以前读很多牛人“从哈佛到山区村官”，“从华尔街到艾滋村”这类标题的鸡汤文章，没想到有一天我也可以套用一下这个模版，只是我所做的事情远没有那么的伟大和无私，单纯只为一己私欲，混口饭吃。

事情再回到一年多以前，一来想要突破工作上的瓶颈，二来想给闷着头自学了好久日文的自己一个正式的交待，我辞去谷歌的工作，义无反顾的把自己放飞去日本，来了个迟到的“gap year”。刚开始没想着要打工，更没想着要去餐厅里打工，毕竟都三十出头的人，已经沾染上好吃懒做的世俗恶习，想说靠着这几年的积蓄，只要控制住不买包包，日常开销一年应该过得去。

时间就如此飞快的流掉了六个月，白天去语言学校上课加社交，周末爬山远足加泡汤，我的日子也过得不算浑浑噩噩。但人一旦松懈下来，就容易胡思乱想，特别是女人。于是大阪城某条街某一条小巷某一个晚上，喝了两罐啤酒之后，六个月没有工作的不安感以及自己独在异乡的那份孤独感突然一齐向我袭来。日文的进步速度远远达不到自己的理想状态，再来对未来的生活完全没有实际的规划，茫然，心慌在心中膨胀，越发责备自己每天都在挥霍光阴，虚度人生。不过除了善于批评与自我批评之外，我还有一个优点，那就是行动快。我可以消沉，天天只吃冰淇淋的彻底的消沉，但仅仅只是沉沦个三四天，之后我就会跑两圈，洗个头，重新崛起。我的问题就是太闲！最快的解决方法就是让自己忙起来，因为语言学校还没毕业，不能找全职工作，但可以先从打工仔开始，能练口语，又能熟悉日本职场环境，身心一疲就不会再东想西想了。

决定的当天下午，我就在网上填好了星巴克和麦当劳的店面人员申请表，这是首先浮现在我脑海中的两家公司，由于是美企，应该作风不会太日本，我也能有个缓冲。按了发送之后，我就开始想象着自己穿上制服，熟练专业，一个华丽丽的转身就能端出完美冲泡的咖啡和完美制作的汉堡......好景不长，梦没做完，邮箱里立刻就有了新邮件的提示，星巴克说我没被录取，接着麦当劳也说我没被录取！我再接再厉把履历丢向了美仕唐纳滋和KFC，不出四小时，又被拒了！五雷轰顶应该就是当时的感觉，原来我这十多年寒窗，再加十年含辛茹苦累积起来的职场经验，在日本竟然连服务生的工作都找不到。我就不信，出门看了看家周围在招人的咖啡馆和餐厅，做好笔记回来研究一下再战下一轮。其实作为中国人，要在药妆店找一份工作并不难，只是我不愿意每天讲的普通话比日文还多，所以能够跟日本客人交流的地方是我的首选。天助自助者，还没等我自己主动出击，朋友就告诉我她打工的寿司店需要女工，终于，我得到了一个在寿司店做服务生的面试机会。

没有想到在日本连打个散工，程序都这么复杂和正式。习惯了中国人的那一套“见机行事“，“见招拆招”，但日本人对每件事情都有自己的条条框框，就算是世界末日，他们也一定还是会排队上厕所。打工面试的程序是这样的：
首先，买一份打工申请书（履历书），在任何便利店或文具店均可购得，格式都一样，不会有差。填好之后，需贴上穿上西装的正式大头照。拿去的时候都直接见到真人了，但大头照还得有。这张纸就是一个面试的通行证，有此纸，有面试，没纸或者你打印了自己linkedin上的履历？撒哟娜拉，你的面试直接结束。

我当时进谷歌的面试都不如这个小小的打工面试紧张，可能主要还是语言的问题。由于面试中的日文需要使用敬语，就是把简单的句子套用上一连串前缀和后缀使整个句子听起来在贬低自己，抬高别人，这项技能我还没有操练得很好；再加上日本的面试除了考核能力和态度之外，还会考察你的肢体语言。举个例，随便搜搜油管，你就可以发现几千个专门教你面试时如何正确敲门，进门，关门的视频：

不快不慢，不轻不重的敲三次；候着，里面的人喊了“请”你再进。
进门，一定转过身关门，再转回来讲“不好意思打扰了”，鞠个躬，走到椅子前面；
别坐，继续讲“我是xxx，谢谢你，请多指教”；
再鞠躬，挺直站着，面前的人说“请”你才坐。

这段完了之后就是几千个视频教你在面试中如何安置手和腿，我干脆就没看，呼唤出心中最贤良淑德的一面就上了，不让说话的时候就温柔的点头，只是激动处时仍然会稍微手舞足蹈一番，还好店长没有那么苛刻，又或许是我的脸本来就写着大大的诚恳二字，一次面试下来我就被通知过了。不过由于没贴大头照，我还得补贴，什么时候贴上什么时候入档。一个多礼拜之后，端盘子经验值为零的我没有培训就直接上岗了。

这是我们店的全貌，连同吧台共35个座位。大家就在这么狭小的范围内穿梭，叫喊，上酒上菜。第一天一定只能豁出去，靠着脸皮厚才能活下来，这个前辈跟你说两句，那个前辈跟你说两句，我转头就忘了。怎么带位，递毛巾，什么酒水什么杯，盘子的方向等等，都有讲究。日本人一坐下就要点酒，干了一杯之后才会点菜，所以酒的名字得放在第一位学习。在居酒屋，80%的人都会先叫生啤，喝了这么多年啤酒，怎么操作机器还真是头一回，往前压出酒，往后压出泡，杯子要倾斜得刚好才能保证啤酒本体与泡沫达到黄金比例7:3。从生啤学校毕业后，还有一堆烧酒混合饮品要征服，虽然不及西式鸡尾酒那么繁琐，但也是大开了我的眼界。

我们店里一共有九种不同类型的日本酒，光是背名字就背了我半天，米做的，麦做的，荞麦做的，黑糖做的，紫苏做的等等。汉字看得懂，但读音却是完全不同。了解客人想要点什么之后，还得问人想怎么喝：

纯的
加冰
加热
加冷水
加热水
加苏打水
加梅子
...

语言真是很神奇的事物，明明很简单的指令，但不懂的人就是不懂。点菜的很大一部分时间我都杵在那儿像傻子，慢动作，慢动作重播，才能把记忆库中对应的单词和释义抠出来，好久没有觉得自己这么蠢。英文里有句话叫那些杀不死你的东西只会让你更强大。为了强大，为了不被酒杀死，我顶着厚脸皮，一遍一遍的练习着。现在想想如果我去了星巴克，来个客人说什么脱脂奶换全脂奶，奶泡打三分钟，或是不要奶要豆奶，多沙司，不要糖，我应该当场可以嚎啕大哭。

接下来，就需要克服食物菜单了。我密密麻麻写下了英文，写下了中文，大多数鱼的名字我都没听说过，鰹鯛鮭鰯鮪鰤鰻鮹，汉字我都认不全，别说日文了。以为自己背得很溜，接过从师傅手里递来的盘子，傻眼。没用，背的鱼名跟外形对不上号。除了三文鱼，金枪鱼这种大众鱼之外，其他单看寿司上面那一点鱼肉，我这个实战经验只有鲤鱼草鱼的小孩，哪能叫得出整个水族馆里鱼的名字。最让我头痛的鱼叫鰤魚，这是日文写法，我就认半边，叫他师鱼。这个师鱼，日本人给它的每个成长阶段都取了名字，比如幼儿时期叫张三，成年了就叫李四，再长大一点就变王五了，其实都是同一条鱼。日本人珍视每个时节要吃当季最好的食材，所以冬天吃的师鱼，名字又变了。还有它的亲戚，红师鱼（红鰤），光看肉对我来说长一样，但名字又不一样。我彷佛看见自己就像动画片里的卡通一样，被一个怪兽活生生被打到了墙上还留下一个坑。除了鱼之外，还有其他海洋生物，就拿虾来说，有红虾，甜虾，樱虾，牡丹大虾；贝有扇贝，赤贝，鸟贝，螺贝。虽然一个轮班要站上6个小时，回到家我脚都直了。不过说实话，能够让你久违的抛开杂念，集中全力投入一件事的感觉还挺好的。

很难想象我以后的工作跟鱼会有什么关系，但当我有了这一段经历之后，我真的觉得未来没有什么是我不能做的，也许下一步就是去捏寿司吧（省去一个露齿的微笑）。

p.s. 谢谢所有在寿司店曾经帮助过我的小伙伴们！虽然我最年长，但七七八八也给大家拖了不少后腿，下次再相约大阪走一个！

原创文章，请勿随意转载

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I am always attracted to articles titled with "From Harvard elite to dock worker", or "From wall street to the doctor in Aids village", very dramatic yet meaningful life. Who'd thought I could steal that title one day too, "From a Googler to a waitress in a sushi bar", just that my story doesn't have a noble purpose, only to make a living.

Back in a year, I was feeling a bit trapped at work, and going to Japan to polish my Japanese has been on top of my to-do list for a while. "Why not today?" That's what I was thinking about. So I quit my job, applied school in Japan, ready for my be-lated "gap year", "midlife crisis prep year" might be more accurate. I wasn't considering working at all, my sole task in Japan was to balance and build in rest. The money in the bank should be good to support my life here as long as I live with less.

After going through a lot of troubles dealing with immigration, school, real estate agent, I finally settled down in Osaka. 6 months just passed, I expanded my social circles, hanging out with friends or going for hiking at weekends. Not that my life wasn't comfortable, just when things slow down and you are alone in the middle of the night, suddenly you found yourself unemployed for 6 months and without a solid plan for the future, can be a bit scary, isn't it? Plus, I wanted to test my Japanese level in the job market by applying for customer facing roles,, and didn't even pass the Starbucks barista interview… or Mister Donuts baker one.I allowed myself to be down with waterfalls of tears for three or four days, and that’s it, time to dig myself out of this self-loathing period. The best solution for me and my ego would still be try again and get a part time job. I need something keeps me busy, on the other hand I need to further practise my Japanese and know the society better. Fortunately, I am way past my puberty embarrassing moments and my previous experiences had helped me build some anti-embarrassment muscles; I would go in and ask if they need a zero experience but passionate waitress when I see (legit) stores with "staff wanted". Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I finally scored an interview with a small but quite busy sushi bar - 魚心 Uoshin.

A baito interview can be nerve wracking for a foreigner in Japan. Coming from China made me forgot sometimes this is a country with OCD,where its people can maintain social order even as civilisation seemed to crumble above them (e.g. the victims patiently queued for toilet after the earthquake). And of course, the baito interview process is formatted.

Firstly, get the バイト履歴書 (applications) in any convenience stores or stationery. They all drafted in the same way. Basic info and a photo with suits. Think about it, they are gonna see you in person soon enough, but you still have to paste up the photo! The interview is considered over if you failed to bring along this piece of paper.

I don’t think I was this nervous when I interviewed with Google. It's just in Japan, interviews are beyond linguistic pointers, they require "correct interview behaviours" (there are hundreds of thousands of videos teaching you how to knock the door properly on YouTube). Here it goes:

Knock on the door three times firmly and do not go in until you heard PLEASE;
Enter, turn around to close the door, and turn back, say "sorry for bothering";
Bow and walk to your chair;
Stand straight and say "I am xxx. Thank you in advance";
Bow again, and do not sit until you heard PLEASE.

There are also videos showing where to place your hands and legs during the interview. But I seriously couldn't remember that much or control myself in that way, so I let go…The actual interview was not that hard, guess it had something to do with my trustworthy face. There are also etiquette to follow when you leave the room, and once you are out, congratulations, you've made it!

This is what our shop looks like, 35 seats in total including table and bar seats. At the first day, I was just absolutely overwhelmed by all the names on the menu. Fish names can wait, the first thing I need to conquer is the drinking menu. Drink order is placed as soon as you sit down in a izakaya. And then you can take your time eyeballing the food menu while sipping on something. Since 80% of customers would go for a draft beer at the beginning, my first mission was to figure out how to pour a perfect draft beer. Forward, beer; backward foam; and you need to hold the glass at a certain angle to make it with the golden ration 3:7 for foam and beer. After that, I had to learn formulate different shochu drinks. Not as hard as bartending in cocktail bar, but It's still simply enlightening.

Basically, there are 8 kinds of shochu served in our restaurant, rice, barley, sweet potato, soba (buckwheat), awamori (okinawa rice), perilla leaf, brown sugar and traditional shochu type called Kasutori. There are also ways of drinking them

Straight up
On the rocks
Warmed
Water mixed
Hot water mixed
Soda mixed
Add in plum
...

Language is such an amazing creature. The simplest request can just make absolutely no sense to someone who don't understand it. I was basically stood there like an idiot at the beginning when taking the orders. I thought I remembered, but the words sound ridiculously different when you hear them from someone else…

Well, what can I say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Now I am way past the amateur drinks-maker bar, advanced to the food order taker level:

It took me more than 2 hours to study all the fish names on the menu for the first time. I had Chinese names written down, English names written down. Yellowtail! Baby yellowtail! The second-youngest stage of the Yellowtail! Farmed yellowtail! Yellowtail's relative Amberjack!!…??? The vastness of those fish names awed me. It made our sushi bar seem like an aquarium. I can see me like a cartoon character being knocked down, and left a hole on the ground. It's a 6 hours long shift in average. But I must admit that finding things which demand your efforts and devotion to do has been exceedingly fun.

I am not sure how am I going to apply those fish "knowledge" to my future work, but for that moment, I did believe there is nothing I can't do! Maybe sushi chef for the next step? (A dazzling smile inserted).