Work hard, play hard (part 1)

I was reading anthropologist Kate Fox's enjoyable 'Watching the English'. She commented that English people like to say they 'work hard and play hard', but the reality is they 'word moderately and play moderately'. I think it's probably the same in Australia.

In Japan, though, people do work hard and play hard.

If you know even a little about Japan, you'll have heard that people work hard, work long hours, often work a lot of overtime, etc. It really seems to be true. I knew many people who habitually finished work after 8pm, and went in on weekends. Some people even went in until midnight. Now, I know we have some workaholics in Australia, but not one person I know personally finishes work after 5:30, unless they work night shifts. In Japan I knew many people who complained of having to work really long hours.

From stories I heard, three common reasons for this are:
-projects are assigned with insufficient resources and time; the deadlines are set too soon, so that employees are under pressure to stay late and work overtime to complete them
-staffing issues (ie, not enough staff) - for example, an employee took stress leave and HR didn't organise anyone to cover their workload, so all existing staff had to pick up the slack
-a general culture of 'it's not professional to leave early; you should give your all to meet the company's objectives'

And I was often shocked by how little sleep people said they got. I'd say about 80% of my friends got 5 hours a night or less.

So that's 'work hard'. Next post, 'play hard'. ^_^

Japan vs Australia: part 3

Speaking of pedestrian crossings, I have to remind myself that in Australia, they are actually useful. Now at this point I'm not talking about pedestrian crossings with lights, but just the ones with white lines painted on the road. In Australia, cars will (theoretically) actually stop to let you cross here. That's its purpose. In Japan, I don't know what the point is, because you have to pause and wait for all traffic to pass anyway. I suppose if you're crossing at the crossing and a car does come, there's an infinitesimally greater probability of its noticing and stopping.

When I arrived in Japan, I thought 'wow, the apples are really big (and expensive)'. They were more of a light meal than a snack. When I got back to Australia, I thought 'geez, these apples are ridiculously small'.

Similarly, bread. Oh, it's good to have proper, decent-tasting wholemeal bread again - at a fraction of the price. But it does look rather sad and small compared to the huge Japanese loaves.

On the other hand, it's lovely to have a wide range of nice, non-processed cheeses.

While I was in Japan, I heard the news that smoking had been banned in pubs, and therefore everywhere. For some reason I thought this now meant smoking was actually banned everywhere. And every time I sat outside at some Japanese cafe, enjoying the beautiful autumn air right up until some jerk started blowing smoke in my face, I thought 'well, at least in Australia this won't happen'.

Wrong! Wrong! Still perfectly fine outside! This always bugged me, actually. Okay, I sort of believe smokers should have rights, smokers should ideally have a place where they could sit. But I love sitting outside when the weather is nice. I seek out every minute of outdoors I can. It's just not fair that smokers should render all outdoor seating areas unpleasant. I don't want to be forced into the sterile airconditioning.

The toilets in Australia - why is there always toilet paper on the ground? What do people DO? It's almost impossible to find any public toilet without paper all over the place. In Japan, with the exception of some toilets in minor train stations and parks, toilets are kept very clean.

Japan vs Australia: part 2

Here are more differences I noticed when I came back to Australia:

I had been telling people that public transport, though woeful here, is at least quite cheap. None of this 'pay extra if you go a few extra stops' business. But actually, public transport is NOT cheap any more. Just hopping a bus costs over $4, even if you're only taking it for five minutes.

I had occasionally resented things in Japan for closing so early, but to be fair, some things do here, too. At 5 or 5:30, all the shops and department stores are closing up. Even my local national park, where I'd like to sit in the sunny early evening, closes at 5.

As I thought, Australians try to wear as little as possible. Even when the air is actually quite chilly, if the sun is out, people will be out in it, in their t-shirts. If the temperature goes up a few degrees, it's out with the short shorts and tank tops. Quite a few people's normal casual gear here would rarely be seen in Japan except at the beach. And if you went to Japan in similar weather, in spring or autumn, wearing these clothes, people would constantly ask you if you were cold. In Japan, you dress for the seasons, and it tends to be mostly long sleeves for 3 seasons of the year.

A friend who visited Australia remarked to me that in Australia, 'the lights change really fast'. I had always thought the same thing about Japan. But coming back, I realised it's very true.
We have a different style.
In Japan, the green man shows for quite a long time, long enough to almost entirely cross the street. Then, when the man starts to flash, you have only a couple of seconds to make it the rest of the way. So if you're only a short way across, and it flashes, you'd better sprint!
In Australia, the green man sometimes shows for only a couple of seconds, then the flashing red man. However, from the point when the man starts to flash, it you've usually got enough time to cross the road in full. Basically, if you weren't crossing when the red man started to flash, you shouldn't start.
I guess both systems have their pros, but I have found that under the Japanese system, I am more likely to sprint, as I don't know when the green light started. (Mind you, I did use pedestrian crossings far more often in Japan than here in Oz.)

Japan vs Australia: part 1

I recently returned to Australia after two years in Japan. After many occasions of answering Japanese people's questions about Australia, it was nice to reacquaint myself with how Australia actually is. Sometimes I'd say things like 'well, we don't have much authentic Japanese food in my hometown', then I would pause and think - is that really true? Or I just didn't notice it? You lose touch.

Anyway, after coming back to Australia, here are some of the things that struck me:

Everyone was ordering their own meals again. The meals were usually too big to comfortably finish, and nobody shared.

People didn't automatically stand to the left of the escalator, and let people walk on the right. Actually, I first noticed this in Singapore, where I stopped en route to Australia. A couple of times I had to bite my tongue to stop myself telling my friend 'shouldn't you move over?'

It's true; the temperature really does go way up and down here. One week will be all 19s and 20s; the next, high 30s. In a single day - literally, in the span of two hours - it plunged from 38 degrees down to 18 degrees. In Yokohama, the weather didn't vary quite so wildly from one week to the next.

It is cold here! I wasn't just imagining it. And my friends weren't just being sad, not-used-to-really-cold-weather Australians, either. Okay, so the actual thermometer temperatures are slightly higher than in Japan. But buildings are really inadequately heated. I sat in a library, wearing a long-sleeved top, jacket, and coat. And I was so cold I had to leave. I went to a different library; same outfit; same problem. Even cafes weren't warm.

I can get cappuccinos everywhere!! I can get decaf coffee anywhere!! I can drink coffee anywhere, any time I want! I don't have to patronise Starbucks, and Starbucks alone, all the time! (And in fact, Starbucks went bust in this city after less than two years, due to its lack of popularity. So there actually are no Starbucks here. Mind you, I do now have a soft spot for it, but Starbucks Japan's coffee was much better than Starbucks Australia's..)

The bright side

Following up from my last post about excessive packaging, it does have its good points.

If you buy cakes or desserts from a food hall or cake shop, the staff will ask you how long until you get home. This is so they can work out how many packs of ice to give you. If you buy a piece of cake, it will come in a box, wrapped in a piece of cardboard so it doesn't touch the edges of the box, and nestled next to little packs of ice to keep the cake cold. This box will then usually be put in a plastic bag (etc etc). But the ice idea is really great.

It's not only for cakes. A lot of larger supermarkets have an ice section. That is, after you've gone through the checkout with your purchases, you can help yourself to a free bag of ice, to tuck in with your perishables. Useful if you've got a long trip home, it's summer, etc. You can even get dry ice so that it doesn't fill the bag with water when it melts! How cool is this!

Recycling

In one particular area, the difference between Australia and Japan is stark. I am talking about the use of packaging.

If you have been to Japan, you will know what I mean.

In Australia, we are no longer provided with plastic bags at supermarkets or some department stores. If you forget to bring your green canvas bag, you might have to buy one at the supermarket, or else stagger back to your car clutching an armful of bread rolls, 2-litre bottles of milk, frozen dinners and tampons. Even before this new rule was implemented, if you bought fewer than three or four items, they would always ask you 'do you want a bag for those?' (with just a hint of accusation if you were considering saying 'yes').

In Japan, even if you are buying one very small item - even if you are already carrying half a dozen bags - they will usually put it in a bag by default, without even asking. Often, a plastic package will be wrapped in more plastic, and then put in a plastic carry bag. I was throwing away at least 20 plastic bags in an average week, in addition to the many plastic bags I re-used for carrying things, bin liners, etc.

I always found it strange, in a country that had such strict recycling laws, and where everyone was starting to talk about being eco-friendly.

(Incidentally, it made me laugh when I saw the 'washlet' - electronic, self-flushing toilets described as being 'eco-friendly'. Why? Because you save on water, because you can play a fake flushing sound while you do your business. What's the alternative? Continuously flushing the toilet while you pee?
At any rate, usually the so called 'automatic flush' is unable to determine when you've gotten off the bowl, and therefore the toilet flushes two or three times before you've actually finished. Waste of water and electricity. Mind you, I still like them, just don't try to tell me they're good for the environment.)

To be fair, some supermarkets do have little cardboard 'no plastic bag please' tags at the checkout - you just pop one on top of your groceries and they won't give you one. I am ashamed to confess how long I was in the country before I noticed these and realised what they were for.

Public baths

(I decided I'd continue to update this blog periodically. Some of the content will have been written previously. This one is from last winter.)

Boom, boom, boom, boom... I can feel the blood pounding in my head. My skin is bright pink all over and I'm overcome with languor. It's six degrees outside yet I can't feel the slightest hint of cold.

No, I'm not sick. I've just been to a sento, which is a Japanese public bath. Most websites or blogs about Japan have done the topic of public baths to death, but I'll do it again here... in the past, public baths used to be really common, but these days most families have baths in their own home, so they aren't as popular anymore.

Nonetheless, sento still exist, for the benefit of those without baths in their homes, or those who want to relax in a much larger bath, or go with a friend as a social activity. And of course, taking hot spring baths around the country are really, really popular holiday activities for many Japanese people.

There's a sento in my neighbourhood; for a long time I didn't know it was one, since it's surreptitiously hidden in a kind of bicycle-filled laneway. But oftentimes when I climb the stairs to my apartment, I have been able to smell a pleasant fresh smell of hot water and soap and shampoo. Finally I decided (after a bit of nervousness) to go and visit the bath for myself.

I've picked up enough about bathing etiquette in my time here to have some idea what to do. You bring your own towel and soap, go in and there are lockers for your shoes; then doors marked 'men' and 'women' (in Japanese). I went into the 'women' room and there was a sleepy-looking man sitting next to the door to collect everyone's 450 yen. He was clearly partitioned to be able to deal with both the men's and women's sides. The problem I had with this was that from his vantage point he could very obviously see the entire women's changing area. I've since read on Wikipedia that this is quite common.

Anyway, inside the changing area you put your clothes and towel in a basket, and any valuable items in a locker; the keys are attached to elastic you can loop around your wrist. Then you walk into the next room which is the bathing area.

In bigger or fancier sento, and in some onsen (hot spring baths), you may have multiple types of bath, a small garden, drinks machines, massage chairs, etc. In my small neighbourhood sento, there was none of that bling; just one big bath; one side of which had jacuzzi jets.

Before you go into a Japanese bath, though, you have to wash before you get in. You sit yourself on a plastic stool by one of the washing stations (with water taps and a shower spigot) and wash yourself by pouring water over yourself. You should be properly clean before getting in. Since the water is shared, you never use soap or other products in the bath itself. The bath's for relaxing in.

Anyway, not much else to say except that as famously advertised, these places are hot, and I'm speaking as one who loves hot springs. It was about 48 degrees, just a couple of degrees more than I find comfortable. Getting in was okay, and for the first two minutes it was lovely. The nights are really cold here at the moment, so it was perfect weather to try the sento for the first time. Then gradually my head started pounding. I managed to stay in for ten minutes; got out and doused myself with cold water; went back in and lasted three more. Kind of a poor effort really!