A Graduate Student's "Part-time" Experience in Japan

Generally speaking, the original intention of work is to make money, but the harvest of work is far more than money.

There is such a concept of life, some people desperately pursue the ultimate goal of life, and when they look back at the end of life, they find themselves so lost that they have completely disappeared from the pursuit of life, and there are so many life scenery along the way.

Is the life with more experiences and feelings more valuable and meaningful?

It is precisely because I want to gain more life experience that I have the idea of going to work. Although the Japanese side accepts that the living expenses provided by the organization are sufficient, if it is frugal, it can still have some balance; Although both the sending agency and the receiving party have regulations, trainees are not allowed to work. In all fairness, I am not working to make money.

I found a "position" job, and I was completely "self-employed" without any introduction. Usually, when restaurants, shops and other stores in Japan are short of staff, they often put up a "notice" at the door of the store, which says "clerk is being recruited" (that is, "waiter is being recruited"). In Tokyo, you can often find shops that post such a "notice". Because part-time job is only an amateur experience, you can never take up the study time during the day, so you can only choose to end the night shift after a day's study and life in the company. Limited by time, I can only find opportunities to work nearby. Finally, one day, I saw the "notice" near the Beiqian station where I got off the tram to and from work and found this working restaurant.

This is a restaurant in Taiwan Province Province. There are not many employees in the restaurant, including me, only seven people. Only one of them is Japanese. This Japanese shop assistant is over 50 years old and still single. I don't know if he has suffered too much from life, or if the store is not "one of our own". He is quiet and unsmiling. It is said that he has been in this store for many years and is the most loyal employee of this restaurant. Although other shop assistants change like lanterns, he is the "ever-burning lamp" here, silently guarding the restaurant where he lives. His steadiness and loyalty naturally won the trust of the shopkeeper, who was responsible for the daily purchase and controlled the payment and export of the restaurant.

The person in charge of the entrance to the restaurant is an old girl from Shanghai, China, who is thirty-seven or eight years old and not married. People are ordinary, but kind-hearted. Because she has been in this store for several years and makes a living, she is also quite responsible for this store. Although there is no clear statement, she is really playing the role of the manager of this store. She is the first to arrive at the store and the last to leave every day. At work, you can accommodate yourself on trivial issues that you don't have to care about. For example, I occasionally arrive a few minutes late or leave early for some reason. It's not that the business in the store is too busy, and she doesn't say much. I often help explain a few words in front of the store to avoid deducting wages.

What is obviously different from her is another Shanghainese who does the same job as me. She came to Japan to accompany her (Mr. Wang is studying in Tokyo). Her work and mine alternate. Order, serve and collect tables in the front hall alone (guests often need to run up and down the stairs); Another person disinfected windows, leaflets, food and tableware. Washing dishes is the responsibility of a rural woman from Fujian. Maybe this Shanghai "Miss" (already a young woman) is used to the superior life like China's "Big Miss", or maybe she is mean at heart and calculating at work, but she works slowly and speaks quickly. Because everyone is "running away from home" and doesn't want to make trouble, plus she is a "sister", so everyone seems to have a tacit understanding and stay away from her. Especially that Fujian woman, I don't know if there is any world. Every day, her eyes are always in fear. When she met the dim light coming from behind her glasses, she was even more afraid to avoid it. After being scolded by Miss Shanghai, she just bowed her head and did her job.

In this Taiwan Province restaurant, the one who talked to me the most was another China chef, a handsome young man from Shenyang. He is 1.76 meters tall and wears a pair of glasses on his face. He is about 25 years old and looks very elegant. If I hadn't seen him cooking with my own eyes, I would have mistakenly thought that he was a work-study student in China. However, he is really not a student, because in the month when I was in the store, it was not the month when the Japanese school was on holiday, and I never saw him leave. He is also a "professional wage earner". However, his part-time job is completely different from that of Fujian chefs. Shenyang has a good family. He comes from a cadre family in Shenyang, and his parents disapprove of his coming to work in Japan out of love for his son. He told me that he chose to work mainly because he wanted to live on his own and made comprehensive preparations for his future life. He doesn't want to burden his parents more because he didn't go to college, and he doesn't want to live in the background forever. He said that he has a "delusion" in his mind that he will either become an "expatriate" with his own industry in the future or return to China to invest in his own catering business. He chose to come to Japan because he had relatives in Japan, went to Japan through normal channels and lived by himself. After he arrived in Japan, he did not continue to cause more trouble to his relatives. I will never do anything to discredit the people of China.

In the days when I got along with master Shenyang, I could clearly feel the roughness and heroism of his "Northeastern". He earns money from the Japanese (only through restaurants run by people in Taiwan Province Province), but he never refuses to get angry with the Japanese. If I and several other migrant workers in China get angry with Japanese customers at the front desk, he will definitely "retaliate" against such Japanese in the kitchen and "avenge" us.

The "diners" of this restaurant in Taiwan Province Province are mostly Japanese, and few people from China come. Although "Chinese cuisine" is a world-recognized food, Japanese people also like it. However, all China people can "earn their own living", so few China people come here to spend money. The Japanese who come here to eat can be said to be all kinds, some are gentle and friendly, and some are grumpy; Some are high-spirited and some are disheartened; There are friends and colleagues who get together, and there are lonely people who only drown their sorrows in wine. Needless to say, in the former case, you live in peace; Japanese diners who encounter the latter situation will occasionally be unreasonably reprimanded and abused. It stands to reason that "customers are God", but for such "Japanese God", China people's "class hatred and national hatred" will always come to mind unconsciously. It is certainly unwise to "confront" customers, and it is always embarrassing to swallow it. I can only hide in the kitchen to vent.

Whenever this happens, Master Shenyang is filled with indignation and indignation. His indignant way is to make such Japanese customers turn off their appetite. In this way, he declares such Japanese as unwelcome diners. I thought that the three northeastern provinces were first occupied by the Japanese "imperial army" when it invaded China. Unexpectedly, in this restaurant in Taiwan Province Province, it is such a chef from three northeastern provinces of China who dominates the appetite of some Japanese diners and cultivates such Japanese to learn to respect people.