Japanese Salaryman Life pt.1

When I was still a student, I always wondered how an ordinary Japanese salaryman live their life.

If one reads the many articles written by the western media about the Japanese salaryman, one could not escape the impression of the life of the everyday Japanese salaryman to be terribly stressful and horribly overworked, leading to a sexless life with the wife, and fuel the booming of compensated-dating with materialistic-minded, under-aged girls.

Every morning they have to endure the worst morning rushes in the world to get to work using the always over-crowded ‘densha‘; and in those small spaces where people rub shoulders with each other while they try their best to keep their balance so that they don’t step on another salaryman’s foot, or pressed on an office lady’s breasts too hard (unintentionally, I hope), the ordinary Japanese salaryman would never refrain themselves from grabbing the still developing but already meaty and firm, buttocks of not-so-innocent Japanese high school girls who always wore their skirt way too short just to be cool at school, as they are very weak when it comes to peer pressure.

Their life is pathetic as it was just a declining road to 過労死 (karoushi), while frequently visiting the nearest soaplands and kyabakura clubs along the way.

As you can see, they don’t have the nicest reputation.

And I’ve become one.

Well, sort of… It has only been a month and I still didn’t have the opportunity to visit or do all those perverted things that they are famous for, as they have been portraited in the western media.

I really do lack in experience, but I could at least share what I have been through these past weeks… And I am pretty sure some of my blog readers out there, especially my kohais, would want to know what a salaryman life loosely assembles like.

So here it goes…

Ok I think I should stop here right now because it’s almost 10:00 pm and I got to go to bed as soon as possible as I don’t want to wake up late tomorrow; I need to get up at 05:45 am every morning to get to work god damn it!

To be continued…

p/s: to be fair though, although the phrase ’salaryman’ means males who works under a salary, the more common usage of the title is applied to Japanese white-collar businessmen… not engineers, teachers, porn stars, police officer etc…

Panic during Totsuka Morning Rush

This morning, some of the train on the train-line that I use everyday to go to work to, has stopped working for about 15 minutes because of some shit that they don’t want to tell us.

The result of this brief halt of flow of people during such critical morning rush hour is total chaos, as the flow of anxious commuters fill the station’s limited floor space; it looked like some hajj ritual being performed by many man and women in suits and work attire.

There was no walking space at all; everyone moves by pushing and getting pushed by the flow of commuters. If anyone drops his/her bag, she/he should forget about getting it back.

Such scenes does makes me wonder with slight fear.

People would never be able to evacuate quickly in times of emergency, if such event that requires such action ever occur.

In all the madness where some couldn’t take it anymore and prefer to shout and swear at the person behind just because of a little push; I managed to get some photos with the low-tech iPhone camera.

i’m officially a salaryman

just like many fresh graduates all around Japan who attended 入社式 (nyushashiki – company entrance welcoming ceremony), i attended mine today.

it is a japanese tradition to hold such formal ceremonies to officially welcome the newcomers on the first of april.

as this is a japanese ceremony, it was extremely formal and everything has to be done accordingly and everyone must show their ability to become one and act in one harmonious and synchronized sets of action.

anyways, the most interesting part of the ceremony is the speech by the company president.

at these troubled times when more than 200,000 japanese workers lost their jobs, i should be glad that i didn’t lost mine.

the president predicted a future that is not going to be easy, but hope is not lost.

i can only nod my head, not really grasping wether i understood the reality of the situation.

大丈夫っしょ？

praktis present

aku start buat slide untuk presentation dari pukul 10:00 a.m.

garu sana, garu sini.

siap pukul 7:00 p.m.

so aku ajak la memba2 satu lab untuk tengok presentation punya rehearsal.

10 minit 32 saat. takde la terlebih limit masa pon.

pastu aku tanya diaorg: so, ada apa2 kesalahan? atau nak komen apa2?

” ok, nak start dari mana dulu. mula2 kan, ada penggunaan kanji yg tak betul. bukan tak betul, cuma bunyi tak best aje. pastu kat bahagian isotope tu, baik jangan pakai kanji, pakai katakana aje, lagi senang org faham. bla bla bla “

seribu satu komen, pembetulan, idea di lontarkan.

ooo nampak nya diaorg nih memang betul2 tengok ngan teliti la presentation aku nih. ingatkan tengok – tengok ayam aje. org jepun nih memang semangat aje all the time.

” bercakap pon kena practice lagi, biar bagi lancar sket. biar bunyi macam org jepun. pronunciation dah ok dah, cuma kelancaran aje yg masih bunyi mcam foreigner “

allo, aku memang foreigner pon.

kulit sawo matang.

hitam manis, kalo ikut kata peminat aku time form 3 dulu.

hehehehe.

pastu pegi panggil prof plak, untuk last check.

” hmmm….. banyak gak kena betul kan nih. lagi penting drpd tu, kamu faham tak teori yg sum frequency generation spectroscopy nih pakai? contact-mode atomic force microscopy nih penah pakai? continuum mechanics ada faham? “

aku geleng kepala. toleh tengok memba2 aku yg sedap aje mengomen aku tadi, diaorg pon geleng kepala.

” ok la kita start dari basic. high school physics. dulu penah buat experiment pecah kan cahaya pakai slit kan? wavelength berbeza … friction nih kena kira sampai scala nano … zarah2 nih serap cahaya, tukar kepada tenaga translational kinetic pastu pantul balik jadi haba … perbezaan friction bole dikesan diantara berlian yg disaluti layer hydrogen ngan deuterium … bla bla bla “

aku rasa tak penah aku dapat sebanyak ini ilmu dalam masa 3 jam. memang power la prof aku! senang2 aje dia citer subject yg major dalam materials enggineering, sedang kan dia mechanical enggineering punya prof. berasap gak otak aku nak proses sumer information nih.

dah la aku rasa kena tipu ngan cikgu fizik dulu2. teori nak cari friction yg diajar time skolah dulu tak tepat rupanya, kalo nak ambik kira luas dalam skala nano. aku makin faham sekarang kenapa dulu kita kena terima aje result yg padat ngan ralat.

3 jam jugak aku tahan berak. fuuh memang mencabar.

tengok jam kat dinding. pukul 10:30 malam. gilak ah.

*** *** *** *** ***

makan tengahari untuk hari ni: 黒豆黒茶(kuromame kurocha – black bean’s black tea), Kagome 紫の野菜(murasaki no yasai – purple veggie), 鮭弁当(shake bento – salmon set), クリームカニコロッケ(kuri-mu kani korokke – creamy crab croquette)

eating at work

i was starting to make eating lunch in the lab a habit recently. the lab is air-conditioned and cool, plus i could keep an eye on the progress of my current work at the same time so that i don’t lose that ‘working’ mood. gotta keep the momentum going, i need to be focused on the job at all times.

anyways, i ate a 399yen saba bento today. the taste is ok and i can’t really complain with the cheap price tag. the volume of the side dishes are also pretty good, with salad, tamago-yaki, etc.

i also got to try this new (at least for me) drink from sapporo: cola float! (picture below) i remember back in malaysia, i love to mix vanilla ice-cream with coca-cola, and it tastes EXACTLY just like that! although the color of the drink itself looks pretty dull and boring, the taste is not! it’s very sweet, and creamy! try one!

ganbare ore!