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I spent academic year 96/97 in London. I realised that my Japanese had improved so much when I was in Japan, and that back in London was much slower. I found that so frustrating. There are 2000 essential kanji characters in the Japanese language which are used on their own, or with another character to make words. The first year we'd learnt 800 or so, which was very time consuming, but because it was all so new, was a little interesting. The same can not be said for the 2nd year of the course. The novelty of sitting down every night to study kanji had worn off. I was so bored. By January/February '96 I couldn't stand studying kanji. I flirted with the idea of changing course but in the end decided to take a year out and go to Japan for a year. It would give me a much needed break from my course as well as being a good way to improve my language skills. I found a course which looked good at Waseda University, the top private university. Gianna and I were both accepted to the course. I was so happy. Knowing that I was going to go there for a year helped me to get through the year (just) which ended in May. I spent the summer working in London for J.P.
Morgan, an American investment bank. I worked for 10 weeks on bond
origination on the French desk. I had come to the conclusion during
the year that I definitely wanted to work for an investment bank.
Hmmm. Once I'd started working there, I wasn't so sure. The thing
is, I found the work interesting, but the hours were so long. I
had to be in everyday at 7:30 for a meeting, and often didn't get
to leave before 9 or 10pm. The hours were so much longer than those
I'd had in Tokyo; I was a little surprised by that. I suddenly doubted
that this was the career for me. Since then I've come around to
the idea a little more. How many jobs would I find interesting for
14 hours a day? Probably not many. |
