Welcome to a typical day in my life in the Land of the Rising Sun!
04:58 the rising sun wakes me up as it burns through the curtains in my east-facing bedroom. I wake up long enough to reach for the eye mask on my nightstand, put it on, and hope for another few hours of sleep.
07:45 my alarm goes off and my bedroom has heated to 88 degrees (even with A/C & fan), so I’m ready to get up.
07:50 enter the shower room (which has no A/C or fan so it is already 95 in there). I crank the gas, light the pilot, and turn on the water. The shower is so hot that I switch off the gas for 1-minute intervals and stand in the cold water instead.
08:00 dry off from shower, but do not get dressed yet. Toast & butter an English muffin and eat it with a cup of applesauce while catching up on personal emails and recent facebook posts. Listen to a voicemail left by Rene Newman. At no point do I ever peek outside the curtains to check the weather… I know it’s sunny and hot.
(It's so hot outside that the OUT temperature on my weather station hasn't registered in over a month.)
08:30 brush my teeth, comb my hair, and finally get dressed in a skirt and the coolest clean shirt I can find. (Make-up and jewelry were abandoned long ago.)
08:45 throw a granola bar in my purse, turn the A/C to a slightly higher temp, and leave my apartment to walk to work.
While waiting for the elevator to pick me up on the 14th floor, I wipe the sweat from my brow for the first of what will be at least 20 times today. As I am walking, I laugh to myself at the women in heels who are running to make it to their office buildings by 09:00. (Men run, too, but it doesn’t look quite as ridiculous.) It’s the same people every day, so I wonder why they don’t just leave their house 10 minutes earlier.
When I stop at each of the 13 crosswalks I must pass, I eagerly look for shade during my wait, and then try to determine which route will provide the most shadows from the tall buildings until the next block.
Sweat rolls down my back, and I suddenly remember how hot I am. Then I look around and wonder how these businessmen could possibly be wearing pants, long-sleeved dress shirts, and some with ties and/or jackets! At a crowded crosswalk, I am also reminded that Japan does not sell anti-perspirant, and many people are not so fresh after a long train or bus ride to Nagoya station.
09:10 arrive at work, take the elevator to the 7th floor, sign the attendance sheet, say "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning) to all of the men in my department, and then sit down at my desk and immediately feel relief that the building A/C is set to 82.
09:14 say another round of "ohayo gozaimasu" as the women come in and sit at their desks.
09:15 the bell rings and work begins. I turn on my special English PC and start checking my emails. I notice that people were working late last night, based on the email time stamps of 21:47 and 23:19.
When I copy and paste my Japanese emails into Google translate, I get some silly phrases like “Manager buttocks”, “Like I care”, “Palace over the village”, “first seat in the car”, “Big Brother East”, and “Mr. Kelly” (addressed to me!), but I can usually still decipher if any of them relate to my job.
I also discuss issues happening with Transfreight Europe business with Fujii san. I send a few emails asking for clarification, but with the time difference I know I won’t get a response until the afternoon.
12:00 the lunch bell rings, and I look around for a lunch partner. Ema san invites me to lunch with one of her friends, and since the men still seem to be deep in work, I quickly take her up on it. Ema and her friend make me choose the restaurant, which I find truly bizarre since I’m the one horning in on their plans!
If Ema were not available, I would tag along with the men. As a rule in Japan men don’t eat lunch with women, but they make an exception for me! (In fact, there was only 1 other occasion where they also let Ema join the meal. She was invited by Tag shortly after he arrived back from his 3-year stay in America, so he had probably forgotten the rules of Japan!)
Today I choose my favorite kara age (chicken) restaurant. Ema knows which dish is my favorite, so she orders for me. The menu is limited (maybe 6 types of chicken dishes), and we all order the same thing any way. My meal consists of white rice, miso soup, Japanese pickles, 5 small pieces of boneless fried chicken, shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, and cold tea. While eating everything except the Japanese pickles and mayonnaise, I struggle through a half-Japanese/half-English conversation. Ema’s friend mentions (in Japanese) how good I am with my chopsticks. Although I understand what she says, I ignore it for several reasons:
- She was speaking to Ema,
- You’re not supposed to acknowledge a compliment in Japan by saying “thank you”, but rather you deny it like “No, I’m not good with them” (which is a terrible habit I don’t intend to pick up!), and
- I hear this comment every week, and it gets kind of demeaning. After eating meals here every day for 9 months, why wouldn’t I be able to use my chopsticks?! It’s not like it is a particularly special skill that can’t be learned with a little practice.
Next, they ask me “Do you cook for yourself or eat dinner out?” (Cook at home.) Then, of course, they want to know exactly what I cook. (With no oven to bake things or understanding of grocery products in the stores, my diet consists of: soup, grilled cheese, Hamburger Helper, mac & cheese, pasta, and tacos.)
Finally, they ask if I cook Japanese food, and I say that I don’t know how, and besides I can’t read the labels at the grocery store. No one offers to help me with this debacle. While still talking about food, they pull out an ubiquitous pocket translator to tell me the name (in English) of a special vegetable in season right now: burdock. Yeah, thanks, but just knowing the name still won't help me identify it at the grocery store...
12:50 I pay for my meal (~$8.50) all in coins, and we walk back to the office.
12:52 I return to my desk and check my personal email on my Japanese mobile phone until the end-of-lunch bell rings.
13:00 review any emails that were received while I was gone for lunch, and then continue on with my projects.
14:12 my boss Inaida san asks me to join him at the small conference table near my desk. Never mind that I am in the middle of crunching some figures on my Excel spreadsheet, and I have no idea what this impromptu meeting is about. I take my notebook and pen and join him. (Thank goodness I am already prepared for my 15:00 meeting later today!) We discuss an upcoming visit from a new potential client. I agree to compile a PowerPoint presentation in English on lean logistics and send it to him for review.
14:36 back at my desk, and I try to refocus on my Excel spreadsheet.
15:00 the safety committee meeting is supposed to start, but no one is making actions to join a meeting.
15:06 one of the two bosses gets up from his desk and say “let’s meet”. Five men and I get up and move to the conference table again. As everyone speaks, I take notes of the conversations in English.
16:47 the meeting (which was scheduled for one hour) finally ends, and I am back at my desk. I review the new emails I’ve received by copy and pasting them in Google translate. Then I begin to type up the notes from the Safety meeting while it is fresh in my mind. I zone out for awhile while listening to the white noise of my colleagues talking on the phone in Japanese.
17:30 the end of work bell rings and brings me out of my daze. No one in my department makes any moves to go home. I decide I need some sugar to wake me up. I dig around in my purse for my smashed granola bar and eat it in 3 bites.
I send an email to the head of the Safety committee, so he can review my notes from the meeting. (Inevitably, he will add something that didn’t actually take place and any comments in Japanese that I did not catch.) I check my calendar for tomorrow to see if there are any meetings I need to prepare for. I print off a few documents.
18:00 the bell doesn’t ring again, but an announcement is made in Japanese. I like to think it says “It’s late. Time to leave the office and enjoy the rest of your evening”, so I do!
18:10 I pack things up, shut down my computer, and say to my colleagues "O saki ni shitsure shimasu" (I’m sorry that I am going first). I’ve gotten quite good at that statement, as I am the first to leave 99% of the time. Everyone in my department responds with "otsukare sama desu" (cheers for good work).
18:15 outside it is nearly dark, but I am still hit with a face full of hot air for my walk home. As I am passing Nagoya station, I head to the underground to buy a loaf of bread from my favorite bakery. Six small slices cost me ~$2.63.
I would walk the rest of the way home in the underground, but it’s stifling hot. You would think a basement with a shopping mall in it would be a pleasant and cool place to shop, but it’s not. (Maybe they don’t have A/C down there or maybe the constant passing subway cars are generating heat.) Whatever the reason, I take my chances above ground since at least it’s not sunny any more. Also, Nagoya is still a windy city, but the breezes are usually hot.
18:50 I arrive at my apartment building, and check the contents of my mailbox: empty. (Hint, hint… I love mail.) The elevator is already on the bottom floor open and waiting for me. Since the elevator waits with its door open, you can bet it’s nice and steamy for my ride to the 14th floor.
As I pass my neighbors apartments to get to my own, I notice many doors are propped wide open with an umbrella or other heavy object. These people seem to prefer to keeping their doors and windows wide open all day and night rather than using A/C. (I guess it's okay because Japan is so safe no one will enter your apartment to steal things or attack you, but what about bugs?! Eeewww!) I finally arrive at my door, step inside, and then lock myself in for the night. I immediately strip off my sweaty work clothes and change in to a tank top and shorts. I also check my weather station for the temp inside my apartment and decide that 84 is okay for now.
19:00 I check my options on TV: World’s Most Daring Criminals on FOX, Larry King Live (ironically... it's not live) on CNN, Japanese QVC, Japanese game show, or Japanese soap opera. The options all suck, but I decide Larry King and the update on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico sucks the least. I leave it on while I take 2 steps and enter the kitchen to make dinner. Since I have fresh bread and remembered to buy Colby Jack cheese from the foreign food store this weekend, I decide grilled cheese is the best option. I eat my sandwich with chips and wash it down with apple juice and a multi-vitamin.
19:30 I sit at the computer and reply to a few emails I’ve received throughout the day. I also catch up on the latest facebook happenings like a crazy stalker.
20:00 I change the TV channel back to FOX to see what show is coming on next: The 4400. No, thanks. I turn off the TV without even bothering to see what the other channels are playing. I throw a load of laundry in the machine and go back to my computer.
20:52 Kelly and Rylan are finally awake and want to webcam with me! I talk about my boring day, the oppressive heat, and my plans for the weekend. Rylan tells me the new words she has learned. (A cat says "meow"!)
21:34 we are done with Skype, and I remove my wet clothes from the washer and hang them all over my bedroom. I turn on my oscillating fan and realize it's like a maze to get to my bed now!
I want to talk to someone else, but I realize it's 08:30 in the US and most people are at work by now. I decide to wash my dishes instead.
22:16 finally drop the temp on the A/C in preparation for sleep and then spend some time on my next blog entry. (What would be more interesting--famous Japanese people or English words derived directly from the Japanese language?)
23:00 time to get ready for bed. Brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, and briefly check that I will have clean (and dry) clothes in the morning. (Sure, as long as I don't mind the wrinkles!)
Read a few chapters from a book on loan from the local English library.
My alarm clock says the temperature is 86 degrees, and I finally drift to sleep while listening to the motorcycles revving on the street below and the chirping of the crosswalk signal.
