Getting To Japan

Part of why I wanted to start this website is so I could create posts and share stories of my time spent abroad, however, my journey getting to Japan was filled with its fair share of trials as well! I plan to cover the path I took to landing an internship, getting my documents in order, and then finally cover my arrival at Tokyo.

Landing The Internship

As an engineering student at the University of Cincinnati, I was required to complete five semesters of co-op, which for those unfamiliar, a co-op is basically just an internship but you are required to be paid for your work. For those looking for a chance to work abroad, UC has the International Co-op Program also known as ICP where specific ICP advisor will work with the group looking to go abroad and try to connect them to opportunities in their desired country. The two main options or this program seemed to be Germany or Japan and as you may have figured out, I chose the latter. Simply choosing which country to go to doesn't guarantee that you will get an opportunity to go there, it simply means that you are willing to start the process and find out if you can.

When looking for a co-op opportunity, the timing wasn't ideal to say the least. Covid mandates were ending all across the U.S. yet Japan continued to have strict entry, visa, and prevention measures that all compounded in a growing resistance for previous ICP companies to hire foreign interns. Several previous connections had shut down internship programs, transitioned to work from home, or were just flat out unwilling to take the risk given the state of the world at the time.

Thankfully, I was given the chance to interview with Fusion Systems Japan for a software internship. An 11 pm, 2 hour technical interview was looking like my first chance to lockdown an international co-op with a great company. The interview was conducted by the head of the Japanese office, who had a couple coding questions for me to solve ranging from data structures, basic code understanding, and, lucky chance, a problem I personally had done before. The final question was finding all the prime numbers up to a given limit and due to already studying the sieve of eratosthenes, I was able to fly through this question. After some normal conversation about the job details, working environment, and expectations; I received an unofficial offer to come work for the company. After many hours spent applying and strengthening my interview fundamentals, I was finally able to land that elusive offer that officially came in a week later. With a great opportunity secured, I had to begin the documentation process.

Documents and Waiting

Being a surprise to no one, dealing with bureaucracy is never fun. Dealing with two separate bureaucratic entities with a company and university in the middle? I hope I don't have to experience that log jam again.

Once I officially accepted my offer to work in Japan, I had to get that approved by the university as an official co-op. This already proved to take longer than expected, bleeding into September my ICP advisor was able to talk to the right people and get this leg of the process finished. Next, I had to acquire more documents from the university to send to Tokyo for my Certificate of Eligibility or COE. These documents took about a week to compile and once I had the stack of paper ready to send, I instead found that thankfully, an email copy of all the involved papers would suffice, cutting down on the time mail would take. After my documents made it to my company in Japan, a company representative delivered them along with company documents on my behalf to the Japanese government office involved. This leg of the process ended up taking the longest and no updates came until late November where I finally got the clearance that my COE was approved. The next step was to mail the COE back to me where I then had to take it, with several other supporting documents, to the closest Japanese consulate to me in the US. After the consolate processes my documents, I could then pick up my visa and set off on my first experience in Japan.

With an original expected COE arrival of December 14th, I still had time for the 5 business day turn around from the consolate before I planned to leave the US around the first week of January. With snow storms hitting the US, my COE was delayed arriving in Washington. Then, after arriving within an hour from my home, it as delayed again at the Cincinnati airport distribution center. With days rapidly passing, Christmas paired with yet another snowstorm meant that my COE would no longer be delivered before 2023. My original flight plan had to be changed and hopefully would stay that way after all the delays.

After finally obtaining my COE, I made the same day drive up to the consulate in Detroit to hand off my documents and spend time with family. My visa would be processed the day before my early morning flight, making every moment waiting feel agonizing. I packed my things, drove up to Detroit once again, picked up my visa, and stayed the night with family planning to make the 6 am flight out of the Detroit airport bound for Tokyo. This flight ended up being cancelled about 5 hours beore takeoff due to crew availiabilities meaning that after about 8 months of preparation, document shuffling, bureaucratic delays, and mother nature throwing snowstorm after snowstorm, I still was currently bound to the US. Waking up early regardless and dealing with airline support, I was able to get myself added to the next flight out later that day.

Flight and Arrival

Sitting in the airport, having said left my family, it still hadn't hit me that I was going to be on my own, in a foreign country, for 8 months, working for one of the top companies in financial technology in the region. I spent my time walking around the concourse, watching tv, waiting for the plane. After boarding my first flight, passing through customs in Toronto, and then boarding my final flight, I was finally bound for Japan. The flight across the Pacific was long, boring, and crammed full. Nothing too interesting other than the in flight movie options and the occasional meal. After talking with the people around me and exchanging numbers, we finally landed in Japan. Leaving the flight, I was greeted by several staff ushering us through immigration where, unsurprisingly at this point, my visa had to be given extra time to be cleared and some exchanges in broken Japanese moved the process along.

At this point, I had officially arrived. Some USD converted into Yen, I boarded a train bound for Tokyo and made it safely to my hotel for the night. The next day I picked up my keys for my sharehouse, got to my room, and moved in, ready for whatever the next 8 months had in store. Of course, I misread signs, paid for the wrong ticket, got lost almost immediately, and yet, I made it this far; so what was one more detour?