Kariya found herself sitting in front of a panel of five businessmen dressed in various styles ranging from super conservative to wanna be surfer casual. She brushed her freshly ironed blue dress suit and began speaking in the most humble voice she could muster without losing her standing. It was all about positioning and presentation in the business world and Kariya was the queen of climbing ladders based solely on those two principles.
“Hello, I am honored you invited me to sit in your presence.....” All of this said in perfectly Tokyo dialect. “I am so gracious for this opportunity and I believe I can learn so much in your company.” The violins began playing as she continued to pour on the compliments as well as throwing out pieces here and there to show her knowledge of the company. “...to work for Fuji has been a lifelong dream and I truly believe you are a credit to society and touch more than 200 million people a day worldwide. This statistic alone is astonishing yet it is expected of Fuji since you exemptlify excellence and quality programming.”
Kariya was on a roll as the questions came in she saw that a couple of the “suits” were resisting her but she had the other three in the palm of her hand.
“Do you expect us to hire you as a reporter?” One of the resister asked smugly.
“Well, I expect you to hire the best person for the position as well as someone that has innovative story ideas that can bring you more subscribers. I would also expect you to see an opportunity to create a buzz that will again force people to tune into your station. I expect that there are others that wants this job but I expect to give you great ratings.” Kariya spoke in a meek voice through it all which somehow cracked his resistance.
The interview was pretty much in the bag after that moment and she was told to wait outside as they conferred about her possible employment. After waiting for ten minutes, she was asked to come back inside and this time only the two resisters were seated in front of her.
She then learned their names, Mr. Yoshimoto and Mr. Aoki as they informed her that she would be hired as a part time reporter for 300 thousand yen a month. It was her job to go out into the community and find stories to report. They said that if her story ideas panned out she would be expected to create a 15 to 20 minute spot weekly. She thanked them profusely because it seemed that in ten minutes a position was created for her. She was sent to the human resource office to fill out her paperwork and start thinking aobut her first story on Fuji TV.
Kariya changed out of her suit in the lobby bathroom with a knowing smile on her face. She knew she was set to explore Japan on her own terms and now get paid for it and not even have to sit in an office. She changed into a pair of camoflague shorts, a white wifebeater and a pair of flip flops and put her suit in a duffel bag. Kariya was floating on cloud nine as she walked into her favorite conbini. The staff was always courtesy with their hellos and equally excited when she spoke to them about the happenings in japanese. She walked around and looked at the onigiris, rice and beef bowls and curried stuffed pastries until she decided on two tuna onigiris and a juice. She then moved to the magazines and saw the new Japanese version of Vogue. After snatching that up, she paid and walked outside with the magazine in her hand and headed home to tell Tomoko the good news.
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