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Making It Work: Coding in Tokyo While Learning Japanese, 7 Hours Ahead

April 30, 2024

Kathy Banach

With code on his screen and Japanese books at his side, our developer Eran Helzer is experiencing firsthand what it means to work remotely from Tokyo. By aligning his schedule with a team seven hours behind, he’s blending professional duties with personal learning, highlighting the broad opportunities remote work offers.

Eran, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

About 1 year ago, I finished the mandatory 3 years of my military service, plus an additional year. During my service, I was a software developer. This, combined with the fact that part of my service was during COVID, led me to have a very varied and interesting time.

I was very fortunate to be able to join the OTGS team soon after, which among other benefits, is enabling me to achieve some long-time travel destination goals.

One of my greatest passions is meeting new people from different cultures, learning about their country and their history, and expanding my linguistic knowledge and skills.

I am also a very big nature enthusiast, so being able to visit climates and areas that are different from my home country of Israel is something I enjoy.

Eran and classmates enjoying a get-together in an Izakaya (Japanese bar) near Shibuya, one of the big centers in Tokyo

Why did you decide to work from Japan and how long will you be working from there?

A park in Tokyo

I will be working from Tokyo for a total of 3 months, with 2 months left.

The culture has always intrigued me. It is probably as different a country as there is to my home country, and that is something that interests me. 

Also, it is undoubtedly the best place to study Japanese, which is what I am currently doing. 🙂

Can you share your experience of working remotely from Japan and how you have managed to overcome the challenges of being in a different time zone from your team? 

While it did require adjustment on my part, the experience was generally very pleasant. The team was accommodating, and we slightly moved our scheduled call in order to make them more comfortable for me.

The rest was essentially moving my own working hours to fit the rest of the team as best as possible. That means that instead of working morning to afternoon, I work early afternoon to late evening. This ensures that I am available to people for a big part of their day, and vice versa.

I am able to continue working essentially regularly, thanks to me being quite flexible with my own times. My “work day” has stayed mostly in sync with the rest of my team, but thanks to the flexibility and my current time zone, I can have different activities than I would otherwise.

I knew that working from a different time zone would require that I change my schedule significantly, and I am quite happy to do so for the opportunity 🙂

Eran on the last day of Japanese school with classmates
Cherry blossom bloom in Japan – all of Tokyo seems to be colored pink and white

What do you like the most about working remotely?

I would say that the biggest benefit is definitely the flexibility, location-wise. 

And, here are a few photos of some great dishes and things I’ve discovered while working remotely from Japan so far:

  • A funny conference name at the airport
  • Omu-raisu, a Japanese omelette
  • Ramen, probably the most common dish in Tokyo
  • Street takoyaki, aka fried octopus balls, a common street food
  • A bowl of ramen
  • In Japan, it is common to drink sake (rice alcohol) warm
  • Sakura (cherry blossoms) color the streets in pink and white

What are your plans in regards to places to stay/work in the future (if any)?

Nothing concrete yet, but I am sure that I will be very happy to do this in the future again!

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