Yesterday, I went to Huis ten Bosch for my first job interview. They actually have the interview at Huis ten Bosch and at Fukuoka, but due to scheduling constraints, buying a ticket to go all the way there turned out to be the more convenient action.
Since I like Huis ten Bosch, I wasn’t going to complain.
When I got to Huis ten Bosch, though, it was raining. Well, the wind was worse. In fact, by the time I headed back, my umbrella had turned inside out twice and had broke.
The group interview turned out to be a group of one, because the other person got lost or something like that. So it was just me and the two interviewers. It didn’t help that I was basically panicking before the interview. I was in a room all by myself, and they only came for me ten minutes after the interview was supposed to have started. I thought they forgot about me, and I think I annoyed the HR person because I went over to the interview room by myself. (I got sent back to wait :p)
The interview itself was kinda interesting. There were the usual questions, like why did you choose Japan, why did I want to work there and such, but plenty of questions I didn’t expect. For the record (and my terrible memory), here’s what they asked and my answers:
1. Do you believe in luck?
Me: I believe in making your own luck. And then I started self-publishing vs traditional querying as an analogy because I obviously cannot shut up about this topic.
Interviewer: 色々やってますね (you do a lot of stuff)
2. If you could change one part of Huis ten Bosch, what would it be.
Me: Introduce the Internet of Things (something else I cannot shut up about). I don’t know if I managed to correctly talk about it though >< But I was talking about it.
Interviewer: Well, it’s true that we have some sections that could be modernised.
3. If you had 一億円 (one hundred million yen), what would you do?
Me: I’d give 10% to charity, and invest the rest in start-ups. Oh, and if I have time/leftover, I’d like to go on a trip.
Interviewer: can’t remember response.
The results are supposed to be out in a week, and hopefully, I’ll be able to move on to the next stage.
After the interview was over, I decided to head into Huis ten Bosch to look at the tulips and the Easter Decorations. For some reason, the Easter decorations are still up. Of course, my first order of business was to get something to eat, because I hadn’t had lunch and was starving!
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| Entrance! |
There were a bunch of limited-edition items, but after thinking about it, I decided to go for this:
Basically because I wanted the cup (and you can keep the rabbit cup if you pay an extra 100 yen). It was pretty good though – cake with lots of custard and fruits! The tea wasn’t that good though – I ordered rose, but it tasted like plain earl grey tea.
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| They also had a stamp rally, but obviously I couldn’t eat that much. The card was cute though, so I took one. |
After my tea/lunch, I went to take a look at the tulips!
This is the square at the European village! Pretty, right?
After the tulips, I decided to go and look at the Easter decorations. I think the egg on the right is a tulip egg…
Here’s another view:
The tree of eggs reminds me of a Christmas tree, though.
Anyway, I was here for one main reason: to try the make your own cream puff truck! It’s 300 yen per try.
Basically, you pay for the cream puff shell, and using the nose of the egg in the truck, fill it up! You can fill it up with as much as you want, but I decided not to let it overflow. Partly because I was scared that it would mess up my suit.
And I got to eat my cream puff in this cute restaurant truck!
This is the inside. I was the only one (probably because of the rain), which was quite fun.
After I finished eating, I made my way out, making sure to pass by the windmills with (of course) tulips.
In a way, I’m sort of glad that it was raining. I’ve pictures with good weather, but none with the rain in them. Although it’s a pity that I couldn’t bring my DSLR – this was an interview after all.
This is probably the prettiest location that I’ll ever interview at 😀