From my hotel, I looked out on an extensive array of blue roofs. They weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a happy symbol, huddled together like a concentration camp while the meagre possessions of the occupants spilled into the alleys between. Each shack, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d learned on a business trip the year before, housed a family who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost their home in the earthquake in January ’95. Even with all the construction in the city, three years on there were still plenty of vacant patches in the cityscape \u00e2\u20ac\u201c patches that held the memories of a normal life for hundreds of families. But it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lack of housing that kept these people here. Nor, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m told, was it fear of collapsing apartment blocks. They chose to live in the shacks because they were rent-free and the families didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to risk the cost of a real flat, or apaato as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re called in Japan, with the sluggish economy. Whichever reason was true, the mood in Japan in 1998 was depressing, and the scene before me more so, but I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel it. I was back. I was home.<\/p>\n
I tore myself from the window and, suffused with joy, rushed through my morning routine and across the road into the Japan Headquarters. I was here on a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclook-see\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to determine if I could live here and was willing to take a permanent assignment. My mission was to manage the voice and video services for the Japan branch, and to cut costs by eliminating all the incumbent vendors the Japanese were too polite to remove. I figured I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better start practising my act as the big bad gaijin \u00e2\u20ac\u201cliterally, outside person \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by pretending I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak any Japanese, and my first victim was the interpreter hired to get me through the commando health check in the local hospital.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Gunn? Hello, my name is Nakano,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said extending her hand. She was middle aged \u00e2\u20ac\u201c possibly in her forties, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always difficult to tell with Japanese \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with a large mole on her top lip. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please call me Nakano-san.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nakano would be her surname, I knew, and the \u00e2\u20ac\u201csan an honorific like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMr.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMrs.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but unisex. She used it now to start teaching me some of the forms, but otherwise a Japanese person would never use it after their own name.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hello Nakano-san. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to meet you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said awkwardly, never comfortable with aisatsu, introductions, and worried that I might have bowed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the normal greeting in Japan.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please wait a moment. I have to check something.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She spoke with the fluency in English that I hoped I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d soon have in Japanese. I waited while she called up to Nakajima-san, her contact in Human Resources, to tell her she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d found me and to check whether there was anything else scheduled for me that day.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How long have you been learning Japanese?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she asked as she turned back and lead me out of the building.<\/p>\n
How did she know? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do you ask that?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, you obviously understood everything I just said, and your pronunciation of my name was perfect. When did you start learning?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I realised then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never be able to pull off the big, bad gaijin act. My passion for learning the language and understanding the culture would betray me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I learnt my first words when I was three,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said in Japanese.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153sugoi!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Amazing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why so young?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My parents travelled a lot before they had children and when they settled down they missed the opportunity to meet so many interesting people, so they built up the Australian branch of a home-stay organisation called Servas. Ever since I can remember we had a traveller staying at our place almost every week.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I knew I was rambling, but it wasn’t often that the topic came up and I was enjoying it. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’d come home from school each day not knowing who would be there. Dinner time was like a holiday. We never had much need for television. Anyway, right at the beginning, just as I was starting to speak well enough to hold a conversation, we had two Japanese guests in the one year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Yuki and Yoshi.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seems they made an impression on you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They did. They spent a lot of time teaching me origami and other parts of the Japanese culture and even a few words. I loved hearing about all these exotic countries from the other guests after that, but Japan has always been special. All my friends wanted to be pilots or doctors or whatever, but I just wanted to go to Japan.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So when did you start learning formally?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I was in third grade. There was a Japanese girl in my class. Her father came out as an exchange teacher and brought the family. I got her number and begged my mother to ask him to teach me. He was excited that someone so young would take that initiative, so once a week I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go back to their place after school and learn how to say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dckore wa pen desu.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 This is a pen.
\nShe laughed and threw me back the Japanised English version, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zisu izu a pen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first English sentence that all Japanese people learn.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was like learning a secret code. In those days, Japanese wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t common in schools and my mother had to fight to get me into the one school in the area that taught it. Now, of course, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taught in almost every Australian school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you must have been to Japan before. Your accent is so good.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, my parents encouraged me by hosting one exchange student for at least a couple of weeks each year. But, yes, I came twice on exchange and once more on a business trip last year. The first exchange was in the Christmas holidays after year ten, but the highlight of my life was when I came back for a year of school when I was eighteen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I always called myself a cultural schizophrenic because I slipped easily between the two cultures. While many of my friends had trouble adjusting to life back in their home countries, the sight of Sydney Harbour from the plane was enough to ground me in Australia again.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that my accent was much better then. It sounds awful now, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m out of practice or because my ear has improved and I can hear all my mistakes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get plenty of practice. How long will you stay in Japan?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
My assignment was permanent, but I planned to move on after a couple of years. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel comfortable saying that, though. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who knows? Maybe some pretty Japanese girl will trap me here forever.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nakano-san smiled knowingly. Obviously I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be the first to be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctrapped.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n
We arrived at the hospital, which turned out to be only a few minutes walk from the office. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153After you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, pointing at the door. I walked through then stopped, a mix of wonder and terror slackening my jaw.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been to a Japanese hospital before, but I had been too delirious to have any clear memory of the experience. What I saw now was somewhere between a doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s waiting room and a car insurance office. The seating was straight out of the waiting room, but I could see that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d applied the Japanese brand of efficiency to the process of getting well. Japanese efficiency is always directed at getting the masses through the system as fast as possible, often at the expense of the individual. The reception was divided into six sections, all with a number dominating the wall behind.<\/p>\n
Nakano-san knew the drill and marched me up to counter four, then handed my papers over to the nurse. Looking at her, I remembered my earlier visit and realised that it hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been the fever or drugs that made me see pixies. The nurse was dressed entirely in soft pink from slippers to cap \u00e2\u20ac\u201c probably intended to achieve some calming effect. She gave Nakano-san a list of steps in the process and a small beaker.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Room 93 for a height \/ weight check,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Nakano-san, reading the list. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Room 141 for a blood test, room 87 for an x-ray, 45 for a cardiograph, and 189 for eyes and ears check, but first\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She handed me the beaker and pointed the way to the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room.
\nI filled up the container and battled to stop the flow before I got the sides wet, then looked around, confused. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d forgotten to ask where to take it and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the idea of carrying an open beaker, nearly overflowing with urine, through a crowded room to where Nakano-san waited. Right next to where I was standing, still at the urinal, I spotted a window at groin height. In the obscure \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcform before function\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 way of the Japanese, this was obviously meant to increase privacy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen the same in a love hotel, a hotel that charges by the hour, and I made the same mistake now as I had there. I bent down to look through. The girl on the other side gasped, and if I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been so embarrassed, I might have been offended that my face shocked her when the sight of my naked loins wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worth a reaction. But the thought didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t occur to me as I ran out and, red faced, joined the next line.<\/p>\n
I made it through the rest of the morning almost without issue. They squashed me down to a more acceptable 181cm instead of the 183 or 185cm that 6\u00e2\u20ac\u21221\u00e2\u20ac\u009d normally equates to. They all expressed awe at my ability to read the bottom line of the chart. I managed not to faint at the sight of my own blood being drawn into the sort of syringe I thought they only used for cows. But I freaked at the x-ray. The equipment was probably quite normal, but they actually strapped me to the backboard like some Frankenstein experiment. My pulse lurched even higher when the 4 technicians ran out of the room before activating the machine from the adjacent control room. It must pack an awful punch, and I imagined my entrails melting under the intense beam of x-rays. My Japanese colleagues never understood my fear of having an x-ray and seemed to delight in getting at least one each year during the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mandatory health checks. I put up with these mandatory checks, which always said I was healthy, but refused to let them x-ray me again.<\/p>\n
Once the whole process was done, we went to line 2, handed in the report and were told to take a seat. My name would be called to arrange payment, which was, of course, at another counter. Finally, after three hours I was released with instructions to return after 4pm to pick up the certificate.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Over the next few days, I was taken through the whole induction process, most of which was just paperwork, but I was struck by the complexity of the salary system. The company has an elaborate formula to determine the salary of each person based on their function, their level, their tenure at that level, and their performance vs. others that fit the previous categories. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complex, but understandable. In Japan, I was lost.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153chotto chigau,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not exactly, said the grey-clad girl opposite me for the fourth time, too polite to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, you idiot!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
Nakajima-san, who had been Nakano-san\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contact on the first day, might initially have been happy to discover that I spoke Japanese so she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to explain it all in English, but that was fleeting. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The company will only pay the middle range of your rent. If your rent is below that range, you have to pay it all yourself. If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s above the range, you pay the first part and the last part yourself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153OK. I think I get it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The complexity was frustrating, and I had no way of comparing the package to what I had been earning in Australia. I had to understand the rent deposits with their refundable and non-refundable components, the transportation allowance, and social security that only pays out after twenty-five years. And then there was the gaijin allowance to pay for foreign newspapers and phone calls home. Yet it was why I had come \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to experience the discomfort, to learn about the different ways Japanese people do things. And I had to admit that I was enjoying pushing some of the frustration back on Nakajima-san. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So the rent is only paid twelve times, but the gaijin allowance is paid eighteen times, right?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No. The gaijin allowance is only based on a twelve month year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But not the salary?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I managed to hide my grin by concentrating on copying the crossed arms and tilted head gesture Japanese use to indicate thinking.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, the salary is paid on an 18.1 month year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the normal twelve months, then a three month bonus in June and December.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eighteen months. Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you say 18.1 months?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes. In December, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re paid a little bit extra to cover the expenses of New Year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d New Year is the big family event in Japan where presents of cash are given to children. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can use it to buy Christmas presents.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From my hotel, I looked out on an extensive array of blue roofs. They weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a happy symbol, huddled together like a concentration camp while the meagre possessions of the occupants spilled into the alleys between. Each shack, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d learned on a business trip the year before, housed a family who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost their home in… Continue reading \u00e8\u00bb\u00a2\u00e5\u2039\u00a4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}