北欧メロンパン

Ok so i lied, you’ll have to wait for the report on the super bestiest snow I’ve ever experienced for a bit longer as I’ve got more pressing, and important for that matter, things to talk about. It would seem that the long and winding road to getting to do my graduation thesis (well, the accompanying project really) in Japan has come to an end, and a good end it is. From Software has finally agreed to let me come and do the project at their company. I’ll be starting on the 1:st of July and preliminarily end on the 28:th of November.

The conditions stay the same as we’ve discussed before, meaning amongst other things that I’ll get to borrow an apartment for free. It’s conveniently located just 5 minutes walk from From Software’s offices and the same amount of time from Shinjuku station (JR新宿駅) allegedly the most trafficked subway station in the world (It’s truly huge, I’ve gotten lost there several times already) and the focus point for one of the most important and interesting of Tokyo’s many city centers.

Blatant bragging aside though, I’m of course very happy and it’s great to be proper sure that I’ll get to go back to Tokyo!

I förrgår var jag och hälsade på hos From Software för att diskutera mitt exjobb. Jag hade förväntat mig en mer eller mindre fullfjädrad intervju men det hela gick väldigt lugnt till och var inte särskilt formellt. Jag fick äntligen träffa Komiya-san (古宮さん) och Tateno-san (立野さん) som jag mailat med en massa. Jag fick också träffa Era-san (恵良さん) som är avdelningschef för “teknologiavdelningen” (技術部) på företaget.

Vi diskuterade mest lämplig inriktning på exjobbet och vilken tidsperiod som skulle passa både dem och mig bäst. Vi kom fram till att Juli t.o.m. November verkade funka bra för oss båda och att ett exjobb inriktat på proceduell generering nog inte skulle vara något problem.

De ville inte ge några klara besked om jag får komma eller inte men det lät väldigt positivt, särskilt från Era-sans sida. De lovade hursomhelst att höra av sig med besked innan jag åker hem från Japan.

I got struck with a bit of Google-map mania yesterday after stumbling upon this post and with two pretty interesting links:

Tokyo

Stockholm

The maps are roughly the same scale (actually the one of Tokyo is a bit more zoomed). Comparing with Linköping felt pretty silly after seeing the difference compared to Stockholm, but I did figure out that you could easily fit Linköping and Nyköping and everything between within the borders of Tokyo! This area in Sweden basically amounts to over 100km of highway and a lot of swedish forrest.

Anyways, what I really wanted to do with Google maps was to find the offices of From Software, which I did. I’ve marked it on this map which I’ll be updating with other places of interest before and during my visit.

Meaning that the period for my thesis project has been decided. I’ll be starting at From Software with some orientation on the 31:st of Aug. and starting on the project on the 3:rd of Sep. The project will end on the 18:th of Jan. next year.

I haven’t decided yet when and how to start moving. I’ll probably leave Sweden sometime between Aug. 25:th and 27:th and the alternatives are to go straight to Tokyo or stop in Shanghai on the way and hang with some friends, out of which at least one has studied in China before, but who are also continuing on to Tokyo (by boat none the less = no weight restrictions on cheap stuff bought in China ). Doing Shanghai with a mandarin-speaking guide is tempting but I’m also itching to get to Tokyo as soon as possible (to meet Yume of course ).

Also, if I haven’t misunderstood the insinuations, the result of my project might actually make it into one of FS’s upcoming games. That would truly be the coolest thing ever. xD

Today I got some more info on the apartment that From Software will be lending me. It’s 26m² big and you can see for yourself how it looks like in the pictures. ^^
There is another employee of the company living there right now, hence all the stuff.
They’ll also lend me a TV albeit just a 15″ one, brilliant I say, I love Japanese TV and it’ll be great for working on my Japanese (as if talking, working and living with Japanese people 24/7 wouldn’t ^.~)

Also I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I’ve been awarded a scholarship for the thesis project from the Sweden-Japan Foundation! This will of course make it a lot easier to get by while over there. \ ^_^ /

It’s official.
This Monday around 13:00 (UTC+1 time) I got a mail from From Software (「フロム・ソフトウェア」) of Tokyo saying they’ll let me do my graduation project (“exjobb” for the Swedes) at their company from the 3:rd of September till the middle of January.
I’m going to Japan people, and I just couldn’t be more stoked about it! \^o^/

From Software seems like a really nice company to work at and they’ve been nothing but really nice when negotiating this. I really want to make a good impression so I’ll be trying to read up as much as I can on the project before I go and expecting to do quite a lot of overtime while there. They will also hook me up with one of their apartments! For free! 10min by foot from the company! About two or three stops from Shinjuku!!! xD

I’ll probably fly over a week or so in advance to spend some time with Yumeko (who by the way found an apartment in Tokyo about 10min away from Haneda airport where she’ll be working from August when her two month training is over) before work kicks in. I’ll be waiting for my good friend Daniel to get word on his exchange studies at Tokyo Institute of Technology before planning my trip over, we’ve been discussing taking the Transsiberian railway… ^.~

Yes, I know I’ve been utter crap at reporting what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks but between school and preparing the search for a graduation project (exjobb for us Swedes) I’ve been quite busy and…well, I guess I just haven’t felt like blogging much.
So anyways, finally I figured those of you who bother reading this blog deserved a bit of an update.
The search for an exjobb has taken off quite nicely. In preparation for the first contact with the potentional companies I have done the following:
- Established a list of interesting companies, thus far it totals 21 companies and features some of the coolest companies around. (^_~) For fear that some employee of any of these companies might google their way here I won’t mention any of them by name though. (-_-;)

- Prepared a CV in English based on the Europass-template. At the moment 99% done

- Prepared a rirekishô, the Japanese equivalent of a CV, of course in Japanese. Yume has been a great help and it’s about 60% finished right now. Problem is it needs to be handwritten so it’ll generate quite some work even after all the information and layout is in place. Sending a rirekishô with computer-typed text is apparently considered just as unprofessional in Japan as submitting a handwritten CV would be considered in Sweden. “You have to put your heart into the application or they won’t take you seriously, and you can’t do that through a computer I guess” was roughly how Yume it.

- Prepared a mail to send as a first contact with each company. It briefly explain who I am and more importantly what a graduation project is, finishing of with asking for information on where to send my CV and rirekishô.

Ok, so when the mail was finished and quality checked by Yume (meaning she rewrote most of it, my grasp on formal Japanese is still quite lacking I’m afraid) I started sending it out to some companies on my list. My idea is to do an iterative process where I check the response I get on the mail, try to improve it and then send it to the next batch of companies, hopefully improving my chances of spiking an interest.
I finally sent the mail to the first batch on Monday evening and I’ve had some rejections already. But with some companies left that haven’t replied yet, I have at least one reply requesting more information, luckily for me it’s one of the most interesting companies in the first batch. \(^_^)/

Apart from sending mails I’ve also been in contact with the Japanese embassy here in Sweden and it turns out there is a special visa for people doing their graduation projects or internships in Japan. I can be valid for up to 6months depending on the length of your project/internship and most importantly, the immigration authorities in Japan needn’t be contacted. Meaning that the Japanese embassy in Sweden can grant the visa and if you have your papers in order it takes only about a week to get! \(^_^)/

I’ve tried to improve a bit on the introduction-mail tonight and the second batch of mails will most likely go out tomorrow evening.

As all of you (what 5? people ) who actually read this blog know I’ve gotten this crazy idea to go to Japan, Tokyo to be more specific, to do my “ex-jobb” (I guess graduation project will have to do as a translation). Since Yumeko is moving to Tokyo from Hiroshima sometime in April (probably) it will also allow us to be together, yay! I went all mushy over a post on a friend of mines blog, on him finally getting a boyfriend (go Mika!!! ) and I realized how geeat it would be to not be separated by half of the globe for an entire 6 months.

Anyways there has been some development in relation to my plan:
1. I have started looking for potentional companies to do the project at and since Tokyo has one of, if not the, highest concentration of game-studios in the world, things are looking pretty good. Quite a large amount of recruitment information readily available on the japanese homepages. Next step is to make a list of interesting ones and try to get in touch with them and explain what a “graduation project” is and ask where to send my cridentials.

2. I have applied for application forms for the “Japanese Language Proficiency Test” or 「日本語能力試験」, I just hope I get them in time as the deadline draws near. I plan to try for “level 2″ or 「二級」(that’s 2kyû for all you budô-people ) which is the second highest level of a total of four. The test is on December 3rd and I will do it in Copenhagen since there is nowhere to do it in Sweden.

3. I’m currently taking a course in “game design and programming” (incidentally probably the most fun course I’ve done at the university yet) and have, excited about it as I am, talked alot about my plan in the brakes with my coursemates and the professor. Well the result is that, this Friday, the professor asked me if he could be my supervisor if I found a ex-jobb in Japan! For those of you not familiar with the ex-jobb concept getting a supervisor can be quite difficult so I’m very happy over this. \ (^^) /

4. I’ve checked the dates for TOEFL and plan to go to Stockholm as soon as possible to take the test.

Now I really need to not loose steam on this as I really need to start getting in contact with some companies during October! Go Martin GO!!! ^_^;

Ok so I got past two posts, but then what? Have I once more given up on the blogging buissness before I even started? Not so, the problem if you can call it such is that Yumeko, my girlfriend, came over from Japan and not having seen each other for roughly eight months we’ve been quite busy with catching up.
She is leaving next tuesday (september 19th) and I’m planning to do recounts of some of our antics.

On a not entierly unrelated note I’ve started to become really serious about doing my “ex-jobb” (a project and report on said project spanning one term and normally the last thing you do before graduating from my program at the university) in Japan. With Yume moving to Tokyo in march/april to start work (as a cabin attendant if you must know ) the options for finding relevant work close to her has gone up a lot compared to Hiroshima where she lives now.
I need to start thinking about what I need to do before starting to send out applications and also start to scout interesting companies, preferably in the gaming and computer graphics buisness.
The top four on my list-to-be are pretty obvious though:
1. Prepare for the “Japanese Language Proficiency Test” 2kyu-level.
2. Get a good score on TOEFL or similar English language test.
3. Put together an application in Japanese.
4. Start programming on a portfolio of sorts to showcase my level of skill.
More on “project Japan” to come…