Last post in the USA

It has been very hectic the past week and the fun won't stop any time soon. Every time I clear one hurdle another of equal size or less appears. I sound like a sale. Anyways, right now the current hurdle I am dealing with is trying to figure out how send my 4 boxes to Japan. I went to UPS and USPS, but they were too expensive. The smallest box out of the bunch would have cost over 200 USD to send!?! I have to find other alternatives because I really don't want to spend a grand to send my excess luggage.

In other news, I got my vonage phone yesterday. It seems to work like a champ. Reception is clear and easy to use. I hope it stays that way when I use it in Japan. I also reconnected my slingbox. Slingmedia updated their MAC software and I did notice an improvement in quality. I have yet to use it outside of my LAN, but like vonage, I hope it will work well when I'm in Japan. I definitely cannot miss my healthy doses of watching sports.

Well, like the title says, this will be my last post in the U.S. I want to thank everyone for the support. I will most definitely miss all you guys and the good times we had. I apologize for all the people I couldn't meet before my move to Japan. I really wanted to meet with everyone but my schedule the past month has been crazy.. with all the HR drama and stuff. This means we will have to make it up by hanging out in Japan. Please schedule a trip there and I will definitely make sure we can catch up and have tons of fun in the process (not to mention eat awesome food). I will e-mail you guys later with my updated contact information including my vonage number which will be a local number so you guys can call me anytime (well.. almost anytime, please be kind to the 13-14 time difference =P)

Ciao! ... err.. I mean.. じゃね！

Position secured!

The effort to allow me to work remotely in Japan has been successful. HR Japan have confirmed and are in the process of completing my transition to be under the Asia Pacific status. The person assisting me is the same donkey that was against me in the beginning. How ironic no? Again, this does not mean I will be stable, I will have about a year to find myself a more long term deal somewhere else. In the mean time, I'm looking for some Voice over IP solutions. I am leaning towards Vonage. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Now, the only obstacle in me actually working is getting my proper visa. I have heard good and bad things in trying to obtain that. I hope the good parts are true. *Knock on wood*

Early trouble with housing ....

Seems there is a big obstacle on the horizon. Currently, the apartment hunt in the Tokyo metropolitan area is underway however there are unexpected difficulties in finding the right real estate company to fulfill the contract requirements. If this keeps up, this could be a real ball buster in addition to securing my job status. Will update when I get more details...

Tansfer part deux

As luck would have it, I'm in the process of transferring again within my company. No no.. not with the Department in Japan. They are on my blacklist. My current managers were outraged on what happened with the previous situation that they pitched an alternative plan to upper management. The plan entails me to stay on the team but work remotely from Japan. Because of the time zone difference, I would take care of all after hour escalations. This will allow the team to rest during night time since the job runs 24/7. This will also put a huge relief to the person with the Pager of Death. So far upper management has approved, including the account lead which is good news. It is now up to HR to confirm the change. Thankfully not the HR in Japan hehe. I will know the final answer this coming Monday. If all goes well, this will only be a temporary fix because the contract on my project ends next summer. I hope this goes through so I would have at least a buffer of about a year to work on my Japanese and find a more long term job in Japan. If this second attempt does not work, I'll keep moving strong on my original job hunting path.

Its June!!!

June. This is the month where I will be transitioning my life from the U.S. to Japan regardless if I have a job or not. I am working on other options and I will know one alternative, hopefully by the end of this week.

Anyways, the wedding in CA was really nice. M and C planned and decorated the whole event. The wedding was at a winery at Morgan Hill, about 20 minutes south of San Jose. It was one of the best weddings I've been to. The weather was a bit hot, but it was bearable. The trip also allowed me to hang out with my family in the bay area. The songs that will haunt my friends and I during the trip will definitely be Rhianna "Umbrella" and anything by T. Payne. I definitely had a great time.

Going back to my move to Japan. I have so many things to do, but have not completed anything yet. The most important being packing my stuff in boxes to send to Japan. One reason is because I do not have a final destination yet (hopefully that will change by early next week), and the others, well.. basic motivation. I have to definitely hustle next week.

Packing for CA

I'm finally going to go to CA for M and C's wedding this coming Saturday. I will only be there for 4 short days but I hope to make it a good trip since it will be the last trip in the U.S. I take before moving to Japan in June. All right, I have to continue to pack and wake up in 3 hours for my early morning flight.

Is this a drama?

The day the Tokyo manager got laid off, the VP of sales scheduled a meeting to meet with my US manager along with his other goons to talk about me and the situation. When my manager first told me about it, we were confused to why they wanted to discuss further with us since it was clear they did not approve of my attempts of transferring to their office. Well the meeting happened tonight and it was what my manager expected. They wanted to convey how unqualified I was and eventually revealed that the real reason why they did not think I would be a good fit was because I "would have a difficult time grasping the culture and language". It seems they totally disregarded the fact that I lived in Japan for a period of time before. Anyways, they did not anticipate how smart and persuasive my manager was. Every time they threw the kitchen sink at him, he would throw the bath tub back. From what my manager told me, they threw lies at him not knowing that the recently laid off Tokyo manager had kept us informed of all the details. Now for the strange part, a good hour after the meeting ended they sent an e-mail to my manager. It read something like this - "we apologize for being so blunt during the meeting. We discussed with the the related teams and we would like to see the best opportunity for [me] and the company. We would like to better understand and get to know [me] and would like to fly him to Tokyo for a couple of days." My initial reaction when I heard this was, what the hell is going on. How can they have an almost 180 degree turnaround on their attitude? The situation is still fresh and my manager and director have yet to respond. My stance for now is that I do not want to put myself in such a dysfunctional work environment. I also do not know what hidden agendas they have planned for me. I mean why reason with the situation now, when previously it was all extreme and irrational. I mean seriously, do they think we [US team and I] are blind and naive?

In the mean time, I have also been actively pursuing other opportunities. I would like to thank the people who are helping me with this effort. ほんとうにありがとうございました！