The Tough Days Are Finally Coming to an End

While working at a smartphone game company on a work visa, I have been advancing my own startups in Japan and China as part of a founding project, and I also have development contracts from three friends, not to mention two exams coming up. For the past few months, I have been sleeping only about 4 to 5 hours a night.

Those tough days are finally coming to an end.

Regarding my friends' projects, one of them is a video site in Japan. This is currently operational, and there aren't many development tasks left. Another is a pharmaceutical sales site in the Middle East. This has become a subcontracting job for another friend, and I am simply handling design and progress management. The last one is a subscription platform for monks. I only need to set up the environment for a new site using the source code from my existing startup project, which is now temporarily finished. After that, it won't be about development but rather about my friend's operations. In fact, I am not the type of person who can easily refuse others, but there are compelling reasons why I couldn't turn down these three friends.

The two exams are the "Fundamental Information Security Examination" and the "Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination."

The reason I took these exams is for the Highly Skilled Professional Visa. Currently, I only have 70 points, so even if I obtain the Highly Skilled Professional Visa, I will only be able to apply for permanent residency after three years. If I reach 80 points, I can apply after just one year. Well, it seems like it will take several years from application to approval anyway. Passing one exam will add 5 points, so I am taking these two exams to reach 80 points.

After doing a little research, I found that these types of exams are typically taken by Japanese high school and university students. The difficulty level isn't that high. Because it isn't that high, they often include traps in the wording of the questions to maintain a certain pass rate. This, of course, makes it even more difficult for me as a foreigner.

Moreover, I have been so busy that I haven't had much time to prepare for the exams. I only prepared for each exam for two days right before. I think the IT industry is completely a field of engineering, but while preparing for these exams, I felt a bit of a liberal arts vibe. It's a subtle feeling.

When it comes to IT exams, it feels more like a Japanese reading comprehension test, but the exam itself was easier than I expected. I successfully passed. Once I receive my certificate next month, I will apply for the Highly Skilled Professional Visa.

Next week is Golden Week, and I am thinking of going back to China soon. I miss my parents and my cat at home.

As practice for writing in Japanese, I think I will continue to write my diary in Japanese from now on.