Good morning everyone. I’m writing this at 5am, but I’ll leave the ‘why’ until later, and start at the beginning. I was going to continue the ‘day in the life of’ by writing about my trip home, but there’re other things to tell.
There’s a well-known disease (do they call it that? – well, it’s a well known cause of death anyway) that kills Japanese salarymans (er – salarymen… salarypersons?). It’s called ‘karoushi’ and means death by stress. I won’t claim that I’m dead, but I think I caught the early stages recently. I’ve been getting steadily more stressed for the last year, and a couple of weeks ago I got to the point that I was knocking things over all day, I was forgetting what the conversation was about halfway through my sentences, finding I didn’t understand simple Japanese sentences, and felt that my body was twice as heavy as usual. Knowing that I had to pull an all-nighter later that week I chose to take a day off and lie in front of the stereo with the air conditioning on. It worked wonders and the all-night set up for the Company Meeting went very well.
Other things had to be changed. I had never been particularly interested in voice technologies and decided that the huge success of the wireless phone deployment was the right high to go out on. I was surprised, but very appreciative of the speed with which someone else took it up. It seems that while I’ve been killing myself, a number of others in the department have been lacking work recently. The transition is slow, and I still have the wireless phone project to go (everyone seems to think that it finishes when the phones are handed out!), but there is a light at the end of my tunnel. Now I’m focusing on getting the vice presidents out of their offices on the 30F so I can set up collaboration rooms and an extra large meeting room.
A change of work isn’t enough though. Obviously there are other factors involved and I’m sure it was no coincidence that my ‘collapse’ occurred just after the change in the weather. I’ve said before how quickly the seasons change here, but this year was the most gorgeous spring in my history in Japan. The temperature remained between 15 and 25 for about 3 months and humidity was bearable. I was enjoying regular morning rides up the mountain and evenings out on the town. Suddenly, the rainy season came, bringing with it – not rain, as you would expect, but – incredible humidity and temperatures in the higher 20s. Just walking to work takes a huge effort.
The other environmental issue I’ve been steadily working on over the last year is the arrangement of furniture at home. I’ve never really thought about it before, maybe using a plan to decide locations before moving in, but once it’s done you forget about it. The lack of space in Japanese accommodation makes careful consideration essential, and I’ve come to understand some of the tricks they use to create the impression of space where there isn’t any. Each time I identify something that annoys me, I work out where it would be better placed, and move it. Most of the time it’s an improvement and now I have the same furniture I had a year ago, but my apartment seems much more roomy, much brighter, and the guy next door has less chance of hearing my music when it’s turned up loud. I wonder if this is where Feng Shui started, before it got turned into superstitious mumbo about needing a turtle at the front door that must be facing north but not at the end of a street.
Still, it’s not enough. I need holidays. The 3 weeks in Australia worked wonders until I got back into the office, but I’m so far behind in using my leave that I could still easily take a month off and have more left over for a few weeks at Christmas. I’ll use a few weeks of this when JP, Marian and Big Dave come over in September, and plans for 3 weeks in Latin America at Christmas are coming along, but I needed something quickly. Rescue came when the trekking group planned a record 4 day walk in the northern alps over the long weekend. It was the most wonderful disaster of a trip I’ve ever had. The weather gave us all the options and we saw some amazing scenery. Photos are coming, but I’ll put them in a separate folder, and send another message when they’re ready. We spent 2 days walking along the snow line at around 3000 metres, and the others getting up there and back again. The lodges were crowded again and none of us managed to get a good nights sleep, but everyone gets up at 4am anyway>p/ so it doesn’t really make any difference. The walk was by turns on rocky, grassy, peaty, or snow-covered ground, disguised by mist, rain or bared in all it’s glory. There’s something therapeutic about the mountains – maybe the concentration required to put one foot in front of the other and keep breathing steadily is a form of meditation that I can’t achieve under any other circumstances. Still, in my true masochistic form, I wasn’t really content until I was sunburnt and soaking wet, I’d done one knee in, my pack’s waist strap had broken, and one boot had lost it’s sole. By the time we arrived back at civilisation, I’d overcome all these obstacles, proving that nature is much easier to deal with than corporate demands.< To make us feel really good about our cold stint, news is that Osaka had 39 degrees while we were away with no drop in humidity. It didn't drop below 29 last night and I'm still in the 4am habit, so here I am at 5am writing to you. The walk we did is famous for its flowers and most of the girls were competing to see who could remember the names of them all. My technique of remembering Japanese words helped. Everyone kept forgetting the name of a small white flower until I pointed out that 'chinguruma' translated to English as 'microwave car'. Now they'll remember it for years. A couple of others I've had fun with recently are 'manzoku' and 'giri-no...'. As long as I can remember, people have been telling me I've got hollow legs because I eat so much. It's not far from there to think that I will never be satisfied until I have full legs. The word for 'satisfied' is then 'full legs' or 'manzoku'. We all know the image of a mother-in-law. It's a real chore to have them visit (I can safely say this because I have no in-laws of any variety) but it has to be done for the sake of the partner. It makes sense that the in-laws are associated with 'duty' or 'giri'. The 'no' is easy if you know a small amount of Japanese. There was something else I wanted to write, but I've forgotten so rather than bore you while I remember I'll finish here and go to work. Looking forward to having you all come to visit - one or two at a time please. The three coming in September don't realise how cramped they're going to be. Oh, a tip for anyone who loses their sole while hiking. Carry a spare lace to tie the sole on without losing grip, but try to catch it before it comes off entirely.