Worked as a translater for about 7 years from 1998 on a part time basis.
First worked on Japanese to English translations of patents on Amorphous Sillicon application for solar energy/battery
Subsequently worked on Japanese to English translation on patents in the areas of electricity, engineering, mechanics, etc. I used to have a big fat dictionary for these but got rid of it when moving.
At the same time worked on English to Japanese translations for various materials such as fashion, news materials, advertising, contract and economics.
Eventually I left Japan for New York to attend a business school. In my first year there I was still working on the patent translation. I still dream of my working on transltion well past middle of the night, desperately and exhausted, day before due date.