The Old Crew

Posted On September 9, 2026

At some point, I hope to continue this series of posts I started over a decade ago documenting my life as an assistant English teacher, and eventually transition to looking at the start of my salaryman life. However, now is not that time. But since I’ve let that series of posts sit for so long, I need to do some table setting before diving into this post.

After quitting teaching–over a decade ago now–I found myself at a rather big Japanese company, embarking on baby’s very first salaryman job. Everyone with “manager” in their title (or above) smoked, scrubs like me got chewed out and publicly humiliated when they “fucked up,” and sexual harassment was rampant at company dinners. The Shōwa era still lived on there, even as it was dying out in the later part of the Heisei era, when I joined. That’s the kind of company it was–and I’ll leave it at that. Gotta keep material for when I finish that series I linked above! 

Anyway, to the meat of this post! Earlier this month I had a chance to reconnect with some old colleagues from that time on the occasion of my old boss’s retirement, and I wanted to leave some thoughts on the experience. I haven’t done many “travelogue” posts on here for a while, and given how fragile social media is now, I’d rather drop my thoughts here as opposed to pissing into the wind on Bluesky or something. 

I love hanging out with old work buddies–and while I had hung out with a few close colleagues from this first salaryman job every now and again since leaving the company, it had been a long while since I had seen many of the other people I shared space with daily, occasionally carried around heavy objects with^[1]I will explain this one day., and drank with from time to time at team gatherings. The call to meet up for dinner and celebrate Boss’s legacy came out of the blue from one guy on the team who I had literally not seen since I left the company. But we were friendly when we worked together, and he left an impression on me–and I guess I left an impression on him, as well^[2]Of note, every now and again we spent hours together driving to the warehouse where we had to carry around said heavy objects, and I suppose then we got close.! I quickly returned the message, and appeared at the party about two weeks later.

I was one of the first people to arrive, but once all the old faces started coming in, the small izakaya dining room transformed into a time capsule. Of course, there were a handful of folks who looked different–of note, Boss looked like a low-level thug in a Kitano flick, or a support member of the Crazy Ken Band–but while certain appearances had changed, the vibe stayed the same. Boss was the center of attention, bragging about his over four-decade career at the company, while also being sure to mix in dirty comments about how he doesn’t go to soaplands because he prefers “amateurs.” Of course, he was also keen to talk about his two marriages, both of which were with women he met at the company–and out of left field, I also learned that he was a gamer, and had played Assassin’s Creed^[3]Not sure which one. and The Last of Us. Of course as former minions, it was our job to be “impressed” by his stories, while pulling off to the side to take fun jabs at one another. And of course, the youngest woman in the group–who is nearly 40-years-old at this point–still prepared Boss’s drinks.

Aside from taking in the old, extremely off-color, and nostalgic vibes, what struck me was how no one had changed. While it was an intimate gathering of around 12 folks–and strangely the people I worked the most closely with weren’t around–only two people (including me) had left the company. For the most part, everyone was still working there, and most likely doing a similar job to what they were doing over 10 years ago. With the pandemic behind society now, they were more or less back to the office daily^[4]Apparently you’re allowed one day at home per week., working the same 9:00 to 17:30 hours, with the same 12:00 to 13:00 lunch break. As someone who is probably kind of restless by nature and demands change–and also as someone who has expensive hobbies–I left the company after 3 years as I wasn’t satisfied with the working conditions, and I have continued job hopping at a similar pace for the past decade and change. And while now I’m actually in a good place, I still have a restlessness, and typically find myself scanning job boards for the next potential thing. 

Meanwhile, my old co-workers seem satisfied with their lives, and seeing them happier than ever at this dinner^[5]I have a feeling the working conditions have probably improved somewhat in the past decade. did conjure up something of an epiphany–the realization that yes, it’s okay to be satisfied with your life. It’s okay to settle down. I do realize that this may sound incredibly condescending–and there probably is an ugly part of me that is–but being immersed in this old vibe, amongst old colleagues who had not changed in over a decade, was comforting. And it told me that maybe, just maybe, I should chill out. And I think I’ll get there–but it’ll require work.

Anyway, before I get too personal and introspective, I’ll go ahead and wrap this up. It was great seeing everyone! As someone who had only ever worked at non-Japanese firms since leaving that company, being in that space again was comforting… even if much of the experience was extremely taboo in the year 2026. It certainly was a legit “time slip” back to the early 2010s. After the dinner, I was almost compelled to go back–but with only one remote work day a week, I think I’ll continue to work elsewhere.