orientation and hot coffee

tuesday january 31, 2006



Orientation on Monday went alright. It took place at Nova headquarters located at Shibuya station. If you’re a Lost in Translation fan this is near the place where that crazy diagonal intersection lies and where you can see life-size dinosaurs walking across tall building fronts. I didn’t get to walk into the madness because Nova is located on the other side of the station but I’ll be sure to visit soon.


I decided to sport my vintage tweed suit and shoes from Stella Luna, I don't know how business-like this attire was but no one said anything. I suppose my branch manager will pull me aside and give me a talking to if it's inappropriate...sigh, gone are the days of bright coloured stockings and comfortable jeans and here are the days of black black black pin stripped pant suits, simple skirts and grrrr nylons! I hadn't worn a pair of nylons in YEARS but I got through the day alright, my legs felt smooth and crossing my legs was a new found forgotten experience ; )

Some peeps and I went out to a delicious sushi boat bar afterwards followed by happy hour at a British pub. I drank half price Shirley Temples that tasted a little like watered down strawberry Canada Coolers…delicious. That was my first drink in a week and it felt like months, do I have a problem? Amy, Dave, Alison, you don’t know me.

Had my first training day today and it went alright. The first half of the day was spent going step by step through our lessons then there was a little bit of role playing (insert clever comment here).

Tokyo is never ending. Every time I step out of a train station it’s like being at Yonge and Dundas amplified by ten. Huge malls, Gap, Starbucks, McDonalds, am pm convenient stores and 100 yen shops aka dollar stores cover every inch of the horizon. Apparently the Nova branch I will be working in at Iwatsuki is a little bit out of the city. They call it the countryside so maybe it will look a little bit more like Queen and Bathurst? I don’t mind, I keep hearing super things about my branch so that’s cool.

I had my first vending machine coffee around 6pm and it was damn delicious. Imagine little V8-like cans full of warm coffee. I think I may have found a solution to my soon to be expensive Starbuck habit. Of course I will still have to cave in and get myself a delicious chai latte or mocca but damn these vending machine coffees are great and only about $1.50. It might take me a while to find sleep, I’m still wired.