Working Holidays

Happy New Year to all!!

What a fizzer. Still I expected as much… well, maybe not quite so globally. We actually had someone here dragging out a PC they’d saved for the occasion, and running it in DOS mode just to have something to shout ‘it FAILED’ about. I checked out of the hotel this morning knowing that I don’t need to be here at 4am any more. My body is even over the jetlag of a 17 hour shift at the wrong end of the year(s) and I would feel like working if there was anything I could do without anyone around to influence or support.

Santa delivered the promised wheat-bix as well as a few other missed foods and homely items. I topped that up with my own purchases of books, CDs (Australian of course) and DVDs, but unfortunately, they haven’t arrived yet. Here’s to a second Christmas in January. Hope you all got what you wanted, and had a great time watching Sydney’s best known landmarks going up in fire.

Looking back over the year, it’s been more ups than downs, especially if you consider this whole event as a holiday as the title suggests. Unfortunately, the lack of a real holiday has taken its toll. I only managed to take 4 days off during the 2 weeks my parents were here and spent those evenings doing email. I also lost about 12 public holidays to work on projects or Y2K, and a number of annual leave days ‘expired’, so am feeling pretty bitter about that. It’s left me with a determination to get back to Australia for the Big Ride in March, despite that being the worst time for about 3 of my projects. I will outsource those projects if I have to, but I WILL NOT miss that holiday.

I’ve made a lot of new friends, and gotten closer to others that forgave me my prejudices (I wouldn’t talk to them initially because they weren’t Japanese). Most of them are from P&G, but I almost never see any of them at work. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anyone to go rock climbing with me, but there are a number of pretty girls who enjoy the close dancing encouraged by the music played at Nasca. Female attention seems to be increasing proportionally to the length of my hair which is again past my shoulders. Who knows.. by the time it gets to my knees, one of these girls may even be single.

I’ve pursued my love of the outdoors when there’s been company, seeing some amazing scenery at the top of the Northern Alps and in a 2-day canyon not too far away from home. I’ve enjoyed spending on my stereo and was delighted to find that when compared to the best theatre in Kobe (by watching the Matrix in both only 2 days apart) that I’d prefer my own system. At Y1800 ($26) a shot for the public version, it’s probably cheaper too.

… Nup! Can’t think of a link so I’ll just barge on.

I’ve been trying to decide what to write about in this latest edition since it is my goal to impart some knowledge of the country and culture in each of these messages. I don’t exactly feel like I’ve been bombarded by culture recently, but then the lack of it is also culture as you notice at Xmas. I realise that I’ve focused on major things until now, but I believe that Japan is different in everything – from the large to the small; from the layout of the streets to the kitchen sink; from the crowds at temples to the way people say hello; from the staple food to the chocolate used in bread. So I’ve decided to dedicate this mail to the small things that I’ve missed so far, but that may not seem small to some. What better way to do that than to follow me through a day?

It all starts with getting up, off the floor of course, but that’s the way it’s been for me for as long as I remember. A normal Japanese would then carefully fold up the futon mattress, the futon quilt and put them away in the cupboard with the makura (bean filled) pillow. My cupboard is full of boxes for hi-fi gear, so mine just gets dumped in a corner of the room. Next I take a shower, which again is against the usual custom of running a scalding bath just before bed in the evening. My defiance continues with a cereal breakfast. Japanese wouldn’t eat ‘birdseed’, but some substitute the rice, fish, eggs and soggy vegetables with toast.

Having rebelled for the day, I begin a fairly normal Japanese life. Twice a week when I walk out the door I have to take the garbage with me to dump ceremoniously on the pile at the local telegraph pole. Others I know in more expensive apartment buildings leave it in their corridor to be taken away by the building ghosts. I then cross the intersection outside my house when the light turns ‘blue’. At most intersections this light is green to reflect global standards, but to the Japanese green is simply a shade of blue and some of the older blue lights still remain around the country.

Lately, I’ve been walking along the open roads, but for interest sakes, let’s go back a few months to summer when I travelled in shade. Japanese shopping streets often have roofs right across the street. I guess it’s to avoid the tangles of umbrellas the crowds would cause on rainy days. I have one of these streets running almost all the way from my place to the station. This is known to be the cheapest place in Kobe for buying groceries and I get to watch the morning deliveries to the vegetable shops, the fruit shops, the meat shops, the chicken shops, the rice shops, the tofu shops and the snack shops. Note that these shops never carry multiple stock, they always specialise. There are also electronic shops, furniture shops, clothes shops, and hair dressers. All these shops spill out onto the street and overflow into each other. There’s also a public bath that I had to pull out of a previous sentence so you would know it wasn’t ‘spilling out into the street’ which is common in other Asian countries.

Everyone knows about the reliability of the trains, but the reliability of the people is still something that shocks me. When you know the next train will be there in exactly 2 minutes, why run for this one? It’s even more confusing to see other people walk by an empty carriage to get on a full one. It turns out that people get very attached to ‘their’ train, knowing who else is there, seeing the same faces every day and in the same seat. I continually baffle people because one day I’ll stand by this door, and the next by THAT one. People getting on at later stops have to check where I am each day. ‘Strange gaijin!’

One of the frustrations that many foreigners have is that when they sit down on a train, the people around get up or move away. I’ve talked about this with some Japanese who tell me that it’s not that we smell, but that Japanese are scared that the gaijin might actually speak to them. They’re terrified of being humiliated in front of the other passengers by not being able to speak English, despite the probability that everyone else is in the same boat and that the gaijin generally don’t show any sign of wanting to talk either. I’ve never had this experience which I like to think is due to the fact that I blend in. One frustration I have experienced is the manners in giving up seats. Despite the signs and announcements, people never give up their seat for elders. Bernie Gallen recounts a time when he gave up his seat for an old lady, only to have her husband take it. He says he never gave up his seat again. I gave up on leading by example and chose to simply stand by this door (or that one). It hasn’t helped me avoid the lethal elbows of 120-year-old ladies though.

I then change trains for the Rokko Liner, a monorail type train with 2 tracks. This train is driverless and I’ve long suspected is just a remote control toy for the garbage man, but it’s the only way to get onto the island by public transport. The really fascinating thing about this train is the windows. They fog up when going past apartments to give the local residents some privacy. As with most things in Japan, it’s a matter of form, not of effect. Only certain windows blank out. I can see straight through the glass in the doors and through the window over the top of the smoky glass, and haven’t yet seen anything worth looking at.

Phew! That’s got to be enough for one mail. Others have been longer, but it’s getting towards home time and I want to get on to other things tomorrow. Best of the new millenium to you all.

Keeping Vigil (and playing Nigel),

MAG

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Categorized as Japan

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