ANOTHER WEEK IN MY WORLD
Tokyo, Green and Beautiful in a city of Neon
I keep getting astounded at how green and gorgeous parts of Tokyo are. For being the biggest city in the world, it's actually quite easy to find a place with out the noise and stress of such a big place. It's truly a city with everything, and this aspect of it is something I really enjoy.
This time I went and explored a new garden, the Hama-rikyu gardens built right next to the harbor, not 20 minutes away from my apartment. (I'm really glad I moved...) I went on a beautiful, super relaxing, green, and sunny day, which seem to be the norm now that the summer rainy season has passed. Needless to say, it was a perfect day to stroll around a garden. And of course there was the obligatory nap in the shade. Always a welcome activity.
That evening I went over to my boss's house for a farewell dinner for one of my fellow trainees, Simon. We had some great company, some great food (a very unique take on burritos from the German perspective...), and an all around good time. Lars' kids were adorable, and playing with their food the entire time. Further cementing the fact that kids can be hilarious.
After dinner, me and Simon rushed over to Yu's house for his housewarming party! As a thank you for helping set up the furniture and stuff, they invited some people over to help break-in the new place. Yu and his girlfriend were super welcoming and grateful and they kept thanking us for helping set the place up. It's always rewarding to be able to put your talents to work for someone else and see the good and the joy that it can bring to their lives. Maybe I should become a carpenter or something... As always, there was some good food there too (including a surprise visit from the Colonel), but the damn last train cut our time there short.
Here's a fun exercise - find the Nial. I've almost completely assimilated! (haha, not really)
That next day I went to Ueno park to explore and take the free walking tour. It was another beautiful, bright, sunny day for a little walking around, and Ueno is probably one of the best places in Tokyo to do just that.
The walking tour was pretty insightful. I learned some cool stuff about Ueno, Tokyo, and Japan. For instance, they had a statue of the guy on the 1000 yen note, who was the discoverer of yellow fever (go STEM!). Also, during Japan's period of isolation, only China and the Netherlands were allowed into the country. China makes sense, but the Netherlands? That's a bit outta left field.
Ueno Park has a lot of pretty cool things to check out. A beautiful fountain, a good number of museums (the science museum is actually built in the shape of an airplane. Awesome!!!), temples, shrines, and greenery everywhere. It's especially known for its cherry blossoms, but those aren't in bloom right now. :-/
After the tour, I went and walked around a bit more of the park and stumbled by a baseball game. I watched for a bit but kept moving along. I went and chilled by the fountain, walked down to another part of the park, had a DELICIOUS chocolate-covered waffle stick, and then eventually moved on.
After that, I just walked over to a shopping street with tons of cooking stuff. I went and scoped out some gifts and whatnot before I get them, but will probably be heading back there soon for some stuff.
All in all, a successful and enjoyable weekend.
Work
I'm still not doing anything of worth at work. I'm kind of questioning myself as to the whole situation, but it's one of those cases where I need to stretch 10 minutes of work into 10 days of work. This kind of work style is not up my alley, and I do not want to adjust to this. Work-wise, I'm done with this, but know I need to put something together (magically) to legitimize my time here. That's gonna be fun...
That, and the whales majority of my work is email. Trying to figure out who to contact, which, in such a multinational corporation with tons of people spread out all over the world is quite a difficult task in and of itself, contacting them, hoping they respond, hoping they respond with something useful, and then usually finding out I need to talk to someone else. Needless to say, it's frustrating as fuck seeing how much time I spend sitting around or trying to figure out what course of action to take. I miss doing tangible work with real results.
It's all pretty much boiled down to me doing other stuff not work related at work. For instance... the words you're reading right now, typed at work. Also I'm catching up on news and other stuff I can try to accomplish here. I would kill for something more tangible to accomplish, but if I can't be successful on my work tasks, I might as well get something done for myself.
Work Culture
Overall though, it seems like my experience thus far fits in well with the overall Japanese work culture. Somehow, they are perfectly ok with not doing shit, with spreading out a 10 minute task over 10 days and not seeing any timely forward progress on something. Also, they are seemingly resistant to change and development ... everywhere. It's honestly a wonder that anything gets done here.
But it's especially weird to contrast office work with assembly work. I got a tour of the new assembly line at our plant here in Kawasaki (new as in 2 months old), and I was nothing but impressed. It was extremely open, very little clutter and great implementation of the Just-In-Time system, and there's a ton of robots moving stuff around to make work more efficient. (The robots play music when they're moving too, which would get hella annoying if I was working there)
So that contrast of inefficiency, sloth, and apathy is a weird juxtaposition to the streamlined efficiency of the manufacturing process. Talking with colleagues has just confirmed that this is the case. Even my boss has noted that "it's a wonder anything get's done here." That's not a good sign.
Priorities - Not What You'd Expect
During the dinner party at my boss's place, he gave some insights on his time thus far in Japan, one of which is his analysis on overall priorities in Japanese culture.
- Clothes - It's all about how you look. Trendy, polished, whatever, you've apparently got to stay at the front of the line in this aspect
- Car - How you look is affected quite clearly by what you drive
- Food - Well, that's a big one, but so high up makes it interesting
- Housing - I guess this makes sense, living in a shoe box that costs a fortune, but moving out of the shoe box into a bigger box would just skyrocket in price. Sacrifice in one thing to get bigger gains in another
For the most part, I'd say this is pretty different when compared to, say American or another country's values. My personal values, hell yeah, way askew. But I'm a little weird and off-track to begin with, so that makes sense.
Seclusion and Time Alone
From my experience, there seems to be an inability for some cultures and people to understand the concept of being alone. I was talking with some Japanese friends, and they talked about how (in his example) no Germans understood why that person would do things like go to a bar or club or wander around on their own, and how he thought that lack of thought was weird. I feel the same way.
I find it dumb and often times frustrating that people are so weirded out by the concept of doing something alone. I guess being an introvert helps me be much more comfortable with this, but either way, being comfortable in your own skin without other people to distract you is an important part of life. If you can't live or enjoy something without the external satisfaction of other people, there's something wrong with that...
More on this to come in my next post. Both sides of the coin from my perspective.
Original Publish Date: October 13th, 2015