(November 8, 2008. Tokyo, Japan) Together with some friends from my previous company, we went to eat at an “all-you-can-eat barbecue” restaurant at Shimbashi. With all the excitement, I forgot to check the name of the place. For 1,200 yen, you choose from a buffet of meats (beef, pork, chicken), vegetables, etc., and barbecue them right at your dining table. There are ready-to-eat complements too, like rice, dumplings, noodles, etc., a selection of fruits and desserts, and an unlimited refill of juice and colas. The patrons were a mix of different nationalities (Japanese, Filipinos, Asians, Europeans, etc.), and two buses full of Chinese occupied only a fifth of the packed place. My stomach was so full when our 1-hour time limit expired, I felt like needing a wheelchair to leave the place.
To burn some of the fats away, we went for a walk at Ueno Park. After taking some interesting pictures and visiting some of the nice places there, we decided to call it a day and go our different ways (I was living at a different area than them, and had to take a different train line). But we felt like there were still much to talk about, and lost time to catch up. We decided to chat for a little bit more at Starbucks, or any other cafe house, but we ended up at Mc Donalds. some had coffee, others had nice cold drinks. We were still too full to eat. Before we knew it, we already spent more than two hours just chatting about anything.
But most of our discussions revolved around some news and happenings about their company, AWS Systems. Somehow I felt like I still belonged to the company, as it was my first (and only). I had to leave it (after more than 12 years) when I started raising my family and transferred to Davao. Somehow our discussions gave me renewed energy to pursue the current challenges I am facing, and helped clear my mind to set the direction of my return to IT, this time focusing on skill development of the next generation of Filipino IT engineers.
We also talked about how we can motivate young Filipino IT students and enthusiasts to pursue a future in IT. Informally, I asked for their support in sharing their stories and experiences, both good and not-so-good, about their IT career and life. We agreed with the observation that one of the problems facing future IT engineers is the lack of a clear image or idea of what is in store for them in the field of IT, and how they can grab those opportunities. We also talked about the values, knowledge, skills and attitude that should be taught and introduced to them based on the actual needs and requirement of the current IT industry. I hope one day we can make concrete steps towards sharing these stories with others.
Then finally it was time to go home. Aside from being re-energized with meeting my friends again, I was so happy because our Nihongo teacher (sensei), who is also a good friend of mine and a baptismal godmother of my son, gave some gifts for her godson, and a lot of Japanese food stuff to bring home to Davao. Unfortunately for those in Davao (but fortunately for me), some of those stuffs may never reach them, as they are too tempting to ignore, specially when I am by my lonesome in my hotel room studying and preparing for my lessons the next day.
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