December 11, 2024 • 28 mins
In this episode, we share the adventures of Kaori, Tomo, and Sumie as we tackle our first short-term jobs in Japan during the summers of our university years. Each of us steps into a completely unique role, embracing the challenges of Japanese work culture. From serving blowfish (fugu) at a high-end restaurant in Shibuya, to working as a hotel bellgirl at an international hotel in Sendai, and crafting Japanese-style pizzas in our hometown, our stories are packed with humor, unexpected discoveries, and lessons we’ve learned.
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Thanks for listening! Don't forget to review SisterVibes and subscribe so you won't miss our upcoming episodes.
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Website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2279605
Big shoutout to Allison Gray for generously granting us permission to feature her song, "Off My Mind" (from Ep 05).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I gotta get you out of my system.
I gotta get you off of my mind.
But how do I move on when noone compares?
They only keep me occupied.
I try to shake them off sodesperately but you pull them
(00:24):
tighter, string me along.
You said but I'm so gone.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello and welcome back.
Today.
We thought it would be fun totalk about our first jobs in
Japan, each of us.
So, sumi, where did you work atyour first part-time job and
how old were you?
How was your experience?
She's thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
My very first part-time job was in my second
year of university.
I was 20 years old.
I was working as a waitress ata restaurant that specialized in
blowfish.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Wait, blowfish is poisonous and they're not common
thing right, it's, it's like,yeah, like very special and very
unique right so this restaurantmust have been very unique it
was.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It was a high-end restaurant, was pretty pricey,
and it was actually the firsttime that I ever tasted blowfish
, right, yeah, so the restaurantserved course meals, and the
course meal consisted of pizza,which is like blowfish sashimi
or raw blowfish, and then therewas blowfish tempura, which was
(01:35):
my personal favorite out of allthe dishes.
It was really good.
And then there was hechiri,which is like a hot pot with
blowfish and various vegetableslike green onions, mushrooms,
chinese cabbage.
There was rice porridge witheggs using that remaining broth
from the hot pot, and then therewas dessert.
I think it was like frozenyogurt or something like that.
(01:58):
Of course, that didn't consistof blowfish.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay, okay, so like tempura, for example, it doesn't
come in a whole like blowfishform, right, right, okay, just
slice it up.
Yeah, I wonder, I don't knowmuch about blowfish, like you
know, interior anatomy, but um,I wonder if there's like a sack
that's poisonous that theyremove yeah, I think it's
(02:22):
something like this.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I think it's part of them is poisonous and that's
poisonous that they remove.
Yeah, I think it's somethinglike this.
I think it's part of them ispoisonous and that's why, like
you, also need specialized,licensed yeah, chefs to prepare,
because people have died fromeating it yeah, yeah, I believe
so.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Do they have alcohol Fugu infused?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, it was called hirezake.
What?
Okay, so they would take thefin of the blowfish they would
like completely dry it out, theywould dip it into Japanese sake
and it was served like that,with the fin inside the sake.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I wonder if that's just to add flavor right.
Not to like, intensify thealcohol content.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
No, I don't think so intensify the alcohol content?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
no, I don't think so, but for some reason, when I
picture fugu sake or fugualcohol, I picture it to be
infused in something reallystrong.
I don't know why, don't you?
Just because they're like sucha poisonous being like?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
yeah, so how did you decide to work there?
Oh, um, did you see an adsomewhere, or what was the?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
reason.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Because it's so unique, I think.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So, first of all, the reason why I started looking
for a job is because my friendhad gotten a new job and so I
was like, OK, I guess I'll get ajob too.
And I was looking through someads and this restaurant because
it was such a high endrestaurant, they paid pretty
well, and that was the reasonwhy I applied there.
(03:50):
And you worked as a waitress Forabout a year it was in Shibuya,
tokyo, which is where myuniversity was at, so I could
just walk there after my classes.
I think I worked like three,four times a week, that was
pretty fun, and in restaurantsin Japan they don't tip usually.
(04:10):
Oh yeah, so in Japan we don'thave a tipping system.
It's pretty uncommon.
So if you would tip at arestaurant they would probably
think that you forgot the moneyand they will probably chase
after you to give it back to you.
It's that uncommon.
But this particular place placebecause it was such a fancy
restaurant.
Most of our customers were likecompany executives or
(04:30):
celebrities or you know, peoplewho just use the restaurant for
special occasions likeanniversaries or not right yeah,
so sometimes we would get tipsand that was pretty cool because
it was pretty uncommon.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, it still is, especially when it was back in
2000, early 2000s which was like20 years ago.
Yeah, interesting Any famouspeople that you met.
You said that you saw somecelebrities.
I did.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There was this actor and former singer, a Japanese
actor.
Yeah, that's cool.
They are a married couple.
They came to our place.
Did they tip big?
No they didn't tip at all.
Yeah, which was quitesurprising, because I thought
they would tip me pretty well,you know.
I was pretty friendly, ofcourse, but extra friendly.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
But when you grow up in a system where you're not
used to that, maybe I meanthey're kind of old school
because they're older too, butmaybe they just it didn't cross
their mind.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, probably, yeah I would think so did you get?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
their autograph no you didn't ask for a selfie.
No, no, no, we didn't haveselfies back then.
There was no such thing.
Oh, you mean with a disposablecamera or something.
Wait, do we have cell phones?
Then, yeah, I had a phone.
Oh yeah but it wasn't like asmartphone, it was a flip phone,
exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, but we were trained not to ask for
autographs or pictures ifcelebrities came in.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
That makes sense, Because it's kind of rude.
I guess, and this is a time youwant to relax and be away from
the we want it to be classyright.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's kind of worth getting fired over, though, if
it's like just a part-time jobbut you know it paid pretty well
and you know, and they tipped,so it was well.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Most of the people that tipped were, I think,
company executives.
That's cool.
Did you have a?
Uniform uh, yes, we did have auniform.
It was kind of like Jinbe, butwith pants instead of shorts.
Okay, how would you explain?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Jinbe.
Very casual summer version ofkimono.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Without the layers Too many layers.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, without all the layers.
It's not a fancy material, it'svery casual.
It wasn't very cute, it wasnavy, it wasn't very cute.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
No top to bottom it was navy.
And then there was, uh, we hadto wear an apron, like a waist
apron.
Yeah, okay and then we had towear this like scarf thing
around our neck, which was likered.
It wasn't, it wasn't a cutelook.
It was or was not?
It wasn't, it wasn't.
It wasn't a cute look.
It was or was not?
It wasn't, it wasn't.
It wasn't a cute look at all.
No, that sounds weird, butbecause Blowfish was in season
(07:11):
in February I don't know if itstill is now, I guess it is.
It was the busiest month of theyear and we had to wear kimono
rather than our usual uniform,so that was kind of fun nice,
but how did you put that kimonoon?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
because kimono is layered and I feel like you need
someone to assist you.
We've never had to put it on byourselves.
We can't really speak foryourself.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You can do it on your own.
I made an attempt.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Oh my gosh, it's so hard, but anyway, okay, yeah, so
there was this lady who workedthere for like 10 years maybe,
so she taught me how to put aput on a kimono and later on I
just yeah, I was able to put iton myself, although I don't
remember it now yeah, I, I'vetried on yukata, which is like a
less formal version and lesslayers.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But the bow I watched on tutorial how to do it in the
front like the obi bow and thenturn it around to the back and
I've done.
But I've never done like abunch of layers, and all that
with kimono.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Like traditional kimono.
Yeah, do you want to talk aboutthe position, how you became a
manager?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Well, I was a part-timer, but eventually, I
don't know how it happened, butI became the part-time leader,
which wasn't very fun because itdidn't, you know, I wasn't paid
more for that.
It wasn't very fun because itdidn't you know, I wasn't paid
more for that, but it just gaveme more work I had to do the
scheduling they're like.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
soon you will do it even without a raise, if we can
convince her.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, I was like what .
Speaker 4 (08:39):
But then at the end I was like, okay, I'll do it that
kind of reminds me, you becamethe head of the international
school in Tokyokyo, and I wantto know more about that because
it was actually in yokohamayokohama okay, which is like in
kanagawa prefecture, but yeahbecause it's not like you had an
education degree, no, andyou've never had to actually
teach, or you never taught kidsin a classroom setting.
(09:03):
So maybe you can talk aboutthat too.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I mean, it's not like I wanted that position, you
know, I just wanted to teachEnglish to little kids.
That's that's why I appliedthere.
Of course, we had to take anEnglish test, and we also had to
take this test.
It was kind of like apersonality test, and they said
that I was the best fit for theed for the position uh-huh yeah
(09:25):
and I was like no, so yousomehow got convinced in the end
, yep again, I somehow gotconvinced.
I was like, okay, I'll do it,which well, although it didn't
last long because it was justtoo stressful and you know I was
gonna say I wasn't qualified.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah I always wondered how that worked out,
because it didn't I thought well, but you've never taught.
How do you know how the systemworks?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I know well, I mean I had to come up with the
curriculums and everything.
I had to decide what materialsto use.
Um, I had to think ofeverything which was like, oh, I
can't do this.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It's international school, so I guess a lot of the
kids are taught to speak Englishmostly, right.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, so Japanese was not allowed.
You weren't at all allowed tospeak Japanese.
Yeah, but you know, they werelittle kids, so of course some
was speaking Japanese, but theteachers will be like, no, you
have to speak English here.
And I was the only person whowas allowed to speak Japanese
Out of everyone.
I was like I was like, okay,actually I didn't really speak
(10:30):
English, which is like what Iwanted to do in the first place
but my position was like no, youdon't need to speak English,
you just need to speak Japanese,and you know oh my gosh, that's
too funny, I know.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
So basically you applied for something else, but
then you got dragged intosomething bigger.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, and yeah, and the reason why I quit was well,
first off, it was stressful andI knew I wasn't qualified for
that position.
But I also thought if I had achild I would want to send him
or her oh yeah, school to thatschool where I was working like,
where I was ahead, because youknow, I had no idea what I was
doing.
I was like, yep, so I'm gonnaquit yeah well, was it a good
(11:11):
experience?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
at least not really, not really.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I mean, I took some great pictures, okay, yeah, I
want to see the yearbook, or areyou?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
in it, like I want to see the yearbook, or are you in
it?
Like I want to see a photosomewhere in school or in some
book form.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
No, I don't have it.
No, I don't have it.
Oh yeah, but I do have somepictures from when I was working
there.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Uh-huh, yeah, and this was in your 20s.
I was 25.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Very young.
I worked overtime all the timeoh.
I'm sure, sure, I worked on theweekends and yeah, and I didn't
get paid for those.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Oh geez, yeah, yeah.
Well, good thing you quit, yeah, especially because if you were
not speaking English, andthat's what you wanted to do
here.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I don't know.
I'm like yeah, yeah.
They should just hire someonemore like managerial, that that
wanted that yeah, and there wereother people who totally looked
like, you know, the principalof a school.
I was like what?
Why a stupid personality test?
(12:25):
But hey, you got convinced it'seasy to convince me, though, so
it is.
I always get convinced.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I mean I'm like okay, domo, and I know that right,
don't want me, oh yeah she'll belike okay, yeah, I'm like, even
if it's not fun for me.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I'd be like, okay, I'll do it, I feel bad for me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I feel bad for me.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Self-pity.
Okay, cody, what about your job?
Okay, so my first job was backin 2000.
This was the summer of freshmanyear in college, at OSU, and I
was 19?
I could have been 20, but Ithink it was 19.
It was also in Japan, because Iwanted to work and get
(13:18):
experience in Japan.
At that point pretty much grewup in the US.
Three of us went to school aswell.
We participated in differenthigh schools Maybe, you told me,
and Sumi went to the same highschool, I can't recall, but for
the summer, taiken yugaku, whichwe did, yeah, for at least,
yeah, a week or two or something.
So then after that I thought youknow what?
(13:39):
I'm gonna be off for the summerand I really want an experience
working in japan.
So I was talking to my dad, andour dad is from the northern
part of Japan, close to Sendai.
He somehow helped me get thisjob during the summer, which was
(14:00):
to work at the internationalhotel by the Sendai train
station.
So it was right off the trainstation and it was, you know,
basically a multi-story hotel.
I worked there for the entiresummer, since our parents were
not living in Sendai, becausetheir home is in Miet Prefecture
(14:26):
, which is in Kansai, which islike more south of central, sort
of yeah, sort of Near Osaka,close to Nagoya.
I stayed with our grandparents.
They lived in a home nearSendai and my position basically
was a bell girl, kind of like abell boy who helps people with
(14:50):
luggage at the hotels.
I was a girl version of thatand since it was international
hotel, I think it was a good fit, because the people who came to
this hotel were mostlyforeigners and of course, not
all the Japanese people speakEnglish very well.
I felt I helped a lot and thepeople who worked there also
(15:16):
spoke English, but the level wasobviously different.
They know the basics, what tosay, they know how to check
customers in, but when theystart asking specific questions
there were sometimes theycouldn't understand or they
couldn't answer, so they wouldcall me over.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Did you ever get tipped?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I did not.
No, but I don't think theywould have allowed it anyway.
So I pretty much stood in thelobby the entire day.
I was there in the morninguntil in the afternoon and I did
not realize this until then.
Of course I was wearing uniformdifferent from everybody,
because I was basically quoteshort-term worker.
(15:58):
I wore a button-up shirt white,and then I wore a black skirt
and then low heels and I thoughtthe low heels would not hurt me
in any ways.
But I think it was second day Istarted to feel pain because I
had to stand all day, prettymuch most of the time just in
one spot, couldn't move around.
Like how many hours?
Very good question.
I think I was there by eightuntil five.
(16:21):
Whoa, that's a lot of standingtime.
Yeah, yeah, anyway, yeah, itwas just like pretty much whole
day and then the only break thatI had was basically lunch break
, which was like an hour.
There were two different typesof rooms at that hotel the
Japanese style rooms, which hadtatami, so you actually step up
to get into the room, and thenthey had Western rooms where
(16:44):
it's like carpeted, where youcan just walk in with shoes.
So I was happy when I had totake the luggage up to the
customers' rooms where theydecided to stay in the
Japanese-style rooms.
Then I could take my shoes offfor a little bit to take the
luggage in.
And I was always told fromworkers around me that I know
your feet hurt, but you cannottake your shoes off even if
(17:06):
you're in the elevator byyourself.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But no one would see.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I know right, but no one would see, I know right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
No, was it like a pointy toed?
Heel no, it wasn't pointy, itwas like round.
Okay, what about like the heels?
Was it like pointed or chunky,or wedge chunky?
Well then, you should havesucked it up.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That sounds fine yeah , were they, just were they new,
like new shoes?
Yeah, they were new shoes.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
But I was not used to it and it was like every single
day and so, like my feet hurt,obviously, I think all the
ladies knew that it would hurtand so that was torturous.
But aside from that, I had agood experience.
I mean, I met a lot of people.
There was a guy who came up tome, was impressed with how much
English I spoke.
I told him obviously I lived inthe States and I was just doing
(17:50):
this for the summer, and hesaid hey, I have a question for
you.
I said, yeah, how do you bow?
You know, because a lot ofJapanese people bow, and so I
showed it to him.
And then he said and what's thetiming?
Like how often?
And I guess I never reallythought about it because you
just do it naturally.
You know, it was just remindingme of when we were talking about
how much we bow, yeah.
(18:11):
So he was asking me obviouslywe bow when we greet each other
or when we see each other, notwith like close friends or
families, or maybe you do, butsomebody that you have respect
for, and then when you'reapologizing, that's when yeah,
that's what we talked about inone of the episodes how much you
have to bet anyway.
So that was an interestingconversation I had so that was
(18:33):
my summer.
I mean from there.
Yes, I didn't know anyone,though, because we never lived
there.
It was just our dad who's grewup there, and we went out to
karaoke one time.
So that was fun, and I wasactually glad that they invited
me, because I was the onlyteenager and the rest were in
their 20s 30s.
What about you, tomo?
What was your first job?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, my first job was when I was 19 or 20.
So that was like five years ago.
I was in Japan.
It was either my freshman orsophomore year of college.
I went back to Japan for thesummer.
I wanted to do somethingbecause there wasn't a whole lot
to do in my hometown.
It's not like my friends Istill kept in touch with from
(19:14):
elementary.
So I didn't want to be bored.
So I went for interviews inmultiple locations and first of
all, I thought it was veryinteresting that everywhere I
went for a part time interview,the first place was ramen store
inside.
The mall Manager told me youshouldn't put your elbow on the
table.
I was like oh, okay, sorry, Ididn't know that.
(19:34):
You know you were going to talkabout mannerism at this
interview, but a part time toyou know, I just thought that
was kind of strange, but I waslike, okay, and then I didn't
hear back from him.
And then I don't know where elseI went.
The place I ended up was thepizza place.
He also mentioned that Ishouldn't have arrived on time
for the interview, that I shouldhave been like 10, 15 minutes
(19:56):
earlier, and I'm like, oh mygosh, these people seriously
like it's just a part time job,but anyway, I just thought okay.
But he told me he was reallyinterested in the US culture and
that I was lucky.
I really want to know about theUS, so I want to hire you.
So he did, and he wanted me totell him how to say all the
ingredients in English.
Very interesting, I don'tremember how often I got paid or
(20:19):
how much it was like, whetherit was biweekly or weekly or so
I don't even know how long Iworked there.
Maybe in our hometown, it's inrural part of Japan, yeah, so
when cody and I were still incollege, they moved back to
japan, to our hometown where wegrew up, because they had that.
I kept the house and rented itout for a little bit, but either
(20:41):
way, they kept the house.
So when we would go back home,it was like our hometown still.
So, yeah, my hometown.
I didn't keep in touch withanybody.
It's not like I had friendsanymore to hang out with.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So that's why I decided to work because it's
been like over a decade, yeah,yeah well, yeah, it's been a
couple decades now, but um no,but back then, when you had a
job, it was like a decade, yeahthat I returned but yeah, it was
very interesting because, youknow, I started out making pizza
, but the ingredients aredifferent.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Uh, I think there was only one pizza with, like,
tomato sauce based, andeverything else was like more
japanese, like, uh, mayo based,teriyaki based, I forget what
else.
And then they were all veryunique.
They there was one with shrimpon it, there were some with
mochi on it, um, I don'tremember what else, but they
(21:36):
were so good and the sizes, likethe largest, their large was
probably us small, right, it was.
They were small.
Small was like for one person,I feel, and then like a one
average person, uh, and then themedium, but anyway, they called
it size s, m and l.
(21:57):
And when I got to startanswering the phone calls for
order, I was told I can't askthe customers, do you want a
small, medium or large?
Because they don't understandthat.
So they, I have.
I had to say do you want size s, size m or size l?
Because they don't understandthat.
So they, I have.
I had to say do you want size S, size M or size L?
Because they don't actuallyknow what they stand for.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So I thought that was kind of interesting because you
said it in English, which isalso a term.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, I said would you like a size small?
Would you like a size medium, alarge?
And then later when I got offthe call is when my manager said
oh, they don't understand small, medium, large, just say s, m
and l.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I just remember that being like oh okay, when we grew
up before we even moved thiswas in the 80s, slash 90s there
wasn't a pizza place.
Like we never grew up eatingpizza.
No, I mean maybe they.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
It did exist, but how would we have known what was
around?
That is, maybe it did exist butwe definitely did not grow up
eating pizza at all until wecame to the us.
I don't even know if I knewwhat pizza was I mean, you know,
I think it's really cool thatjapan has their own version of
pizza, like menus, and then evenmcdonald's too is different in
(23:19):
japan you know like fast foodyeah they have like shrimp and
teriyaki, this and all kinds ofstuff that's more suitable for,
I guess, japanese people thatalso.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I realize, as I've traveled around, that it's
catered to each country Makessense.
And also when you said, likemochi pizza, was the mochi
actually the dough?
Or you mean like the actualmochi stuff was on the pizza as
a topping.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Mochi cubes were on top and I know in the US people
eat it as a dessert, but it'snot dessert over there.
I mean it is.
It can't.
They do have like mochidesserts, but the most common
ones are just plain mochi cookedfor savory taste.
There's no flavor, yeah but youcan add flavors to it or wrap
(24:05):
seaweed to it.
I believe this pizza had mochiand dry seaweed on top or
something.
At the end.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
It was so good it was really good yeah, the dessert
ones have flavors likestrawberries or usually like
fruity is that in the us, thoughnot in japan, right?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
oh, you mean like okay so in japan so in japan
they have daifuku, they have a,a whole strawberry, but in the
US how they make it is likestrawberry-flavored mochi.
The mochi itself is pink.
And then you don't actually seestrawberry, they have like ice
cream inside.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
We actually have those too in Japan.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, but daifuku is more common where they have
actual strawberries inside themochi.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, with red bean right.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Red, white.
The mochi, yeah, with a redbean right, red, red, red.
So those are the dessertversion, like you said, and then
the plain version is just white.
It's unflavored.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It could be in soup or I guess it could be a topping
on the pizza, but that's coolor you can eat it by itself, but
it's made by pounding rice overand over, which is a very, very
common new year's food.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Sometimes they're in um okonomiyaki really I should
try.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
That is, savory pancakes, like koreans also have
this too.
So what position did you have?
You picked up their phones?
Did you do delivery also?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I did all but delivery.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I made it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I took orders.
It was.
No one came to the window, itwas by phone only.
Oh, I see it's just a pickupplace.
Yeah, I think maybe peoplecould drive up to the place and
pick up their order, but I don'trecall people actually coming
by and picking up, so maybe itwas delivery only.
I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I don't remember no dine in, no sit down, no just a
kitchen.
So what was the most popularpizza?
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I think mochi.
Yeah, I think so Because Iremember for the longest time
thinking that's kind of strange.
Why is this so popular?
And why would you put mochi onpizza?
I don't know.
I just thought it was kind ofweird Because I felt like that
was combining something that'stoo Japanese and too not
Japanese together and I didn'tthink it would work.
(26:17):
But then when I had it, it wasso good.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Did you guys?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
order it to take it home.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Did you do that often ?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
I'm sure you had discount too.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, I don't remember I don't remember how
much I got paid or how often Igot paid or how much the pizzas
were I think they were prettypricey, but they were good.
I just thought it was veryinteresting because, you know,
when I worked there my mentalitygoing in was it's just a part
time job, you know, but peoplewere very serious there yeah,
japan takes customer servicevery seriously.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It's not just customer service.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But like your work ethic, they're like please don't
think like it's a part-time jobkind of thing oh, yeah, like be
loyal yeah, they expect a lotyeah all into this.
I mean, I had so much fun, I wascracking up a lot.
They were very serious aboutcleanliness too, which was great
.
You know, the place was veryclean always, but like they were
(27:09):
, everybody was very seriousabout the job.
But we did have a lot of fun,like it was like a lot of laughs
, joke, joking around, um, butyou know, if we had time to just
stand around we were doingsomething basically which is
different for a part-time job.
I keep saying it's a part-timejob because it was in my mind,
(27:29):
you know.
Thanks for joining us today.
Don't forget to review SisterVibes and make sure to subscribe
on the app of your choice soyou don't miss our upcoming
episodes.
Until next time.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Ja ne, I should have seen through it right from the
start, but I chose to give itall away.
And now I'm sitting here,brokenhearted, want to come and
give me a break, cause I've beenwaiting for so long for someone
(28:05):
to rescue me and if youcontinue to pull my heartstrings
out,
I gotta get you out of my system.
I gotta get you off of my mind.
But how do I move on when noone compares?
They only keep me occupied.
I try to shake them off sodesperately but you pull them
(00:24):
tighter, string me along.
You said but I'm so gone.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello and welcome back.
Today.
We thought it would be fun totalk about our first jobs in
Japan, each of us.
So, sumi, where did you work atyour first part-time job and
how old were you?
How was your experience?
She's thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
My very first part-time job was in my second
year of university.
I was 20 years old.
I was working as a waitress ata restaurant that specialized in
blowfish.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Wait, blowfish is poisonous and they're not common
thing right, it's, it's like,yeah, like very special and very
unique right so this restaurantmust have been very unique it
was.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It was a high-end restaurant, was pretty pricey,
and it was actually the firsttime that I ever tasted blowfish
, right, yeah, so the restaurantserved course meals, and the
course meal consisted of pizza,which is like blowfish sashimi
or raw blowfish, and then therewas blowfish tempura, which was
(01:35):
my personal favorite out of allthe dishes.
It was really good.
And then there was hechiri,which is like a hot pot with
blowfish and various vegetableslike green onions, mushrooms,
chinese cabbage.
There was rice porridge witheggs using that remaining broth
from the hot pot, and then therewas dessert.
I think it was like frozenyogurt or something like that.
(01:58):
Of course, that didn't consistof blowfish.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay, okay, so like tempura, for example, it doesn't
come in a whole like blowfishform, right, right, okay, just
slice it up.
Yeah, I wonder, I don't knowmuch about blowfish, like you
know, interior anatomy, but um,I wonder if there's like a sack
that's poisonous that theyremove yeah, I think it's
(02:22):
something like this.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I think it's part of them is poisonous and that's
poisonous that they remove.
Yeah, I think it's somethinglike this.
I think it's part of them ispoisonous and that's why, like
you, also need specialized,licensed yeah, chefs to prepare,
because people have died fromeating it yeah, yeah, I believe
so.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Do they have alcohol Fugu infused?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, it was called hirezake.
What?
Okay, so they would take thefin of the blowfish they would
like completely dry it out, theywould dip it into Japanese sake
and it was served like that,with the fin inside the sake.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I wonder if that's just to add flavor right.
Not to like, intensify thealcohol content.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
No, I don't think so intensify the alcohol content?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
no, I don't think so, but for some reason, when I
picture fugu sake or fugualcohol, I picture it to be
infused in something reallystrong.
I don't know why, don't you?
Just because they're like sucha poisonous being like?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
yeah, so how did you decide to work there?
Oh, um, did you see an adsomewhere, or what was the?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
reason.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Because it's so unique, I think.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So, first of all, the reason why I started looking
for a job is because my friendhad gotten a new job and so I
was like, OK, I guess I'll get ajob too.
And I was looking through someads and this restaurant because
it was such a high endrestaurant, they paid pretty
well, and that was the reasonwhy I applied there.
(03:50):
And you worked as a waitress Forabout a year it was in Shibuya,
tokyo, which is where myuniversity was at, so I could
just walk there after my classes.
I think I worked like three,four times a week, that was
pretty fun, and in restaurantsin Japan they don't tip usually.
(04:10):
Oh yeah, so in Japan we don'thave a tipping system.
It's pretty uncommon.
So if you would tip at arestaurant they would probably
think that you forgot the moneyand they will probably chase
after you to give it back to you.
It's that uncommon.
But this particular place placebecause it was such a fancy
restaurant.
Most of our customers were likecompany executives or
(04:30):
celebrities or you know, peoplewho just use the restaurant for
special occasions likeanniversaries or not right yeah,
so sometimes we would get tipsand that was pretty cool because
it was pretty uncommon.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, it still is, especially when it was back in
2000, early 2000s which was like20 years ago.
Yeah, interesting Any famouspeople that you met.
You said that you saw somecelebrities.
I did.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There was this actor and former singer, a Japanese
actor.
Yeah, that's cool.
They are a married couple.
They came to our place.
Did they tip big?
No they didn't tip at all.
Yeah, which was quitesurprising, because I thought
they would tip me pretty well,you know.
I was pretty friendly, ofcourse, but extra friendly.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
But when you grow up in a system where you're not
used to that, maybe I meanthey're kind of old school
because they're older too, butmaybe they just it didn't cross
their mind.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, probably, yeah I would think so did you get?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
their autograph no you didn't ask for a selfie.
No, no, no, we didn't haveselfies back then.
There was no such thing.
Oh, you mean with a disposablecamera or something.
Wait, do we have cell phones?
Then, yeah, I had a phone.
Oh yeah but it wasn't like asmartphone, it was a flip phone,
exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, but we were trained not to ask for
autographs or pictures ifcelebrities came in.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
That makes sense, Because it's kind of rude.
I guess, and this is a time youwant to relax and be away from
the we want it to be classyright.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's kind of worth getting fired over, though, if
it's like just a part-time jobbut you know it paid pretty well
and you know, and they tipped,so it was well.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Most of the people that tipped were, I think,
company executives.
That's cool.
Did you have a?
Uniform uh, yes, we did have auniform.
It was kind of like Jinbe, butwith pants instead of shorts.
Okay, how would you explain?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Jinbe.
Very casual summer version ofkimono.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Without the layers Too many layers.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, without all the layers.
It's not a fancy material, it'svery casual.
It wasn't very cute, it wasnavy, it wasn't very cute.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
No top to bottom it was navy.
And then there was, uh, we hadto wear an apron, like a waist
apron.
Yeah, okay and then we had towear this like scarf thing
around our neck, which was likered.
It wasn't, it wasn't a cutelook.
It was or was not?
It wasn't, it wasn't.
It wasn't a cute look.
It was or was not?
It wasn't, it wasn't.
It wasn't a cute look at all.
No, that sounds weird, butbecause Blowfish was in season
(07:11):
in February I don't know if itstill is now, I guess it is.
It was the busiest month of theyear and we had to wear kimono
rather than our usual uniform,so that was kind of fun nice,
but how did you put that kimonoon?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
because kimono is layered and I feel like you need
someone to assist you.
We've never had to put it on byourselves.
We can't really speak foryourself.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You can do it on your own.
I made an attempt.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Oh my gosh, it's so hard, but anyway, okay, yeah, so
there was this lady who workedthere for like 10 years maybe,
so she taught me how to put aput on a kimono and later on I
just yeah, I was able to put iton myself, although I don't
remember it now yeah, I, I'vetried on yukata, which is like a
less formal version and lesslayers.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But the bow I watched on tutorial how to do it in the
front like the obi bow and thenturn it around to the back and
I've done.
But I've never done like abunch of layers, and all that
with kimono.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Like traditional kimono.
Yeah, do you want to talk aboutthe position, how you became a
manager?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Well, I was a part-timer, but eventually, I
don't know how it happened, butI became the part-time leader,
which wasn't very fun because itdidn't, you know, I wasn't paid
more for that.
It wasn't very fun because itdidn't you know, I wasn't paid
more for that, but it just gaveme more work I had to do the
scheduling they're like.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
soon you will do it even without a raise, if we can
convince her.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, I was like what .
Speaker 4 (08:39):
But then at the end I was like, okay, I'll do it that
kind of reminds me, you becamethe head of the international
school in Tokyokyo, and I wantto know more about that because
it was actually in yokohamayokohama okay, which is like in
kanagawa prefecture, but yeahbecause it's not like you had an
education degree, no, andyou've never had to actually
teach, or you never taught kidsin a classroom setting.
(09:03):
So maybe you can talk aboutthat too.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I mean, it's not like I wanted that position, you
know, I just wanted to teachEnglish to little kids.
That's that's why I appliedthere.
Of course, we had to take anEnglish test, and we also had to
take this test.
It was kind of like apersonality test, and they said
that I was the best fit for theed for the position uh-huh yeah
(09:25):
and I was like no, so yousomehow got convinced in the end
, yep again, I somehow gotconvinced.
I was like, okay, I'll do it,which well, although it didn't
last long because it was justtoo stressful and you know I was
gonna say I wasn't qualified.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah I always wondered how that worked out,
because it didn't I thought well, but you've never taught.
How do you know how the systemworks?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I know well, I mean I had to come up with the
curriculums and everything.
I had to decide what materialsto use.
Um, I had to think ofeverything which was like, oh, I
can't do this.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It's international school, so I guess a lot of the
kids are taught to speak Englishmostly, right.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, so Japanese was not allowed.
You weren't at all allowed tospeak Japanese.
Yeah, but you know, they werelittle kids, so of course some
was speaking Japanese, but theteachers will be like, no, you
have to speak English here.
And I was the only person whowas allowed to speak Japanese
Out of everyone.
I was like I was like, okay,actually I didn't really speak
(10:30):
English, which is like what Iwanted to do in the first place
but my position was like no, youdon't need to speak English,
you just need to speak Japanese,and you know oh my gosh, that's
too funny, I know.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
So basically you applied for something else, but
then you got dragged intosomething bigger.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, and yeah, and the reason why I quit was well,
first off, it was stressful andI knew I wasn't qualified for
that position.
But I also thought if I had achild I would want to send him
or her oh yeah, school to thatschool where I was working like,
where I was ahead, because youknow, I had no idea what I was
doing.
I was like, yep, so I'm gonnaquit yeah well, was it a good
(11:11):
experience?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
at least not really, not really.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I mean, I took some great pictures, okay, yeah, I
want to see the yearbook, or areyou?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
in it, like I want to see the yearbook, or are you in
it?
Like I want to see a photosomewhere in school or in some
book form.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
No, I don't have it.
No, I don't have it.
Oh yeah, but I do have somepictures from when I was working
there.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Uh-huh, yeah, and this was in your 20s.
I was 25.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Very young.
I worked overtime all the timeoh.
I'm sure, sure, I worked on theweekends and yeah, and I didn't
get paid for those.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Oh geez, yeah, yeah.
Well, good thing you quit, yeah, especially because if you were
not speaking English, andthat's what you wanted to do
here.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I don't know.
I'm like yeah, yeah.
They should just hire someonemore like managerial, that that
wanted that yeah, and there wereother people who totally looked
like, you know, the principalof a school.
I was like what?
Why a stupid personality test?
(12:25):
But hey, you got convinced it'seasy to convince me, though, so
it is.
I always get convinced.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I mean I'm like okay, domo, and I know that right,
don't want me, oh yeah she'll belike okay, yeah, I'm like, even
if it's not fun for me.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I'd be like, okay, I'll do it, I feel bad for me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I feel bad for me.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Self-pity.
Okay, cody, what about your job?
Okay, so my first job was backin 2000.
This was the summer of freshmanyear in college, at OSU, and I
was 19?
I could have been 20, but Ithink it was 19.
It was also in Japan, because Iwanted to work and get
(13:18):
experience in Japan.
At that point pretty much grewup in the US.
Three of us went to school aswell.
We participated in differenthigh schools Maybe, you told me,
and Sumi went to the same highschool, I can't recall, but for
the summer, taiken yugaku, whichwe did, yeah, for at least,
yeah, a week or two or something.
So then after that I thought youknow what?
(13:39):
I'm gonna be off for the summerand I really want an experience
working in japan.
So I was talking to my dad, andour dad is from the northern
part of Japan, close to Sendai.
He somehow helped me get thisjob during the summer, which was
(14:00):
to work at the internationalhotel by the Sendai train
station.
So it was right off the trainstation and it was, you know,
basically a multi-story hotel.
I worked there for the entiresummer, since our parents were
not living in Sendai, becausetheir home is in Miet Prefecture
(14:26):
, which is in Kansai, which islike more south of central, sort
of yeah, sort of Near Osaka,close to Nagoya.
I stayed with our grandparents.
They lived in a home nearSendai and my position basically
was a bell girl, kind of like abell boy who helps people with
(14:50):
luggage at the hotels.
I was a girl version of thatand since it was international
hotel, I think it was a good fit, because the people who came to
this hotel were mostlyforeigners and of course, not
all the Japanese people speakEnglish very well.
I felt I helped a lot and thepeople who worked there also
(15:16):
spoke English, but the level wasobviously different.
They know the basics, what tosay, they know how to check
customers in, but when theystart asking specific questions
there were sometimes theycouldn't understand or they
couldn't answer, so they wouldcall me over.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Did you ever get tipped?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I did not.
No, but I don't think theywould have allowed it anyway.
So I pretty much stood in thelobby the entire day.
I was there in the morninguntil in the afternoon and I did
not realize this until then.
Of course I was wearing uniformdifferent from everybody,
because I was basically quoteshort-term worker.
(15:58):
I wore a button-up shirt white,and then I wore a black skirt
and then low heels and I thoughtthe low heels would not hurt me
in any ways.
But I think it was second day Istarted to feel pain because I
had to stand all day, prettymuch most of the time just in
one spot, couldn't move around.
Like how many hours?
Very good question.
I think I was there by eightuntil five.
(16:21):
Whoa, that's a lot of standingtime.
Yeah, yeah, anyway, yeah, itwas just like pretty much whole
day and then the only break thatI had was basically lunch break
, which was like an hour.
There were two different typesof rooms at that hotel the
Japanese style rooms, which hadtatami, so you actually step up
to get into the room, and thenthey had Western rooms where
(16:44):
it's like carpeted, where youcan just walk in with shoes.
So I was happy when I had totake the luggage up to the
customers' rooms where theydecided to stay in the
Japanese-style rooms.
Then I could take my shoes offfor a little bit to take the
luggage in.
And I was always told fromworkers around me that I know
your feet hurt, but you cannottake your shoes off even if
(17:06):
you're in the elevator byyourself.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But no one would see.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I know right, but no one would see, I know right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
No, was it like a pointy toed?
Heel no, it wasn't pointy, itwas like round.
Okay, what about like the heels?
Was it like pointed or chunky,or wedge chunky?
Well then, you should havesucked it up.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That sounds fine yeah , were they, just were they new,
like new shoes?
Yeah, they were new shoes.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
But I was not used to it and it was like every single
day and so, like my feet hurt,obviously, I think all the
ladies knew that it would hurtand so that was torturous.
But aside from that, I had agood experience.
I mean, I met a lot of people.
There was a guy who came up tome, was impressed with how much
English I spoke.
I told him obviously I lived inthe States and I was just doing
(17:50):
this for the summer, and hesaid hey, I have a question for
you.
I said, yeah, how do you bow?
You know, because a lot ofJapanese people bow, and so I
showed it to him.
And then he said and what's thetiming?
Like how often?
And I guess I never reallythought about it because you
just do it naturally.
You know, it was just remindingme of when we were talking about
how much we bow, yeah.
(18:11):
So he was asking me obviouslywe bow when we greet each other
or when we see each other, notwith like close friends or
families, or maybe you do, butsomebody that you have respect
for, and then when you'reapologizing, that's when yeah,
that's what we talked about inone of the episodes how much you
have to bet anyway.
So that was an interestingconversation I had so that was
(18:33):
my summer.
I mean from there.
Yes, I didn't know anyone,though, because we never lived
there.
It was just our dad who's grewup there, and we went out to
karaoke one time.
So that was fun, and I wasactually glad that they invited
me, because I was the onlyteenager and the rest were in
their 20s 30s.
What about you, tomo?
What was your first job?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, my first job was when I was 19 or 20.
So that was like five years ago.
I was in Japan.
It was either my freshman orsophomore year of college.
I went back to Japan for thesummer.
I wanted to do somethingbecause there wasn't a whole lot
to do in my hometown.
It's not like my friends Istill kept in touch with from
(19:14):
elementary.
So I didn't want to be bored.
So I went for interviews inmultiple locations and first of
all, I thought it was veryinteresting that everywhere I
went for a part time interview,the first place was ramen store
inside.
The mall Manager told me youshouldn't put your elbow on the
table.
I was like oh, okay, sorry, Ididn't know that.
(19:34):
You know you were going to talkabout mannerism at this
interview, but a part time toyou know, I just thought that
was kind of strange, but I waslike, okay, and then I didn't
hear back from him.
And then I don't know where elseI went.
The place I ended up was thepizza place.
He also mentioned that Ishouldn't have arrived on time
for the interview, that I shouldhave been like 10, 15 minutes
(19:56):
earlier, and I'm like, oh mygosh, these people seriously
like it's just a part time job,but anyway, I just thought okay.
But he told me he was reallyinterested in the US culture and
that I was lucky.
I really want to know about theUS, so I want to hire you.
So he did, and he wanted me totell him how to say all the
ingredients in English.
Very interesting, I don'tremember how often I got paid or
(20:19):
how much it was like, whetherit was biweekly or weekly or so
I don't even know how long Iworked there.
Maybe in our hometown, it's inrural part of Japan, yeah, so
when cody and I were still incollege, they moved back to
japan, to our hometown where wegrew up, because they had that.
I kept the house and rented itout for a little bit, but either
(20:41):
way, they kept the house.
So when we would go back home,it was like our hometown still.
So, yeah, my hometown.
I didn't keep in touch withanybody.
It's not like I had friendsanymore to hang out with.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So that's why I decided to work because it's
been like over a decade, yeah,yeah well, yeah, it's been a
couple decades now, but um no,but back then, when you had a
job, it was like a decade, yeahthat I returned but yeah, it was
very interesting because, youknow, I started out making pizza
, but the ingredients aredifferent.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Uh, I think there was only one pizza with, like,
tomato sauce based, andeverything else was like more
japanese, like, uh, mayo based,teriyaki based, I forget what
else.
And then they were all veryunique.
They there was one with shrimpon it, there were some with
mochi on it, um, I don'tremember what else, but they
(21:36):
were so good and the sizes, likethe largest, their large was
probably us small, right, it was.
They were small.
Small was like for one person,I feel, and then like a one
average person, uh, and then themedium, but anyway, they called
it size s, m and l.
(21:57):
And when I got to startanswering the phone calls for
order, I was told I can't askthe customers, do you want a
small, medium or large?
Because they don't understandthat.
So they, I have.
I had to say do you want size s, size m or size l?
Because they don't understandthat.
So they, I have.
I had to say do you want size S, size M or size L?
Because they don't actuallyknow what they stand for.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So I thought that was kind of interesting because you
said it in English, which isalso a term.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, I said would you like a size small?
Would you like a size medium, alarge?
And then later when I got offthe call is when my manager said
oh, they don't understand small, medium, large, just say s, m
and l.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I just remember that being like oh okay, when we grew
up before we even moved thiswas in the 80s, slash 90s there
wasn't a pizza place.
Like we never grew up eatingpizza.
No, I mean maybe they.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
It did exist, but how would we have known what was
around?
That is, maybe it did exist butwe definitely did not grow up
eating pizza at all until wecame to the us.
I don't even know if I knewwhat pizza was I mean, you know,
I think it's really cool thatjapan has their own version of
pizza, like menus, and then evenmcdonald's too is different in
(23:19):
japan you know like fast foodyeah they have like shrimp and
teriyaki, this and all kinds ofstuff that's more suitable for,
I guess, japanese people thatalso.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I realize, as I've traveled around, that it's
catered to each country Makessense.
And also when you said, likemochi pizza, was the mochi
actually the dough?
Or you mean like the actualmochi stuff was on the pizza as
a topping.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Mochi cubes were on top and I know in the US people
eat it as a dessert, but it'snot dessert over there.
I mean it is.
It can't.
They do have like mochidesserts, but the most common
ones are just plain mochi cookedfor savory taste.
There's no flavor, yeah but youcan add flavors to it or wrap
(24:05):
seaweed to it.
I believe this pizza had mochiand dry seaweed on top or
something.
At the end.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
It was so good it was really good yeah, the dessert
ones have flavors likestrawberries or usually like
fruity is that in the us, thoughnot in japan, right?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
oh, you mean like okay so in japan so in japan
they have daifuku, they have a,a whole strawberry, but in the
US how they make it is likestrawberry-flavored mochi.
The mochi itself is pink.
And then you don't actually seestrawberry, they have like ice
cream inside.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
We actually have those too in Japan.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, but daifuku is more common where they have
actual strawberries inside themochi.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, with red bean right.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Red, white.
The mochi, yeah, with a redbean right, red, red, red.
So those are the dessertversion, like you said, and then
the plain version is just white.
It's unflavored.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It could be in soup or I guess it could be a topping
on the pizza, but that's coolor you can eat it by itself, but
it's made by pounding rice overand over, which is a very, very
common new year's food.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Sometimes they're in um okonomiyaki really I should
try.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
That is, savory pancakes, like koreans also have
this too.
So what position did you have?
You picked up their phones?
Did you do delivery also?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I did all but delivery.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I made it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I took orders.
It was.
No one came to the window, itwas by phone only.
Oh, I see it's just a pickupplace.
Yeah, I think maybe peoplecould drive up to the place and
pick up their order, but I don'trecall people actually coming
by and picking up, so maybe itwas delivery only.
I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I don't remember no dine in, no sit down, no just a
kitchen.
So what was the most popularpizza?
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I think mochi.
Yeah, I think so Because Iremember for the longest time
thinking that's kind of strange.
Why is this so popular?
And why would you put mochi onpizza?
I don't know.
I just thought it was kind ofweird Because I felt like that
was combining something that'stoo Japanese and too not
Japanese together and I didn'tthink it would work.
(26:17):
But then when I had it, it wasso good.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Did you guys?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
order it to take it home.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Did you do that often ?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
I'm sure you had discount too.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, I don't remember I don't remember how
much I got paid or how often Igot paid or how much the pizzas
were I think they were prettypricey, but they were good.
I just thought it was veryinteresting because, you know,
when I worked there my mentalitygoing in was it's just a part
time job, you know, but peoplewere very serious there yeah,
japan takes customer servicevery seriously.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It's not just customer service.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But like your work ethic, they're like please don't
think like it's a part-time jobkind of thing oh, yeah, like be
loyal yeah, they expect a lotyeah all into this.
I mean, I had so much fun, I wascracking up a lot.
They were very serious aboutcleanliness too, which was great
.
You know, the place was veryclean always, but like they were
(27:09):
, everybody was very seriousabout the job.
But we did have a lot of fun,like it was like a lot of laughs
, joke, joking around, um, butyou know, if we had time to just
stand around we were doingsomething basically which is
different for a part-time job.
I keep saying it's a part-timejob because it was in my mind,
(27:29):
you know.
Thanks for joining us today.
Don't forget to review SisterVibes and make sure to subscribe
on the app of your choice soyou don't miss our upcoming
episodes.
Until next time.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Ja ne, I should have seen through it right from the
start, but I chose to give itall away.
And now I'm sitting here,brokenhearted, want to come and
give me a break, cause I've beenwaiting for so long for someone
(28:05):
to rescue me and if youcontinue to pull my heartstrings
out,
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