At Hitachi Chemical, and maybe other Japanese companies, there are ‘activities’ that employees can partake in. Basically they are sport activities and I think they are intended to provide the employees with fun and healthy things to do outside of work. I have been to a weekend tennis practice and usually play tennis during lunch if the weather is good. However, Tuesdays are supposed to be badminton nights, but since I came during the busy season, this activity has generally been postponed. But after constantly asking about it, with two weeks left in my internship I attended my first badminton practice.
This is my first time touching a badminton racket in maybe years, and although I still had some rusty muscle memory, I know I am nowhere near my peak during the end of senior year. The practice consists of four Hitachi people and maybe six university students. After observing everyone for some time and hitting my first shots it is clear I am the best player here. The other person who is also pretty good is this 23 yr old university student, so I mostly hit with him. There are no badminton lines in the gym, so we don’t really play any games, aside from a very casual doubles game. Nonetheless it felt very good to play once again and the three hours went by too fast.
On my last week I also went to practice, with roughly the same people present, and once again it went very fast. I think my weakest shot has always been the drop, both in execution and in returning. During my ‘peak’ I was becoming decent at the drop, but I have since lost that. Also because of the lack of lines I cannot really judge how good my clears are: whether they are long or whether I have lost power and run them consistently short. Everything else, although weaker and slower, I think I have retained, but I cannot measure it accurately until I go to a real practice back home.
April 28th was my last day of actual work, since the 29th is reserved for cleaning everything before Golden Week. I turned in a report of what I had done and of the data I had collected. The 28th was also my going away party. When I was asked if the 28th was a good day for a party I originally thought that it was a welcome party for the new people who had transferred to our group in April, but alas, I was mistaken. It feels as if only yesterday I had my welcome party, but hey if the company wants to fund a night of great food for me and my coworkers, go for it.
Everyone minus two people who had already left for Golden Week festivities attended my first party. The food, as expected, was above par and locally grown, I was informed. My second party (because two are better than one) saw maybe half of my group. I asked for everyone’s private email, speeches were made all around, and dinner conversations ranged from my travel plans to the situation with the military base in Okinawa. I even received some really nice chopsticks with Japanese black lacquer and a set of pencils with my name written in hiragana.
As I previously said, the 29th was a day for cleaning. We swept and wiped down our lab, threw out all the trash, and washed all the glassware and instruments. In the office space we cleaned the windows, vacuumed, and I cleaned out my desk, which was pretty barren to begin with. The remainder of the day I read the news online, after which I read articles on theonion.com, which was mostly hilarious. I had to work to hold back my laughter, although being my last day it wouldn’t have mattered too much, maybe.
I turned in my clothes, shoes, and time card to the PR people. I said “osaki ni sitsuree shimasu, otsukaresama deshita” for my last time and began to make my way to the bus stop. Then everyone who remained from my group (people had slowly trickled home early to get an early start on their Golden Week plans) walked me to the bus stop. Well half-way to the bus stop the bus came, so they ran me to the bus stop and made the bus wait. I shook everybody’s hand, they wished me the best, and I gave them my sincerest thanks and boarded the bus. I waved to them as the bus left knowing that I would miss these people.
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