Quick Update

I know, I know... I've been completely useless at writing a blog this year; failing at my New Year's resolution to write on here more. I endeavour to try to find more time to keep this updated. In the meantime, here's a quick catch-up of my life since January:

Undertook my masters project in biophotonics at the University of St Andrews - "A compact violet diode laser system for the optoinjection and transfection of mammalian cells" - under the supervision of Professor Kishan Dholakia.
Spent 10 weeks shut away in a laser lab working on said project. Initially, designing and building the laser system and then aiming it at Chinese hamster ovary cells.
Completed (ish) my project and handed it in (I should try to find a way of uploading it online...).
Moved back home for a bit and went to New York for a holiday with my family (took plenty of photographs of food, of course).
Graduated from The University of St Andrews with a Master in Physics (Honours) First Class.
Traveled for a month with one of my friends from my internship at Fermilab. Visited Mexico City, Guanajuato, Teotihuacan, Cancun, Amsterdam, London and Edinburgh.
Moved to London, where I am currently attending 4 weeks of technical training for my new job as an investment banker.

Long story short: having far too much fun in London (minus trying to start studying for the dreaded JSDA exams) and will be moving to Tokyo in a couple of weeks to start my new life over there. I'm pleased to have a visit from my family to look forward to first, though. Can't wait for afternoon tea in Sketch and bbq ribs from Joe Allans :)

MIA

Apologies, it's been a while. So you may have noticed that there have been a distinct lack of blog posts recently... For that I am truly sorry as I had promised family and friends that I would keep them updated on my adventures in Chicago by writing about them here. Oops. In my defence, I was having too much fun to blog. The work at Fermilab ended up being fairly straightforward (potentially more on that another time...), which effectively meant that I treated the entire experience like an extended holiday in America. Thanks US Department of Energy for funding my ten-week vacation in the States! I'll eventually get around to explaining some of my work on here, seeing as that is kind of the point of this blog, don't worry.

So, "what next?", I hear you cry. Straight after returning to Blighty (and I mean straight after - I only spent 21 hours at home) I moved down to London, where I'm now undertaking a six-week internship with Promontory Finance in their London office. I'm one and a half weeks into that now and am doing an amalgamation of various compliance and regulatory-related odd-jobs for my bosses. It's really just your stereotypical internship in the City.

Whilst here, I've also been interviewed (officially, not just over the phone from my apartment in Chicago (just realised I'll have to explain that later too...)) for a graduate position in structuring with RBS Japan in Tokyo.

More on everything at a later date. I promise. Well, I promise-with-my-fingers-crossed-behind-my-back...

Saltire blog part 8

The final instalment is here.

Home Sweet Home

HONEY! I'M HOO-OOME!

After much packing, many farewells, a taxi ride, an express train, two flights and 4 movies, I made it back to bonnie Scotland! Even though I've been home since Sunday night, it still feels really strange not to hear cicadas screeching or see any Japanese people walking about... It's also absolutely freezing.

Anyway, it's been a while since I updated this blog, so let me give you a quick rundown of what I got up to during my last week in Tokyo. I went out for dinner with two of the interns from last year, their family and friends and my guarantor on Wednesday night, which was lovely. But it meant I had to start saying goodbye to people and think about going home, which I didn't want to do! On Thursday and Friday I was with the Japanese sakes desk - these guys sell european products to Japanese clients. On Thursday night, I headed out for a do-it-yourself BBQ dinner at the Sheraton Miyako Hotel with the CDS desk. This was very delicious and, of course, the evening was finished off by heading out for some karaoke - my last time! :(

My last day at work was no different from any other. At the end of the day, I handed out some wee presents that I had brought from home to all the people I had worked with - the Old Course golf balls were definitely the most popular!

I spent my last day in Tokyo picking up some last minute souvenirs, visiting some new areas and revisiting some of my favourite haunts. After doing some final packing, I headed over to Asakusa to grab a few bits and bobs from the many stalls and shops, and also to sample some green tea ice cream (a bit weird, but tasty). I then walked west, towards Kappabashi Dori. This street has become Tokyo's 'kitchenware district' and also an unconventional (yet quite popular) tourist attraction. The entrance to one end of the street is marked by this giant chef and building with huge teacups:



All of the shops specialise in a particular part of the catering industry - some sell shops signs and lanterns, others are filled with different utensils and pots, and many have every type of meal for sale in plastic model form. If you ever wanted to open a restaurant and were starting from scratch, this is the street to come to.


I then walked over to Ueno and hopped on the train to Harajuku. I spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of shops and watching the outlandishly-dressed Harajuku boys and girls, before winding my way towards Shibuya, where I grabbed some cha-shu ramen and then hit Shibuya 109 for the last time... I spent far too long in there, soaking it all in and eyeing up the latest trends before getting the undergound train home and trying to catch an early night's sleep.

It was pretty much a perfect way to end my two-month stay in the city that really never sleeps.

Saltire blog part 7

You've guessed it: part seven of my Saltire blog is up and running.

Saltire blog part 6

It's that time of week again... The sixth installment of my Saltire blog is now up.

Saltire blog part 5

I've just posted the most recent weekly round up on my SaltireFoundation blog.

I don't have much time to blog today as I really need to knuckle-down and get some work done for this exam. I just wish it would stop being so nice and sunny outside!

I heart Odaiba

Just like mameshiba does! More on my new favourite area of Tokyo in a minute.

Today was the first day of my JSDA exam course. The guy who takes the course is really good - he's a good laugh and can explain things really well, but moves at an incredibly fast speed. He may even talk faster than I do. I have met my match... Surprisingly, some of the laws we're learning about are quite interesting, and I was shocked that a few have been recently implemented specifically to prevent the Yakuza from laundering money. I hadn't realised how prevalent the Yakuza still were in Japan, but securities firms have to be very careful when it comes to loss compensation as this was, up until quite recently, helping fund the Japanese mafia.

Learning the facts is going to turn out to be (relatively) the easiest bit. Deciphering the exam questions is considerably more tricky - the translation into English is, at best, extremely confusing. I realised things weren't going to go well when I read this statement on the front of the past papers:

"This examination is conducted in the Japanese only. The English translations of the questions are prepared solely for your information. Therefore, the Japanese version shall prevail if there is any discrepancy. You are not allowed to ask any questions or make complaints about expressions in the English."

Well that's me told... The course is pretty intense and there is so much to learn for the exam next Wednesday. I'm going to have to spend my whole weekend and all day Monday and Tuesday revising. Woop woop.

After today's lesson, I hopped onto the driverless monorail that goes to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. This area of Tokyo is absolutely mental! The buildings are all so quirky on the outside and everything else is really kitsch. The weirdest looking structure has to be the Fuji TV building, with its floating sphere.


And, of course, there's a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty.


For some reason there is a giant model of Gundam (I think he looks like a transformer...) that moves and lights up.


Odaiba is also home to four of the biggest shopping malls I have ever seen. One even includes an amusement park, it's that big. Venus Fort is decked out on the inside to look like 'Italy':


And two floors of Decks have been turned into Hong Kong:


There's a Toyota showroom that's so big, it has its own indoor test track:


This double-act were hanging about outside one of the malls (the monkey looks genuinely unimpressed...):


And these two pretty much made my day:

Saltire blog part 4

My round up of week four is now up on the Saltire site. Check it out here.

Saltire blog part 3

Oops! Totally forgot to put a link to my round up of week three on this blog yesterday...

So here is the third installment of my SaltireFoundation blog for you to peruse at your leisure.

Reasons why I love Tokyo

AKA Reasons why I'm not coming home. Ever.

In no particular order:

The shops are fantastic and so eclectically mental.
People are so polite all the time, even if I'm being an annoying gaijin and getting in their way/not understanding them.
The food is delicious and very reasonably priced. And you don't need to tip.
The overground and underground train systems are super-efficient all over Tokyo and the surrounding areas; there are underground stations on every block and trains every couple of minutes.
All the trains and most of the stations are fully air-conditioned (why can't the London tube be like that...).
You get full 3G mobile reception everywhere, including the underground stations and on the trains (even while they're moving through the tunnels!).
You also get wifi in most stations and trains and they have mobile WiMAX here already.
It's the safest city I've ever been to. And the most convenient.
It's so easy to get away from it all by going to one of the beautiful shrines or heading to the countryside.
Everybody holds lift doors open for people when they get on and off.
All women always use the 'toilet flush sound effect' so you don't hear them pee (I do it too now, so I don't get nasty looks when I come out the cubicle).
If a person has a cold, they wear a surgical mask so that nobody else catches it from them.
There are cartoon characters on everything and everywhere and it is completely socially acceptable to buy things with cartoon characters on them, regardless of your age/sex/occupation.
The posters and adverts are often hilarious.
You will never be thirsty as there are vending machines every 20 yards or so.
So many things are open so late - shops until 10pm, restaurants until midnight and cinemas, bars and internet cafes often all night.
The people who I work with have restored my faith in financial industries and are all so lovely, kind and very down to earth. As far as I can see, RBS Tokyo is not one of the bad guys (they blame everyone at the other RBSs...).
Everybody from Tokyo is slim, looks fantastic and dresses impecably stylishly.
I must be the only female over the age of 16 who doesn't wear stilletoes everyday (how do they manage?!).
Everything is newer than brand new.

The last point was further highlighted when I nipped to the local electronics store after dinner today (a massive 8 floor extravaganza). I needed to buy an external hard drive to store all my millions of photos on! I ended up getting a new flash drive too, as I keep breaking freebie ones I get from career fairs. Check out the 4GB one I bought:


Huge, isn't it? The bit on the left is only the lid! The actual drive is only that 5mm black bit at the top! And it was only £10 - technology is so far advanced here, it's unbelievable. When I was paying for my cool stuff, I saw this TV and instantly wanted to win the lottery so that I could buy it.


It's a 103 inch high definition plasma screen and probably one of most impressive pieces of kit I have ever seen. It costs about £40,000. Yikes...

Work today was really good fun actually and it's going to sound really sad when I tell you what I found enjoyable - today was my first day of learning C#; a computer programming language. I feel so cool right now... Thing is, learning a bit of programming is massively useful for me right now and also completely applicable to what I'm studying at uni next year as well as what I'm doing at work just now. So it's win win for me! I was so proud of my day's achievements - I made a few wee programmes that estimated the value of pi using truncated infinite sums and then Monte Carlo simulations. NERD ALERT. I also used some graphics to display the results and calculation time with buttons and progress bars. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to go into more detail about the maths behind more complicated Monte Carlo simulations and make a programme that will price trades.

Remember folks: it's hip to be square.

Saltire blog part 2

My second weekly round-up can be found here. The formatting is a bit weird... Apologies.

Saltire blog part 1

As part of my contract with the SaltireFoundation, I have to keep a weekly blog for them - it differs from this one as it focuses more on the work aspect of my internship. You can read my first weekly round-up here.

Milk of human kindness

Japan has to be the kindest and friendliest nation on the planet. Honestly. I have never been made to feel as welcome as I have here; not just by my colleagues but also by complete strangers.

If you ask someone for help, advice or directions (even in my garbled version of Japanese) they go completely out of their way to help you. When I was in Ginza the other night, I asked a guy who was walking home at work where a restaurant was. He wasn't entirely sure but wanted to make sure that I got there, so walked around for 20 minutes with me, trying to find the place! When I eventually did find somewhere to eat, the guy sitting next to me at the bar thought I was such a novelty that he bough me pudding and another iced tea. Turns out he was a big fan of golf and was so excited when I told him that I went to university in St Andrews!

And again today, I sit down at the bar and order some food and instantly attract attention from randoms. Alone, female, short, with very pale skin and freckles, taking photographs of the food - I kind of stand out like a sore thumb. The elderly couple next to me insisted that I tried some of their food and, when I told them that it tasted great, proceeded to order more specifically for me!! The more I protested it seemed the more they ordered! And they bought me more iced tea too. The old lady kept smiling at me and calling me kawaii (cute) and congratulating me on getting into university and getting a job in Tokyo.

This is one of the reasons why Tokyo is easily the safest city I've ever been to. I feel as though everybody is looking out for me and wants to make sure that I'm okay.

Can you imagine anyone back home being anywhere near as nice?

Blooming marvellous

I decided to try taking different trains on the underground this morning to try to cut down my journey time a bit, which worked, but it seems that absolutely EVERYONE who lives in my area goes this way too - the stations were absolutely heaving with commuters and I narrowly avoided being pushed onto a train by a wee woman wearing white gloves who shouted. A lot. I'll try to get a photo of the 'pushers' tomorrow morning as it's actually a really good system - they keep people away from the edge of the platform until the train has arrived and then shove as many people as possible into each carriage.

I spent this morning at the Bloomberg office (in the Marunouchi Building, next to mine) being trained in how to use their 'Bloomberg Professional Service'. I want to leave RBS and work for them - their office is the coolest and most futuristic 4 floors of a building that I have ever been in! And, most importantly, all the food and drink in the uber-modern canteen area is free! You walk through a tunnel that's lit with eerie blue lights to get from the reception into the main concourse.



Then, running diagonally across the whole floor is a stream of stock exchange tickers and figures. Also at one end of the office is a massive aquarium - apparently one of the CEOs liked fish!



You can also see a bit of the cafeteria seating in the photo. All the food and drink (and there's plenty choice) is completely free to employees. I think it's to try to persuede you to stay in the office over lunch and carry on talking business. I was a bit jealous as I accidentally ordered tofu instead of chicken for my lunch (they looked really similar) and at that point in time, I wanted something that didn't have a slimey texture. A lot of Japanese food seems to be slimey or chewy or an odd combination of the two, which is great if you're expecting it, but not if you think you are biting into chicken...

The weather was so stunning today that I decided to take some photos of the views from my building:

The first one shows Tokyo Station and the other two show the Imperial Palace and Gardens (the last photo is actually the view from Bloomberg's building, but their view was better!).

I spent the afternoon learning about options and swaps with the office's dollar options trader. Also, I've started researching the kind of stuff I'll need to know for my 'JSDA Securities Sale Representative Class-2' exam. I'm hoping to sit this (the Japanese equivalent of the FSA's exams) whilst I'm here with RBS as it would be more than fantastic for my CV - most people don't get to sit it until their first year in a graduate position. If I pass, it also means I might be able to study for the 'Sales Rep Class-1' exam and sit that too, and that one includes a lot of the options stuff that I started learning about today. If (and that's a really big IF) I pass that one, then I would actually be a fully qualified trader and could pretty much walk into a position at any financial instituion in Japan. All together now: "Oooooooo."

I had a bit of a wander around the other buildings in the financial district after work this evening, mainly to try and suss out where the good places to get lunch are! The Marunouchi area is very similar to Manhattan - all the buildings are new skyscrapers with fancy interiors and even fancier shops, sitting next to a large park that acts a bit like a small version of central park. It looks even more like New York once it's dark.

Oh, and I still haven't unpacked yet. Oops.

The Eagle has landed

KONNICHIWA TOKYO! I actually arrived yesterday, but was so knackered that I fell asleep really early and didn't have time to post on here. So much has happened already and I've only been in the country for 40 hours! Where to start...

The flight was great and the food was the best I've had on a plane journey for a long time. I didn't manage to get much sleep though, which was a bit rubbish. When I got to the airport, I went to use the toilet and hilarity ensued... All the toilets were 'super toilets', i.e. they have hundreds of different buttons on them that are all in Japanese and utterly indecipherable. I pressed the one with a picture of a toilet on it in an attempt to flush it but it only made a flushing sound affect from a speaker - this is to disguise your 'toilet sounds' I later read. I couldn't work out how to actually flush the thing and was too scared to press any of the other buttons for fear of water squirting out in every direction (they have various 'cleaning' options, one with a picture of a bum on it). I started giggling and ended up spending an extra 5 minutes in the cubicle, laughing quite audibly, until I found the flush. Needless to say, I got a few strange looks when I walked out...

Getting from Narita to Tokyo (who builds an airport 60km from the city centre?!) turned out to be really straightforward - I just hopped on a bus to Tokyo Station and got a taxi from there to my apartment. The bus journey was interesting - every spare plot of land between the massive buildings and factories has been irrigated and turned into rice paddies, making for some pretty contrasting scenery.

After getting into my flat, I went for a bit of a wander to find myself some food for dinner and breakfast. I went to the local Family Mart and 7/11 shops and bought a load of random stuff, including an individually wrapped banana. I had the banana with an adzuki-filled pancake for breakfast this morning.



Dinner last night consisted of some of the stuff I'd bought plus a non-descript fried thing on a stick that I'd pointed at in a shop. It turned out to be a pork and leek skewer, fried in panko crumbs, and was quite delicious.



I then explored the subway a bit to work out how I could get to work. This turned out to be one of the most disorientating experiences of the day as, on the escalators that lead up and down to the underground, people stand ON THE LEFT!! Having used the London undeground quite a lot (I'm forever popping down to London for one thing or another), it seemed really odd to not stand patiently on the right. It really does show how at home I've been made to feel already if that is the most alien thing I've encountered so far.

I'm flaking again (goodness only knows what time it is in my head) so will have to write about my first day at work after my second, tomorrow evening. I have SO much to learn - financiers speak a completely different language as far as I'm concerned just now... But I'm really looking forward to heading to the Tokyo Stock Exchange tomorrow morning :)

Popped into the restaurant around the corner from my flat to get some grub this evening, ending up with me, the waiter and the chef in absolute stitches as a result of my extremely poor Japanese and their understanding of English. Somehow, I ended up with an utterly delicious meal! And they really enjoyed my attempts at conversation and the fact that I said yes to everything and then ate it. I got told I was very kawaisa for trying so hard :)

Manicured and ready to go!

I've had my nails done, printed off some meishi, packed, made it to the airport on time, got an upgrade to business class for my Heathrow flight and am currently enjoying the first class lounge (it helps having friends who work for BMI!). My adventure starts here...

I'm not as nervous as I should be - I don't think it's really sunk in yet that I'm on my way to Tokyo and will be living there for two whole months! And will be working in a field that I currently have no clue about! What on Earth am I doing?! I feel slightly more prepared after having watched Lost in Translation again recently :p

Anyway, I'll be boarding soon so I better get a move on and find my gate.

Writen at 10:00 GMT in Edinburgh airport (it wouldn't let me post it from my phone for some reason...)

Not long to go now

It's only 3 days until I fly out to Tokyo. It's kind of crept up on me actually - I seem to have gone from feeling like I had lots of time until I left to thinking, "OhmygodI'mleavingonSaturday!!!!" I am torn between being extremely excited and feeling a sort of nervous anticipation, but with an overwhelming sense that I'm not even slightly ready. To be honest though, I probably couldn't be more ready if I tried. I am as prepared as I'll ever be (and it's too late to start preparing anything else now anyway!).

I've got my visa, some yen, a semi-packed suitcase and an incredibly basic grasp of how to ask for stuff in Japanese. I don't yet have enough little gifts to take out with me, a complete set of documents that RBS still need, any idea of how to get to my apartment (or get my keys for that matter...) and any clue of the kind of work I'l be doing when I get there! I think that pretty much explains my mixed feelings.

On the other hand, I've had loads of fantastic advice from people who have visited or lived in Japan and am now thinking that 8 weeks is not nearly enough time to do/see everything that I want to. Then again, I do have to keep reminding myself that I will actually have to work when I'm out there, so will really only have the weekends free. I cannot wait!

Depending on how much running around I'm doing on Friday night, I might try to quickly post my feeling the night before I leave. Otherwise, I'll probably try to find some free wifi in Heathrow. Or just employ my usual tactic of leaving everything until the very last gasp and blog a bit on Sunday night when I'm in my place in Tokyo.

And now I'm too excited to sleep... :D

Tokyo, here I come....

Well exams are over and summer is here so I can officially let myself get massively excited about going to Japan now! I've been trying to learn some Japanese over the past few weeks (in between hoping back and forth from St Andrews to Edinburgh, clearing out my student flat) and it's really quite tricky. And that's without even trying to teach myself how to read/write it - I think I will stick to conversational Japanese just now...

I don't know a huge amount about exactly what I will be doing when I get there but I will be working within the Markets Division, hopefully with a different department each week. I recently found out where I'll be staying: I have a studio apartment (aka one room) in Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku. I've seen pictures and it looks perfect - and it's right in the centre of Tokyo! Fantastic! In fact, I think it's about two metro stops from RBS, which is in the Shin-Marunouchi Building, Chiyoda-ku. I wonder how long I'll have been there before I experience my first earthquake :S

What I'm going to try and do is keep a daily (or at least bi-daily) log of my experiences on here. Part of my contract with the Saltire Foundation is to keep a weekly blog on their website. This has to reflect mainly on the work aspect of the placement (for obvious reasons, really...) but I want to be able to let everyone at home know more about the social side of things and will also try to post photos. (I plan on buying a new camera in Akihabara!) Hopefully, by posting regularly on here, I'll be able to then use that to cobble together a more sensible post for the 'official' blog (and let my mum know I'm still alive :P). I'll put a link in the right-hand bar for my other blog when I get it started.

I leave on Saturday 11th July and cannot wait to go! All I need to learn now is how to say, "Can I get a free upgrade?" in Japanese.

YATTA!

I'm going to Tokyo this summer! I have never been so excited!

I got the eight-week internship with RBS in Japan! This means that I will get to go and live in Tokyo for two months and work in a different section of their business every week. And will also get to eat nothing but Japanese food and buy jeans that are the right length for me AND collect a ridiculous amount of Hello Kitty paraphernalia! :D I will try and write a slightly more sensible post once I have found out more and managed to calm down a bit. Oh, and once I have told Selex that I know won't be able to work there... Crap.