Ours in exile: how Belarusians live in Japan

In the 16 years, he hated anime, and closer to the 30 years he moved to Osaka - the third largest prefecture in Japan. In May of last year, Belarusian Alexander was taken to develop artificial intelligence for the concierge to the company, where, fortunately, it is not necessary to know Japanese perfectly.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

Alexander told the story of relocation and adaptation in Japan 34 Travel.

I was born, grew up and lived most of my life in Minsk, periodically wandering around the world. Why went to Japan? Even 10-15 years ago, this was excluded - in my youth I was animekheyterom.

As a child, on the dusty shelves of the library of my grandfather and grandmother I came across a book by Pronnikova and Ladanov, “The Japanese”, and I read it to holes. Already in university times, someone brought flash drives with electronic manuals, on which, among other things, several episodes of anime were recordedClaymore". First I looked at a couple of episodes for nothing to do, and then I got involved. From about this time I began to study everything about Asia and Japan: from pop culture to history - the approach was very thorough. This resulted in a tourist trip for two weeks, good, the salary of the IT specialist allowed.

Work searches

Upon returning, I waited for a not very pleasant surprise: our office was reduced, and after five years of work I had to quit. I decided to try my luck in Japan. It took several months and a couple of hundred resumes, and the response was good if a third of them. Only about a dozen reached more or less extensive correspondence and first interviews, and only a couple gave ghostly hope. On one of the options and stopped. Eichar turned out to be a pretty girl from Vladivostok, who graduated from school and university on “japanity” and moved.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

Documents

The main difficulty in finding a job in Japan is to get the recruiter / employer to agree to accept you, then the overwhelming part of the headache falls on the employer's shoulders. He prepares a separate package of documents and sends them to the immigration department.

The list of documents for the employee is on the website of the embassy, ​​but the employer, or acting on his behalf attorney, he will once again paint all the points. If the employer is silent, then it is better to send him, he darkens.

As a rule, the employer compensates the flight to the place of work, but small companies can also offer at their own expense. Questions on housing are discussed separately. As a rule, for the first time, housing is also provided by the tenant, either free of charge, or assisted with rent and partial payment.

Interview

The project, which was offered to me, was unexpected, but intriguing - the development of artificial intelligence concierge for the hotel and restaurant business. This made it possible to use both working skills and low-useful linguistic education. Initially, I was looking for work as a support / admin / team lead.

The interview with the employer was funny. According to etiquette, it was supposed to appear on Skype-call at 5 in the morning, Minsk time, in a suit, with a full parade in the form of a tie.

And I have a costume from the time of school graduation, and I only got into my jacket, praying that during the conversation I didn’t have to get up from the table and bow. But the "big boss" contacted sleep and mint T-shirt, and all fears instantly disappeared. Perhaps the fact is that the boss is Taiwanese.

Our company is not very "traditionally Japanese." English was the working language, and the relatively meager abilities to Japanese did not become a hindrance. Although the main reason for refusal to foreigners - it is their lack of knowledge of the language or the lack of a certificate, in the common people - JLPT.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

Bureaucracy

I came quite ordinary: a suitcase, an early flight from Minsk with a transfer in Frankfurt. But the realization that you are here seriously and for a long time, it came only two weeks later, changing the feeling of euphoria. At first, he was just wandering around the city, getting used to the thoughts crawling in his head. Gradually, they were replaced by domestic issues.

The first thing a foreigner has to do upon arrival and settlement is to get a stamp on the address registration on the “Zayryu Kado”, resident card, at the local mayor's office to which the house is assigned. When moving, you need to come to the mayor's office again at least for 2 weeks and check out, then fit into the new mayor's office.

A Japanese address is needed in many places. To get medical and social insurance, to get a bank account, to conclude a contract with a mobile operator, etc. Fortunately, there are no particular difficulties, and the “terrible bureaucratic machine” of Japan turns out to be very well-adjusted and even, so to speak, friendly.

Security

Japan is extremely safe, especially for a foreigner, even on a dark night in the local red light district. Such establishments are usually disguised as tea houses, where upstairs you are served tea with sweets, and what you then do with the waitress is a personal matter of two adults. The maximum that threatens you is an annoying barker, but if there is no desire to spend the entire salary in one evening, it is better to go by.

The theft also does not flourish, even if in the subway, just in case, posters from the “salariman, drank - be a man” series are hung.

Tips are not accepted here, as well as the CIS-shnoe "don’t be necessary". Even if you bought some small change and did not wait for two yen surrender, you will be hailed or caught up. The exception in terms of tips - tattoo studios, but even there it is better to first ask, but to call it a “gift”, a “modest offering” is no different. Money is better to put in an envelope.

Shops

You can buy anything here, and chain stores and grocery supermarkets - at every step. The only problem that a European may be taller than average (in my case, 187) is the lack of proper dimensions. The Japanese are quite thin with narrow shoulders.

You have to be content with specialized shops or order via the Internet, which is usually cheaper even with delivery. Plus, all sorts of promotions are constantly being held: for example, Timberland shoes online on the website of a large chain of shoe stores ABC-March can be bought for 12-15 thousand yen ($ 113-140), whereas in a physical store they will cost 20 thousand ( $ 188).

For the most part, Japan was and remains a “cash oriented”, i.e. preferring cash, although in cities cities accept quite calmly.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

Food

Japanese love to eat. If the Japanese got out of the country in the overseas trip, you can wait for a bunch of photos of "wonderful overseas food."

The main products are rice, noodles of all shapes and colors, chicken and marine life. By the way, most of the programs on the main channels of Japanese TV are cooking shows according to the scenario: “Now our correspondent is in a deaf fishing village, the locals caught some little-known science reptile ... Well, I don’t know you, but I’ll try you.”

Meat is quite expensive, fruit, in addition to "seasonal" is also relatively expensive, but not critical. The local "madhouse", the combination of the incongruous, is also found. All sorts of whale-katy with wasabi, potato chips in chocolate, cakes with the taste of melon and cream cheese and so on. True, it is more for tourists.

Business etiquette

In my company, the day begins with 10 in the morning, we throw in standard 8 hours plus the optional lunch hour, we get seven in the evening. But immediately no one leaves. The Japanese prefer at least 20-30 minutes, but to linger, even if this overtime, or sangye, in Japanese, is not paid.

Business etiquette is also a topic worthy of a thesis. But, as a rule, it is worth adhering to simple principles: to greet the office, with the boss - separately, and if the company is small, then it is possible with each employee. Handshakes are not accepted, simply say the politely-standard "Ohio Gozaimas" in the morning or "Kannichiva" in the afternoon, optionally, you can give a light bow.

If you need to leave somewhere, the rules of polite tone oblige to warn colleagues with the words "I will go away" or "ittekimas". So that they do not think that you are going to just go to sneak, the name of the place is added to ittekimas. For example, “combination ittekis” (“I am in the shop”) or “jubileku / ginko ittekis” (“I am in the mail / in the bank”). The answer to ittekisis is the wish to “come back soon,” “itterash.” But this does not always mean that they are waiting for you with impatience.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

Accomodation

Rent - almost the main item of expenditure for the average resident who does not have his own house or apartment. Approximate prices for a one-room apartment or studio 15-30 square meters of total area in Osaka, the third largest population in the region of Japan - 30-90 thousand yen ($ 280-850) per month, depending on the age of the building, area of ​​location and number of floors. The higher, the more expensive.

Add the cost of a communal: water, gas, electricity, Internet - around 10-15 thousands ($ 95-140), fees for an elevator, stairs (common areas) - something around 5 thousands ($ 47). For Tokyo, these prices can be increased by 15-20 percent.

To move in, you have to stock up on the amount of three or four times more than the monthly rent. This includes a deposit in the 1-2 equivalent of the rent months, then “ki mani”, that is, irrevocable thanks to the landlord in the amount of the monthly rent; lock change fees, fire insurance, real estate agent fees, and so on. Options without payments, except for insurance, are found. But less often, and foreigners settle in them are not eager.

The walls ... Slightly exaggerated, but I recall a phrase from the Soviet book: “Is the audibility good? Yes, what audibility, visibility! ". Interior walls are thin, so making noises and disturbing neighbors is not at all accepted. At home, a Japanese man can watch TV with headphones, so as not to disturb anyone.

Now I live in our company Shair-House (a house for joint lease), which, in combination, is a hostel. I felt the differences in the noise levels of the peoples of the world, mainly from Asia. Filipinos, Taiwanese, and others are nice and welcome neighbors: whether you have them at all or not, you cannot guess.

City and people

The city, of course, like it, although it is a typical Asian metropolis. Its population is under three million, not counting the satellites and the prefecture, where more than ten million inhabitants.

Another talk of the town - ideally smooth roads. Somewhere on the network a video about an earthquake was walking, after which an impressive failure appeared on the road. Repaired. For the 3 of the day. And there is no trace left. Cracks and potholes are sealed so that it is very difficult to notice them. Beloved by our road builders, this is not practiced here either.

I remember that something happened like a state of emergency on a local scale: the pedestrian traffic lights stopped working on one of the streets. Instantly, a traffic police squad appeared there and controlled traffic while the traffic light was repaired. And my grandfather, who was busy with passing pedestrians, every time when it was necessary to start a stream of cars, turned to those who were waiting at the crossing, he bowed and apologized for the forced delay. Perhaps for someone such politeness is too cloying, but it does not irritate me.

Transport

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

In Osaka, there are eight main metro lines, plus a monorail connecting Osaka with the satellite city, Suita, as well as the fully automated New Tram unmanned ring line. More 120 stations are deep underground or high above it, so get ready to walk a lot.

Untrained tourists like to be frightened by the fact that Japan is overcrowded, and special stations in white gloves are stuffing people into the carriages of people at the stations. Yes, there is, but the phenomenon is not particularly frequent.

Trains run clearly every fifteen minutes, and you can always wait for the next one. Rarely, but it happens that the train is delayed, and then everyone who is late can contact the station worker and get an official form, which says: "Your employee did not oversleep, apologize for the annoying and unforgivable delay of transport."

Cars for women only exist, this is also true. Usually this is the third car in the train, and on the platform it is stated: “From the first train to 9 in the morning, the car for women stops only on weekdays”. De jure, of course, he is purely female only until 9 in the morning, but de facto - and after that.

Buses in the city are also available, but you can walk to the necessary points from the same metro. Popular bikes. Taxis are expensive, but damn comfortable. And yes, the myth of taxi drivers in white gloves and automatic doors is not a myth at all.

Photo: Takashi Yasui and from the personal archive of the hero material

"Berarushi"

The Japanese differentiate working and non-working communication, so even if you and your Japanese colleague drank and fought yesterday, do not be surprised if in the morning he meets you in the office with an officially cold Good Day. This does not mean that he was offended, just at work you need to think about work.

Surprisingly, it is much easier for a Belarusian or even a resident of a certain country to “make no mistake” to make acquaintance. As a Colombian colleague said, “Well, that is America, America everyone knows, but Belarus ...”.

And he is right. With the so-called "small sense" between you and the Japanese in the first three questions are guaranteed to be "Where are you from?". You answer that from Belarus (in Japanese it sounds like “Berarushi”, because they have no “l” sound), and then the most interesting. The Japanese are easier to immediately ask: "And this is where?". Someone with a pretense of intellect, will first wrinkle his forehead, saying “Berarushi-Berarushi”, then in the same way will be taken aback: “Where is it?”.

Mutual language

Another reason to make acquaintance and at the same time a hindrance can be that the Japanese are sad with English. In my memory, only a few people were able to overcome the constraint and come to practice "Eigo" (English).

Near the Osaka castle, an old and old grandfather in a hat with earflaps, apparently from the time of the Second World War, decided to tell the “terrible foreigner” that the castle, say, Adzuchi-Momoyama, and the slopes of the roof resemble wings of birds. And it seemed disappointed that I tried to respond in Japanese.

In Kyoto, near the railway museum, two salarists asked whether they were married or not, whether in Japan for a long time what they liked, what I like to eat (I already said they have a fad) and so on. Well, in Okayama, in the garden of Koraku-en, an elderly woman in black kimono thanked for the visit and told why the boulder near the temple was first sawn and then reassembled.

At work, they also show interest, but, alas, they are worse off with English. And I still do not have everything smoothly with the spoken Japanese, so the dialogues resemble the linguist’s eerie nightmare.

So making friends is easy. But the Japanese clearly divide things into “internal” and “external”, and in the very internal, which includes his personal views and thoughts, he will not let in a foreigner, at least not soon.

My impression of the country is overwhelmingly positive and, if not expelled, I would like to stay here to live.

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