We were divided into teams of 6-7 members + 1-2 mentors, and my team ended up choosing the slightly humorous team name "All Nighters". We had to work night shifts in order to contact the American merchants due to the time difference, and that is how we got the idea for the group name..! The great thing about this training is that we got to talk directly to CEOs from a lot of interesting and unique companies! But although I learned quite a lot during the process I have to say I'm really happy that this training only lasted for 6 weeks.. Night shifts is not something I would like to do as a regular job to be honest, it is quite tiring.

The Rakuten All Nighters!

But although the training itself was pretty tough we bonded very well as a team. Everybody really did their best to perform well and support other team members, and I felt really proud of working with such talented and ambitious people. I'm convinced that I've made some really great friends, and hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch with each other also after we have been assigned to different departments.

Our 7 members + 2 mentors

So as I've already mentioned, this week our initial training period was finally over! On Friday we had a placement ceremony (配属式) where our superiors announced our future departments, and for the 32 members of the International Merchant Development Group most people were assigned to Rakuten Ichiba. This is the biggest department in Rakuten, so it was not really that surprising. Other departments people in my group was placed in included Rakuten Travel, Rakuten Card, Rakuten Marketing Japan, and finally the Creative & Web Design Department. Members of the DU (Engineering New Grads) have also been a part of the same training program as the Business New Grads (BU), but they get their placement results later as they will have their own training program starting from next week.

Got assigned to Rakuten Travel. In the background: The Rakuten Shugi

I got assigned to Rakuten Travel along with 23 other new-grads (among them 3 foreigners)! I'm pretty happy about my placement, and I think that it will be a really interesting place to work. I already had the opportunity to talk to some of my sempais, and they seem to enjoy their job a lot. So far so good.! 

Getting ready to change office

Goodbye to the large office we have had our first training at!

I still would have to say that in general I do think that Rakuten is a very stereotypical Japanese company in many ways. There is a lot of focus on reaching the monthly KPI, and although the company is trying to become global there is still a long way to go. Unless you are prepared for long working days (sometimes you might even have to stay until the last train) you might find the work in this company pretty tough. From what I've heard from others working in the company there is a huge gap in the working conditions depending on departments, so you might be lucky and end up in the more international parts of the company where they're better at providing their employees with life-work balance but you might also be very unlucky and end up in the departments where you'll have little spare time outside of work.

Luckily Rakuten Travel is known as one of the more foreigner-friendly departments at our company so hopefully I'll be fine. From now on my Rakuten Travel group is going to have another month of training before we get to know our actual position in the company. I look forward to the training and I'll be back with more blogposts about my experiences here in Japan.

As always, thanks for taking your time to read my blogpost! I really appreciate all the comments and feedback I receive from you guys^^

Related blogposts

The Rakuten Introduction Training

The Rakuten Café  in Shibuya

The Rakuten Group Noukai (納会)

All Blogposts About Rakuten

Norwegian style buffet

Norwegian Salmon

実はノルウェーの憲法記念日はノルウェー最大のお祭りの日でもあります。この日は家族や仲の良い友達と一緒においしい料理、音楽やパレードを楽しみます。地域によって多少伝統が異なりますが、この日にサーモン、ソーセージ、ノルウェーの茶色いチースbrunostを食べるのが人気を集めています。

Celebration by the Embassy pool

The Constitution Day is also known as a Children's Day, as the day is filled with games and activities for children. Children's parades is a common sight throughout the country, and Norwegian communities abroad also make their own small parades. Tokyo is not an exemption, although we unfortunately didn't have live music like in the parades back in Norway.

Norwegian parade in Tokyo

この日に行う子供のゲームも多くあるノルウェーの憲法記念日は子供の日としても知られています。子供のパレードは国の各地に見ることができ、外国に住んでいるノルウェー人でもよくこの日にパレードに行きます。東京でのパレードでは残念ながらノルウェーのようにライブ音楽はありませんでしたけどw。

My bf and me outside the Embassy

Some safety guards watching our parade with great interest

Although the Embassy only can open its doors to a limited number of people there are alternative places such as the Norwegian Cafe Fuglen where one can participate in fun celebrations regardless of nationality and background. In our case, after the celebration was over at the Embassy we continued to Bar Acqua Z in Shinjuku where we met up with friends to celebrate more with drinks and Norwegian waffles.! What a great day!

Norwegian party at Bar Acquaz

ノルウェー大使館のお祝いには関係者しか参加することができませんが、他にも憲法記念日をお祝いすることができる場所は幾つかあります。その代表として渋谷のオシャレな「カフェ・フグレン」がありますが、私たちの場合は今年は新宿のBAR ACQUA Z で友達とパーテェーをすることにしました。

Waffles with brunost! So yummy..

Thanks for a great celebration!

超楽しい一日でした。すでに来年の憲法記念日を楽しみにしてます〜☆