I've got to start this with one of the most trying experiences I've had in a very, very long time. A friend who's already been on a Universal Studios work trip to Osaka gave me some instructions on what trains to take to get to the job site. I figured I was set...Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly so simple. I've got to say that my friend absolutely must have been with someone who knew the ropes on his first time to the site.
While the train directions were very good. What was left out was how to actually buy the right ticket. First of all, I hit the train station during the morning rush hour. It wasn't pretty. While I've been in more crowded situations, this was not the time that I was going to be able to find anyone with time to lend a helping hand. Besides, none of the station staff I spoke with seemed to speak enough English to give me any indication of what to do. Just what an island of safety the hotel is was beginning to sink in, as my hopes of making it to work by 9:00 also sank.
There were ticket machines all over the place. The problem is that they seemed to be of at least two different varieties. I'm still not sure if that's true or not...I haven't had the inclination to experiment, having found machines that work. Adding insult to injury, each machine must have about 100 buttons on it. I had found my destination on a displayed map of the transit system, and one of the attendants had even told me that the fare would be 170 yen (about $1.70). After wandering around in a confused, hopeless daze for about 20 minutes, I finally decided that I had a guess as to what machine to use, and how to use it. Besides, I was only going to put 170 yen into the machine, so if I couldn't figure out the machine, and rendered it inoperable, I could just walk away like it wasn't my fault.
As luck would have it, my first guess proved correct:
1) Add your money.
2) Press the JR button (This is who runs the train. I really don't know what the other options near it are for, since this was a station only for JR trains as...as far as I know).
3) Press the lit button with the amount you want added to the ticket.
4) Press the button with the one man on it (as opposed to, for example, the button with the man, woman, two children and a dog on it...I'm joking about the dog).
5) Voi la! A ticket comes popping out of the machine.
Now that that's done, we find the right gate. This is no problem, since I can pronounce the name of the transfer station I'm going to, and there are guards watching every exit gate, making sure everyone pays their way, including ignorant foreigners, like me. One points me to the right entry point. The last problem is that I've got a ticket that's only 1 inch wide, and everybody is sticking these cards the size of credit cards into the gate. World traveller that I am, I realize that these people have the "bulk" ticket that I tried for half an hour to find the machine for. Did I buy the wrong ticket after all? I don't know. In the end, I figure, "OK, I'll stick this 1" wide ticket in the 2 1/2" wide slot. If it breaks the machine, I'll worry about it then...probably just (...drumroll please...) walk away like it wasn't my fault."
Lo and behold! It worked! I was on my way to the platform...
In case you couldn't tell, the ticket thing was the biggest problem. Once I had that figured out, it was downhill from there finding the right train. The transfer wasn't even all that difficult.
As for work, let me say that's it's both gratifying and frightening when half of the people you meet throughout the day respond with "Oh, I've heard a lot about you!" and the other half with what amounts to "Oh, we've been in desperate need of a Controls Engineer for T2!". And that's not to say that I only met 2 people. I gave up on the name thing after about number five. Not too far into the introductions, my brain reaches saturation, and I just have to make the rounds later to pick back up all the information I missed the first time.
The site itself was incredible. We walk into the theater, and it's huge, there are no inside walls, there's a safety net hanging from the catwalk 50 feet overhead to keep things from accidentally dropping from the catwalk onto people's heads below, you can see construction dust in the air as you look across the place, everybody's wearing a hard hat (even me...it was issued to me in orientation), and you have the constant noise of arc welders, grinders, saws, or jackhammers going somewhere in the building. It hit home that I'm really helping to build an amusement park special effects show. Those of you who know how much I missed actually making something at Dell will realize how important this is to me. This is going to be a fun job.
Hot news from orientation: The site has a great safety record. No one has been killed...er...injured on the site (...yet?)!
Also, reality is already starting to set in (This is surely a correlary to the "Chuck Effect", whereby any investmant that I put money in will tank within a short period of time). The word going around is that Universal is going to stop paying for business class air fare for vendors who don't have it explicitly provided in their contracts (of course, one of those would be me). Also included with these money-saving changes would be that vendors will no longer be put up in the Ritz. All hope isn't lost, though. This might actually raise such a ruckus that Universal will back off and leave things the way they already are and have been.
Well, it seems that I'm not quite into the local time zone yet. It's only 10:30 and I'm finding myself barely able to make any sense of my typing, so I'll sign off. Have fun in the Land of the Menus Written in English...