Catch up

My week in the bank was very different to the front office - it was so quiet! The office is a lot smaller and there are fewer people, monitors or phones around, which made it uncomfortably silent at times. I spent my time there learning about what the portfolio managers and real estate guys do, which seemed to me to be a mix of corporate finace and accountancy. For the last three days, I analysed companies' financial reports (so their balance sheets, income statements and cash flows) and wrote a wee report about how well Marubeni is doing, based on the info they published for the 2009 financial year.

This week I'm back in the (more exciting) front office, this time with one of the sales desks - the people who sell yen denominated products to mainly non-Japanese clients. It feels good to be back where the action is! Today there was one of the monthly JGB (Japanese government bond) auctions. Over two billion yen's worth of 10 year bonds were auctioned off and RBS were pretty successful (not acutally sure if I'm allowed to say how successful...). It was an interesting auction to witness as these were the first set of bonds to be released by the new government. As many of you may be aware, Japan had its general elections this weekend and, for the first time in over 50 years, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This landmark election obviously affected the markets, in particular bumping up the value of the yen (not so great for me, who is still spending sterling!) and was also expected to have an impact on today's auction. To be honest, it didn't seem to alter anything by much, but it was still a good learning experience for me to be involved in a fairly ordinary auction session.

I had a fantatic week acting as a tour guide for my friend, but she has now headed back home. Sadly, I'll be heading back soon, too. But firstly, I've got to work out how on earth to pack all my stuff! I was 2kg over the weight limit on the way out here and have been indulging in a considerable amount of retail therapy, so packing is not going to be fun...

EXCITED

My friend from home is here! I'm so impressed that she made it in one piece after what was quite an epic journey. She met me after work and we headed out for some sushi and then spent ages wandering around the bright lights of Ginza.

My schedule has been sorted out now and I'm spending this week in the bank with the real estate guys and the porfolio managers. The bank side of things is a very different environment to the front office and the work I'm currently doing feels a lot more like accounting. Just now, I'm getting to grips with researching companies' financial statements in order to analyse how they are doing (i.e. whether they are making money or not). This has to be done on a regular basis and especially if a company wants to borrow money from the bank or increase/decrease an outstanding loan.

More on that later!

Two weeks in

It's scary to think that I'm already a quarter of the way through my internship; it feels like I only just got here! My last day at the CDS desk was pretty good - it's been a quiet week, giving me time to learn lots. The desk manager spent an hour today going over the structure of a securities company and other financial institutions, which really helped me see where the various specialities fit in. It also helped put the work I've been doing for the last two weeks into perspective. I don't think it was his intention, but it also made me make some decisions about my future, i.e. if I do decide to go into finance when I graduate I:
a) Am never being an investment banker ("those guys don't ever sleep, but you get used to it I suppose").
b) Am working in Tokyo as the environment here is a lot less hectic than in the City or in NY - the stock exchange even closes for lunch!
c) Would probably lean towards trading, with the aim of one day becoming a hedge fund manager. They earn eye-watering sums of money for being very good at what they do (or at least they should be good at it...).
Although I've not experienced working in research, structures or exotics yet, so I can't tell which sector I prefer just now.

We got in a massive amount of Burger King for lunch today. Upset at it not being Japanese food again, I ordered the 'teriyaki burger', which turned out to be brilliant! In retrospect, I probably should have ordered the new Japanese limited edition 'Angry Burger'. (Check out the website, it's hilarious.)

I went to my first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant for tea after work! I'd asked one of my colleagues where the nearest one was - turned out there was a cheap and cheerful place within Tokyo station, just next to the office.


I had nigiri with seared maguro (tuna), ebi (prawn) and unagi (eel) and also some tuna maki. The plates were colour coded for price and you just stack them up and ask for the bill. This is where I got excited - the waitress came over with an electronic scanner and scanned my stack of plates! The handheld machine then worked out how many of each price were in the stack and printed out the bill for me to take to the cash desk - awesome!


Living here is like being a time traveller - I am constantly fascinated by the technology and it honestly feels like I'm living about 10 years in the future. Everything is automatic, there are vending machines on every street and most electronic devices talk to you in Japanese - the moving walkways in Narita warned you that they were about to end when they sensed you going past. My washing machine is amazing in that it is almost completely silent and doesn't move at all. I know that sounds a bit sad to have noticed that, but seriously, how does it not make any noise or shake about when the spin cycle is running?!