Well, I am currently in Nagasaki as part of my one week tour of Kyushu (the most southern of the three main Japanese islands) and thought I would recap the final week at Fujitsu in Toyko. I plan to round up the whole trip and my week in Kyushu when I return to the UK on Monday. Anyway, onwards!
On Tuesday I finally presented my work for the Intel Alliance team. I presented in Kawasaki to about five people so it was quite relaxed. I was surprised how smoothly it went considering I had prepared the slides almost two weeks ago and had not changed them too much since. Although everyone seemed to understand my key points, I felt I was still lacking some core elements to the plan, but as I only had one week to prepare it I think my work was reasonable.
Wednesday was a busy day for me. I the morning Alex, Leonor and myself left Nakahara at 6 am (that meant getting up at 5:30) to go visit Tskiji fish market. I had visited before so knew what to expect but it really did blow me away. There were so many interesting looking fish and although we arrived late by Tskiji standards (7am) the place was still packed.
I wanted to try some early morning Sushi but Alex and Leonor weren't too keen so I left it. All three of us were wearing our work clothes and somehow we miraculously managed to avoid all the fish guts, oil and blood and made it out unscathed.
I was also fortunate enough to attend an Oracle Japan event called meet the guru for a seminar on Wednesday afternoon. For this event one of Oracle's senior engineers was presenting some information about the new Oracle database (11g) and its key features. Although I knew very little about databases before the session, it was at quite a nice technical level so I could understand most things. The Oracle Japan team also did a little role play in Japanese about the different ways to administer a database so I had to use a provided headset for real time translation to English (which made me feel like one of those guys in Brussels actually doing something important!). I was very impressed with the translation, it must be a tough job, although with all the different people talking at the same time she got a little confused, leading to me getting a little confused. The session was very useful and I came out knowing a lot more than when I went in; mission accomplished.
On Wednesday night I had some leaving drinks with some Fujitsu colleagues not in my group organised by Tomiya-san. These are people I have had lunch with or chatted with etc. so it was a nice occasion. We went to a nice Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the Japanese-Mexican fusion food and plenty of alcohol.
From left to right: Ichirue-san, me, Kats-san, Masaki-san, Tomiya-san and Paul
On Thursday Alex, Zach, Stephen Baker and Frank Boyle were interviewed by a woman from Immigration News. It was an interesting experience, a first for me. I kind of froze when the women turned suddenly to ask me questions brandishing a huge old Sony recorder. I actually felt a bit nervous; its strange how a casual conversation can turn into a serious conversation with such a simple gesture. We were asked about why japan and the differences in culture etc. and had some pictures taken. Hopefully we did a good job promoting Scotland and the programme. Baharaiah and Euan joined us a little later and we were treated to some delicious food by the SDI guys. Alex and I even tried fish eyes. In case you are wondering, fish eyes are very chewy and taste of egg, not fish; I kid you not. After a brief karaoke session I headed home as I had a lot of work to do for my final presentation on Friday morning.
Friday was a hectic day. In the morning I had a real rush to finish my work and my slides before my final presentation to the Global Partnership Alliances team. During my time here I have become a lot more proficient at preparing presentations and almost ad-libbing them, which helped me a lot on Friday. My presentation consisted of a demo of the web pages I had made followed by some information about what I had done over the last 8 weeks and why it was relevant to the whole Global Partner Alliance team at Fujitsu. The presentation went very well and it was a nice feeling to go out on a high. I ended up adding three sections to the global partner alliance website:
- Case study overviews - I selected 10 case studies of different Fujitsu and partner solutions in different industries etc. and created easy to read summaries to aid sales people.
- Partner Keynote summaries from Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Oracle OpenWorld and SAP SAPPHIRE.
- Information about my three projects and why they are important and useful to know (business intelligence, cloud computing and intelligence operations management).
Friday was also tough as I had to say goodbye to everyone. I have really grown close with many of my colleagues so it was sad to say goodbye. I guess that is the sign of a good internship.
From left to right: Kogure-san, Tomiya-san, Eri-Chan-san, Shimada-san and Hamada-san.
After lots of farewells Alex and I went to see a kabuki show (Japanese theater) and have some delicious food to celebrate a successful 8 weeks. The theater was a nice experience, aesthetically stunning but a little slow. The actors also used some strange voices, almost overacting. I had a woman with a lovely voice translating the story for my in my ear courtesy of a rented ear piece but the actual lines were no translated, so I couldn't understand all the jokes ect. It was still very interesting and I recommend it.
Anyway, I will update you on my final 10 days here when I have more time.
Colin
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