SisterVibes
A podcast hosted by three sisters with a lifetime of stories and insights to share. From growing up in Japan to now living across three continents, we've gone through life's twists and turns. Join us as we dive into our cherished childhood memories, offer our unique perspectives on a wide range of topics, and recount our humble experiences living in different parts of the world. Despite long distances and scheduling conflicts that have kept us physically apart for years, we're here to give you a glimpse of what it's like to have sisters, regardless of the miles that separate us. Are we still the same as we used to be, or have we grown and changed along the way living in diverse locations? Stay tuned; we hope you’ll be entertained!
SisterVibes
14. Blowfish, Bellgirl & Pizza: Our First Jobs in Japan
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.
Thanks for listening! Don't forget to review SisterVibes and subscribe so you won't miss our upcoming episodes.
Thanks for listening! Don't forget to review SisterVibes and subscribe so you won't miss our upcoming episodes.
Follow us on Instagram @sistervibes_podcast.
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).
I gotta get you out of my system. I gotta get you off of my mind. But how do I move on when no one compares? They only keep me occupied. I try to shake them off so desperately but you pull them tighter, string me along. You said but I'm so gone.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back. Today. We thought it would be fun to talk about our first jobs in Japan, each of us. So, sumi, where did you work at your first part-time job and how old were you? How was your experience? She's thinking about it.
Speaker 3:My very first part-time job was in my second year of university. I was 20 years old. I was working as a waitress at a restaurant that specialized in blowfish.
Speaker 2: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 restaurant must have been very unique it was.
Speaker 3:It was a high-end restaurant, was pretty pricey, and it was actually the first time that I ever tasted blowfish, right, yeah, so the restaurant served course meals, and the course meal consisted of pizza, which is like blowfish sashimi or raw blowfish, and then there was blowfish tempura, which was my personal favorite out of all the dishes. It was really good. And then there was hechiri, which is like a hot pot with blowfish and various vegetables like green onions, mushrooms, chinese cabbage. There was rice porridge with eggs using that remaining broth from the hot pot, and then there was dessert. I think it was like frozen yogurt or something like that. Of course, that didn't consist of blowfish.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, so like tempura, for example, it doesn't come in a whole like blowfish form, right, right, okay, just slice it up. Yeah, I wonder, I don't know much about blowfish, like you know, interior anatomy, but um, I wonder if there's like a sack that's poisonous that they remove yeah, I think it's something like this.
Speaker 4:I think it's part of them is poisonous and that's poisonous that they remove. Yeah, I think it's something like this. I think it's part of them is poisonous and that's why, like you, also need specialized, licensed yeah, chefs to prepare, because people have died from eating it yeah, yeah, I believe so.
Speaker 2:Do they have alcohol Fugu infused?
Speaker 3:Yes, it was called hirezake. What? Okay, so they would take the fin of the blowfish they would like completely dry it out, they would dip it into Japanese sake and it was served like that, with the fin inside the sake.
Speaker 2:I wonder if that's just to add flavor right. Not to like, intensify the alcohol content.
Speaker 4:No, I don't think so intensify the alcohol content?
Speaker 2:no, I don't think so, but for some reason, when I picture fugu sake or fugu alcohol, I picture it to be infused in something really strong. I don't know why, don't you? Just because they're like such a poisonous being like?
Speaker 4:yeah, so how did you decide to work there? Oh, um, did you see an ad somewhere, or what was the?
Speaker 3:reason.
Speaker 4:Because it's so unique, I think.
Speaker 3:So, first of all, the reason why I started looking for a job is because my friend had gotten a new job and so I was like, OK, I guess I'll get a job too. And I was looking through some ads and this restaurant because it was such a high end restaurant, they paid pretty well, and that was the reason why I applied there.
Speaker 3:And you worked as a waitress For about a year it was in Shibuya, tokyo, which is where my university 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 restaurants in Japan they don't tip usually.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so in Japan we don't have a tipping system. It's pretty uncommon. So if you would tip at a restaurant they would probably think that you forgot the money and they will probably chase after you to give it back to you. It's that uncommon. But this particular place place because it was such a fancy restaurant. Most of our customers were like company executives or celebrities or you know, people who just use the restaurant for special occasions like anniversaries or not right yeah, so sometimes we would get tips and that was pretty cool because it was pretty uncommon.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it still is, especially when it was back in 2000, early 2000s which was like 20 years ago. Yeah, interesting Any famous people that you met. You said that you saw some celebrities. I did.
Speaker 3: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 quite surprising, because I thought they would tip me pretty well, you know. I was pretty friendly, of course, but extra friendly.
Speaker 2:But when you grow up in a system where you're not used to that, maybe I mean they're kind of old school because they're older too, but maybe they just it didn't cross their mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, probably, yeah I would think so did you get?
Speaker 4:their autograph no you didn't ask for a selfie. No, no, no, we didn't have selfies back then. There was no such thing. Oh, you mean with a disposable camera or something. Wait, do we have cell phones? Then, yeah, I had a phone. Oh yeah but it wasn't like a smartphone, it was a flip phone, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but we were trained not to ask for autographs or pictures if celebrities came in.
Speaker 4:That makes sense, Because it's kind of rude. I guess, and this is a time you want to relax and be away from the we want it to be classy right.
Speaker 2:It's kind of worth getting fired over, though, if it's like just a part-time job but you know it paid pretty well and you know, and they tipped, so it was well.
Speaker 3:Most of the people that tipped were, I think, company executives. That's cool. Did you have a? Uniform uh, yes, we did have a uniform. It was kind of like Jinbe, but with pants instead of shorts. Okay, how would you explain?
Speaker 2:Jinbe. Very casual summer version of kimono.
Speaker 4:Without the layers Too many layers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without all the layers. It's not a fancy material, it's very casual. It wasn't very cute, it was navy, it wasn't very cute.
Speaker 3:No top to bottom it was navy. And then there was, uh, we had to wear an apron, like a waist apron.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay and then we had to wear this like scarf thing around our neck, which was like red. 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. It was or was not? It wasn't, it wasn't. It wasn't a cute look at all. No, that sounds weird, but because Blowfish was in season in February I don't know if it still is now, I guess it is. It was the busiest month of the year and we had to wear kimono rather than our usual uniform, so that was kind of fun nice, but how did you put that kimono on?
Speaker 4:because kimono is layered and I feel like you need someone to assist you. We've never had to put it on by ourselves. We can't really speak for yourself.
Speaker 2:You can do it on your own. I made an attempt.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, it's so hard, but anyway, okay, yeah, so there was this lady who worked there for like 10 years maybe, so she taught me how to put a put on a kimono and later on I just yeah, I was able to put it on myself, although I don't remember it now yeah, I, I've tried on yukata, which is like a less formal version and less layers.
Speaker 2:But the bow I watched on tutorial how to do it in the front like the obi bow and then turn it around to the back and I've done. But I've never done like a bunch of layers, and all that with kimono.
Speaker 4:Like traditional kimono. Yeah, do you want to talk about the position, how you became a manager?
Speaker 3:Well, I was a part-timer, but eventually, I don't know how it happened, but I became the part-time leader, which wasn't very fun because it didn't, you know, I wasn't paid more for that. It wasn't very fun because it didn't you know, I wasn't paid more for that, but it just gave me more work I had to do the scheduling they're like.
Speaker 2:soon you will do it even without a raise, if we can convince her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like what.
Speaker 4:But then at the end I was like, okay, I'll do it that kind of reminds me, you became the head of the international school in Tokyokyo, and I want to know more about that because it was actually in yokohama yokohama okay, which is like in kanagawa prefecture, but yeah because it's not like you had an education degree, no, and you've never had to actually teach, or you never taught kids in a classroom setting. So maybe you can talk about that too.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's not like I wanted that position, you know, I just wanted to teach English to little kids. That's that's why I applied there. Of course, we had to take an English test, and we also had to take this test. It was kind of like a personality test, and they said that I was the best fit for the ed for the position uh-huh yeah and I was like no, so you somehow got convinced in the end, yep again, I somehow got convinced.
Speaker 3:I was like, okay, I'll do it, which well, although it didn't last long because it was just too stressful and you know I was gonna say I wasn't qualified.
Speaker 4: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 system works?
Speaker 3:I know well, I mean I had to come up with the curriculums and everything. I had to decide what materials to use. Um, I had to think of everything which was like, oh, I can't do this.
Speaker 4:It's international school, so I guess a lot of the kids are taught to speak English mostly, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Japanese was not allowed. You weren't at all allowed to speak Japanese. Yeah, but you know, they were little kids, so of course some was speaking Japanese, but the teachers will be like, no, you have to speak English here. And I was the only person who was allowed to speak Japanese Out of everyone. I was like I was like, okay, actually I didn't really speak English, which is like what I wanted to do in the first place but my position was like no, you don'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:So basically you applied for something else, but then you got dragged into something bigger.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and yeah, and the reason why I quit was well, first off, it was stressful and I knew I wasn't qualified for that position. But I also thought if I had a child I would want to send him or her oh yeah, school to that school where I was working like, where I was ahead, because you know, I had no idea what I was doing. I was like, yep, so I'm gonna quit yeah well, was it a good experience?
Speaker 4:at least not really, not really.
Speaker 3:I mean, I took some great pictures, okay, yeah, I want to see the yearbook, or are you?
Speaker 4:in it, like I want to see the yearbook, or are you in it? Like I want to see a photo somewhere in school or in some book form.
Speaker 3:No, I don't have it. No, I don't have it. Oh yeah, but I do have some pictures from when I was working there.
Speaker 4:Uh-huh, yeah, and this was in your 20s. I was 25.
Speaker 3:Very young. I worked overtime all the time oh. I'm sure, sure, I worked on the weekends and yeah, and I didn't get paid for those.
Speaker 4:Oh geez, yeah, yeah. Well, good thing you quit, yeah, especially because if you were not speaking English, and that's what you wanted to do here.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I'm like yeah, yeah. They should just hire someone more like managerial, that that wanted that yeah, and there were other people who totally looked like, you know, the principal of a school. I was like what? Why a stupid personality test? But hey, you got convinced it's easy to convince me, though, so it is. I always get convinced.
Speaker 4:I mean I'm like okay, domo, and I know that right, don't want me, oh yeah she'll be like okay, yeah, I'm like, even if it's not fun for me.
Speaker 3:I'd be like, okay, I'll do it, I feel bad for me.
Speaker 1:I feel bad for me.
Speaker 4:Self-pity. Okay, cody, what about your job? Okay, so my first job was back in 2000. This was the summer of freshman year in college, at OSU, and I was 19? I could have been 20, but I think it was 19. It was also in Japan, because I wanted to work and get experience in Japan. At that point pretty much grew up in the US. Three of us went to school as well. We participated in different high schools Maybe, you told me, and Sumi went to the same high school, I can't recall, but for the summer, taiken yugaku, which we did, yeah, for at least, yeah, a week or two or something.
Speaker 4:So then after that I thought you know what? I'm gonna be off for the summer and I really want an experience working in japan. So I was talking to my dad, and our dad is from the northern part of Japan, close to Sendai. He somehow helped me get this job during the summer, which was to work at the international hotel by the Sendai train station. So it was right off the train station and it was, you know, basically a multi-story hotel.
Speaker 4:I worked there for the entire summer, since our parents were not living in Sendai, because their home is in Miet Prefecture, which is in Kansai, which is like more south of central, sort of yeah, sort of Near Osaka, close to Nagoya. I stayed with our grandparents. They lived in a home near Sendai and my position basically was a bell girl, kind of like a bell boy who helps people with luggage at the hotels. I was a girl version of that and since it was international hotel, I think it was a good fit, because the people who came to this hotel were mostly foreigners and of course, not all the Japanese people speak English very well. I felt I helped a lot and the people who worked there also spoke English, but the level was obviously different. They know the basics, what to say, they know how to check customers in, but when they start asking specific questions there were sometimes they couldn't understand or they couldn't answer, so they would call me over.
Speaker 2:Did you ever get tipped?
Speaker 4:I did not. No, but I don't think they would have allowed it anyway. So I pretty much stood in the lobby the entire day. I was there in the morning until in the afternoon and I did not realize this until then. Of course I was wearing uniform different from everybody, because I was basically quote short-term worker. I wore a button-up shirt white, and then I wore a black skirt and then low heels and I thought the low heels would not hurt me in any ways.
Speaker 4:But I think it was second day I started to feel pain because I had to stand all day, pretty much 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 eight until five. Whoa, that's a lot of standing time. Yeah, yeah, anyway, yeah, it was just like pretty much whole day and then the only break that I had was basically lunch break, which was like an hour.
Speaker 4:There were two different types of rooms at that hotel the Japanese style rooms, which had tatami, so you actually step up to get into the room, and then they had Western rooms where it's like carpeted, where you can just walk in with shoes. So I was happy when I had to take the luggage up to the customers' rooms where they decided to stay in the Japanese-style rooms. Then I could take my shoes off for a little bit to take the luggage in. And I was always told from workers around me that I know your feet hurt, but you cannot take your shoes off even if you're in the elevator by yourself.
Speaker 3:But no one would see.
Speaker 4:I know right, but no one would see, I know right.
Speaker 2:No, was it like a pointy toed? Heel no, it wasn't pointy, it was like round. Okay, what about like the heels? Was it like pointed or chunky, or wedge chunky? Well then, you should have sucked it up.
Speaker 3:That sounds fine yeah, were they, just were they new, like new shoes? Yeah, they were new shoes.
Speaker 4: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 hurt and so that was torturous. But aside from that, I had a good experience. I mean, I met a lot of people. There was a guy who came up to me, was impressed with how much English I spoke. I told him obviously I lived in the States and I was just doing this for the summer, and he said hey, I have a question for you. I said, yeah, how do you bow? You know, because a lot of Japanese people bow, and so I showed it to him. And then he said and what's the timing? Like how often? And I guess I never really thought about it because you just do it naturally.
Speaker 4:You know, it was just reminding me of when we were talking about how much we bow, yeah. So he was asking me obviously we bow when we greet each other or when we see each other, not with like close friends or families, or maybe you do, but somebody that you have respect for, and then when you're apologizing, that's when yeah, that's what we talked about in one of the episodes how much you have to bet anyway. So that was an interesting conversation I had so that was my summer.
Speaker 4:I mean from there. Yes, I didn't know anyone, though, because we never lived there. It was just our dad who's grew up there, and we went out to karaoke one time. So that was fun, and I was actually glad that they invited me, because I was the only teenager and the rest were in their 20s 30s. What about you, tomo? What was your first job?
Speaker 2: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 or sophomore year of college. I went back to Japan for the summer. I wanted to do something because there wasn't a whole lot to do in my hometown. It's not like my friends I still kept in touch with from elementary. So I didn't want to be bored. So I went for interviews in multiple locations and first of all, I thought it was very interesting that everywhere I went for a part time interview, the first place was ramen store inside. The mall Manager told me you shouldn't put your elbow on the table.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, okay, sorry, I didn't know that. You know you were going to talk about mannerism at this interview, but a part time to you know, I just thought that was kind of strange, but I was like, okay, and then I didn't hear back from him.
Speaker 2:And then I don't know where else I went. The place I ended up was the pizza place. He also mentioned that I shouldn't have arrived on time for the interview, that I should have been like 10, 15 minutes earlier, and I'm like, oh my gosh, these people seriously like it's just a part time job, but anyway, I just thought okay. But he told me he was really interested in the US culture and that I was lucky. I really want to know about the US, so I want to hire you. So he did, and he wanted me to tell him how to say all the ingredients in English. Very interesting, I don't remember how often I got paid or how much it was like, whether it was biweekly or weekly or so I don't even know how long I worked there.
Speaker 2:Maybe in our hometown, it's in rural part of Japan, yeah, so when cody and I were still in college, they moved back to japan, to our hometown where we grew up, because they had that. I kept the house and rented it out for a little bit, but either 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 with anybody. It's not like I had friends anymore to hang out with.
Speaker 4: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, yeah that I returned but yeah, it was very interesting because, you know, I started out making pizza, but the ingredients are different.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think there was only one pizza with, like, tomato sauce based, and everything else was like more japanese, like, uh, mayo based, teriyaki based, I forget what else. And then they were all very unique. They there was one with shrimp on it, there were some with mochi on it, um, I don't remember what else, but they were so good and the sizes, like the 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 the medium, but anyway, they called it size s, m and l. And when I got to start answering the phone calls for order, I was told I can't ask the customers, do you want a small, medium or large? Because they don't understand that. So they, I have. I had to say do you want size s, size m or size l? Because they don't understand that. So they, I have. I had to say do you want size S, size M or size L? Because they don't actually know what they stand for.
Speaker 4:So I thought that was kind of interesting because you said it in English, which is also a term.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said would you like a size small? Would you like a size medium, a large? And then later when I got off the call is when my manager said oh, they don't understand small, medium, large, just say s, m and l.
Speaker 4:I just remember that being like oh okay, when we grew up before we even moved this was in the 80s, slash 90s there wasn't a pizza place. Like we never grew up eating pizza. No, I mean maybe they.
Speaker 2:It did exist, but how would we have known what was around? That is, maybe it did exist but we definitely did not grow up eating pizza at all until we came to the us. I don't even know if I knew what pizza was I mean, you know, I think it's really cool that japan has their own version of pizza, like menus, and then even mcdonald's too is different in japan you know like fast food yeah they have like shrimp and teriyaki, this and all kinds of stuff that's more suitable for, I guess, japanese people that also.
Speaker 4:I realize, as I've traveled around, that it's catered to each country Makes sense. And also when you said, like mochi pizza, was the mochi actually the dough? Or you mean like the actual mochi stuff was on the pizza as a topping.
Speaker 2:Mochi cubes were on top and I know in the US people eat it as a dessert, but it's not dessert over there. I mean it is. It can't. They do have like mochi desserts, but the most common ones are just plain mochi cooked for savory taste. There's no flavor, yeah but you can add flavors to it or wrap seaweed to it. I believe this pizza had mochi and dry seaweed on top or something. At the end.
Speaker 4:It was so good it was really good yeah, the dessert ones have flavors like strawberries or usually like fruity is that in the us, though not in japan, right?
Speaker 2: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 like strawberry-flavored mochi. The mochi itself is pink. And then you don't actually see strawberry, they have like ice cream inside.
Speaker 3:We actually have those too in Japan.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but daifuku is more common where they have actual strawberries inside the mochi.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with red bean right.
Speaker 4:Red, white. The mochi, yeah, with a red bean right, red, red, red. So those are the dessert version, like you said, and then the plain version is just white. It's unflavored.
Speaker 2:It could be in soup or I guess it could be a topping on the pizza, but that's cool or you can eat it by itself, but it's made by pounding rice over and over, which is a very, very common new year's food.
Speaker 3:Sometimes they're in um okonomiyaki really I should try.
Speaker 4: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:I did all but delivery.
Speaker 4:I made it.
Speaker 2:I took orders. It was. No one came to the window, it was by phone only. Oh, I see it's just a pickup place. Yeah, I think maybe people could drive up to the place and pick up their order, but I don't recall people actually coming by and picking up, so maybe it was delivery only. I don't.
Speaker 4:I don't remember no dine in, no sit down, no just a kitchen. So what was the most popular pizza? Do you remember?
Speaker 2:I think mochi. Yeah, I think so Because I remember for the longest time thinking that's kind of strange. Why is this so popular? And why would you put mochi on pizza? I don't know. I just thought it was kind of weird Because I felt like that was combining something that's too Japanese and too not Japanese together and I didn't think it would work. But then when I had it, it was so good.
Speaker 4:Did you guys?
Speaker 2:order it to take it home.
Speaker 4:Did you do that often?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm sure you had discount too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't remember I don't remember how much I got paid or how often I got paid or how much the pizzas were I think they were pretty pricey, but they were good. I just thought it was very interesting because, you know, when I worked there my mentality going in was it's just a part time job, you know, but people were very serious there yeah, japan takes customer service very seriously.
Speaker 3:It's not just customer service.
Speaker 2:But like your work ethic, they're like please don't think like it's a part-time job kind of thing oh, yeah, like be loyal yeah, they expect a lot yeah all into this.
Speaker 2:I mean, I had so much fun, I was cracking up a lot. They were very serious about cleanliness too, which was great. You know, the place was very clean always, but like they were, everybody was very serious about the job. But we did have a lot of fun, like it was like a lot of laughs, joke, joking around, um, but you know, if we had time to just stand around we were doing something basically which is different for a part-time job.
Speaker 2:I keep saying it's a part-time job because it was in my mind, you know. Thanks for joining us today. Don't forget to review Sister Vibes and make sure to subscribe on the app of your choice so you don't miss our upcoming episodes. Until next time.
Speaker 1:Ja ne, I should have seen through it right from the start, but I chose to give it all away. And now I'm sitting here, brokenhearted, want to come and give me a break, cause I've been waiting for so long for someone to rescue me and if you continue to pull my heartstrings out,
