estate of RBS Tokyo. Very insightful indeed.

Throughout the week, I underwent more training sessions mainly on the property valuation techniques, internal credit procedures and portfolio management. Together with me in the same rotation was Akira, a Tokyo intern (who speaks Japanese, Mandarin, French and English!) and we were joint by Anne, a new graduate trainee from Shanghai. Such is the diversity of the organisation.

After being given an overview of the dynamics of the team, I did a mock origination from the template that was given by Jack. My property portfolio deal was based on a middle-aged office building just off the main road in Ginza and 3 minutes walk from the Tsukiji market.

Thursday was great fun, as I went for a site-visit with Oozora-san, Hano-san and Akira and had a karaoke night out with all RBS interns and new graduate trainees with Allison and Kathryn from the RBS A-PAC graduate recruitment team. During the site visit (I was feeling professional), I saw the physical descriptions of the building and discussed more about the income prospect of the property with fellow colleagues. I pointed out that despite its location on a corner lot, its proximity with the Tsukiji fish market will  create an  unsuitable atmosphere.

KARAOKE NIGHT OUT AT PASELA

 

 

 

Just before I ended my rotation, Oozora-san followed-up with my property valuation and he kindly explained to me the meaning of the terms that are used in the Cashflow and Capitalisation methods of evaluating.

Being in this department, not only I studied about the Japanese real estate business but I also learned more about Japan. For instance, which wards in Tokyo are the prominent and marketable ones and the demographies of the prefectures. I learnt of how the Japanese conduct the property evaluation and the method of measurements used(e.g. 1 tsubo= 3.3 sqm). Akira had done his part of sharing his knowledge as a local and helped me through with the Japanese documents. Jack also gave a side task to help them update the J-REITs database. I personally thought the research was an eye-opener as I did not have a clue about real-estate linked stocks.

Interestingly enough, I had a lazy Sunday in Roppongi's Starbucks trying to have my brunch of a melted-tuna sandwich when a white-guy dressed in a gym attire who has been beside my table reading newspaper started a conversation with me. It turned out that he is the CEO of an asset management company. Based in Hawaii, he told me about their real estate invesment in Japanese properties. With little but useful knowledge that I acquired in the last rotation, I asked him about the J-REIT and it was exactly what his firm is handling, turning real estates into J-REITs and sell them to the investors.

He talked of how J-REITs are slightly affected by the sub-prime market where foreign investors are withdrawing from investing in Japanese properties. I then asked of the 'orphan' J-REITs and the urgency of  a  M & A  for the cheaply traded J-REITs. He then mentioned that they will try to privatise the stocks so that the prices can be increased.

Wait a minute, he sounded exactly like the article that I read in AsianInvestor while doing the research.

As I was writing this blog, I checked the business card that he gave me and  the  article that I have printed out. He was that Dan Kerrigan, the Honolulu-based CEO of PROSPECT Asset Management whose comment was cited in the article.

Such is the randomness of Tokyo.

A perfect ending for the rotation.  Marketing could not be more exciting.

Talk soon.

Signed, Sealed , Delivered!

Two sentences that I have vowed not to express while I am still here

1) Ego ga hana se mas ka?

2) Nihonggo wakaranai

 

Wishful thinking.

In the legal department, Okamoto-san explained to me explicitly the basis of all the regulations and how they were structured.  The loopholes that have been accumulated throughout the previous training sessions were covered and I became more familiar with the Japanese Financial Regulations and its adoption of separation between bank and securities.

I had the chance to complete the weekly seal report under Terasaka-san and helped Yamazaki-san to update the documentations of the Samurai Bonds that were issued to fund RBS Plc under the DCM(Debt Capital Market) team. Through all these, I obtained a general idea of their BAU(Business As Usual) activities and realised the importance of being bilingual since interactions with the local regulators are done on a  large scale. This is the challenge for a global bank to operate in a specific region.

 

Weekend was great because a great amount of walking was involved in the coastal town of Kamakura. Colin suggested that we walked the Buddha trail from Kita(North)-Kamakura to Kamakura and I thought, brilliant! I was in dire need of a good walk somewhere outside Tokyo. Plus, we saved on the local Enoden pass, had some good exercise and passed most of the shrines and Zen Temples on foot.

Two of the highlights in Kita-Kamakura were the Zen-Temples of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji.  Both have an obvious attribute of having all the buildings in a straight line one behind another as they follow the basis of the Chinese Dynasty temples. Kencho-ji had a small pond with the shape of a kanji character for heart where its garden was constructed. Gorgeous!

The walk was on a steady pace and with the fear of not wanting to be late for just 5 minutes we found Daibotsu. Classic! He was huge and guess I'd have a heart attack seeing the bigger one in Nara soon.

Since we left Kamakura rather early, we stopped by Yokohama once again to go up the Landmark Tower, which I didn't last week and where the boys were late for 5 minutes!

Olympic 2008 opening ceremony was an impressive one. Kudos to China.

Way to go OPS!

I did my calculation, and a week in OPS (Operations) turned out to be my utmost favourite as of now. This was also the only rotation that I had with Zhanar together.

Sakurai-san was rather busy, so she had her junior SMTN (Structured Medium-Term Notes) officer Chieko to take care of us. She was lovely and definitely an aspiring graduate employee. And, the first thing I got was a week's timetable of training sessions done by her. Go figure.

I hardly felt the 9-6 as the days were carefully scheduled with training sessions and administrative tasks to be completed.The dynamics of how RBS Tokyo operates as a business entity clearly shown through this rotation. I was exposed to the Middle Office (M/O) deparments of both the bank branch and the Securities mostly through the Risk Management, Business and specific Settlement teams.

I became more familiar of how reconciliation between the Front Office and Back Office is done through the M/O. I personally enjoyed the short session with Akiba-san regarding the Business Contingency of RBS Tokyo. Apparently the area of the Marunouchi Buildings is marked as the 'The Non-Leave Zone' (Not exactly sure of the exact term) by the Tokyo Municipal Council and I was told that if an earthquake happens while at work, we can't get out of the building. My natural instinct tells me that I'd do exactly the opposite!

The two last days were equally divided between final sessions and on-the-job training by Chieko about the SMTN documentations and pre-execution. I was infact very excited to see what goes on after a note(bond) was traded. Clear understanding regarding the structure of the notes were needed to avoid petty mistakes. I was given the chance to key in the details of the notes to the system and send emails to the respective sales and settlement teams. It was a joy to see the things that I have been told in multiple training sessions are being put into practice. Everything just falls into places!

On Wed, I had the chance to  go to my first Pecha-Kucha  (chit-chatter).It was actually a series of slide presentations about anything by anyone. And the slides presented must amount to 20 with 20 secs each. After a nice light dinner with Gavin and friends at Hyatt, we head to SuperDeluxe, Roppongi for the event. Don't you just love Roppongi. Everything happens here!

I liked the ambiance although I thought the size was a wee bit tiny for the crowd. So we had people from London (who's in search of a lyricist because he's an ambitious musician but not much of a songwriter), a Japanese (who's in search of an artistically inclined innovator, I have forgotten why), a group of students from a top designing school in India (they were visiting Tokyo and thought Pecha-Kucha was a great idea to promote their school) and a Canadian freelance artist (who was most probably there for networking). I missed some as I left early due to my tiresome.

They have it in both Edinburgh and Glasgow and most probably huge cities near you.Check this out,
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/tokyo/54

It was both an enjoyable and tiring week at the same time.  Through Chieko, I also had the chance to meet another intern and more graduate staffs. Don't feel so tiny anymore.

I headed down to Yokohama on Saturday with the boys.We all loved the place because it was rather breezy(duhh it's a port!) and maybe because it reminds us a lot of Britian with a few churches and a colonial looking city hall. We shot some monsters in Echidna II and rode the rollercoaster that Vanishes (though Euan surrendered at the very last minute, Zhombiee!) at the Cosmoworld themepark. The boys also succumbed to the magnetic attraction of the game arcade.

The bay was reasonably stunning at night, as lights emerged from the ships and the bridge. Soon after dinner at Yokohama's Chinatown, the boys embarked upon their journey to the top of Landmark Tower (the tallest building in Japan) and I made my way back to Roppongi.

Sounds like "Philly" in the legal department tomorrow. Talk soon.

Week 1: Bahariah says 'Puru wa do ko desu ka'?

     My stint with RBS Tokyo started in the IT/Technology department. I was informed by my line manager, Charlie that my internship involves rotation in various departments which means getting the chance to test the water of different business areas in RBS. Brilliant!

     This rotation appeared to be daunting initially because being an actuarial major, Excel is as far as complicated can go. Once the terms Unix, WIntel, Calypso and all of the different applications are mentioned, I felt technologically backward! Little that I know, I would be exposed more to the business world even through the technological point of view.

     I was passed to Dennis Mwansa, head of the APAC IS & C when Charlie left for holiday. IS & C, short for Infrastructure and Control supports the business people on a day to day basis. I was not surprised as to why their business knowledge seems to be on par with the actual trade hustlers. Under Dennis' guidance, I learnt the structure of the department and how each subdivisions interact with each other to ensure the smoothness of the daily business activities. Their projects currently revolve around expansion capacity i.e data centre and business integration with ABN Amro due to the recent takeover. The highlight has to be the visit to the data centre with two IS & C engineers of which I was shown the system servers and its main functions. Perplexed, I still managed to come out with relevant questions associated to the department.

     I realised that the roles of each Technology staff is vital since RBS' business is done on a worldwide basis. Through work shadowing and interview sessions with staffs of various roles, I was impressed by the amount of professionalism and confidence they put to their work.

     I mostly enjoy the international atmosphere in RBS Tokyo where almost each person that I talked to is of different nationalities and backgrounds. There is simply no room to feel out of place. The IT rotation also seemed to be a real good start for me as I was given exposure to the technical and technological aspects of the business operations in RBS. Since I have a rough idea what goes on at the back office, hopefully my rotation in the front office will make more sense.

Leisure, Akihabara, Saitama and earthquake.

     So to speak, the first week has been packed with learning, tasting and singing! I finally managed to get myself into the pool only to cramp my right calf in the middle of my lap session. So much for an Olympic size pool! NO, I was not RESCUED by the lifeguards but I did get a good 10 minutes free massage.LOL. I will stick to running in Roppongi for the time being to get a break from the constant earthquakes 'vibration' in the apartment. Yes, we're on the highest floor.

     On Friday, all the interns met up once again at Gaponchi for a dinner with SDI Tokyo. After a few rounds of Soba and Tempuras, we were set for our first Karaoke session in Roppongi! Everyone was all fired up because it was our first weekend as an intern and it was a long one as we've got Monday off for Ocean Day. Yeay!

     My first visit to the Electric City (Akihabara) on Saturday was not entirely productive due to the reminiscence of Akihabara's Crossing rampage by my friend Harina. I absolutely had no idea about it, and I begged her not to show me which crossing. I freaked out, went straight to Saitama and had a nice d.i.y teppanyaki supper. Hey, I know it was months back but it could be any of us.

It has been uptight on the trading floor this week. Will talk soon enough.

Arduous Weekend

Touchdown! Ohayu~~ Tokyo! A little bit too late for that excitement now since I am already into my first day of working. Two words, Real World!

I arrived safely at Narita Airport on the evening of 12th July and had my ex-collegemate Harina to show my way around the city. It was a good long journey (mine should be just slightly shorter than the kids who went down to Singapore!) despite the inability to sleep in ANA's Boeing 777. I shall blame that on the good choices of movies. Had myself watching 21 and could not help it but to feel that I was practically in the movie due to the recent visit to Beantown. Kids in Boston, watch it and you'll feel me. If you don't, watch it again!LOL

We made our way straight to the Asahi Roppongi accomodation and bumped into Zhanar as we got off the cab. Indeed, our temporary home is beyond expectation considering the fact that we're in Tokyo(I've only heard of the word tiny when it comes to accomodation in this city). Both Zhanar and I could not love it more. Thanks Saltire!

Once we got comfortably settled, I brought my friend along to Paddy Folley's to meet up with Frank from SDI and other fellow interns in Tokyo. I have met with Colin and Alex during the Meet Up session and was then introduced at the pub to both Zach and Euan who are only going to start interning at Toshiba next Monday. Frank is very welcoming, much like what I have expected him to be. It made the whole get-together more functional and I'd completely forgotten about the 12-hours flight. After warming up and a few drinks, we proceed to Roppongi's Hard Rock Cafe for supper.

Sunday could not get any more exciting. After taking our own sweet time getting ourselves familiarised with the Tokyo subway system, we managed to make our way to Shibuya! To future Tokyo-bound traveller, have your own subway map with you or you will end up with tonnes given by the Tokyo-ites once they see you perplexed while figuring out the system in front of the station's bigger wall map. Such is their effort to help! We got at least two! People watching at Shibuya crossing was just impossible as they swarmed like bees. What more with people trying to catch up with summer sales over the weekend. We took our chance too!

Just finished my first day at work. Will spill the beans once I got more involved with things tomorrow. =)

Tokyo reminds me a lot of home. Sounds like a good start ain't it?