Friday, March 6, 2009

A day in the life of...

I woke up today at 6:30am
not because I had a nightmare
but because I'm working at the movers today!

Ryoutaro came to pick me up at about 6:50am
(thanks for sacrificing your precious sleep time to help me on my first day!)
and we arrived around 7:00am at the company

I changed into overalls (will try to take a picture next time!)
and the day began with us moving empty boxes, bubble wrap, and supplies into the van
staff members are divided into teams each day and you never know who and where you'll end up with
turns out males and females do not work with one another

What's special about the moving business in Japan is that females (usually) go to the client's house and pack up the client's belongings into boxes (nice huh?) and then stack them up at a certain area in the apartment/house
then the males take over and move the boxes from the old residence to the new residence
then the females take over again and unload the boxes (get this ->) and restore them in their original positions!
Talk about customer service!

So today I went out with four other females and spent around ten hours packing a couple's belongings into a mountain made up of more than 30 boxes
...and we're not done yet...
I'm surprised at the strength of the other females, two are middle-aged and two just graduated from high school
I feel weak... Orz

But anyway, today (oops, it's past midnight now) yesterday was a great experience
a unique peek into a slice of Japanese life if you will
I'm tired and sleepy but I haven't really done any exercise these days
so I look at this also a workout
and a way to make sure I don't go broke (hehe)

I'm not on duty tomorrow
I guess they'll call me again when I'm needed
(Please call me~!)

Anyway, tomorrow I'll take it slow and let my muscles rest a bit
and do some studying!
:D

8 comments:

Thunderthud said...

Sounds like they really have moving down to a science. Looking forward to seeing you in (bib?) overalls. I hope you don't wear yourself out working too hard. Is the pay very good?

Booyah! said...

the pay isn't super good... it's just a bit over minimum wage...

but i look at it as a chance to exercise a bit and get to practice my japanese cuz that's all they speak :)

my arms are sore now, btw

Thunderthud said...

Your arms will probably be even sorer today.

Booyah! said...

actually it doesn't hurt as bad anymore today :P

Faiz said...

Very interesting post Jenny. As Thunderstud mentioned, they seem quite methodical - not surprising at all :p
You're sure to have a cool experience seeing the different types of homes in Kago!

Booyah! said...

i guess one of the perks of the job is that you get to see what the typical japanese house looks like :P

jamezu said...

wow O_O
you seem to enjoy it :)

Booyah! said...

Yep, am actually enjoying it :P