“Tanoshie Sawagi” (Exciting Commotion) Crosses Borders! A Close-Up Report on a Day in the Life of an International Intern

Hello. This is Sunny-chan from Public Relations!

Summer has come to an end, and the arrival of autumn is starting to be felt.

At SUNNY SIDE UP, we have welcomed a new colleague as an international intern for approximately three months starting from the beginning of this month. In this blog post, I would like to introduce her!!

Some of you may be wondering, “What kind of work does an international intern do?” Feeling a self-imposed sense of mission, Sunny-chan spent a day following her closely!

Ms. Chen’s Profile

Ms. Chen is from Henan Province, China. After majoring in Japanese for four years at a university in Beijing and graduating this July, she came to Japan for an internship at SUNNY SIDE UP.

She originally became interested in Japanese pop culture, such as manga, anime, music, and fashion. Her journey with the Japanese language began when she wanted to listen to a certain voice actor’s radio program. Having studied abroad in Japan for one year during her university years, she possesses Japanese language skills that surprise even our staff members.

To experience the atmosphere of Japanese media and PR agencies, she will be interning in the Global Communication Department for approximately three months.

Now, let’s take a look at her day!

10:00 Arrival at the Office / Reading Newspapers

As part of learning about Japanese media, she selects and checks several newspapers from those delivered to the office every morning. By reading several side-by-side, she can learn about the topics each paper is likely to cover and the differences in expression.

The key is how quickly she can read while still understanding the content! She breezes through even difficult Japanese texts (impressive!).

11:00 Email Checks and Other Tasks

She checks the emails flying around the department to learn firsthand how projects progress. Additionally, she handles assigned tasks efficiently and stays on top of her work.

12:00 Global Communication Department Meeting

Today is the day for the weekly departmental meeting where all members gather. Here, the projects each member is involved in and their progress are shared.

On this day, setting goals for Ms. Chen’s internship period was also on the agenda.

As a result of discussions between her and the members, the goal was set to create a proposal on the theme of “Ideas to make Chinese products popular in Japan.” At the end of the internship, she will give a presentation to the department members!

We look forward to seeing what kind of unique proposal she will come up with, drawing on her experience living in China. While it is a challenging task, all members will support her so that she can successfully achieve it!

13:00 Lunch

For lunch on this day, she went to the Sendagaya-Kitasando (Dagayasando) cafe “BRENTWOOD TERRACE” with members of the department. Taking a short break, the conversation blossomed with talk of weekend plans and hobbies.

14:00 Final Confirmation of the Event

The day of the interview happened to be the day of a PR event managed by the department. Since Ms. Chen would also be participating as a staff member, she performed a final check of the event overview and content. Her documents were filled with notes!

15:00 Moving to the Event Venue

Leaving the office and traveling by train. She met up with the other members at the site. Although she was worried, saying, “The Japanese subway is still difficult!”, she arrived safely.

16:00 Sake Event

The event Ms. Chen participated in as staff on this day was a media seminar for Japanese sake. By experiencing a PR event firsthand, she learned how to handle situations on-site.

While being guided by senior members, she assisted with venue setup and proceedings. It was impressive to see her diligently taking notes whenever she had a free moment during the event.

19:00 Heading Home

After seeing off the media guests, the event concluded. She headed straight home for the day. Thank you for your hard work!

After following her for a day, Sunny-chan realized that Ms. Chen is involved in so many tasks that it was a struggle to keep up. The experiences she gained by participating in departmental meetings and on-site events will surely be something she remembers when she starts working in the future.

To share “Tanoshie Sawagi” not only within Japan but also with the world, SUNNY SIDE UP will continue to actively accept international interns.

Ms. Chen is scheduled to write an internship report blog at a later date! Please look forward to it. ^^