Life as the Kamogawa CIR.
Lately I spend a lot of time posting about stuff outside of work, and then adding in complaints about work here and there. Today I wanna post about random events at work - and try to focus more on reasons why I enjoy it so much, even though it can get pretty rough at times.
On any normal work day, I wake up at 6:30am to SNSD's "Gee"! I used to just have the annoyingly long alarm song that was pre-installed to my cell phone, but I started being able to sleep through it, so I switched. "Gee" somehow manages to wake me up almost INSTANTLY every single day. :D
Work doesn't start until 8:30am, although I make a point to be at work at 8am. I only have a >5 minute commute, so a lot of people wonder why I wake up so early. 1) I take forever to prep, because I am a huge narcissist. 2) Making my bento lunch! There are probably only 2-3 days a month that I don't bring my lunch to work.
I'm pretty confident in my cooking lately - at least for someone living alone?
Salad pasta bento (with homemade 中華風 dressing)!
Spicy mushrooms and 青梗菜 with chicken bento.
Process of making kimbap...(how I miss getting bubble tea and kimbap for lunch after class at Maryland!)
The finished product <3
My sudden intense cravings to eat mainly vegetables still continues...so maybe it's not just a "craving" but a sudden change in diet?
Anyway, work. I've found that the spring months (March-May) tend to be fairly dull. This is because a lot of the work for normal city hall employees during this time is administrative stuff, like budgeting and other necessary paperwork due at the end of the fiscal year (ending March 31), as well as those due for the beginning of the new fiscal year. Since I'm not really included in on any of that work, but lack of budget/manpower prevents me from doing any events, I also get tied down to my desk for most of the time. Although I still have a lot of work - mainly translating anything that I feel would be necessary and maintaining the English version of the city website, none of it has any particular deadlines so I tend to fall into a lull as I stare at my computer monitor all day.
This year though - we did get a pretty huge project out of the way! The translation of the "Guide to Living in Kamogawa" - a 40 page booklet about all of the public services available in Kamogawa. Two of my predecessors had attempted to translate it, but having other work to take care of as well as the booklet being edited every single year prevented them from actually ever managing to complete it. Plus - this is an issue that we have with the city website as well, but each section of the booklet is normally written and edited by the division responsible for the service(s) described. To have a single person keep track of all of that information and translate it every time while dealing with other work as well is pretty impossible.
By the time I came along, half of the booklet had been translated into English, but left untouched for about 3 years - and I didn't have the time to deal with it either. So last year, we hired three amateur translators - one for English, Korean, and Chinese - and left the translating to them! My supervisor and I were only(?) in charge of collecting info if there was anything the translators didn't understand, coordinating, editing and checking...although all of that was pretty hectic too, especially at the end.
The final product! Thank God. Although technically it's over, we still have to somehow translate/add in any new or changed information for the years following. I guess we'll figure out the details as we go though. This photo was taken for a press release but I still haven't seen an article in the newspapers...unless it came out while I was in Korea, or my photo was deemed as unusable by the editor XDD.
Now we're heading into the summer months, and I get to deal with the most hectic - but by far my favorite part of the job, preparing for and escorting around? visitors from abroad. Although it looks like two of the delegations planned for this summer will be canceling (one from our sister city in Wisconsin, the other from our not-official sister city in China?), I still have the student group from our sister city in July and us going to the States in the fall...plus some not yet officially confirmed in between.
This past Friday though, they actually sprung one on me just the day before! A group of 50 young entrepreneurs (working at food-related companies) from New Zealand, on a study program to a handful of places throughout Japan. I was suddenly called to Minnami no Sato (on a random note, one of my favorite places in Kamogawa) to help out all day as staff/interpreter/tour guide. It was crazy, hot, and at first I had only thought I was helping out in the morning, so that by the time I got back to the City Hall at 4pm (just 30 minutes before I was supposed to finish up for the day) I had absolutely none of my regular work done, and wound up staying until 7pm to get something done before going home to pass out. But still - I love getting out of the office. These opportunities also let me meet people new Kamogawa and remind me what is so interesting about it, network with the locals (potential help for future projects), and personally learn something new about Kamogawa (this time I got to learn some random info about the rice planting process in Kamogawa)!
Looking around the local produce shop (where I make a point to buy my rice, because it's 100x better, fresher, and more delicious than the rice they sell at the regular grocery store for the same price).
Learning how to make futomaki sushi - a local specialty made for festivals and other large gatherings.
Exploring Oyama Senmaida, probably my favorite scenic spot in Kamogawa. I love how different it looks throughout the seasons.
Treating myself after a long day to another favorite - original soft serve ice cream at Minnami! They change the flavors every month or so to whatever is in season - you can find normal stuff like strawberry and blueberry, but I've also had random stuff like shiso leaf flavored. This time was soramame-flavored. Soramame look like giant, fattened edamame. To be honest, I don't really like them - not a big fan of beans, and the soft serve tasted like them...but it was definitely an experience. XD
Anyway, tomorrow is Sea Festa and I'll be helping run a booth along the beach, just like last year! This year our theme is decidedly Korean and we'll be selling チヂミ and pomegranate juice <3. It's supposed to be a bright, sunny day and I'll be taking along my camera of death so hopefully I get to take some good shots! Gotta be at work at 6:30am tomorrow so I'll be turning in now.
Hope everyone is doing well!
On any normal work day, I wake up at 6:30am to SNSD's "Gee"! I used to just have the annoyingly long alarm song that was pre-installed to my cell phone, but I started being able to sleep through it, so I switched. "Gee" somehow manages to wake me up almost INSTANTLY every single day. :D
Work doesn't start until 8:30am, although I make a point to be at work at 8am. I only have a >5 minute commute, so a lot of people wonder why I wake up so early. 1) I take forever to prep, because I am a huge narcissist. 2) Making my bento lunch! There are probably only 2-3 days a month that I don't bring my lunch to work.
I'm pretty confident in my cooking lately - at least for someone living alone?
Salad pasta bento (with homemade 中華風 dressing)!
Spicy mushrooms and 青梗菜 with chicken bento.
Process of making kimbap...(how I miss getting bubble tea and kimbap for lunch after class at Maryland!)
The finished product <3
My sudden intense cravings to eat mainly vegetables still continues...so maybe it's not just a "craving" but a sudden change in diet?
Anyway, work. I've found that the spring months (March-May) tend to be fairly dull. This is because a lot of the work for normal city hall employees during this time is administrative stuff, like budgeting and other necessary paperwork due at the end of the fiscal year (ending March 31), as well as those due for the beginning of the new fiscal year. Since I'm not really included in on any of that work, but lack of budget/manpower prevents me from doing any events, I also get tied down to my desk for most of the time. Although I still have a lot of work - mainly translating anything that I feel would be necessary and maintaining the English version of the city website, none of it has any particular deadlines so I tend to fall into a lull as I stare at my computer monitor all day.
This year though - we did get a pretty huge project out of the way! The translation of the "Guide to Living in Kamogawa" - a 40 page booklet about all of the public services available in Kamogawa. Two of my predecessors had attempted to translate it, but having other work to take care of as well as the booklet being edited every single year prevented them from actually ever managing to complete it. Plus - this is an issue that we have with the city website as well, but each section of the booklet is normally written and edited by the division responsible for the service(s) described. To have a single person keep track of all of that information and translate it every time while dealing with other work as well is pretty impossible.
By the time I came along, half of the booklet had been translated into English, but left untouched for about 3 years - and I didn't have the time to deal with it either. So last year, we hired three amateur translators - one for English, Korean, and Chinese - and left the translating to them! My supervisor and I were only(?) in charge of collecting info if there was anything the translators didn't understand, coordinating, editing and checking...although all of that was pretty hectic too, especially at the end.
The final product! Thank God. Although technically it's over, we still have to somehow translate/add in any new or changed information for the years following. I guess we'll figure out the details as we go though. This photo was taken for a press release but I still haven't seen an article in the newspapers...unless it came out while I was in Korea, or my photo was deemed as unusable by the editor XDD.
Now we're heading into the summer months, and I get to deal with the most hectic - but by far my favorite part of the job, preparing for and escorting around? visitors from abroad. Although it looks like two of the delegations planned for this summer will be canceling (one from our sister city in Wisconsin, the other from our not-official sister city in China?), I still have the student group from our sister city in July and us going to the States in the fall...plus some not yet officially confirmed in between.
This past Friday though, they actually sprung one on me just the day before! A group of 50 young entrepreneurs (working at food-related companies) from New Zealand, on a study program to a handful of places throughout Japan. I was suddenly called to Minnami no Sato (on a random note, one of my favorite places in Kamogawa) to help out all day as staff/interpreter/tour guide. It was crazy, hot, and at first I had only thought I was helping out in the morning, so that by the time I got back to the City Hall at 4pm (just 30 minutes before I was supposed to finish up for the day) I had absolutely none of my regular work done, and wound up staying until 7pm to get something done before going home to pass out. But still - I love getting out of the office. These opportunities also let me meet people new Kamogawa and remind me what is so interesting about it, network with the locals (potential help for future projects), and personally learn something new about Kamogawa (this time I got to learn some random info about the rice planting process in Kamogawa)!
Looking around the local produce shop (where I make a point to buy my rice, because it's 100x better, fresher, and more delicious than the rice they sell at the regular grocery store for the same price).
Learning how to make futomaki sushi - a local specialty made for festivals and other large gatherings.
Exploring Oyama Senmaida, probably my favorite scenic spot in Kamogawa. I love how different it looks throughout the seasons.
Treating myself after a long day to another favorite - original soft serve ice cream at Minnami! They change the flavors every month or so to whatever is in season - you can find normal stuff like strawberry and blueberry, but I've also had random stuff like shiso leaf flavored. This time was soramame-flavored. Soramame look like giant, fattened edamame. To be honest, I don't really like them - not a big fan of beans, and the soft serve tasted like them...but it was definitely an experience. XD
Anyway, tomorrow is Sea Festa and I'll be helping run a booth along the beach, just like last year! This year our theme is decidedly Korean and we'll be selling チヂミ and pomegranate juice <3. It's supposed to be a bright, sunny day and I'll be taking along my camera of death so hopefully I get to take some good shots! Gotta be at work at 6:30am tomorrow so I'll be turning in now.
Hope everyone is doing well!