Before I start rambling about my first online purchase from Rakuten Global, here's a little recap about moi. You see, despite my blog and my ethnicity being Chinese-Asian, I have a strong interest in anything and everything Japanese. Culture, history, trends, anime, manga, etc etc. Although I do have to admit it's like a pity that I do not work for a Japanese company. Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share for working in Japanese-originated companies but the experiences just kinda suck one way or another.

Take for example about this defunt Japanese bakery-cum-cafe that used to exist at Shaw Orchard, just directly opposite Wheelock Place back in the 1990s. I won't name the bakery-cum-cafe, but anyways, the staffs (mixture of Singapore and Malaysians) I've worked with there may seemed nice since you are still a new staff. But over time, they start to "show" their true colors. I still remember how this senior staff was always so mean to me and a few other senior staffs was speculating that since the Japanese store manager has been mollycoddling me as soon as I joined, this particular senior staff was feeling highly irritated and upset that she "fell from favour". In short, the Japanese store manager's attention was on me and not on her anymore LOL

And one fine day, she just screamed and yelled at me for no apparent reason, which to me was more than just upsetting. I just casually commented that nobody from the Level 1 Bakery side bothered to informed me that they ran out of breadcrumbs. If they do, I would have prepared a full tub for them at the earliest notice. I have absolutely no clue as to why such an innocent comment would trigger her to abuse me vocally and mentally, but at that time, I just felt she was a retarded senior. Isn't it common sense that if your department is running low on a particular item, your first reaction would be to quickly notified the person responsible for that particular item that it is running out. So that whoever's responsible would be able to prepare extra stocks in advance, no?

In short, this retarded workplace senior of mine actually scarred me a little in terms of working for another Japanese-oriented company. Although shortly later, I just kinda gave up the prospect of being a baker in favor of books. Which kinda brings me to Books Kinokuniya, my second experience at working in a Japanese-originated workplace.

Before I even contemplated on working there, I was already a regular customer at their Takashimaya flagship outlet, always going there at least once a month during my baker-trainee days to purchase books that happened to not be of the cooking variety. Everyone looked so cool in the uniform back then, which I supposed was a total bitch to wear since the pants was way too tight for me and the receptionist who gave me the uniform insisted that it fit me perfectly... I still wonder what is it with thin girls and their perception of "Oh, it fits you just well. It doesn't look too tight at all!"

Despite reading up on books on Japanese work etiquette prior to joining Books Kinokuniya, nothing prepared me for a bigger shock when I actually joined them. Books Kinokuniya back in the 1990s was a company full of cliques. And by cliques, I meant cashier department (a.k.a operations department) only mixing with cashier department staffs, english book department staffs only mixing with english book department staffs, so on and so forth. Yep, this type of "clique" I was talking about. It's like, nobody has the intention of trying to mix outside their work group at all. Which I partly attribute to the fact that most english, chinese and japanese book department staffs mostly are university graduates or hold diplomas while the cashiering and stationary staffs can actually mingle well due to our schooling background that consists of up to Secondary School education.

I initially thought that was total bullshit and tried to mingle, and let just say, I only managed to click well with at most 1 or 2 staffs from another department out of the many full and part-timers who were there. And the reason I could be on par was due to our similar interests, which was mostly manga and anime. Yep, that sounded sad for sure although I am not too sure if this is the case for them now.

Anyways, despite having such bad experiences working at Japanese-oriented/Japanese-originated companies, I still doubt these bad working experiences would dampen my interest in Japanese culture and the likes. Simply put, how they behave is entirely different from the culture itself, isn't it? So, I am still glad and happy that these working experiences doesn't make me hate Japanese culture at all. In fact, I think it strengthen my resolve to want to know more about Japan more than anything else.

Speaking of which, all along I had an account with Rakuten and I wasn't even aware. Or I would have points for making this Jinbei purchase LOL Anyways, the reason why I wanted a Jinbei a.k.a Japanese sleepwear is that, most times, Singapore can be a hot and humid country during the day. But when night times, it might be a totally different story. And more than once, I found myself shivering underneath my blanket despite the weather not being all that cold

Normal sleeping pjyamas doesn't seem to work in keeping me from feeling cold at all. And I was actually a little sick of having to wake up in the dead of the night to wear extra clothing when it suddenly gets too cold without warning. Enter the Jinbei. Traditionally, Jinbei are usually worn as a form of nightwear or house wear. Although I personally find that it works well in keeping me warm when I sleep at night. The only additional extra layer I wore is a plain white T-shirt underneath the Jinbei top.

And yet I do have to admit, I had a bit of trouble finding this item initially since I wasn't too sure of the exact name for it. I started off with Japanese pyjamas which kinda brought me to ordinary pyjamas and as I mentioned, pyjamas don't keep me warm at night when I sleep. In fact, I sometimes found myself looking like an over-wrapped burrito when I wake up in the morning.

Here's a look at my very first Jinbei. Looks comfy huh? It's actually really comfortable to wear and I am planning on getting a few more to stock up in my wardrobe when my current one wore out. Let's just say, I find myself veering towards the Game and Hobbies department over at Rakuten cos I am a self-confessed otaku LOL