Banking and Dancing? They are Pretty Much the Same Thing

With two busy workweeks officially in the books, it is good to take a moment and just reflect on what we have been up to. Over the last week and a half, the interns workshopped with some of BTMU’s most recognized local and overseas employees, collaborated with first-year hires, and participated in the Young American musical which was performed in front of a 300+ member crowd. Yeah, there has not been too much slouching around.

About a week and a half ago, both overseas and local winners of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s President Award were brought to Tokyo. On top of coming to Japan to accept this prestigious award, the award winners participated in a workshop that discussed how to effectively instill MUFG’s new corporate vision and create a better global network. The six interns were lucky enough to participate and work with some of MUFG’s best bankers. I thought that was pretty cool, and a great experience. At the end of the workshop, the bankers presented their findings and the conclusions they drew on. It was awesome to hear some of the company’s most prestigious employees perspectives. At the end of their presentation, our overseer had all the interns get up individually and make a brief speech as well. I am not frequent in the public speaking arena, so I was quite nervous. On top of that, we were presenting in front of a room filled with arguably some of the most respected bankers in the world. Yikes. However, I thought everyone’s presentations were strong and absent of any apprehension and nervousness. Nice.

We had two presentations of very different nature the following week. We made a presentation contrasting the different nature of commercial banking in Japan and America. After finishing up and saying bye to some of our new friends, a bunch of us went to Shinjuku where we found an all-you-can-eat Shabu-Shabu place. Shabu-Shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot. You are given a huge pot filled with boiling water with plates of thinly sliced meat and an assortment of vegetables. You place the various foods in the hot pot and it cooks quite fast. This is typically a wintertime meal in Japan, but we indulged regardless. To say it was good would not do this meal justice. It was DELICIOUS. So savory and so tasty. I want more. Well, that capped off quite an exciting week and I am looking forward to the weeks to come!