Foods, HDE, and Japan (by Jason)
I was always fascinated by Japan, particularly it’s food.
So, what can possibly be better than spending 7 weeks in Japan doing stuffs you are supposed to do when you graduate (coding)?
Doing that with good foods!
This post will be about the good foods I ate, the nice places I went, and the fun activities I did. All within 7 weeks of HDE (now HENNGE) internship. Let’s start then!
One Tasty Cup of Noodle
I arrived in Tokyo two days before the internship started. The first thing that caught my attention was a bowl of instant ramen. I was really shocked when I see instant ramen with a Michelin Star logo on it.
First Day of the Internship
Fast forward to the first day of the internship, I arrived at the office at around 10 AM. It was when I met other interns for the first time. That day, we set up lots of stuffs and had some briefings about our first weeks.
There are a lot of things that caught my attention on the first day.
For starter, the view from the 10th floor is beautiful (HDE office is at 5th, 10th, and 11th floor).
Also on the same floor, the company has a free flow of Dr. Pepper. It is said that HDE is the only company to have this Dr. Pepper machine!
It is also fascinating that the company uses English as its official language. Along with that, people here are really nice. The company is also really diverse, you can find people from around the globe.
Board Game Night
It was on the third day of the internship that I try one of the great cultures of HDE, the board game night!
Every Wednesdays, people gather to play board games (usually we have a pizza party beforehand — nice!). It was definitely fun. We played games from Love Letter to games like Secret Hitler. HDE has tons of board games.
Monthly Technical Sessions (MTS)
Another cool event is MTS. Basically, once every month, people gather to share knowledge. We, interns, are supposed to give a talk about IT-related topics. It was challenging, but fun nonetheless. There were some talks that is harder for me to understand, but most of them are fun to hear!
Foods
I am particularly excited about Japanese food. So, throughout the internship, I tried to experience some of Tokyo amazing dishes.
Different from other countries, Japan has its own food rating website, called tabelog. I started using it from the second week onward and I can say the rating is trustworthy.
Some notes on using tabelog, food rated 3.00/5.00 are good, which means foods rated above 3.50/5.00 are really good.
I started my food journey with a pizza. I don’t know why. I was about to go to a ramen place but I changed my mind.
Some great restaurants in Japan hold less than 15 people, therefore a queue is bound to be made. Because of that, some crowded restaurants use ticket system. That means people come as early as 9AM to get tickets which then people will use to enter at a designated time (e.g. 2PM).
I was looking for a really good cheap food and I stumbled upon a place called Narikura (tabelog rated > 4.00). The ticketing system applies to Narikura! So, I came to the restaurant earlier to get ticket and come again later.
The two longest time I queued for lunch is currently both happened when I am having an internship at HDE. I waited for about 2.5 hours to get to order.
The first food that made me queue was ramen.
Just like other foods I tried, this ramen is also really good! I particularly enjoy the side dish of rice and sliced pork though.
The other food is a kaisendon or seafood topped above rice.
Again, it tasted really good! I would recommend going to all of the places.
I actually tried lots more delicious food, but it would not fit here.
Actually, HDE also provides really good food. As an intern, I got to enjoy some fancy lunches (called GIP lunch) where I eat good food with two other HDE employees. It was a really pleasant times, because the people are really fun and nice!
Twice every month, HDE also has a communication lunch in which you are supposed to talk to other people. This is also a great event where you meet people, talk, and enjoy nice food.
Travel
It would be a shame if I don’t go to great places near Tokyo. On the weekends, I managed to go to Nikko, Mt. Takao, Kamakura, and Yokohama. I also try to see as much illuminations as I can, which was great!
The places have some really nice views. Although those day trips are really tiring, it is always worth it in the end. You should definitely consider visiting some places while having this internship.
Code
Now comes the serious part. How was the technical side of the internship? It was fun too! The first three weeks are used to learn about AWS and web development. The other four weeks are then used to do projects. Each and every interns are tasked to do different projects.
It was such an amazing 7-week internship.
During the internship, I got to learn various technical skills, talked to differently skilled people, had a lot of fun board game sessions, explored Japan, and ate some delicious foods!
Jason Iman comes from Bandung, Indonesia. He studied Information Technology at the Bandung Institute of Technology, and was one of the HENNGE Global Interns for Oct 29th — Dec 14th 2018. Apply now by cracking the IT challenge here.
