Japan Day 11 - Shibuya

On this Monday, the team had a free day and could explore a bit of Tokyo as we were going to take a break from meeting ministries. Throughout the last couple of days, I have been testing, praying, and imagining myself living in Japan as the team has heard constant ministry needs and prayer requests from missionaries in Japan. The country of Japan needs more strong, more devoted followers of Christ, and I wanted to see what living in Japan could be like. As of now, I do not see myself doing full-time ministry in Japan. However, I could see myself living in Japan and supporting missionaries who are here vocationally. This thought was a new idea that I had during the trip, as I initially thought God was calling me to just be a sender. As the trip continued, I learned that in the simplest form and methodology, global mission is simply doing church in an oversea setting. To envision myself living in Japan, I communicated with my company, Darktrace, and scheduled a meeting with the team lead in the Shibuya office in Tokyo!

My day started somewhat early as I woke up in bed and traveled with just David Lam to the station. I needed to arrive at the Darktrace office on time, and David Lam was on his own side quest to purchase a gift for Rachel Koh! The day started a bit rough as I got confused about which platform I needed to get on and with transfer rails being delayed, but I managed to arrive at Shibuya in a reasonable time.

As I reached the building, the technical team lead in the Tokyo office, Daisuke-san, greeted me and joked about if I was actually who I said was and was not an account that had been hijacked. The meeting that was scheduled was very spontaneous and I was lucky I was able to get a hold of Daisuke as the team so happened to be visiting Tokyo that day. I received a guest pass, and I was able to go into the Darktrace office! The office space was smaller than expected and for a job that required a good amount of talking, there was not too much volume in the small space. I was able to meet almost all the team members that were in the office. Daisuke and I were able to converse about Darktrace and he asked me about the American team and how I interacted with my peers. He was intrigued and asked for a couple of strategies I had in my workflow, and I answered.

I then mentioned my interest in working in Japan and the reasons why I was in Japan, and he asked if I was Christian when I mentioned church. I responded yes, but I did try my best to not dive too deeply into my faith as there are potential cases of employees being rejected or laid off based on their religion in Japan. Daisuke told me to work in Japan, passing N1 is more than enough to get by to work in corporate settings in Darktrace and in Japan in general. He also mentioned to me the work hours were between 9 AM to 6 PM with activities afterward. This worried me, and I was reminded about Karoshi, which means death by overwork, and I saw how hard and devoted Japanese Salarymen were. Throughout the trip and between hours from 7-10 PM, the team and I observed many men and women in suits coming back to their homes looking exhausted and tired. Even with a more international company such as Darktrace, I could still feel and observe tension in the office as everyone was working diligently and working long hours.

From my perspective, if I wanted to work in Tokyo and live closer to Chiba, my commute would take roughly an hour each way and I would have to work between 9 AM to 6 PM. This would mean my days would start at 7:30 AM to get ready, arrive at the train by 7:50 AM, take the train to Shibuya station before 9 AM, work until 6 PM, eat dinner with my coworkers, take the train back to Chiba at 8 PM, and get home around 9:00 PM. The sad reality of this schedule is that there are many Japanese workers who live this life 6 days a week where some have it worse and could even live farther from their offices. This experience was frightening, but a good perspective as to why Japanese natives need to hear the good news of the Gospel. My time with Darktrace ended, and I was able to link up with the team afterward at Tokyo station to eat at Ramen St!

Throughout the rest of the day, the team got to explore Tokyo and actually ended up back in Shibuya where I was in the morning! We crossed the infamous Shibuya crossings, checked out a lot of stores, and explored just a tiny bit of Tokyo for the rest of the day and night. The team had moments where we split up and everyone had their own unique experiences in Japan’s largest city.

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