Office Observations

Having spent 2 weeks in the office, I think it's time to share some observations.

The office I work in is 1 large, open space. There are 7 rows of desks. Each row consists of 12 desks face to face, so you better hope you have someone decent to stare at all day! There are no cubes or walls between desks, so with 84 desks in the room, it can get a little noisy at times, especially if someone is a loud talker. In this type of setup, everyone knows when everyone arrives, leaves, sleeps at their desk, how many trips were made to the bathroom, who got a hair cut, etc.

I happen to be sitting in the international section with Japanese coworkers all around me. To the left, right and directly in front of me are women. The men are spread out in the other desks. I'm the token foreigner in this office. My boss, who is American, is in an office about 1 1/2 hours away by bullet train. He comes up here pretty much every week for meetings. His boss sits 2 desks away. Most of my group is in their early 30's or 50's, so I'm OK being in the middle.

Most of the office is male. It seems that there are 1 or 2 females in each row of 12 desks. Most of the females are office assistants. Here in Japan they are referred to at OL's, or Office Ladies. The men are referred to as salarymen. There is a real sense of doing what everyone else does. Official business hours in Tokyo city are 9 am to 5:30 pm. Most people creep in just before 9 am. Most OL's leave shortly after 5:30. More career minded women stay longer. Most of the guys stay after 5:30 pm, especially those in management. This is for 2 reasons, 1 is to show their hard work and loyalty to the company, and the other is because some don't want to go home to the wife and kids. Many marriages in this society were arranged or entered into out of convenience, so in those cases, there's no rush to head home.

In most large Japanese companies, the OL's have a uniform they wear at work. They normally travel to/from work in their own clothes, like jeans, and then change when they arrive at work and again just before they go home. The outfit consists of a cotton skirt, matching vest, and some type of white blouse. Since everyone looks the same, it's hard to tell rank from looking at someone.

In offices located at factory sites, the men there wear a company uniform as well. It consists of matching pants/shirt. Again, in that type of setting, it is very difficult to determine someone's rank. In my office, since we're in the city far from any factories, everyone wears a shirt and tie. Many wear a suit. Again, it is difficult to determine rank by looking at someone, especially since general managers, group managers and regular salarymen all sit together in an open office.

Lunch time is from 12:15 to 1 pm. Between 12:15 and 12:17 someone stands up and heads for the door. From there, the place clears out like a fire drill. For those that don't want to go out for lunch, there is a bento service available via the company's intranet. It costs ￥400, which is about $3.70. It's a really good deal. The meal is good sized compared to other Japanese lunches, and the food is balanced and palatable. In each meal there normally is some fish, meat, veges, pickles, and a serving of rice along with some miso soup. When you sign up in the morning for the bento lunch, the cost is deducted from your monthly paycheck, so that is also very convenient. And with the type of food served, you definitely won't be eating a bunch of fat calories.

Since Japanese people eat much smaller servings than most Americans eat, they often have little snacks in the morning and in the afternoon. This provides for a quick energy boost, a quick break from work, and allows the group to share snacks with each other. It's fun to see what people bring in. The snack industry here is very huge and there seems to be an endless supply of different ideas and unlimited places to pick up these snacks. People often ask each other where they got the snack. Snacks are sold in all grocery stores, convenience stores, throughout every train station, at mom and pop stores in the neighborhoods, sometimes in large office buildings, and in almost every place that people frequent.

On most of the desks is a cordless phone. The company went wireless a few years ago. Each section has a corded phone for incoming calls so they can be transferred to someone's wireless phone. The wireless phones work anywhere in the building and a short distance outside of the building. These phones are very convenient because when you wander around the building, you put the wireless phone in your pocket and then you don't have to deal with all of the voice mails, searching for people, etc. A lot less time is spent locating people.

So far it has been an interesting experience. Since my group is at one end of the room and my desk faces the room, I am enjoying observing everyone in the room.

Week 1 In The Office

I finished my first week in the office. It was interesting. Most of the group speaks some English since it's the international business group for the company. However, in the interest of making me feel more Japanese, they preferred to speak Japanese with me. It will be good for me.

I'm slowly getting used to using all of the programs in Japanese. It was pretty challenging at first trying to perform simple tasks because of all the Chinese characters. I'm starting to learn some of them, and memorizing locations of certain commands. I printed out some screen captures this weekend and Mio and I went through them and translated them. This should help me to learn them much quicker.

I got to ride in a chauffeured company car to the company attorneys to work on a contract for one of our larger customers. The lawyers were located on the 11th floor in a high rise near the emperor's castle. The view out of the meeting room overlooked the moat around the castle. It was really pretty.

After the meeting we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby. The food was really good and quite a bit different from Chinese restaurants in the US. The food was more along the lines of Japanese food and not nearly as oily as in the US. It was quite tasty.

Kissing The Window

A couple of days ago I got to experience a new sensation. I like to call it 'kissing the window'. I was the one that got to board the train backwards, raising my hands behind and above my head, gripping the doorjam and forcing my way onto the train, crushing everyone behind me. It felt wrong, but it's standard practice here and I didn't want to wait for the next train.

With a little help from the platform worker, I was on the train and the doors were shut. My face was about 3 inches from the door windows. Once the train made a slight bank in the opposite direction, the weight of the crowd pushed me directly into the window. I didn't enjoy kissing the window. Luckily the train straightened out and the crowd gave me some relief. I've often seen trains go by with faces squished against the window, and now I know how those people feel.

At the next stop, I managed to push my way further back into the crowd so I didn't have to do anymore window kissing that day. I've since learned that I need to push my way further into the crowd or wait for the next train if I don't want to kiss the window.

Two weeks ago in one of the daily English papers they ran an article about the crowded trains in Tokyo. There were reports of the usual gropers and the creation of Women Only trains during peak hours. They also mentioned episodes of people reaching their limits on the crowded trains and literally bursting with frustration, anger, fatigue, and so on. There were accounts of people fainting from the heat and pressure of the crowd. There were accounts of people getting injured when a train made a turn or leaned and the crowd fell against them. And there were numerous accounts of folks giving up on trains by riding buses, taking taxis, or sometimes calling in sick because they have developed some type of fear of the crowded trains. I must say that it is easy to experience claustrophobia on some of the trains. One of my co-workers takes several buses in the morning to avoid the sweaty trains.

Another interesting experience this past week was the activation of the train's emergency braking system. I'm not sure what happened, but the train suddenly stopped and the driver muttered something over the PA in a soft tone that I couldn't really hear. We sat there on the tracks for about 5 minutes, just 20 feet from the platform. I noticed that the train going the opposite direction was stopped at the station for the same period of time. Whatever the cause, it was only a slight delay and we were off again.

Day 1 In The Office

After 2 weeks of training with fellow employees from the USA and Malaysia, I spent my first day in the office. My group is growing and last Friday they packed up and moved to a floor in the building across the street. The company I work for is huge, $1.5 billion, with 3500 employees in 16 international locations. The headquarters is in Osaka. I'm based out of the Tokyo sales office. My boss is in Nagoya, a few hours away by bullet train.

First thing in the office I helped move and unpack boxes, in my suit. Then, I unpacked my desk. The office is really open, in traditional Japanese style. My group has 2 rows of 5 desks face-to-face. There are no cubes. The division chief sits 2 desks away from me. Everyone hears everyone else's conversations. It's very communal and cordial. All of the desk phones are cordless, but look like cell phones instead of the normal cordless phones in the homes back home.

Once I unpacked my desk I went to the HR department to finalize some papers. I picked up my new cell phone. They bought one that has menus in English and Japanese. The manual is a couple of hundred pages. These phones do everything imaginable. They are more complex than my computer, which by the way, is all in Japanese. Every program and the OS are in Japanese, so I've got my work cut out for me. Luckily, the e-mail program is Lotus Notes, which I used for the past 5 years at my old job. While I can't read the menus yet, at least I know how the program works and its capabilities.

I signed up for the lunch delivery service today. The cost was $4 and the money is deducted from my paycheck at the end of the month (payday is once per month, which is normal in Japan). The lunch service is very convenient as the price is good and the food is brought to my desk.

In the afternoon I reviewed some contracts for a project my boss is working on. Tomorrow I head to the company lawyers with my boss and entourage for some project contract negotiations. Nothing like jumping in with both feet.

Just felt a small earthquake as I was writing this. It's been several weeks since I felt one, so guess it was about time.

How Much Did You Say That Cost?

OK. Today was a severe reality check on costs. We purchased a 20" TV for the kid's room to hook up to a subscription service so they could have some kids shows. Mio's father has free TV, and there are very few kids shows. And he has his own TV viewing schedule, so we decided to purchase our own TV.

At the TV store they had a gazillion different brands and types. We were shown plasma, HDTV and all of the various types of TVs. We explained our need for a basic TV and were shown the basic TVs. They were flat panel sort of like an LCD. These particular type are not sold in the USA, so I can only say it's like an LCD.

A basic 20" TV started around $650. The display and sound are quite impressive. The TV is like an LCD in that it's only about 4-6" deep, so it takes up minimal space. The one we settled for was a bargain at $880! While it seems very expensive for a 20" TV, we felt we got a good deal compared to the other TV's there, especially the plasma TVs in the $6000 and up range.

It wasn't until we were about to sign the credit card that we noticed around the corner hidden in the back were old style box TVs. They were in the $160-$400 range for up to 32" and came with the standard video component cabinet. However, when we thought about how much room one of those behemoths would take up, we decided that the extra money for the super slim LCD type TV we purchased was not so bad after all. Space is worth a lot here. We're looking forward to the delivery truck arriving tomorrow. It's not that the TV was too heavy to carry, but it would be awfully awkward lugging it through the train station, onto the train, and then walking 10 minutes home from the train station. I'm sure we would have dropped it once or twice or it would have been knocked out of our hands had we tried to lug it onto the trains.

After the TV purchase was done, we purchased a phone. We bought a clearance model for about $95 that includes a corded phone with answering machine, large LCD display with backlight, and 2 cordless phones with their own chargers. This seems like a really good deal, even compared to models in the USA.

Before heading home, we went to the department store and bought Michael the official school book bag that most Japanese elementary school children carry. These book bags come in 2 colors, Red for girls and Black for Boys. They look like something from the 1950's. They are very sturdy and built to survive 6 years of use by an elementary school child. They come in 4 types, canvas (no one we know has ever purchased one), synthetic (a very good quality of faux leather; no one we know has ever purchased one), cow leather for the budget minded, and some type of very high quality/durable leather. The canvas one costs almost $200. The synthetic costs around $350. The cow hide one costs a cool $440. The high quality leather one costs just over $800. Yes, you read correctly, $800!

The nice young lady that waited on us took pity after we fainted at looking at the prices. She brought an employee sale book from behind the counter and showed us that the employee price for the synthetic was about $280. The employee sale price for the cow hide one was $370. The high quality leather one was $450. What a bargain, right? At that price we might as well buy 2! And why was she showing us the employee price, anyway?! Was she teasing us by bragging how much she could save on one of these? It turns out that employees can offer the price to a friend or family member. Even though she didn't know us from Adam, she was willing to share her employee sale price with us. She took pity on us.

Well, we weren't about to let our pride stand in the way and we gladly accepted her charity. We bought Michael the cow hide bag. It should be the last school bag he gets until junior high school. Please view the enclosed picture multiple times. In fact, please feel free to print out the picture and admire what a $440 ($370 on sale) elementary school book bag looks like. We really want to get our money's worth out of the bag.

Developing Train Riding Legs, And Train Riding Strategy

I'm starting to develop train legs. Standing up while riding a train takes some practice to maintain balance. It's kind of like standing up in a boat, except that I have bodies pressing against me on all sides. Sometimes the train makes a sudden, sharp bank and the crowd is helpless in swaying in the opposite direction. There are handles for standing people to grab, but when people are crowded on the train, it's literally impossible to raise an arm in the air and grab a handle. It's even more impossible to hold back the force of 20-30 people pushing against you when the train turns.

I know it's going to be a crowded train when people start boarding the train backwards, raising both arms behind their head to grip the inside of the train doorjamb behind them and then use all their might to pull themselves into the train, aided by train personal on the platforms whose job it is to push them on the train from the outside.

This morning, the lady's hair in front of me 5 inches from my nose smelled of flowery creme rinse. That was a nice smell. Not too strong. The guy directly behind me smelled of garlic from last night's dinner. So, I had this intermittent wafting of garlic breathe mixed with flowery smelling creme rinse. Let's just say I'm happy I didn't have a queasy stomach this morning!

On the second morning train ride I think I've developed a strategy to get a seat for part of the journey. If I walk down the platform towards the end of the train (there may be 15-20 cars in the train), and then force my way on the train with the others as soon as the doors open, and then shuffle my way near the seats, I have a much better chance of getting a seat for part of the journey. It's kind of tricky as seated people usually read or sleep on the train. It's pretty hard to tell when someone is going to get off the train at a particular stop as they usually sit in their seat until the train stops completely and the doors open. Then, they suddenly bolt from their seat and rush through the crowded train to get out the door before it closes and the train continues on its way.

I have to be quick at the draw (or shuffle) to get a seat. I've learned that there is no mercy in racing for a seat, even when I'm standing directly in front of the person evacuating their seat. It doesn't matter if the competitor is young or old, the quicker and more aggressive person gets the seat. Older people have more guts. It's true Darwin in action. Depending on how crowded the train is, sometimes it requires only a quick shuffle to get a seat. When the train is really crowded and shuffling is impossible, it's more of a forced lean (or slight lunge) in the direction of the seat followed by a quick shuffle. It's an art. No one gets mad as everyone is playing the game with a poker face.

I'm learning a lot about train survival.

Tomorrow I am going to a couple of customer sites to view our product in action. I'll be on the train about 6 hours. Luckily, most of the riding won't be at rush hour, so I should be able to sit most of the time. I'll need to take some reading material and my MP3 player. I'll also get a nap or 2 in along the way. It will be a long day, but the naps should help.

The Tokyo Shuffle, And Other Misc. Musings

OK, some of you have noticed that I haven't posted anything in a while. It's been really hectic around here.

Today is Mio and her father's birthday. They share this special day together. We're having chocolate birthday cake. Tomorrow is Mio's sister's birthday.

Mio has been swamped with school and house stuff. Now I know why most Japanese housewives don't work outside of the home. They spend 10-12 hours each day taking care of the house, family, etc. They are a true house manager and family finance manager. The requirements of a housewife are much greater here. Because of the size of the homes/apartments, there is a constant need for washing clothes and dishes, shopping for food to fit into small refrigerators, constant cooking as the diet here requires many small dishes and the refrigerators can't hold many leftovers, and because there isn't central heat/air, there is a constant need to clean the house as open windows allow dust to come inside.

Also, there's the whole education management task. Mio is constantly at Michael or Tommy's school for some requirement or another. Seems everyone here thinks moms have nothing to do but go to school for this meeting or that task, etc. Some days she seems to be at school more than the kids! And when she isn't at school, she's running school related errands or making bags for the kids. Tommy needs separate bags for lunch, books, inside shoes, his own drinking cup, etc. All of these things need separate bags.

Michael also needs separate bags for school: art, music, PE, everyday items, etc. Mio's father bought her a sewing machine and she has been busy sewing school bags so we don't have to spend our retirement money buying them.

As for the boys, they are doing well. Tommy is speaking more Japanese each day. Michael is doing well with homework. He constantly impresses us.

Terry spent last week training at the company's showroom and factory sites down near Osaka and Nagoya. He was in a different hotel almost every night. He stayed in Japanese business hotels, which have small rooms with single beds. The beds are so small that even Terry's short legs reached the end of the bed and his toes hung slightly over the end. Terry traveled with some tall Americans last week, one of them reaching 6' 7" or slightly taller. The hotels had a few beds that were slightly bigger than Japanese beds, but they were mostly wider, not longer. This poor guy had to put his suitcase at the end of his bed and sleep on his side all night to fit into the bed.

This week Terry is learning to do the Tokyo Shuffle. This is what he calls riding the trains to work and shuffling on/off trains and through the train stations. It's so crowded that all you can do is shuffle around. Tokyo has a population of around 20 million that lives in Tokyo proper. With the suburbs, the total population is estimated around 34 million. A lot of people commute from the suburbs into the Tokyo area for work. An hour train ride to work is nothing unusual. I know many people that travel 1 1/2 to 2 hours each day for work. This also is not unusual.

The first train Terry takes is 12-18 minutes and is so crowded that they push people onto the train at each station. If you put your hand up to hold onto the handrails, you can't put it down until the next train stop when people shuffle on and off. This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'Packed in like Sardines.' Sardines have much more room in a can than people have on the rush hour trains. And a word of caution, some of the cars on the train are reserved for women only. Make sure not to accidentally try to board one of these if you are male!!!!!!!!! We'll leave it at that.

The second train Terry rides takes about 30 minutes. After about 20 minutes, Terry might be lucky enough to find a seat to sit on. If not, then he gets to stand the entire 40-50 minutes on the trains. With the 20 minutes of walk to/from the train stations in the morning, he gets his workout in. Total one-way travel time is between 60 minutes and 75 minutes. When the day is done, he gets to do all of this in reverse to get home. It's a character building experience.

Update on School and Terry's Job

The boys had their first full day today. In Michael's school they used towels brought from home to clean the classroom. Japanese school children have a long history of cleaning their own classroom. This includes sweeping, wiping things down, etc. Once a month or so, the kids use towels to clean the classroom floor by hand. They get in a bear crawl like position and run up and down the floor in rows. This promotes pride in the classroom, builds team spirit, and is an all around positive experience for the class. I really think it teaches pride for their school and makes the children think about how they treat their classroom since they have to clean it up. Tommy's class got to clean their floors yesterday and he thought it was a lot of fun. He talked about it all afternoon.

Tommy's class got to spend some time in their small vinyl pools at the school. Next week they walk 5 minutes down to Michael's school and get to use the big pool. The school drains some of the water out for the little kids. It's a great experience for the kindergarteners to play in a 25 meter pool! Tommy also got introduced to the school children and the parents today.

Michael got to go to the school library today. He checked out a book. He really likes to read. At home he is on Harry Potter 5! He really likes Harry Potter and can't wait to finish book 5 so he can start on book 6.

Michael already has homework. He has to practice all of the Chinese characters that the class has learned from the beginning of the year, which started in April. He has about 50 characters to practice this weekend. Some of them he already knows as Mio has been forcing him to practice his Chinese characters since we decided to move here.

Today's school lunch for Michael was curry. This is one of Michael's favorite meals! His first school lunch. All of the kids are required to eat the school lunch, so this makes it easy on the mothers. It's about $30 per month for school lunch.

Terry had to go to work this afternoon and sign papers, interview with some middle managers, and interview with the HR folks. Mio had to make a Japanese resume for Terry last night. This was on short notice, but Mio was up to the challenge. Terry took his Japanese resume and passport sized photo to the office and endured the Japanese interview challenge. The HR folks didn't speak any English, so Terry had to work hard. Terry's boss is American. His boss is Japanese, but speaks quite a bit of English. While Terry's boss and boss's boss helped out a lot, there were periods when only Terry and the HR guy were there. There are lots of Japanese papers to fill out. Terry and Mio will have to work on these together this weekend.

Terry starts on Tuesday, Sept. 6 by taking a 7:30 am bullet train down south to the company's show room and training facility. He'll be there all week, coming back on Saturday. Then, the 2nd week he'll be in Tokyo for training. Terry's office is about 1 hour away from home via: foot (10 minutes), train (15 minutes), train (25 minutes, foot (10 minutes). Terry will soon be getting his laptop with Japanese OS and his cell phone with Japanese OS. So, Terry will have fun trying to figure out how to do e-mail and presentations in Japanese and using his Japanese cell phone.

To celebrate, Terry stopped at the local French bakery by the train station and bought some dessert pastries. As Rachel Ray would say, they were 'Yummo!'

Tomorrow the remodelers come back to touch up and to fix some of the things we have found. Not sure what to expect when the arrive. Not sure what they will be doing and how long it will take. We think it will take more than one day, but we'll see.

1st Day of School; Annual Earthquake Drills; Terry Gets a Job

Lot's going on here recently. Mio has been especially busy getting everything ready for the boys to start school. There are a lot more details here than back in the US. Today was the first day for the boys. School here starts in April, so this was the first day back after summer vacation, which is about 3-4 weeks.

Both boys were really excited to start school. They kept running ahead of us on the 15 minute walk to school. Tommy's school is about 5 minutes' walk past Michael's. Michael's school starts around 8:30 and Tommy's around 9 AM. So, they can't walk together. They also get out at different times in the afternoon.

Michael's school started off with an assembly outside. Michael and one other boy were the only new kids to join over the summer vacation. The other boy is also in 2nd grade and lived in Washington, DC for the past year. They are in different 2nd grade classes. At the assembly they got to go up on stage and introduce themselves in front of the entire school. Michael did great, sounding just like a Japanese kid. After they introduced themselves, their classmates came up to the podium to get them and welcome them to their class.

Michael's class went well. His teacher was happy with the Japanese writing that Mio has been forcing him to do. Looks like the forced work was worth it.

They also did some math work today and since Michael's already been through 2nd grade, the math was really easy. The other kids were impressed with him.

Michael has already made a friend and they plan to try and get together tomorrow after school and play, if parent schedules allow.

Tommy also had a good day. He was so eager to go to school that he kept asking us to just drop him off at the front of the school because he wanted to go in by himself. He was sure he didn't need our help.

Today was a short day for all schools in Japan. September 1 is the annual national earthquake preparedness day. All schools, gov't offices, fire personnel and most companies practice earthquake drills, first aid, and so on. One of today's pictures is of Tommy's class wearing their safety hats which are donned in the event of an earthquake.

All children had to be picked up by their parents today after the drill to practice the procedure for being picked up after an earthquake.

Lastly, Terry will be accepting a job offer today. It's with a huge Japanese multinational. He'll be in sales of large capital equipment. His training will start Sept. 5 with a one-week training trip to the Kobe/Osaka area near the company head quarters, and then the second week back in Tokyo. Time for reality to set back in.