Japan's Part Time Jobs (Convenient Stores) | What’s it like?

hey everybody so I'm here on the Sumida River this is a Samhita gaol this is ska which is an island just across from Tokyo this is Tokyo - this is Tokyo - but that's Tokyo the city and this is an island that I'm on right now and it's now connected by bridges but a hundred years ago there were no bridges and it was connected by ferry which would shuttle across between the islands and in this episode it's key geez over there I see you see on the chat this is a live stream and in this live stream we're gonna be talking about part-time jobs in Japan called vital and a bye toll is something that high school kids or college kids will do to make some extra money and it's not something that I have done but it's something that my guest has done and is doing and she had can just in several different directions several different ways this way is gonna be question-and-answer with somebody who is actually working a bite doll somebody who is a master of it I'm an addition in like Oh like 30 seconds we're gonna walk around I want to show you this area it's absolutely beautiful this is what Tokyo looks like right now in May it's a little bit cooler looks like it could rain today the weather has has chilled before the rainy season which is coming in two weeks from now over there is the Tokyo Skytree and you can see a bridge through the trees maybe but well we'll get a better view of that in a few minutes we're gonna keep this live stream moving so but first we're gonna meet my gasps who is down here me see if we could see her I could see her oh you saw me uh what I thought we're gonna get away with it there she is over there sitting down chillaxing it's Hana alright we'll come to you you find a nice spot here it is this a great area you just control it relax and overlook the Sumida River the Sioux of the space-boat goes by like every 30 minutes as well yeah very nice area well done Hana for picking the spot she's back again so we first met Hana about six months ago where she gave us a New Year's message of hope and inspiration by playing her guitar which would viral on the Internet you did it was oh haha well you got so you get a lot of subscribers and I did thank you so much everyone yeah the date they do you everyone for watching for watching and following her son I'm gonna put a link in the description for you to check out Hana Victoria she's an artist but she's a lot more than that she's also a part-time worker a part-time worker and you have experience now more than I do of being a worker here in Japan we call well part-time work is called a bite dog bite the other vital auto bite dog that that is actually not an English word it's German I believe yeah I thought it was curious because auto bite though is others like all bite well I don't never heard that in English I believe it comes from a German word and it's spelled it in katakana which is the phonetic alphabet for foreign words with foreign origin so it's an auto bite off and we're getting some people from Germany confirming it's a German German origin so you're now working in an in a in a German company in a convenient a convenience store right yeah I you know I've always wanted to want to do that that's like the job it's a dream job for a lot of young people because it seems like you can just operate like a robot right yeah it's crazy because it's so accessible and it's everywhere and I've only had the opportunity to you know interact with the community as a consumer but now working behind the scenes it's like a completely different perspective gain and so much appreciation towards these convenience stores that like lighten your day every day just accessible everywhere so it's crazy right so I've worked a lot of part-time jobs in the United States especially as a high school none of not in high school so much but definitely in college the wages were bad uh uh the responsibilities were low although the managers made it seem like like everything depended on me it was pretty much like a job that anybody could do that's what a part-time job usually is some somebody to fill in the gap however in Japan I think that there's there's some similarities and there's some differences let's start off we're gonna make this a question and answer where all of you who are watching this live stream have the ability to communicate with us and we're gonna ask Hana questions and you can ask about me because I have some experience working in Japan just a little ha ha but how do what are the wages like in Japan for vital wages it's 960 yen per hour and but if you work in the morning hours which is like 6:00 to 9:00 about you get 970 yen which is like a plus 10y bonus yeah because it's early in the morning people don't really want to do that but I actually do a morning shift because I am like most hyper during the mornings so it's say well you're you're that person who's for that morning for the all the businessmen going to work fine yeah papers you know getting their coffees right it's also a lot of pressure because it's the morning so everyone's in a rush so they expect you to you know get their money and give give a change really quickly so it's like a lot of time pressure but it's it's really good skill skill to have yeah time so so I think for right now with the conversion the exchange rate the way it is you're making about nine dollars us an hour yeah about nine bucks an hour yeah is that enough for you to live on I mean it doesn't seem like a lot yeah I mean I have my like bosses work like every day like the managers 9:00 - yeah the managers 9:00 - like nine hours maybe nine shifts so it is possible but you know there's one boss that I have or manager that I have who works at two convenience stores let's call him suzuki-san suzuki-san okay generic name like Smith Suzuki son yeah lucky son works at two convenience stores and so I think that's how he's able to make enough money to live on it but it'll be very difficult to work in just one convenience I think so yeah Wow so III got a lot of questions for you too honey all right let's move to another location I love this area of Tokyo as we're talking about Japanese bite though we're also kind of enjoying the scenery here we have two boats passing one another two ships in the night although it's daytime but the expression is two ships in the night and as they pass we too shall pass to another area all right this is a moment in time not to be missed there was boring scene in the history of live-streaming all right indeed now let let's move let's move down to the Riverside all right watch your head oh I could have been that could have made the livestream just a little bit more fun luckily there's a hospital but it's across the river yes it's across the river you got a swim over Tokyo is is one of the places where a lot of people have been wanting to work here and in order to get a job in Tokyo you of course need to have the proper visa and this is talking about not just a job well we until we get to the next spot I want to talk about the visa situation I came here on a visa that was international Humana an international worker a job that a Japanese couldn't do someone who's Japanese could not do and those jobs mean are specialized so it's easier to get the visa like English teaching for example and when you get that visa you can continuously renew that visa as long as you can prove that you have income coming in wait a second space logged space bout behind the boring looking boat lies one of Tokyo's greatest assets space boat I know I'm telling you space boat rocks it needs to blast music and make announcements from some dictator though turn turnin and this is your dictator calling from space boat all citizens bow down as space boat makes its way to the next destination or we will taser you I don't know this looks like I don't know if I was a dictator I wouldn't want the space boat I'm just saying like the manager of a convenience store for example he arrives in a space boat well he have to be maybe the president of the entire company to afford a space boat it's pretty cool as as we leave this Facebook there's a picnic cake ok let's go to this picnic tables over here so you need to have the proper visa first of all in order to do that you need what's called the co e or certificate of eligibility that means that you have to have a sponsor you have to have a company that's willing in your country to hire you to come here alright and I guarantee you no convenience store is going to hire a foreign worker just because Japanese people can do that job just fine although people that are foreign are working here but they already have visas right so that's another thing if you do want to work in Japan you need to have the proper visas in order to do that English teaching for most Westerners is the easiest job to get but now English teaching jobs have been opened up to people in India Pakistan Sri Lanka in different parts of Asia and we're seeing teachers because the reality is English is spoken by everyone around the world so just because you have an accent is not a reason that you would not get a job here in Tokyo as an English teacher have a seat is this one cleaner which one is the better this one is blue in it so I'm sort of impartial to its balloonists it matches your shirt actually it matches your outfit check it out this is the Hana table you did not stop it alright so we're gonna put the camera this way because in the distance you can see the Tokyo Skytree can you see it's right right there yeah right right by your hand there's a Tokyo Skytree in the distance so that's where we are folks so one up you so when I turn I think you're 21 age 21 I have to choose either one but I can still keep both as long as I'm smart about it and they don't like see both at the same time don't report her basically of course of course but your other other is American yes but you're going to school in Canada yes so I have a student visa for two and I also need a work permit if I were to work at a part-time job or anything Canada in Canada okay but it's easier this is another thing with this theme of working we're gonna go back to Hannes convenience stores experience and some of my experiences working but visas are quite important I believe it is if you're under the age of 30 from those from blessed countries like Canada and Holland and Australia New Zealand these countries can work in Japan and legally for I guess it's up to six months if you're under the age of 30 they're called work holiday visas as an American that was never an option that I had I had to go full-on visa for work with registration and everything like this and have sponsorship but with the work holiday visa you don't actually need to have found a company you could actually come and work in a convenience store I believe I'm not really sure on this some people are writing in on the left on the comments up to one year you can have a work holiday visa and these are exchange programs really with each government and the United States government is kind of strict with immigration and giving that visa so it's reciprocal reciprocated on the Japan side where it's very hard to get visas going the other way hey it's a Prada purse here I hope you remember me Pradeep yes I do yeah so John apart from singing she is great photographer yeah we have exchanged before every day yes all right we will be posting Hannah's honey victoria's instagram as well as my own she could visit at any time and thank your moderators Jim and Oscar for moderating this so thank you very much yay so you got fans out there too yeah she's also a wonderful photographer and a singer so she doesn't just work at a convenience store yes don't take for granted those people behind the counters they also have other skills they do so much speaking of skills back to the job here um convenience stores you don't have to say which which chain you work at okay cuz if we told you where she works I bet you all of these people will come and start to bother you like destroy yeah I don't know I would don't tell me where you're working I'll come in and bother you all the time yeah tough secret but how long ago did you start this part-time job I started in the beginning of May so it's been about two and a half weeks maybe I've done it like seven or eight times already it's like three hour shift three hours shifts 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. it's fun and you know one of the things with Japanese convenience stores and the people who work there it's one of them as popular jobs with the younger people actually there's there's like kind of jokes going on that the younger generation they just want to work in a convenience store because there's no responsibility at all but that's actually yeah really well older people in my generation says that about your generation yeah sorry but you're responsible she's one of the good ones folks your mom might be watching but going back to it the fact is that you know convenience stores in Japan are Co quite different from convenience stores in the United States and the rest of the Western world because it's a center of everything in life pretty much everything that you need in Japanese modern society is available or possible to do at a convenience store tickets faxes stamps it's like a post office in many ways it's a place where you can sell parcels you can have Amazon Japan packages sent to convenience stores like you can pick the one that's closest to your house not even sent it to your house it's insane the amount of stuff that they can do which which is my next question to you is like hello are you crazy to want to do this job because it's so much stuff I know I know it's but that's kind of why I wanted to do it so much was because it's like if you master this if you master working a part-time job at a convenience store you can basically do anything any other part-time job you will be able to you manage it because we've overcome this super challenge of working at a coffee store and that's what my boss also said is that it's there's so much to remember concert tickets packages deliveries you know in doing the register like the the Machine making sure that the change is right there's a lot of responsibility and I think that's what you know makes you grow as a person is that challenge and so I wanted to you know expose myself to that I'm really so you're not looking for career in convenience stores oh no this summer I I mean it's always been something on my mind to want to work in a convenience store is this this little like dream of mine it's just like and I also love like meeting people and convenience stores is where like no matter what age you are no matter what gender you are who you are everyone comes into the convenience store right and you know they buy something and they go and somebody else comes in so I really wanted to you know experience what that was like to have various different types of customers coming in and out and really unpredictable because they come in waves like in the morning especially you get the salarymen and the students who are going to school on their way to different kinds of people exact all walks of life all walks of life yeah and you get to chat with them a little bit you know because it's this like comfortable place community it's like comfort that's what I feel I just love music I walk in I walk into the convenience store 7-eleven plays day tripper and family of Family Mart you walk in the door you here at denne denne denne denne denne denne and you know it just feels comfortable after you you get used to the the rhythm of each store Lawson's has a problem that I think they're the most you think so yeah they seem a little bit outdated very 1980s kind of feeling even the designs but they're changing they have the natural Lawson's and they have different different varieties of Lawsons that might not be where you work or it might be we can't say you never know but how hard was it to get this job one of the reasons we're talking about part-time jobs is it is it it's not something that requires on the surface a lot of skill yet you have to interview for this right you do you do but the thing about at least this convenience store was that they're really really in need of people and the actual owner of the convenience store has to work the ships because there are not enough people to sustain be this shift situation and so and also the fact that I could speak English was Oh huge yeah and because there are a lot of tourists in the area that I work so I've come across a couple English speakers and I've had a couple of English conversations with them just you know talking about why hey why are you in Japan like what do you like most about Japan so it's like these you know you get to meet different people and that was also a strength so yeah that's all I just had to stop for a second it's just to show you that all right I'm not even going to say what it is we all know yes I think your ability to speak English as Japan is is now in the middle of a tourist boom the country huh when I first started to get my only in Japan in 2013 there was a target to get to like Tanner and then to 20 million tourists in one year we've exceeded that here in Japan and and now the Prime Minister has moved on to 40 million tourists by the end of the year and I think we're gonna get that so actually the amount of tourists coming to Japan is increasing so much but the level of English and the ability for people to speak and communicate in Japan has stayed the same meaning there's a lot of problems because I think the problem the issue might be that Japanese people just in general speaking in general that they don't have much confidence like in their English abilities and English is a mandatory requirement like you have classes they take classes at school in Japanese schools but it's just the the lack of confidence to speak up and just try because even at my convenience store when English speaker comes my boss was like please please please like go talk to them oh you you deal with these yeah I mean I really understand that it's scary to speak for you know attempt to speak a second language but at the same time I think that's what everyone needs to start doing because it's just overwhelming the amount of tourists that we get right you know so being bilingual though opens opened this door yes it did but do you think it would have been harder to get this job if you weren't bilingual honestly I don't think so you'd have gotten they just hate people yes especially the morning shifts he was like so thankful that I was willing to take that because they're just if you're working in at a convenience store for a part-time job you probably are not somebody who wakes up that early in the morning my this is just my feeling if you're probably someone who probably you know might be you enjoying yourself until the middle of the night and then you wake up for your non responsibilities job that's the image anyway but still I'm sort of I discussed with my my manager and then he said that it's okay to work six to nine but from starting from next week I have like four shifts that's from six to one o clock oh wow and that was because he just he was like it can you like will they pay you more for that yeah yeah it's on an hourly basis but yeah so it was actually surprising for me too because I'm just starting and he's already asking me to work extra hours so it just shows you know how much ya know let's go towards the operation of a convenience store and and there's many kinds of bite or part-time jobs you could work in actually Tsutaya is a big employer it's it's the it used to be one of the fastest growing I don't know if it's still a fast growing company because they do DVD sales most DVD rentals but it used to be the fastest growing company with with employees under the age of 30 CCC convenient Culture Club is the parent company to Tsutaya they've employed a lot of vital McDonald's is still a big employer of part-time and students here in Japan so there's lots of jobs that you can do is vital not just convenience store but what what I'm learning after talked before we started this livestream I took to Hana to kind of wrap my head around what it requires that's different this job is different than in the United States services and convenience stores this is just a bite to but the services are so much that you react Chua lee have to study right tell me some of the some of the things that have surprised you learning this job working in a convenience store the first thing that surprised me was when my manager told me to clean the bathrooms right you have our we have our uniforms and when we clean the bathrooms we need to take off our uniforms why put them in the lockers and then clean the bathrooms with our you know ordinary clothes because you know you never know if like your uniform might get water on it yeah or it might get dirty so it's like all about that cleanliness and it like encapsulate so much about the beauty of you know from one perspective it's like overdoing it like taking off your uniform but at the same time from the other perspective it's really like so beautiful that Japanese you know this place will even think of doing that and it's so thoughtful and it's so just clean and this this concept of really thinking the customers first because we don't want to like have like stains on our yeah when we're interacting with the customer yeah I'm moving around because I have a follow-up question it's just I mean to me I it's kind of amazing like usually the uniform is there to keep that's what you want stained you don't want your public clothes stained right so that's why I get the uniform it's supposed to take the take the elements but they ask you to change out of their uniforms because the uniform is the rim is what you wear to represent their brands and you want that to be flawless exactly and that is what that's kind of when you exchange with the customer so you want to be looking you know clean and also there's this is not really a strict rule but everyone follows it's kind of an unsaid rule is that you don't wear your watch you don't wear like necklaces no earrings no bracelets just like this like everyone should have this like me to sort of just like appearance appearance have a neat appearance does that rule apply the same for men and women yes so makeup is okay if you makeup is okay but not makeup yeah but not too much like not those like you know those long yes that can be distracting you know so and also the way you speak is also like very Kegel Kegel yeah yeah and you know when you the biggest thing is that when you give back the money or when you take the money yes it's important to make sure that it's accurate like they're really really concerned about that so you have to count the money at least three times before you give it to the customer Wow yeah once when you take it out of the machine once in your hand second in your hand and third in front of the customer to make sure the counter in front of the customer and there's never any debate if if the money is if you were given the right amount of money I've never had a problem with my change at convenience stores I get three times yep a little bit overkill but okay yeah but you know and you but you learn this so much in the ayna training that it's almost like a robotic reaction or do you think about it um we what do you mean what do you think well I like for me when I go into convenience stores I know that there's trainers cuz they have a little show scene shot like a beginner seal on their on their thing you're like I'm like I'm in training but then then there's a people that have been working in this job for years and years and they're just like second nature the way that they count the money for me I'd be I'd be counting like this in fact the customers would probably just leave the convenience store and go to another place that's but I would give them the right change the thing is when I go in there there's it's just like second nature everything yeah is that from the training or is that an ability to perfect the job that's with anything it just you know getting used to something you become second nature anything yeah and so whatever you do if you repeat it multiple times and it becomes natural you do it without thinking and it's just the way it is so I think that's applied I think this goes with like sushi chefs in a lot of places where they have apprenticeships where you do the motion wax on wax off no mercy Kubrick I you do the same motion over and over again so your body actually just naturally relaxes something that was not a skill and then when a sushi chef cuts and a fish it's so smooth the actions are so perfect it's because they've practiced the right way the motions over and over again an apprenticeship and I think when you go with the counting money all the steps even the way you click on the thing that's not the space-boat by the way this is a bigger boat it's a big big crane boat there's a lot of construction going on in the city for the Olympics so you'll see some much heavy machinery even on the rivers but once again like a job is more than just a job in Japan they say work ethic wise you know the company is your life I hate making the face but salarymen these are not part-time job but salary meant the guys who wear the neckties in the suits and the women is well called oh well or office ladies they go to work based on a monthly salary and they work until the boss decides to go home there they don't work on an hourly wage do you do you think that one of the reasons and sorry about the very slow power boat going by do you think one of the reasons why Japanese convenience school workers are so good at their job is because they really take it seriously but it's just a part-time job that they're not gonna be doing for the rest of their life you know convenience stores it's it's a very service you know it's service is at the core right yeah and so customers come in and you naturally you you want to make sure that they have a good time you know they are able to get their product in a swift you know quickly and so I think that in itself already motivates us want to give more and want to make sure that each customer who comes through the desk is you know happy right you want a happy customer and you're not getting tipped for it no this is the and this is the okay that the thing in Japan is that you don't tip ever anyone you can give them a tip you know like hey hey good service you give them a compliment maybe but nobody leaves money for good service here in Japan that includes taxi drivers in Bell people who hotel staff never tip in Japan people take it almost as an insult like they get paid okay but you're telling me you get $9 an hour which might be more than minimum wage in some places but like the the reason why people tip the reason why people work hard in some countries is because they know a tip is coming if they do a good job you don't in Japan have that have that because you do you do a good job because it's your job to do a good job yeah does that make sense it's your job to do a good job so you do a good job because you take pride in your job yes and you yourself are a reflection of the company that you're working for and if you do a bad job that reflects badly on everything that you're doing lies and it's really a team effort so you don't want to be that person who drags other people down you know what I mean all right is the brand down and I think that's a really just core like cultural value of just you know Japan in general is that we always think about the other person first before ourselves right yeah and then so having that value you want to give your best because you don't want to trouble other people you don't want them to feel bad or anything that's what I was telling everybody in the last livestream it had a question and answer of her trip planning in Japan for that for the summer and one of the things that I said was Japanese toilets and restrooms are so clean because the people who are using it are when they leave or thinking about the next person all right this is just a culture this is a cultural thing that's just ingrained in people in Japan and that's why like the streets are clean that the rivers are pretty clean this picnic table is really clean people throw the trash or they take it home with them and when you're working in environment like even a part-time job where they're not gonna be doing this for the rest of their lives they still think about the other co-workers and the customer to that level amazing yeah and as you said it's really both ways it's not just the the workers who are putting our effort into you know thinking about the customer but it's also the customer not wanting to trouble the workers and the cleaners of the toilets and so that's why the some customers are out there of course the bad ones like me I'm not gonna admit anything yeah but just in general we have that I think there's a cooperative relationship between workers and customer right and so that keeps the environment clean so something for people to think of when they're visiting from abroad and the being stores is that you know I think it's ok to ask for services but don't be rude this is that there's their differences to the way that the convenience stores in Japan work in the way that they work in the United States there's a lot of food there's a lot more turnover there's a lot more services besides cleaning the toilet were there any other challenges to the job you're still only working there for two and a half weeks right um definitely a challenge is having to remember all of the things that's just a you know one big thing is so many how much did you study for this job - how much work did you put in outside of the job to learn the job actually none because all of the duties that are expected of us you kind of there's the only way to learn it really is to be in the environment learn it as you go because it's just really difficult for even my manager or boss to say okay when this paper for the concert tickets come you have to take the bar code you have to put it in this it's really hard to explain without it actually happening right and so I literally on my first day was asked to go in front of the desk and do the register Wow on the first day the first day I was so nervous but I know that could be normal so I you know I just let myself be nervous and you know try to calm myself down and it's hard because you have this time pressure of you don't want to make the customer wait but you know in general customers are very respectful of that and if you're if you're training then they understand that you might take a little longer than usual so you know that was comforting and yeah what would your co-workers like my co-workers they are so sweet so sweet and understanding and they're always saying that you have such a beautiful smile so just smile and you know we'll handle like the large packages and stuff but just learn on your way on the way and they always like comfort me by saying that everyone goes through this process of starting something new and being scared being nervous and that's okay because everyone goes through that right and I one time I made a mistake of not yeah I mean a mistake of this one customer ordered like two fried chickens or something like that and then I forgot to put it in the register so I finished the change and everything without having the cup for the chickens and then for the fried chickens and so afterwards I went back and I cuz I remember that and I went back to my manager and I said that I'm so sorry I think I forgot to put it in the register and I don't think she paid for it so can I pay for from my own pocket and she was like oh no it's okay like we've all done that it's fine I'll just do that Wow take care of it so it's like that obviously this like part-time job would have been completely different with like a much harsher you know boss and but I'm just so blessed to have this - yes and they're just so supportive and they understand that it's okay to make mistakes that's good that's because I know that when you work in a part-time job in Japan now I'm going towards my experiences I had a cultural shock I came in here to teach English originally and that's not a part-time job that's a real job it was a pretty tough job but the thing I didn't really understand was that look I was only gonna do this job for a year and I came here pretty much strict but this is the the mindset that a lot of new newbies to Japan were coming from abroad in this kind of position thing I'm just coming for a year I'm really not here for the job I'm kind of here just to experience Japan but pay me anyways and you know I'll do the best that I can but I'm not really gonna care that much about it that the problem is that the the biggest difficulty that the foreign teachers had with the Japanese teachers was that differences in culture and work ethic it was if the foreign teacher didn't really care so much about improving because they were only gonna be here for a year so why improving your job and something in a skill that you're not gonna be having when you leave that job and enter the workforce in your home country the problem with that is that what you the skills that you have in any job require you to be doing the best that you can do whether you're cleaning a toilet you should clean that toilet the best you can clean the toilet better than anybody else those are the kinds of people that get promoted no matter what your job is whether the skill is relevant to the job that you want to have that was one of the things I did not know so much when I was in my 20s and I didn't really understand it until like I got I started I started my own business and then I was like well you know everything I do has to be the best that I could do it because that reflects on everything else that you do it's the good habits that you create and I think in Japanese part-time jobs and Japanese companies it's those habits that are reflected in the success of the company and the success of each person what do you think I also think it's really important to realize that the skills that you learn in a part-time job even though it may seem pointless and like not relevant to your future careers it's still there still completely important and applicable skills like I'm there in front of the register and I'm learning how to multitask by thinking about the fried chickens that are you know cooking in the the back you ever sneak a bite do you ever snap I admit it you sneak a bite so like multi tasking skills also like organizational skills service skills communication skills these are all skills that I will take with me probably whatever I do right so at the moment it can feel like it's so annoying to have to like take off my my uniform when I you know clean the restrooms yeah but that there's definitely something that you can take from that right there's an important value to that so you think that the money all right now I'm gonna ask another question here the money that you get is not really a lot of money nine hundred out nine hundred nine dollars an hour is minimum wage sort of route do the duties and the job that the amount of work that you put in for each hour does that reflect the amount of money that you're getting no no you're doing something that would require maybe like maybe two times not two times but definitely overall because yeah it's just it's a lot it's a lot to remember and it's a lot of that's not a complaint we're just we just spit I I know I know how the internet thinks she's not good planning a better job it's just kind of the and a lot you know what most jobs are like this the amount of work and time that you put into your job does not reflect the compensation that you get and if you can't think in terms of compensation you income terms of do you like what you're doing right do you like what you're doing I do I do and I'm learning a lot and also like if you compare my convenience store job to like working in izakaya for example a person working in izakaya gets probably almost the same amount of money for doing maybe one or two things maybe right if you're a waiter than or a waitress then your job is to take the order and give it to the chef and then bring the food give it to the customers that's it's pretty easy I'm sure there's a lot we have to learn the POS the point-of-sale but I mean compared to maybe what you have to do in a convenience store maybe the tasks our expectations may be a little less but you get compensated the same so you know comparing those two I you could say that people work in a convenience store are working more than what they get yeah yeah I I think that the skills that you learn in the Japanese convenience too are pretty pretty important you have point-of-sale system right exactly I think it basically you're you one of the things as a kid is we have lemonade stands right these a lemonade stands where you make the lemons and you have to make a profit and you're there's like apps like this we could play these kinds of games and you're sort of it away running a lemonade stand and that's sort of the attraction you have so many different responsibilities and at certain times they're in the day certain things are happening that you have to be in charge of while still taking care of the customer it's it's you know the biggest skill that I learned was waiting tables and I have so much deep respect for those who wait tables at restaurants because you're you have to learn what's called learn your steps all right you have to have been a waiter or a waitress in order to understand this everything is the economy of steps and time every step that you take is a step away from something else so when you're going to get a drink you try to do a two or three thing in that area to save steps trying to have to go back there alright so but here's the thing the first the first maybe couple of months it was really hard because I would make mistakes I would go get the drink come back the serve another customer then I would have to go back and get another drink and that meant that that took time away for me going back in the kitchen to get the drinks or get the food to bring it to the customer so sometimes the food wasn't always as hot as it could be so I kept letting the customers because I wasn't I wasn't maximizing the economy of steps and when you start to learn this it works in all of the jobs that you do right so no matter whether you're working in the mailroom of a company or you're working in a taxi driver whatever the job is this economy of time is such a critical part of any job but you're learning that in the convenience store job and we'll set up a lot of the things I don't know if you never thought of a she never thought about this you never thought about that the economy of time and not wasting your time is the most valuable thing I learned in in my part-time job but yet I still waste lots of time I don't waste as much time because I'm aware of the economy of steps but I do waste I do make make these live streams run a lot longer than they probably should which is not a bad thing but it's sometimes isn't a good thing come across as like oh no you totally did every job you said everybody else that isn't scum and you're the best that's how you came up I'm kidding okay nobody thinks that it's so amazing you know just like doing one part-time job it just increases your appreciation towards any part-time job yes it's yeah and just to put a put a put a ribbon in this discussion to make this board Japan centric there are a lot of differences between part-time jobs in the United States and in Japan I think there's you're required more to think about the job meaning if there is somebody who cancels then they really lean on you to go in and cover those shifts right yeah there's a lot of little things that are cultural meaning you're part of a team and we're in the United States this is just a very generalized cultural thing we're more individual in the United States this is based on my 20 years of living here then we are in Japan where Japan is more team-based people will not think about the self more we'll think about their self less and the team more and in the United States maybe the other way around but other situations where people will just will take we'll take the towel and then punch the clock and say take this job and shove it I ain't working here no more does that happen in Japan I don't think so I don't think people just quit on the spot and say manager use dink and they take the towel and they throw it on the crown and go they run out and they trash the car of the manager first times at ridgemont high maybe some some movies that are coming to mind but this song take this job and shove it you don't really get that kind of a situation here because the employees take the job very seriously and it reflects very badly on you if you leave a job badly yeah and also I think the employers do their best so that those situations don't occur like they the employers very much respect the employees Wow yeah so it's since there's that very respectful dynamic it's very difficult to end up with a situation where I'm just so mad and just fed up with everything that I just like do you think do you think that that's more your situation or do you think that that's like that for a lot of people because there's a TV drama now and I think it's TV Tokyo called the devil where this this real witch is working in the HR department and they really have no respect I think maybe because a by toe is more I think they respect that more because you're almost in a way doing them a favor and in a salary worker you're more of a meaning they're giving you benefits and wages and they're taking care of you and in return you gotta really give everything to the company meaning you have to be a slave and some in in some ways I'm not saying it's like slavery I'm not really comparing and I'm using the word figuratively meaning that you basically are owned by the company in more ways you can't say no basically you can't say no to the company but you could say no to your convenience store because there are but you're feel obligated to say yes yes yes you do for the team for the team from the team high five yeah I like I'm a liking this a teaming so yeah because when stuff doesn't go right in your life you can always depend on the team to pick up some of the slack and I think that's that's some of the great things about Japanese society on the whole working in Japan is one of the most incredible ways to experience this country I think because you don't really get to understand the country until you understand the work culture and if you're here on a work visa a travel visa or if you can get lucky enough to get hired by a company and work here full-time that's when it starts to become evident and you have to put your own culture on the and if you're coming here to work you have to put your own culture kind of put that down and try to understand the other point of other other way of doing things because you are in Japan you got to do things that the way that they do things and when you become an undependable team worker teammate then you know yeah you're not gonna have a very happy time your your co-workers aren't going to invite you but that's gonna cause a lot of disruption in the team and the way that that the business operates and it makes it harder for everybody that was the hardest thing for English teachers to understand that they are not in the United States or Canada or England or Western Europe anymore the way you work changes and you might have to work more hours enough be compensated for it because that's what the team does they help each other and it's not always about the money it is about having really nice friendships and working hard because that's inside of you and the hard workers and the success so people never asked for extra compensation and extra money I think they worked really hard and they were compensated in other ways meaning that when they fell on hard times the team came and picked up for them and I always felt that in Japan like you were never really alone in a job that's why I think when you're training right now you get a lot of support from your teammates they're very kind to you because they've been in that situation they're kind to you as long as you play by the rules yeah I'm talking I'm talking about you that person who's looking at themselves real guilty why you looking at me I'm talking that one person out there you know how do you have anything else that you want to add something that surprised you about the job or something that people should know about part-time jobs for wrap it up one thing to follow up on what you said is that a Kimmie's I can be so so frustrating when you come from your own culture from where you grew up and you come to Japan and maybe you're starting a part-time job or working here full-time because Japan is just such a unique and different place like it has so many different values from any other place in the world and I think that can be really really frustrating first because it's just so different from what you've you know and what you've grown up with but I think it's as you said it's important to just understand that this is you know a different country and you're in this new environment so it's important to really try to learn and you know be open to all types of thinking and this new way and not just you know get so frustrated and overwhelmed ya know I think yeah you have to you have to adopt to the to the place that you're in and the more receptive you are to working in the Japanese way and putting your own culture and the way your own values kind of not getting rid of them you are who you are but kind of kind of adapting the other side of it then the other side opens up and starts to adapt to your style that's when I noticed because the biggest emotion the strongest emotion to get people to do things that you want is to not ever get angry that hurts your situation its to be super nice and make them feel guilty I'm telling you guilt guilt is the biggest motivator to get people to do to do what you want and in order to get them to feel guilty and for them to discover the that they were wrong is to be super nice and and to admit it and you have to trust that in people in Japan they have that what you're talking about that desire to please and when you're not pleased and you're angry you're already a lost cause and it's your fault all right but if you are really nice and you can make it make it sincere they say they realize their own mistakes and that's when you get what you want I'm just saying from personal experience 20 years that means of hammocks I've been here for 20 years that's how I've got some things that I might have wanted by finding a way to to use that as a chip in the game overwhelm them with kindness and in reach and respond people will take care of you you have to trust that they will and if you can't being angry never ever made a change it might get people to listen to you in the United States the United States it does not work in Japan at all anger is the one emotion that people give up on the moment you go you go to the dark side it's over in Japan you don't get what you want if service was bad complaining publicly will never ever get you anything you basically you're making a scene you're embarrassing yourself and everyone's looking at you and nobody really is stuck at people stop listening it's when you're really kind and then they will reciprocate with kindness and that's been the Japan win the Japan way but that's not every way because in the United States you do have to complain you have to complain and I've been in you in Japan so long it's getting harder for me to complain but and to be and to promote myself in Japan you don't have to promote yourself because people have a third eye that they're always looking at you and they're looking at the details and people know if you're a hard worker they recognize your the things that you do the small things that you do because it's in the culture to see if your sake glass is empty and to refill your glass in the West nobody refills your glass so you have to promote yourself so you have to understand how the culture works this works in your part-time job this works in your full-time job in your life in your marriage and everything you you learn to trust that the other person is actually noticing those small details and they do they do here in Japan if you have any questions for Hana you can go ahead and ask them right now I encourage you also to hit the like button very don't pound it don't smash it I don't want you to injure your smartphone just tap very lightly your like the like button usually if I ask you know like an American the way I am some people will actually do it if it looks easy it's working we got already like 30 30 likes in like 15 seconds thank you yes see people if you ask very nicely people will click the click the button for you ok yes they will reciprocate that's the case in point if you have some questions for Hana no question just keep smiling says Vinay looking forward to finding it kuda in grocery stores I don't know what that means it could also means how much won't it definitely isn't worth Dunst I'm reading some of the comments here it's a nice sort of ended what about deductions from pay oh that's a good question from Knost abroad do you do you do they from that $9 an hour do they detect like taxes the Dex Association Social Security and health care and things like this or do you get most of the money that you could you get so in your paycheck yeah all right the know so I'm really happy that you brought this up so when when you when you get your salary in the United States you're paid every week by cheque how are you paid every month by cash transfer once a month once a month don't go crazy and spend all of you because somebody might have done that they thought they were gonna get paid by a week and they had no money for three weeks cuz they went out and they bought a bunch of food and stuff like furniture that they didn't need and then it's like what do I eat you use for eating now oh you pay only once a month okay I didn't know that usually on the 25th but once a month payment schedule sent electronically digitally they've been doing this in Japan for like 25 years sending it digitally to longer the the company digitally transfers the money to your bank account on the 25th or the 30th those those are the two five two days and then you have your money you have to pay taxes you're basically you have an otaku contract itaku itaku I said we're not good it's an otaku contract physik is a contract worker which means that you can deduct from your salary transportation costs and at tax time in March which can starts at the middle of February to the middle of March you can deduct your taxes like like transport and uniforms and get the money back or your taxes are lower but you are responsible for paying your own health insurance and your own taxes right so she has to pay your own health insurance which is like like two hundred dollars a month maybe [Music] $100 to $200 a month depending on your salary it's very much attached to how much you make so my health insurance is a lot more now than it was five years ago and ten years ago when I first started my company I was really poor and my health insurance was like like $75 a month yeah now now it's a lot more but I'm actually really happy to pay it because the system needs you to pay into the system to get pay in the system the system alive always pay your health insurance because somebody else is also reliant on it and Japanese medical care is pretty good but I'm surprised though that you don't get a lot of benefits yeah benefits in terms benefits friend Bennet friends with benefits no I'm talking about like like health insurance you don't get yeah if you get injured on the job let's say you spill milk with my manager that really hasn't come up okay I don't really know the details for that yeah I don't know either but for the most part people that are working bite though a part-time job or students or really young workers that are still living at home yes are you living on your own no I'm not so I'm just saying yeah so also the transportation cost is literally like 15 minutes from my house by walk so I don't have so I don't really know the details for that if you had I miss you guys oh yeah Tokyo Adventure Racing we're kind of get an otaku contract I think well first of all I know what you mean you're just joking but it's otaku IT AKO eat tucker 80 i am looking at the kanji right i tak you that's the contract worker in japanese there's you should study this cell so if you're gonna be thinking and working japan this is the kind of contract that you get for many of the english teaching jobs these days that means that you are responsible for you and you get a certain amount of money but you also have to pay your own taxes a salaried worker the company pays their own taxes pays their taxes this the company takes care of your health insurance the company will take care of of workers compensation and your vacation the company does everything for you if you're a salaried worker in Japan if you're an otaku then you do everything and you're responsible for paying your own taxes and you're responsible for your own health insurance and your transportation costs that that is a good skill to have but it's also makes life a little bit more challenging so there's that too that's different than in the United States where I guess we want every worker to have rights and lots of things like this in Japan they do things at the way the United States did it like 15 years ago Europe I believe they get benefits and everything which is really good Europe has a pretty good system for people working part time jobs does every place is different and there's no right or wrong system this system seems to fit Japan for the way that the life works here the Japanese system is people under the age of 25 many of them are still living with mom and dad it's not because they just because the way there's a system work you're not really well-paid and till you get into full-time jobs and then even then you're still getting paid like $2,500 a month but you're getting everything paid for you sometimes your apartment is highly subsidized meaning you can get a company apartment and pay $200 a month yeah the company apartments taking care of you a lot of the police officers that I talked to have subsidized apartments meaning that the city will pay for a great deal of their living costs but their salaries are not very high but they're part of a team and the team takes care of the team I kind of like that however you're not gonna get rich Japanese workers do not make as much as American workers but the benefits that they get in return are huge it's it's huge salary workers benefits I'm just going to show you that this is the park that we're in it's really nice here yeah any more questions while we wrap it up right now that's really great nauseous there's a second part to your question but I lost it our tattoos aloud can you have a tattoo and work at the convenience store I [Music] notice sometimes I'm still looking for a gym nice thing about that it's very strict in Hot Springs like onsen like you're not a most own sense you're not allowed to enter those and with a tattoo but convenience stores as long as it's not like your hair your whole area then I think it's okay because the uniform is long-sleeve you see a guy like Blake with a shirt like this we got tats yeah they're not cold it gets inked I met convenience store workers that had tattoos actually and I met some of them that you could see it underneath the shirt or they just unbuttoned it and when the manager comes and they button it up again but for the most part people are getting a lot more casual with tattoos it's a different culture now than five years ago for example and in five years again are you gonna see more people more relaxed rules on that because not everybody is a gangster has a tattoo but they have to be consistent in the rules because if they allow people with tattoos in they're allowing the gangsters in the reason that they don't allow the tattoos into own sin and work it's not because it's not because if they don't like tattoos so much it's just because they it was the polite way to keep the gangsters out of the baths okay so if you just banned the tattoos which all of them had then you ban the gangsters without saying gangster or the word that I shouldn't say too loudly I never know if there's somebody behind me now there's somebody there that's sort of the background on that Hana you've been asked to sing oh she doesn't have her guitar all right next time next time okay you can you can say you know yeah yeah working are you working on any songs I am I'm always consistently working on different songs she's working yeah I always have liked guitar parts but it's always the lyrics that take time yeah because I want it to be honest I want it to be meaningful so anything those things it's you know inevitable that it takes PI so please be patient with me yeah thank you yeah because you've you got fans out there you get fed and Xena that that's good to see Linc cats thank you very much some coffee money I appreciate it very much um thank you once again today I did two live streams we're gonna I'm just a programming note I have a live stream with with my friend Dean tomorrow and he also is gonna be talking about his job what he does is he is a model he is an actor he's a model he is in many commercials and advertisements he does he's one of the most handsome guys that you're gonna see in the entire world and he looks like he was chiseled out of a block of stone I'm just it's true and we're gonna meet my friend Dean tomorrow and have and he's gonna try he's from he's from England I believe the UK and we're gonna try to play some baseball so should be a lot of fun so that what we have in store tomorrow so I'm gonna put a livestream in there if you want to get make sure you hit the left hit the subscribe button in the notification button but if I if I schedule the livestream in advance you can push a reminder button which is a second alarm that allows you to to make sure you get a reminder on your smartphone will tell you what 30 minutes before the livestream starts then you don't miss them so I'm really appreciative of you taking the time to watch and listen to me and Hana rap on about what alive but what life is like in a part-time job it's a lot of fun I think you're learning a lot of skills we'll check back in with you soon q Donna's gonna be here all summer yes so yes you'll sing for us because we're gonna force her to do some some peer pressure the fans out there once again link in the description is if you want to see more from Hana Everett thanks how much to hooker hook her up with him just kidding no I'm married and she's young and and she is just here for and when you go back to school I leave here September first okay yes and if you're walking around Montreal you might bump into her just say hi if you see Hana and Montreal it's Kathryn territory Catherines out there somewhere yeah Kathryn lives at mantra okay see everybody I'm gonna leave the last 20 seconds I'm gonna take you over to the river so check out these pigeons and if you get lucky you might see space-boat there's the Sky Tree

Channel: ONLY in JAPAN * GO

Views: 21,528

Keywords: Only in Japan, Japan, jobs, jobs in Japan, part time, work holiday visa, working in japan, work, salaryman, convenient store, 7-eleven, family mart, visa, training, apply, resume, society, overwork, japanese, english

Id: O-XF3nvUhk4

Length: 67min 38sec (4058 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018