My first day at work happened to be the day the typhoon came closest to Tokyo. The wind and rain were not too bad in the morning, so I left right on time at nine. My shoes were so bad at keeping out water that they had completely changed color before I even reached Toritsu-Daigaku Station. On the platform, the first train was bound for Wakoshi and absolutely packed. My heart sank and I let it go. The next one only went as far as Shibuya and was much emptier.

Shibuya Station is deep underground, and its layout is incredibly complicated. The moment I came out of the station, I lost my sense of direction and wandered around in the heavy rain for quite a while. By the time I reached the company, everything below my waist was soaked, but I still managed to get to the HDE reception desk on time. Not long after that, Nakagome-san appeared.

I nervously introduced myself and said hello to everyone, finished the paperwork, picked up my laptop, and then found out that I would be sitting two seats away from CEO Ogura-san (Mr. Kazuhiro Ogura).

At noon, I was treated to lunch at a restaurant near the office. Nakagome-san explained that this was company policy: to help interns get to know people quickly, coworkers were given a meal budget each day to take an intern out to lunch. I am pretty bad at remembering names, so I was worried about being rude.

After lunch we also went to a cafe next door to the office for coffee. I even asked Ogura-san why he started the company. He struck me as someone with very forward-thinking ideas.

That afternoon I saw Mount Fuji from the office. Around dusk, a lot of people gathered by the windows to look at it. Ogura-san said Japan has an expression, “taifu ikka,” meaning the clear weather that comes after a typhoon passes. The storm really did move on quickly and gave way to bright sunshine. Taiwan’s southwestern air currents are a very different story.

While setting up my laptop, I learned that the company expected everyone to use vim. As someone who struggles badly with vim, I immediately sent a desperate message to Jason, my unofficial Vim guru, for help. Thanks to the resources he shared, I managed to do a basic setup and forked the Dotfiles repository.

Later on, I spent some time looking into Python unit tests. It is a little embarrassing to admit this, but even with two jobs behind me and while working on a PhD, I still did not really know how to write unit tests.

After leaving work right at seven, I wandered around near Shibuya Station and browsed Bic Camera. When I got back to Toritsu-Daigaku Station, I stopped by the supermarket again and bought a lot of ready-made meal pouches. At checkout I was asked whether I had a point card. I had wanted one, so I looked up how to say it in Japanese and worked up the nerve to ask the woman at the service counter if I could apply for one. She was so kind. She brought out the form and even helped fill it in for me. That is how I got my very first Japanese point card, and I was almost moved enough to ask for a photo together.

Whenever I feel anxious, I tell myself, “I’m a tourist!” It gives me a little more courage.

Note: This article is translated from Traditional Chinese.