This Indian Guy’s Trip to Japan (by Akul)
Konnichiwa, I’m Akul and welcome to HDE GIP blog. If you are reading this, it appears you have already decided to join HDE. I am currently an undergraduate studying Computer Science & Engineering from New Delhi, India.
If you are thinking what does an Indian doing in Japan or how did he get an internship in the so called “Land of the Rising Sun”, well say no more, I’m thinking the same!
Before going into details, a little information about HDE’s Global Internship Program as stated here. The GIP is a 6–8 week long internship for students in their Junior and Senior year and fresh graduates with the background in Computer Science or related area of study. No matter where you are from, if you look forward to join HDE, then they will help in arranging tickets and visa for your stay in Japan. What makes the internship so outstanding is that it’s not a paid internship, but a subsidy of at most 150,000 JPY/month is provided so that you can easily cover living costs such as meals, commuting expense, and accommodation in Tokyo, Japan. They also cover your Round-trip airfares coverage and all the visa required documents for you. No reason to skip such an opportunity to work here.
But how did I came to know about this internship in HDE?
There are a lot of technical conferences that happens around the world (such as PyCon, the Python Conferences), and guess what ? You will always (mostly) find HDE as one of the sponsors for those conferences. I was also a speaker in PyCon Hong Kong 2016 and one of the Organizer’s of PyData Delhi 2017, not that it is related to this blog though. So yeah, I went to PyCon APAC 2017 (Asia-Pacific region) that happened in Malaysia at that time. And you guessed right, HDE was one of the sponsors for the conference and this is where I met Yuricia, Toshiya and Shi Han representing the GIP team.
After meeting them, and seeing their enthusiasm about discussing the Global Internship Program and the work culture at HDE, I already planned I am going to Japan.
After coming to India, I applied for the program and was given three tasks to complete in one day (Using Python and Go). After that, I had one interview with the HDE team and was selected for the internship and selected March-April slot, which is one of the best period in Japan because of Sakura (Don’t know about it ? You can find more details here).
Before coming to Japan
After that HDE helps for the preparation of your stay in Japan, but you need to book a room for accommodation yourself before coming to Japan. HDE suggests to use Sakura-House as it is much simpler and cheaper for someone looking accommodation for 1–2 months in Japan, and as they don’t provide accommodation to Japanese, you will always find someone with a different story. I got myself a Sakura house in Nakameguro (Link) with 25–30 minutes commuting time, which I believe (and other colleagues too) is one of the best locations to live in Tokyo, as it is a quiet residential area and just two stations away from packed and loud Shibuya station (where HDE office is). Also during the Sakura season near Meguro river (walking distance) makes it more special (and heavily populated). Another reason of choosing this home was it’s not that big like other share houses. In this home max 5 people can live at a time, which makes it really easy and hassle free as you get more time spending with your share house family like playing DnD on weekends or going for Karaoke or having trips together.
If you are looking for stay with less commuting time, well be prepared to either get a room in packed and loud Shibuya, with just 5–10 minutes commuting time, or if you find any other place nearby Shibuya and planning to commute using subways/metros, your commute time will be minimum 20–25 minutes. Why? Because walking distance from Shibuya station to HDE office is 10–15 minutes, which was much more than walking from my share house to Nakameguro station (2–3 minutes) and taking Tokyu-Toyoko line from Nakameguro station to Shibuya station (4–5 minutes) combined. So plan your accommodation wisely, as you will be living in it for 6–8 weeks and commuting five days a week to office.
About the GIP experience
As you may have seen the previous blogs, and if you haven’t go read them, obviously after reading this blog, you can find more details about the experience. I’ll provide a gist of my experience and what I liked about HDE here. As you have seen the first image with Ogura san (the famous Kimono guy and CEO/CTO of HDE), is a tradition to have a picture with him. Apart from that, you will be getting a mobile phone with sim card activated and data pack (3GB per month), so that you can stay active with the team. You will also receive a workstation (MacBook Pro) on which you will work during your office hours, and leave it in the office after work. The first 2 weeks of the internship would be the training period, where you would be working on backend using Python, and deploying your application to AWS. You would also learn DevOps during this period using CircleCI and other tools. After these two weeks, you would be divided into specific teams, where you would work on real-world tasks for the company.
There is also a vending machine from where you can get free Dr. Pepper in the office. You would also be having GIP lunches, where every alternative day for 10 times you would be accompanying 2 colleagues to a place near office. This lunch is organized to introduce you with other members of the company (and maybe for them also to meet each other for first time :P) and also is good opportunity to try some expensive and fancy food (because, ahem, paid by the company).
Apart from GIP lunch, you can/should always join the Wednesday board game night, for 2 reasons. First being free dinner :P and other to have fun with colleagues, and maybe friends. You would also be presenting at the Monthly technical session because…. it’s mandatory for interns, after which there will be free food and booze to enjoy!
Apart from work, you can travel and visit nearby places during the weekends. If you like to travel (like me) and want to get the most of that during the internship, then do plan your weekends before hand.
There are a lot of places to visit in Japan, and guess what, you won’t be able to cover it completely.
This was my first trip to Japan and I wanted to utilize my weekends really well. My itinerary included visiting most of the following places:
1st weekend before joining HDE:
- Arrive in Japan, explore Shibuya (and Hachikō Memorial Statue) and find your way to reach office (because you are definitely going to get lost the first day)
- Trip to Honmonji Temple in Ikegami with Traditional Tea ceremony, Origami classes and Calligraphy session at Ikegami Plum Garden. (Guided tour by Sakura House)
2nd weekend:
- Visit to Sensō-ji Temple and tour around Asakusa. If you are looking for souvenirs from Japan, you can check out the colorful Japanese style umbrellas in Asakusa. [Link]
- Trip to Nakano broadway (Anime stuff) and Akihabara (Anime and Electronics stuff). If you are a die hard anime/manga fans (ahem not me) don’t miss them.
3rd weekend:
- Kamakura: One day trip outside Tokyo and the home to Kōtoku-in (Great Buddha of Kamakura), beach, and more shrines/temples.
- Harajuku, Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi, Imperial Palace East Garden and Meguro river: If you are looking for souvenirs and shopping, Harajuku is one of the suggested places and the Meiji shrine is walking distance, don’t miss them during the Sakura season.
4th weekend:
- Hakone: One day trip outside Tokyo, Hakone is one of the five Fuji lake, where you can ride the pirate ship, travel by rope way and cable car and go to the mountains. If the weather is nice, you can see Mt. Fuji from here. Buying the Hakone free pass is better as it saves you money from buying tickets in Hakone and also gives you a return ticket from Shinjuku to Hakone. This is valid for two days, but if you are going for one day, it still saves you time and money.
- Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, Odaiba: Check out 2nd tallest tower in Japan, the Tokyo tower, the structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower. It also has a One Piece dedicated theme park in Tokyo tower. Going to top at Tokyo tower and One Piece tower is paid. If you are looking for free entry to a skyscraper, checkout Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Odaiba is also a famous spot because of it’s Statue of Liberty, Rainbow Bridge and Gundam statue. Don’t forget to take the Ferris wheel ride and water bus there.
5th weekend:
- Trip to Kyoto and Osaka: As we all know, these two places are a must visit places in Japan and you cannot complete these two places in one day each. I planned my trip as Kyoto on Saturday and Osaka’s Universal Studio Japan (USJ) on Sunday. If you are planning to go for these places, you can either take the Shinkansen (Bullet train) or the buses. If you are in Japan, Shinkansen is one of the things you must try, but it can be expensive (as expensive as 14k yen one way).
But, is it worth to spend approx. 30k yen just traveling to Osaka and Kyoto for 2 days. Say no more, you can save that money and use the night buses, which will take approx. 6–8 hours from Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto. But you want to try Shinkansen, and ride at the speed of ~250km/hr. Say no more, you can just get the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka (which costs approx. 1420 yen, crazy cheap right.) and you will arrive in Osaka in 12 mins xD. - How I planned it:
* Friday night bus to Kyoto: ~8k yen (expensive and comfortable bus)
* Reach Saturday morning and visit Kyoto: Google for one day trip to Kyoto and follow that. Also don’t forget to visit the only Tatami style Starbucks in Kyoto.
* Take Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka during night: 12 minutes ride
* Reach Osaka and sleep at Airbnb.
* Sunday morning go to Universal Studios Japan: Get the ticket + express pass for 4 rides (Total approx: 15k yen)
* Sunday night bus to Tokyo: ~3k yen (Cheap and tiring bus)
* Monday morning: Reach Tokyo and go to office with no energy xD
6th weekend:
- Disney Sea: The only Disney Sea theme park in the world is here in Tokyo. A must see place, even if you have been to Disney Land’s (There is Disney Land in Tokyo too). Where can you find another Disney Sea, right.
- Relax. You have travelled a lot past these weeks.
7th weekend:
- Time to say your sayonara’s to your colleagues and friends. Internship has come to an end.
- Prepare for your trip to home, and do some more souvenirs shopping.
If you have more time, you can plan more places and check out one day trips from Tokyo such as Mt. Takao and Nikko or even Sanrio Puroland (Yes, they have Hello Kitty theme park). Also do know Japan’s weather can be crazy during this time, it can be sunny and rain the next day. I have seen it snowing on one day in March!!!
Few more tips/stereotypes that you should know before you come to Japan:
- Everyone can understand and speak English.
Outside the company, it is can be difficult to find someone who speaks/understands English. However, the level of service and the helpfulness of the people more than makes up for it. - Public Transport system is great.
Yes, it is. But can be confusing due to not that much English directions. Also Taxi’s are really expensive, so forget about taking an Uber to anywhere. - The official language in HDE is English.
Yes, this is true. Especially in the Engineering department, everyone can speak and understand English. - Can I live in Japan for 6–8 weeks without knowing Japanese at all?
Yes, you can. Been there done that. I came to Japan only knowing Konnichiwa and am leaving with increasing my Japanese knowledge by 100% (Now I know Konnichiwa and Arigato Gozaimasu [Thank you so much]). - Almost 50% of the Engineering division in HDE are Foreign National Employees.
Yes, that’s true. You can find most of them from Indonesia, others from Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Colombia, USA, Switzerland, China, and many more. In fact, you can find more details at HDE’s site.
- Is HDE a traditional Japanese company ?
HDE is Japanese by heart, but they are becoming more globalized so that they can provide a better work environment to everyone. - Food is expensive during the night than during the day.
In Shibuya, dinner can be more expensive for the similar meal set during the lunch hours. So do plan where you are going to have your dinner early. Thanks to our colleague, Bagus, for this tip (which we got in our last week of internship :P) - Karaoke night is a fun night.
Yes, karaoke is one of the best things in Japan I would really miss. If you join HDE and find a karaoke machine (crossing fingers!), then do try to find our names (March-April 2018 slot interns :P).
P.S. We started the #karaoke Slack channel, and HDE team, if you got the karaoke machine, please put our names on it!
Final thoughts
Japan is a really great country and the people are really polite and always happy to help (even if they don’t know English, they will try their best). This great experience would not have been possible without HDE’s support and the great work-life balance provides everyone to enjoy their stay in Japan. Thank you for the great internship HDE Inc.
Once again special thanks to Yuri, Shi Han and Toshi for making this internship happen for me. It wouldn’t have been possible without you guys!
And last but not the least, Thanks to the other interns for all the trips, karaoke, lunch and the “fn” we had together. P.S. It is not “fun” without “u”. (Pun Intended :P).
ありがとうございます HDE for the great internship experience.
(Arigato Gozaimasu ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))
