Work

We had an all-hands meeting last week with the head of our division. It was just for our section? / sub-division? … either way, one of the things the boss mentioned was that none of us go to work “because of the nice office”.

After spending a couple of days at the other office, I have realised that the office – location, facilities and atmosphere, are just as important as the people and the work you are doing. In an ideal world, all of the above would be a factor in deciding where to work. However, as the world these days is far ideal, not all of those factors can be taken in to account.

So, on reflection over the past few days, weeks and months, I have come to realise the importance of colleagues, the office and generally having a stable job! But the point of this blog entry is not the fact that I have a job. Far from it.

I actually wanted to talk about the difference in atmosphere between a Japanese office and a ‘Western’ office. Apart from all the physical differences of the office layout – rows of desks vs. cubicals and offices, language – Japanese vs English, and although not quite in the realms of being physical, the number of zeros on the monthly payslip, there’s a whole world of difference in terms of culture.

Japan is still heavily traditional in regards to the workplace. Endless meetings. Constantly printing stuff out. The continous need to get approval for everything. You will not believe some of the hoops we have to jump through day-by-day.

Anyway, it’s definitely a problem with the whole of business in Japan. It needs to not just modernise the technology but the basic concepts / framework / work-practices – call it what you will. Maybe it is just my bias and my internationalised viewpoint.

Hmm, this topic is more difficult to discuss than I would have thought. I think the best way to put it is, as I’ve always said, working in Japan requires a lot more energy than working abroad. Working in Japan means thinking about a lot more than just the work you do. Relationships with your superiors is important anywhere, but it is critical here.

I just hope that I’m able to make an impact in this environment, network with the right people and progress in my career.

Holiday

On the flip-side is that Japan has a lot of national holidays! Today is one of them. It is Showa Day today. We have our bi-annual five day weekend next week. A lot of people, including myself, have taken holiday tomorrow and friday to extend the holiday to a full week. Actually, as I’m taking an extended break, I volunteered for holiday support today, so I’m actually at work today. But yeah, it’s strange how every time I take vacation I feel like I shouldn’t. There is always a fear that I’ll miss something important whilst I’m away. Although the fear of being laid-off has receeded somewhat, there is also a fear of missing an opportunity or not being around to help out with issues/projects. Hmmm…

News

…and now, there’s also this fear of swine…

The fear of death, be it to someone in a far off distant country, to those around you, within your family, or even to yourself, is something that does not sit comfortably for anyone. After recent events, globally and personally, I feel that I may be reaching an age that I will have to face this natural ‘circle of life’ more frequently and more consciously than ever before. Death takes time to sink in. It’s not just the fact that they will no longer be around, or that you will never get a chance to see their face or hear their voice, it’s all of that plus, what that person represents. The number of deaths on the tv screen are not just numbers – each and every digit represents a plethora of lives, emotions and memories. One mustn’t forget that.

Work. Friends. Family. Self. Love. Life. still dreaming…

Anger, frustration, stress and exhaustion. All these feelings are bottled up inside at the moment. It’s strange how a reasonable day can turn so quickly in one moment.

Listening to death metal seems like a perfect cure at the instant you feel that anger but it only adds to the adrenalin pumping through you and does nothing to calm you down.

The root of all this bad feeling? I guess the stress and exhaustion have been due to the excessively tiring week I’ve had. I didn’t have a single night in last week. Ok, admittedly my definition of a night in means going home straight from work and staying in, and doesn’t cover those cases when I pop out for a few hours.

Drive

Driving lessons have eaten up most of my spare time the past couple of weeks. Thankfully I’m now at a point where I can actually take the test and be pretty confident that I’ll pass. However, the one obstacle is the theory. Theory is bad enough when in English, but when it’s in Japanese and is also sufficiently cunning enough to include a large number of trick questions, it doesn’t make it any easier! For the preliminary licence – the one you need to actually take the actual full licence on-road – you need to get 45 out of the 50 True/False questions correct; I did a mock test today – I got 44 out of 50 – fail. I plan on taking it within the week though. I think it’s a lot more guess work, feeling and luck than actually learning some of this stuff. Some of it doesn’t make sense.

Anger

Anyway, the root of my anger and frustration? Yes, you guessed it, my brother. I decided to have some toast as I was hungry. He made a passing comment saying something like “why?”, which he then went on to clarify as asking why I hadn’t asked him if he wanted any. That in itself was annoying enough but then after I commented that there was only 1 slice left, he said that “do you think mum would do that?”, at that point a lot of offensive words went through my head. Mostly focused on the thought that I was not his mother, and also wondering how the hell we were related. I’m not the maid/chef/servant either.

There was another incident yesterday. I invited him to play tennis yesterday. He was patronising and down right rude to my friends. I could tell that he didn’t think much of them, at one point he was “dame-dana”, roughly translating to “not good enough” in terms of their character, personality etc. Incredibly prejudiced and judgemental. Asking what people did at university seems like an acceptable question, right? Not when asked in such a way as to imply that the person spent their whole time studying and was friendless. Unfortunately, our social circles overlap more than I would like, and being in the same industry does not help that, but seriously, never again am I going to invite him to anything.

Actually, whilst I’m ranting about all of this. When I decided to go to the uni I picked, I was really miffed (to put it mildly) that my brother decided to join me there. Spending my entire life trying to break free of standing in his shadow; maybe I cast a bigger shadow now, but his is shadow remains darker, thicker and more choking.

Choke

Smokers – why? I really don’t understand the “habit”/”pastime”. People say that smoking and drinking are on a par. They are wrong. Drinking does not kill those people around you. Smoking does. Drinking does not make everything smell of smoke. Smoking does. The worst thing is that a segregated restaurant in Japan means that there’s just an area for smokers but usually no barrier or separate ventilation. Ban it, dramatically increase the cost or invent something that doesn’t have any impact on everyone/everything around the smoker. Introduce anti-smoking laws. The excuse that smokers have to go outside or will loiter outside the buildings are not valid excuses. These people should be shunned and smoking along with it.

Also, the worst kind of smoker is “the casual/social” smoker. That makes no sense to me.

Then again, my youthful innocence of the past, when I believed that I’d never want to associate myself with any smokers or stop speaking to people if they did, has not stood the test of time. Do I have to learn to accept that Japan is smoking central? Can I refuse to attend an event if I know it’ll be too smoky? Can I politely say “yes” when people ask “do you mind if I smoke?”?

I need a holiday.

So we have another 3 day weekend in the wonderful land of the rising but not so warm sun. It’s now Monday afternoon and for the first time in a while I’ve felt like I’ve made good use of the weekend. I spent Saturday playing tennis for the second time since moving here, but we can discuss that later.

First, I want to talk about the holiday feeling.

The Holiday Feeling

I spent today and yesterday at my grandparents place out in the sticks. On the train there I still felt that my whole life changing move to Tokyo has yet to blast into life; it still felt like a temporary move and that there was this end date in the not so distant future, when I’d “wake up”. I have no idea when that moment of realisation will hit and I guess I’m never believed I would stay long term, but it was still a strange feeling to experience.

The Other Holiday Feeling

I also had the other holiday feeling this weekend – you know, the one to do with the festive season? Being born so close to a major holiday has always given me mixed feelings about Christmas. I don’t dislike it but I can’t say I go hyper when the bells start jingling. I’m finding it even difficult to comprehend this year as in Japan it is a totally overly commercialised season starting from the day after Halloween up to Christmas day. However, Christmas day is a normal working day making it the most anti-climactic holiday in the year.

I guess there’s also this confusion about how to spend the holiday this year. In any other country it would be a family day but in Japan, New Year’s has been set aside for that purpose making Christmas day pretty much a “couples day”. Ah well… I’m just bitter that my birthday is no longer a recognised national holiday :p

The Alternative Holiday

So the alternative holiday. It looks like this year I’ll be spending the festive season in Japan as travelling abroad is far too expensive! I’ll probably do some sort of domestic trip but popping outside of Japan will most likely be saved til early next year. Cheaper, plus something to look forward to beyond the festivities!

Tennis

So, Tennis. The second tennis session since the resurrection (of my tennis playing), we played a solid 3 hours. It actually did not feel that long. Maybe playing for a shorter time adds to the pressure of making the most of it, plus restricts the time for warming up and thus doesn’t feel so satisfactory.

During the session we played a round robin set each – there were 3 of us. Thankfully I managed to win a match 6-4. However, despite my so called tennis lesson years back in my younger days, my backhand and serving was and still remains beyond amateur. You might think that the game was one by a single break of serve…. you’d be wrong. The game was one by a single holding of serve (I think). Either way, it was a dire performance and the comparison of my technique to John McEnroe was somewhat bizarre and unmerited. The only similarity between myself and the legendary McEnroe is that I was holding a tennis racket and that I shouted profanities a lot.