Jenglish

One of my favorite things about working with the Japanese is the language. Indeed, it has kept me entertained for six years working with the same company, and has yet to get old. I love the interaction with a Japanese person willing to try speaking English. I give them credit for trying despite how hard some of our pronunciations may be, let alone remembering the words and proper grammar.

By far, my favorite of these interactions here in Japan has been with my first team leader. His English is not great, but it has been getting better with some encouragement. What is interesting is that he has developed a fondness for learning and practicing American slang, or common English one-liners.

Every day he tries using a new phrase he has found or heard. It's the delivery, more than anything that gets me. You hear the words you're used to hearing from back in America, but inflections and timing are out of sync. I love it. "Today I will leave at 5 sharp!" "After you." "That's disgusting!" "Once a slob, always a slob."

You have to understand. It's one thing to learn a language. Quite another to learn how it is 'actually' spoken. So, I give him a lot of credit. He has made it somewhat of a hobby now, and I love encouraging it. I suggested he watch the movie, A Few Good Men, because it has two of the best one-liner scenes I know. Both occur when Tom Cruise picks up his newspaper at the local newspaper stand. They are short scenes, but the dialogue between Cruise and the newspaper man in each case is a series of one-liners.

Not only did my friend buy and watch the movie last weekend, but he came to me the following Monday with each dialogue written in his notebook with the Japanese translations (see below). He of course, watched with Japanese sub-titles, but I was impressed that he picked up on the scenes I was telling him to look out for, and now he has a fresh set of one-liners for me.

Haaiiii Cheezzu!

According to a recent USA Today article, Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada, and Virginia do not allow drivers to smile for their license photos, and more states are expected to follow suit. (from the USA Today article):

The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot. When a new photo seems to match an existing one, the software sends alarms that someone may be trying to assume another driver's identity.

But there's a wrinkle in the technology: a person's grin. Face-recognition software can fail to match two photos of the same person if facial expressions differ in each photo, says Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor Takeo Kanade.

Here in Japan smiling for government or business-related photos also seems to be discouraged. I first noticed this when a few of my co-workers commented on my id badge during the first few weeks working here. When they snickered at my smile in my photo I started noticing that everyone has a rather serious look on their face for their id badge.

When I got my Japanese driver's license I had to go through the process of getting my photo taken three times. After the first time, it was explained to me that, you guessed it, smiling was prohibited. I was shocked and tried to smirk during the second attempt - a hidden smile out of protest I thought. Not to be. I was caught and finally gave in on the third attempt. So now, I have a plain, ordinary, dull face on my Japanese id. It was later explained to me that you just aren't supposed to smile for 'official' photos - work, school, government, etc.

Truth be told, nobody ever really seems happy with their driver's license photo. It's true in the States, and I'm sure it can be said for most places. I just don't like the idea of taking smiling out of anything.

Mojito with a Twist of Phlegm

Over the weekend we decided to try the new British Pub near Nagoya station, OXO. British-style pubs are fairly popular in Nagoya, and tend to draw a lot of ex-pats, which can be a nice injection of western culture once in a while.

OXO is in a really great location right downtown near Nagoya station and Midland Square (Central Japan's tallest building). The atmosphere was great and any pub that serves a proper British pint is ok in my book. OXO uses a cash on delivery system of service. This card is placed at each table to explain:


Without cash on delivery, I would never have had the privilege of seeing the interesting technique adopted by the bartender responsible for our mojitos. I watched as he diligently prepared the glasses, taking special care with our drink regardless of the people waiting behind me (a trait I find common with most bartenders in Japan). Everything happened so fast, but here was his routine:

1. Wipe the glasses down
2. Carefully select the mint and place into glass
3. Crush mint
4. Add carefully measured Bacardi Rum
5. Place a healthy scoop of crushed ice in each glass
Here's where it gets hairy...
6. Take out the long stirring spoon and mix the ice, mint, and rum in each glass
7. Lick the spoon and set aside. ('Okay that was weird, but carry on...')
8. Add sugar, slice of lime, and kiwi juice
9. Take out the long stirring spoon - the same long stirring spoon - and stir the ingredients in each glass
10. Lick the spoon and set aside

I hesitated telling my wife, but in the end, I just couldn't resist. Clearly, this bartender took his job of making our drinks seriously. My guess is, he was taught to taste his creation to ensure it was properly mixed - like a good chef checking his or her soup. He was probably taught to do tricks like these to re-create some traits of western culture. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the now infamous unwritten rule about double dipping in our society.

Well, the mojitos were delicious, and we had a good laugh. Besides, the bartender made up for it later. As we were walking out, I noticed him call back a patron who had taken his Guinness prematurely. He called him back so that he could top off his proper pint after the initial pour settled.

Recycle Me Silly - Work Style

The area in my office designated for recycling is equivalent to about 4 of my desks. Granted, I have very little space at my desk, but at least it gives you an idea of the priority placed on recycling in the office. Of course, you can also find places to recycle your aluminum cans or paper cups next to the vending machines in the halls, but the space I'm talking about is just for office goods.

Altogether there are 19 separate bins for our group, each with a different recycling designation. To be honest, I can't tell you what all of them are for. However, based on what I have had to throw out...ahem...recycle in the past 11 months working here, these are the categories that I know get recycled or disposed of and have their own designation:

The Obvious

• White paper - confidential to be shredded
• White paper - non-confidential
• Magazines
• Batteries
• Kleenex or disposable tissue (actually burnable trash - but separate designation nonetheless)
• Plastic or paper wrappers from snacks (actually non-burnable trash - but again, separate nonetheless)
  

The 'Huh, I guess you can recycle that'

• Cardboard boxes - broken down and packaging tape removed
• Color paper
• Tape
  

The 'No kidding!?! We really have to do that?'

• Used staples
• Aluminum tops
• The sticky part of Post-It notes torn from the Post-It Note itself
  

Two times a week after lunch, one team within our group has the responsibility of taking out the recycling and trash. On top of that, two members from each row are required to vacuum that row during this time. I don't know what happens with the recycling, and I'm sure my row and desk doesn't need vacuuming two times per week, but I think the teamwork/socialized behavior speaks volumes of the attitude in this country. If there's a process, standard cultural procedure mandates that you do it, lest you be the clog in the wheel.

The Fifth Season

Japan is lucky enough to lay claim to a "Fifth Season." It would be cool, except that it is dubbed, the "Rainy Season." Somewhere between the beautiful Sakura spring blossoms in April and May and the hot and muggy heat of July and August, there exists about a 3-5 week period of this lovely season. It arrives about a month earlier in Okinawa - the southernmost island of Japan.

Three weeks ago, I was told that the morning radio's weather information had reported that Okinawa's rainy season had come and, thus, to buckle down in Nagoya. The season of rain was on it's way. Sure enough, last week it rained heavily for about two days. Everyone claimed Nagoya's rainy season had begun. The way they all sounded, life was about to get absolutely miserable. For the next few weeks clothes won't dry, food will mold, and bugs are going to come out of hiding. Since then, it has been gorgeous. Sorry, fellow Nagoya ex-pats, I know that as I type those last words it won't do me any good to go back and delete. The rain gods are already gleefully rubbing their hands at my ignorance.

Well, the mass media has already gotten everyone in a tizzy for the 'Fifth Season.' Glad to see stores are capitalizing off of it:
"Enjoy Rain." What an ad campaign! (I swear I didn't pay this lady to pose for me.)

Recycle Me Silly

It has been almost 11 months since moving to Japan, and I'm still learning all of the rules for recycling. I've almost got our home recycling down pat, although I had to be reminded by my wife last night that the delicious used floss I had just thrown into the bathroom garbage was actually "プラ" (Plastic) that needed to be recycled. Here's a photo of our main recycling center - makes for a lovely kitchen center-piece!

In all, we separate our trash/recycling into 9 different bins - plastic, metal containers, glass containers, plastic bottles (with the wrappers and caps removed), paper food containers (think cereal box), newspapers (that must be stacked and bounded), beer cans, burnable trash, and non-burnable trash (anything that doesn't fit into the aforementioned categories).

It certainly takes some getting used to, but I keep telling myself it's better than wasting away in landfills, especially the landfills that Japan simply doesn't have room for. Each city has different recycling rules and pickup days, but for the most part, the basic recycling can be found in any city and at any convenience store.

Recycling at work is a whole other set of rules, worthy of another post to itself, but let me just say, did you ever think you'd have to tear the sticky part of a Post-it note off because it doesn't belong in the paper recycling? It has a completely different bin to itself. And, oh yeah, make sure the remaining paper of that Post-it note ends up in the colored paper bin!

Geography of Japan - Todōfuken (都道府県）

Thanks to a recent geography lesson in my Kanji study book, I learned a bit more about the geography of Japan, specifically the government bodies within Japan and how they are categorized. So...........take your seats children. Class is in session.

Japan is divided into 47 jurisdictions or sub-bodies, which are groups of cities, villages, etc. with prefectural government representation similar to our State governments and representation. Originally there were over 300 when this system was first established in 1871, but that number was reduced to 47 in 1888. They are commonly referred to as the 47 Todōfuken (都道府県) for the 4 types of characterizations of these sub-bodies. There is 1 metropolis, or 'To (都)', 1 administrative area, or 'Dō (道)', 2 urban prefectures, or 'Fu (府)', and 43 prefectures, or 'Ken (県)'. Here's some names of commonly known areas that might help:

• 都 (To): Tokyo-to (東京都) is the 1 metropolis (pronounced Toe)
  
• 道 (Dō):Hokkaidō (北海道) is the 1 administrative area
• 府 (Fu): Osaka-fu (大阪府) and Kyoto-fu (京都府) are the two urban prefectures. Interestingly enough, Kyoto-fu is the imperial capitol of Japan, and literally means 'capitol metropolis'. 'Kyo' means capitol, and 'To' means metropolis (like Tokyo-to). For some reason, however, Kyoto gets the additional 'Fu' designation.
• 県 (Ken): Aichi-ken (愛知県) where we live, is an example of 1 of the 43 prefectures (#1 on the map below). Can you find it? Look in the middle of the main island just West of Tokyo.
  

Just Another Routine Physical

The Japanese sure did live up to their notoriety for efficiency today. Over this week and the next, all employees at our company are receiving the mandatory annual physical. I think the best way to describe my experience this morning is that I got an 'Assembly Line Physical.' We could have just as easily been hunks of steel moving down the line in a plant, or cows being herded - poked and prodded along the way. I think my curiosity as an engineer to see how quickly and efficiently we were moved in a line from one station to the next en route to a complete physical kept me from being too shocked at the idea of being moved from one station to the next en route to a complete physical.

This morning I prepared for my 9:30 appointment by blocking off 3 hours on my calendar, and unfortunately I couldn't fill in the meeting location portion of the calendar entry because at the time I didn't know that we would be receiving our physicals in the lobby of our main building. Once my co-worker arrived at 8:30 we diligently began going through the health sheet that we were to bring with us. Basic information, how's your health, how's your stress, do you get enough sleep, do you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, mid-afternoon snacks, how soon do you go to bed after eating, do you drink alcohol, smoke, exercise regularly, recent history of illness, etc. (Interestingly enough, there was a block of questions specifically related to stress - if I take it home, if I feel useful, etc - I think stress might be a problem here...?).

By 9:00 we finished our 'survey' and were ready to go. From here it was a blur, but I'll do my best. I left my desk sometime around 9:15. I was back seated by 9:52. So, in a span of a little over half an hour, I walked down to the lobby (5 floors mind you), got a complete physical - chest X-ray, urine sample, height and weight measurement, vision exam, blood pressure, blood drawn, 5 minute mandatory break to make sure the bleeding stopped, hearing test, quick session with one of the doctors to do that breathe in and out while he listens all over routine, and then walked back upstairs. 37 minutes.

Like I said, we might as well have been herded to each station like cows, but at least all the doctors and nurses (about 15-20 in all) had smiles. There were quite a few of us, but it went very smoothly considering the volume of patients. Japanese efficiency at its finest.

Think about it. Normally, we all dread a physical. You have to schedule it on a half day (or full day). Drive to your doctor. Wait in the waiting room for half an hour. Wait in the examination room for another 10 minutes. Then...then get your physical. Easily half a morning. Here I got my physical at work in less time than I probably would have spent in the waiting room back in the States. Amazing. I'm still not fully sure how the insurance and health industry works here. I think there is a bit of socialized medicine, but I also know we have company insurance. Either way, this didn't cost me a dime, and I didn't have to waste a vacation day!