Impressions of Tokyo

June 9^th, 2013
Naivasha, Kenya
Song of the Day: Mr. Roboto by Styx
Mood: Calm

Tokyo


After China, I headed east to Tokyo (h/t Bioweb)

I was last in Tokyo in 2010 when I visited my friend the Exceptional Dreamer. I was able to stay with his family again.

Although the Exceptional Dreamer was working on a case outside of Japan, I was able to see him briefly on a weekend night before he left for his last week of work at my archrival firm.

Cultural differences

One of the best parts of traveling is seeing how things work differently in other parts of the world. For the most part, I love the culture and it's one of my favorite places to visit in the world. The differences in culture highly amuse me.



Japan is the home of anime and I enjoy the great animator Hayao Miyazaki who
created works like Totoro and Ponyo 

 The language

Luckily, my friend could translate

I love Japanese names like Akabanebashi

The toilets
Japanese toilets are the most technologically advanced in the world.  Many toilets have literally dozens of buttons. There are times when it is okay to push a button that you don’t know what it does. Sitting on a toilet is not one of them.

Here is a relatively basic Japanese toilet

This control panel is relatively simple by Japanese standards,
even though there are lots of options

When I was in Japan three years ago, I made it a goal that I would try more buttons than just the heated seat (which is wonderful). However, I couldn’t bring myself to do it and will try to be more adventurous next time.

When you flush, the refilling water comes through a faucet on the top of the toilet
so you can wash your hands without needing to use a sink. For the skeptics, yes it
is clean water and not the used water that came out of the bowl

Sleeping on the floor

Japanese people often sleep on the floor. Part of the reason is that space is expensive in the city and mats that you can put in a closet during the day are space efficient. Due to my back problems, I was skeptical that sleeping on the floor could be even mildly comfortable. And yet, it was awesome, especially when the bed pad was on a heated pad.

Vending machines

At 1 machine per 23 people, Japan has the most vending machines per capita of any country, including some crazy ones. When I was at the hot baths, they even had vending machines for underwear.

Public transportation 

Owning a car is prohibitively expensive in Japan, especially when the price of parking is factored in. As a result, nearly everyone uses public transportation. The subways and trains are neat, orderly, and quiet.

Many subway stations have beautiful murals



Entering from the front of the train, the A seat was the window seat on the far left,
opposite of every plane you've ever flown on

Although there are a lot of visible differences, there are also deep differences in perspectives, especially in the work world.

Work ethic
Japanese people work hard. In my informal survey of management consulting firms, the workers of one firm work 40 hours more per week than their counterparts in the US, who regularly put in 60+ hours. Managers at another firm work so hard that they frequently need to be put on “time out.” That is triggered when they either physically collapse from sustained long hours and are hospitalized or they have a mental break and start babbling at which point the partners take them to the hospital. They are given a couple months to rest and recover and then they come back.

Another peculiarity is that a person won't leave the office before their boss. Even if you have no work, you stay. This makes for very long days for the junior analysts.

Business card bonanza
Watching a group of Japanese business people exchange cards is hilarious. They offer their business card with two hands and the other person receives them with two hands. They bow to each other and the recipient carries the business card towards their heart before carefully studying it, making a comment, and eventually putting it away. You would never put a card in your back pocket because then you would sit on someone else’s name, which is a big insult.


A business card is a representation of the person (h/t Japan Blogger)

It’s totally unnecessary and a waste of time so I’m glad Americans haven’t adopted the practice, but I do appreciate how it communicates respect for the other person.

Shame

One time, I passed by a group of smartly dressed unemployed Japanese men. When a Japanese man gets fired from his job, he might not tell his wife to avoid the shame. He will dress up in his suit and spend the day with other jobless people until he comes home at his usual time to throw off suspicion.

Japanese firms generally offer better job security, but they can need to let someone go. A colleague told me about a firm that wanted to fire an employee so they stopped giving him assignments and hoped that he would get the drift and find another job. Then, they moved him into a corner so that he stared at a wall. Eventually, they took away his computer so he spent all day every day sitting by himself.

This seems like a waste as a company should fire someone when they know that the employee is no longer a good fit so they can stay lean and focus resources on people with potential. While it is inefficient, it is compassionate and a nice way to allow someone to save face.

Overall, I have no desire to work in Japan. There seems to be a lot of inefficiency, unnecessary work, and customs that are not justified to me. Yet, I do like how people respect and care for each other.