How to be a professional worker Hello, Today I'd like to write about the first step to get a job in Japan and the UK. I found a lot of difference to find a first career after graduate school between two countries. In Japan, most of university end their BA and MA courses in March, and New graduates start their first job from 1st April. In general, when students become 4th year students ( final year of Japanese uni) , they starts to find their first job at once. Each company has original Job application desks which open only for new graduates. The application process is completely different from skilled worker. Big companies often start the desks from February and the applications end between spring and end of summer. In October, the companies give official offers to students. Before that, they just give "early unofficial offer" to students until October. For the newly graduates, the companies offer jobs not only one or two students but also sometimes big companies offer the job to over 100 new graduates at one time. Most of cases, the companies does not have "Junior" role and also does not have "trainee" as well. For example, my first career started as "Designer", and even though we received training from older employees, our salary is almost same as 2-3 years experienced workers. In the UK, the companies have a lot of unpaid role for newly graduates. In addition, I heard the students start finding their jobs after graduates. Sometimes the students starts their career as internship trainees , then they will get their junior role after finish internship if they are good worker. In this case, I really like the Japanese system. New graduates tend to not have enough money to live, Earning enough salaries is good to concentrate working at new place without any worry of finance. About my personal circumstance, Now I stop my career at a game industry and become a MA student at a film school. My last role at game industry was lead artist / art director, in the time, I relatively got enough wedge from companies. However, I'm really worried after finish the film school. I don't want to start my career from "un-paid". Hopefully I hope I can successfully convert my role from game to film. But it may be difficult......hmmm

how to use a gesture which is putting the palms together to Japanese people Hi, Today I would like to write about the famous gesture. Some non-Japanese people put their palms together with bowing when they realised I am Japanese and they want to say "Konnichiwa!" I always told them that it was a wrong gesture. Japanese people do the gesture when we are begging, saying sorry or praying to someone/Gods/Buddha. To Gods and Buddha, it is no problem, but for a real human, you may be looked childish when you begging someone to something with this gesture. Here is a diagrams which I drew. We never do the gesture for greeting! It is quite weird for Japanese people. I know some of other Asian countries do the gesture for greeting. However, even we believe same religion Buddhism as other Asian countries, the gesture has a different meaning for each countries. If you want to say "Konnichiwa (Hello) " to Japanese people, please say that with a little nodding.