EPTIn Brazil I didn't had money, at all. I don't have a degree and things revolving around my family versus my own goals weren't looking good. After my girlfriend's father passed out, we decided that we would come to Japan, to try to start a new life here and hopefully leave all the pain and sadness we had from São Paulo. The biggest city of Brazil was dangerous and unforgiving, no one could leave home without thinking if they would really come back at all.
I came to Japan in 2007 and managed to buy all the stuff I ever wanted when I used to live in Brazil - the Wii, a PC, Nintendo DS and a big TV where the things that made me discover the awesome world of current generation games, whereas in Brazil I only had my Super Nintendo and a measly 500mHz PC that I used to play Worms 2, Ragnarok Online and Diablo II - all the while games like World of Warcraft and Age of Empires 3 were big things.
Sony employs foreigners through many contractors, and we share the same workplace. Brazilians, Peruvians, Colombians, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese - all under the roof of 3rd party contractors.
We worked hard in Sony, doing 3 hours of overtime almost everyday, working on saturdays and even on sundays on rare occasions.
Everything was fine until the financial crisis that hit in the end of 2008. Things weren't looking good for the manufacturing companies of Japan. Sony and Toyota had massive layoffs and I was included. I've spent my christmas and new year's eve without a job, and without any signs that it would recover soon I questioned if I really should stay here, or go back to my home country.
Japan is facing a deflation, and the new prime minister is trying to make it recover by throwing money at stuff, to try to make the country grow and the economy move again. This deflation altered the salaries of all jobs in Japan and many have now reduced values since the 2008 crisis has hit.
Two months without working have passed and I finally got a call asking me to come back to work on a new camera model - the catch was that they lowered the wage of everyone. I used to earn about 11 USD per hour and now I was getting about 9 USD per hour.
The problem is, we earn less, but the things still are the same price. The rent didn't get lower, the bills, cellphone, internet connection, groceries, drinks, fuel - everything is still the same price.
We had to move to a building owned by my contractor because they needed our money to survive. Instead of renting someone's place, we would live in the contractor's apartments, and the money we gained each month came back to their pockets. That is fine, as long as the contractor grows and expands to other factories - we helped each other to survive in these difficult times.
Everything that I earned since 2007, I was spending little by little and my bank account was getting thinner every passing month. I knew I'd had someday to do something to turn this around.
The fiscal year of 2012 was the turning point for Sony since they closed the year with profit, a thing that didn't happen since the fiscal year of 2006. Things were more stable and we started thinking of getting ourselves out of the chains from the contractor's building after living for 4 years there.
We found a new place where we could rent, without having ties to the contractor and then when the opportunity rose, we moved. We had to pay the contract, the first rent, buy a refrigerator, a washing machine and other stuff we still needed. Also, for 2 months we have to pay the rent and bills from the other apartment.
We have a bunch of stuff to pay, we are poor and we are cutting money off of anything we can. Living on a tight budget is stressing - but I hope we can recover later on.
So yeah... I'm back to doing 3 hours overtime everyday and working on saturdays. I feel exhausted. I don't feel like gaming, specially Dota, which consumes a lot of time. I don't even feel like chatting on #tlponies too much :/
At the moment, I wake up to go to work at 7 AM and only get back at home at 9 PM - I eat dinner, take a shower, get the clothes for the next morning, wash my lunch box for the next day and just go to bed at 11 PM. Wake up and do it all over again.
Sorry for being absent in our games and not chatting too much.
Wish things could be different - wish I could earn more and work less - but again, it's my own fault that I live like this.
I'm content. I guess.
[edit1] I only get so tired because we are prohibited from sitting while working. We have a break at 11:10 for lunch, and breaks at 2:30 and 5:40 - 15m duration. That is the only time we are allowed to sit.
