February 2006 Archives
I met Mr. A in the elevator last week. "どうも、" he greeted me, and then looked down at my feet. "寒くないですか。" he inquired, in disbelief. Aren't you cold? Of course, I knew that what he was really saying was, Why the hell are you wearing sandals in mid-February? To which I replied, "いいえ、全然大丈夫です。" I'm perfectly fine. Of course, what I was really saying was mind you own damn business! Of course, under normal circumstances, it is extremely silly to wear sandals mid-winter, but Tokyo winters are nothing like Ohio winters or Joetsu winters. There's no snow on the ground, although sometimes there is a cold rain. Furthermore, I've accumulated a few big holes in my shoes, and I didn't want to make them any bigger until I can get them fixed. It's just one more instance of Japanese "subtly" trying to influence the behavior of their peers. The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
Really, I love Mr. A. He's one of the best programmers at my company. But he's just as quirky as everyone else.
Last week, Mr. A bought a brand new keyboard. The writing on the keys was stylishly dulled, and it appeared kind of vaguely aerodynamic. Mr. N brought to my attention that the spring strength for the keys varied across the keyboard. For instance, alphanumeric keys might have a spring strength of one, whereas punctuation keys have a strength of two or 2.5. I guess the idea is that one will be able to better sense tactliley (is that a word?) where one is typing on the keyboard. Cool until one hears the price tag: approximately US $200.00.
Wow. I think the only keyboard I would spend that much for is this one. Hell, I'd pay $5000 for that one!
Somebody left a pile of dog poo behind our bikes in the courtyard outside of our apartment. Or rather, somebody didn't pick up after their dog. We've been living here so long that Heather and I instantly wondered - is somebody trying to send us a message? Is somebody disgusted with foreigners enough to commit a social rudeness outside a foreigner apartment complex? Perhaps the old lady who lives across the street from us is exacting sweet, sweet revenge for our failure to separate some plastics from burnables on trash day last week.
Well, as you know Heather and I had our very first acupuncture treatment today. It was a pretty strange experience. The doctor, a Doctor Kuniyasu in Nakano, asked us why we were there. We explained that it was mostly about prevention. In my case, I told him that I had heard acupuncture had met with success in the treatment of asthma, and was interested in this. I also told him about the tension in my shoulders.
First Dr Kuniyasu had me lie on my back and then inserted about four needles in my chest, one in the top of my head, two around the shoulders, two in the wrists, and two just above the ankles. Then he left me for about ten minutes. When he returned, he took out the needles, had me turn around, and he placed more needles in my back - I guess maybe about eight this time. I received a different treatment than Heather - he hooked up some wires to several of the needles and turned on a nearby machine. A weak, pulsating electric current ran up and down my back. It was very strange.
After that, it was a quick massage. "You're going to sleep well tonight," the doctor assured me. And then, it was off to this hamstring stretching angled platform, where we were asked to stand for five minutes. After that it was the rocking bed. I guess that's what you would call it. All I know is it violently shook left and right. I was actually getting seasick and my neck was starting to stiffen up (thanks in part to the rock-hard pillow supporting my head). After about another five minutes, it came to an end and that was the end of the treatment. I guess it took about an hour for the whole thing. We came out to see a picture of Eric Clapton with what appeared to be a signed placard offering an endorsement for the clinic - although the handwriting was completely illegible. It could have said anything.
So was it worth it? Heather says definitely yes. Her cough that she's had since late October of last year has lessened quite a bit. I was going to say completely disappeared but she just now went into a brief coughing fit. She claims that "it's not the same cough, that she just ate some spicy food. This cough comes from the stomach." In any case, she also reported higher energy levels and a feeling of a removal of imbalances.
I'm a little less sanguine about the results of the acupuncture. There's definitely a different feeling, and it feels like the blood is circulating a little bit better. I can't yet say if my asthma has improved. I do feel like I have more energy, but that's not something that's easily measurable. The doctor was right about one thing though - both of us were exhausted when we got home this afternoon.
Heather and I have been pretty excited about our harikyuu - or acupuncture - appointment tomorrow morning. We scheduled it about two weeks ago and we're both a little anxious, but we're really looking forward to it. First time. Unfortunately, our appointment is early - 10:00 AM, less than eight hours from now. Gotta stop these late nights. I'm starting to act strangely.
Speaking of, one of the strange things that I like to do is to look at people who are looking at me in such a way that they don't know that I'm looking at them (Got that?). It's easy to do this with - and I often employ - reflective surfaces for this purpose. Mirrors, windows (when it's dark), chrome, watches, the inside of my glasses, the surface of other people's sunglasses - lots of things will do. What I've discovered - in my case, at least - is that people will generally not look at you too closely until they think they're out of your line of sight. Once they perceive they are out of your line of sight, though, they'll look you up and down, unabashedly revealing their emotions on their face (often scowls in my case). Turn around and they'll likely feign disinterest or pretend they were looking at something over your shoulder. At least, this is the case in America.
In Japan I find that the situation is a bit different. When I walk down the street, I can make eye contact with almost nobody. I smile at strangers but it is rare that I receive smiles from anyone (though Heather would argue that smiling is a form of flirting in Japan - I'd love to hear other perspectives on this). Nobody really seems to pay too much attention to me. That is until I use my handy technique of surreptiously spying on them in whatever reflective surface is nearby, at which time I discover that they -
still pay very little attention to me. People just have less interest in what's going on around them, or they're much more mindful of others' privacy, or they don't want to rock the boat. Or else something else is at work here... but what? Are there any other weirdos out there that have noticed this phenomenon? Or is it just me?
Last Friday I had a compulsory drinking party (飲み会) with five other team members at work. It was about as unmemorable as you might expect; we went to an extremely crowded restautant called Tozai-Nanboku (東西南北 - literally East West South North) in east Shinjuku. Just out of Kabukicho.
The event of the night that made the biggest impression on me was one in which we were served a large plate of extremely hot peppers. There were well over two hundred of small peppers on the plate, but I think each of us had only one. After eating our peppers, everyone ordered two or three glasses of iced oolong tea and drank them in succession to cool down, so that's a testament to how spicy they were. We didn't eat anything more after that.
One of my coworkers, S-san, was particularly disgusted with the peppers. He explained to me that he hates spicy food. He then elaborated that he is sometimes the target of derision in Japan because of this. "You are so childish," many people have often told him, he said. Something my friend Momo said the next day reinforced this idea; that being able to eat spicy food is a kind of sign of real maturity. I've heard this cultural perception before but I continue to be fascinated by it. I don't think that this attribute has a significant present in the U.S. I wonder if America does have strong perceptions towards eating practices and their projections upon perceived maturity. Certainly, it's perceived in many circles in America that it is childish to not eat one's vegetables. Also, it is said that American children love fast food, but perhaps these are attributes that transcend cultures? But then again, I can't say for sure; there are a lot of Japanese kids who don't like hamburgers, after all.
I haven't done so yet, but I want to congratulate Carolyn and Alexi on the birth of their son Diego on Feb. 10! Pictures are available on Alexi's blog. Congratulations, guys!
Heather introduced me to a pretty interesting new podcast for software developers - Software Engineering Radio - a podcast that is potentially even nerdier than the Radio Economics podcast! Unfortunately, Software Engineering Radio will probably not be of any real interest to anyone except software developers, and even then...
Well, let's just say the content is very terse. Dense. The first episode (that is, episode 1 and not episode 0) deals with software design patterns, and I think that a more-than-passing familiarity with the GoF's Design Patterns book is prerequisite for this episode. The second episode featured material with which I was completely unfamiliar - dependecy injection. This podcast is definitely not for the software beginner! Five episodes have been released so far, and the later episodes look to be a little bit more digestible.
Content aside, the podcast is noteworthy because it is a German podcast conducted in English. Their intro and outro music seems singularly German; check it out - but turn down the volume!
I've temporarily turned on approval-only for comments as I've been getting about ten spam comments a day. In order words, when citym.org gets a comment I have to approve it - but if your comment is legit, It will appear on the blog soon (and I strongly encourage comments from everyone - except spammers). The new Movable Type might have a plugin that reduces spam, but I've been putting off installing the newest version. Perhaps this is just the impetus I need to move into the twenty-first century of blogging.
Anyway, change of topic.
A couple of weeks ago I recognized a very interesting phenomenon at work. One of my coworkers, Mr. O (there are several), makes detailed todo lists for all the tasks that he needs to complete during the day and/or week. Anyone who knows me really well knows that I strongly advocate the uses of todo lists to help organize one's life. However, the way in which Mr. O interacts with his todo list is fascinating, anal, wasteful, and amusing.
Upon completion of a task, Mr. O doesn't just check off the item with a check mark at the side... instead he draws a line through the entire item, margin to margin. With a straight edge. Six or seven times. All evenly spaced, as if to mimic a musical staff. I must say, his todo lists are the neatest I've ever seen. Mr. O is a bit meticulous in everything he does. Maybe a little too meticulous...?
Last year, Heather and I ordered a pizza online from the local Domino's. This time, however, it was delivered quite late; so late, in fact, that I called them and asked if they had indeed received my order. They said that they had indeed received the order, and that they were running a little bit late, and sorry about that. The pizza did arrive perhaps ten minutes later. It was delicious -- but it was a little cold. It didn't bother me that much, though.
About a week later we received this letter in the mail:
It's an apology later. Some of the highlights of the letter:
We offer our deepest apologies....the pizza was extremely late, and... we offer our apologies (formal) from the bottom of our hearts.
...we know it's rude, but we offer this coupon (1000 yen), and if you would deign to use it at our restaurant, we would be extremely happy.
Now that's customer service! Unfortunately, the letter uses some formalities I am not used to, so I may be missing some of the juicier bits. Regardless, I think that this letter really sheds some light on the nature of the customer-worker relationship.
I think it's all about roles. When I see Japanese people buy things at the grocery store, I never see them thank the cashier. Nor do they talk to them, nor, in some cases, even look at them. To my thoroughly American eyes, the cashiers are treated less than human by the customers; and yet, if I were to see the same cashier at another store, I would expect to find the same relationship in reverse. American commercial transactions demand a much higher level of personal interaction. It's not out of line to ask the cashier how his or her day is, or vice versa. Joking between cashiers and customers is also not unheard-of. The roles, then, seem less rigid.
That said, it's incontrovertible that the Japanese standard of goods quality is higher in almost every sector. Japanese people seem to demand the best in quality, whereas Americans often will settle for "good enough" for their products in most cases - I know I do. There is a word for this kind of fussiness - こだわる (kodawaru). If you have kodawari about something, it is enviable. You are considered refined; an expert in the field. In America, at least in the middle and lower classes, if you have kodawari - that is, if you're fussy - I think you're just considered an ass.
The plan: To take to the streets, dressed as a wizard, with a quest for the good peoples of Bath, England.Would they really help out a stranger with a strange beard? Would they even stop to listen? Is there any truth to this convention we've otherwise entirely accepted?
My Japanese teacher Kojima-sensei has set up an interesting blog. So far, all entries are both in Japanese and English. She wholeheartedly welcomes comments. Enjoy!
Last night, I thought I was a big bad-ass because I voluntarily stayed at work until 11:30 - three hours past my normal quitting time. I was going to break down cultural barriers. I was going to shatter cultural stereotypes in the workplace. To my left were my two other project compatriots; they were still there when I left. Surely, I thought, they'll be going home soon. After all, the trains stop in less than an hour.
When I got in this morning, they were there, sitting at their desks. It occured to me then how humorous it was that they appeared to not have moved the whole time, that they had stayed the whole night. I joked with Mr. O about it:
"So, did you stay the whole night last night?" I smilingly joked.
"あ、そうですね。" "That's right."
Well, I was a little shocked. We're not exactly behind schedule; in fact we're pretty well ahead, because we've assembled a pretty talented team. There WAS a submission that was due, but in terms of features it was complete up to the milestones specified by the client. This is not uncommon, but it reminds me of a slogan I sometimes see on the t-shirts of Japanese youth:
"Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid."
I have similar sentiments for voluntarily working overtime - from my perspective, unnecessarily. Not to sound crude here, but it reminds me of fitness displays exhibited by primates - including humans - in order to attract mates. All joking aside, I think that that is a major motivating force for a lot of human endeavour. Or maybe I'm just bitter!
I'd really be interested in opinions on this, particularly from Japanese in the workplace. 日本語でもＯＫですよ。
