Japan, the land of funny people.
I have been here for 3 weeks already and I have at least one more month to go. Things are a bit involved this time but really are working out in my favour. You see, NEC Australia gets their work and their bread from NEC Communications Japan.
However, I am deputed to NEC Electronics Japan. As a matter of fact, NEC Communications and NEC Electronics are entirely two different companies. For argument sake, they are like Nokia and Ericsson – no connection what-so-ever except that their parent organisation happens to be NEC Japan under the Sumitomo Corporation.
So, what does it meant to me? I have all-inclusive confidentiality of what I do here. It is awkward that I cannot disclose in great detail to my bosses in Australia what exactly I do here. Add to this, this scrupulous trip, I have been requested to come to Japan by one of the senior most managers in NEC Communications – for NEC Electronics. I have no idea why he ‘chose’ me explicitly to come to Japan. I have been warned this noteworthy trip to Japan will be about 2 months. It is ok with me and with Monica; Lila would have been weaned by the time I return back to Melbourne.
My boss here, name withheld, is a total ‘people man’. He is technically brilliant. He gives enough time for all his people and he is one of the most Senior managers in NEC Electronics. He only addresses me as Dr.Nagi-san. I do not know why I occupy a position of importance here; if he is ill or away he sends an email to me cc:to other managers. Normally, I would have thought he sends an email to other managers cc: to me!!
He is a happy chap.
I am not sure if you have heard of this. No one beats a Japanese group – together they work very well. As a matter of fact, I have not seen teams who so explicitly trust each of its members – except in Japan. Oh yes, Kojima-san – yeah, he will handle this. Oh! Hayashi-san is taking care of that, we will receive input from her on Wednesday. On Wednesday, as promised, there will be an input – it would not matter if it good or bad news. They never panic. They smoke their fears and worries off.
Ah. One bad thing about Japan – You are allowed to smoke; Yes, inside the building. As a matter of fact, each floor has its own designated smoking area.
On a table, discussion table, the Japanese are cool headed. Ok, to be fair I don’t know crap about what they are talking about. It is all “Fukushima Takashima Hokaido Kashimada Mukaigawara Hirama des” type of nonsense to me. But, all of a sudden they will turn to you and say “So, …what is your opinion Dr.Nagi-san?”
Ah .. my opinion about “what” des ??
Hello !! You guys have been talking so fast in Japanese as if you are bullet trains. You think I understood you?
“Ito” .. sumimasen !!!! Oh. Sorry .. Japanesu .. I tranasaletu fora you.
Communication is the best part in Japan. You do not have to go to the gym in Japan if you a foreigner. You get more aggravated and burn more fat and sweat profusely by talking to Japanese than if you were to go to the gym. Train stations, security guards at the office, McDonalds, hotel reception: All of them give you a top notch work out. I am sure I have lost 3 kgs in the last 3 weeks.
Ok ! About the people at work; It is true not all of them speak English but the people I speak with, most of them have ‘satisfactory’ knowledge of English. To be fair, my skills with Japanese language are nothing compared with their adventures with English. They try very hard to accommodate me, the foreigner. I have to be patient. To cut it short, I actually do well at work. No miscommunications mostly; no worries there.
There are 7000 people working at the main office at Tamagawa; 5 mins from Kawasaki. [no typo there, yes 7000 people in a single location; 2 towers – NEC Japan’s main office]. NEC employs 100,000 people worldwide.
So, how big is this Tamagawa? It has 2 towers – North and South; about 50 floors on each tower. There is a sky link connecting the two towers at the middle somewhere.
How tall are the buildings? I cannot equate – but I get dizzy in the lifts [all glass]. Even from the middle, you can see the skyscrapers as far as Tokyo and Yokohama. On a clear day, yes, indeed you can see Fuji-yama. You can see Tokyo Haneda airport from here. So, they are 2 really tall towers. They have helipads on top of each tower for helicopters to land. The views will become rare sights in the future. There are many other sky scrapers coming all around. It looks like a concrete jungle.
There are 36 lift systems in total – all high tech. You cannot accidentally push the button in the lift – say for example, your laptop bag pushed ‘15th floor’ by accident but you wanted to go to 32nd floor? This can never happen. The buttons have ‘heat’ sensors. A ‘part of your body’ must push the button – else it will not go to that floor. If you accidentally pushed 40th floor you can just toggle it by tapping it again.
They have a massive restaurant, Starbucks, 2 convinient shops, Post office, ATM machines and blah blah.
Restaurant serves 6 different styles of food – Each style has its own menu.
The restaurant can seat 1000 people at a time – but it cannot seat all 7000 during lunch, can it ? So, they have a clever plan!!
Starting at 11:30am, the computer chooses 5 floors at a time and plays a “special music” when it is time for those “occupants of those floors” to go and have lunch. To force them to go out, the computer automatically “turns the lights off” when it plays the music. Ofcourse, there is manual override – But that is useless in Japan.
After 15 minutes, the computer selects another 5 floors and so on. The lights automatically come on ‘one hour’ after it was turned off.
When that music is played, the Japanese do one of two things.
1/ Rush to the restaurant.
2/ THEY SLEEP ON THEIR DESKS
Rumour has it that it is a good thing to sleep on your desk in Japan. I thought it is insulting to sleep on your desk. But in Japan, your boss thinks you are a hard worker if you slept at your desk!! What the bloody fuck? You must have been working all night that the next day at lunch you are overly tired?
Funny though: I only work 9 to 10 hours here. The previous trips, I used to put in 14+ hours each day!! Out of the 9-10 hours, I am in problem resolution meetings for 4 hours every day!! The other times, I am identifying the logical course for technical problems that need to be fixed.
Weekends are a drag. I think I may go to Okinawa or Seoul or some bull place for a weekend. Actually, where is Okinawa?
I am not in a hurry to get to work – I take the 9am train from Kawasaki and I am at my desk 10 mins later. There is this platform announcer for the ‘Nimbu line’ at Kawasaki station. I have nicknamed him GOAT-san!! He speaks properly – except for the last word. Hmm. Imagine, a goat saying the last word. He is hilarious. I am not the only one who thought it was funny. You should see all the Japanese folks. They giggle offcourse, cover their noses as if they are embarrassed! What the heck? I think this announcer has some sense of humour.
That is all for now.
My cousin handed me a spare mobile phone. I have 3 phones with me in Japan now. My personal PHS from NEC Electronics, my Optus Australia phone on roaming, my cousin’s Vodafone Japan WCDMA phone. Jolly good I should say !
Sankyu.
However, I am deputed to NEC Electronics Japan. As a matter of fact, NEC Communications and NEC Electronics are entirely two different companies. For argument sake, they are like Nokia and Ericsson – no connection what-so-ever except that their parent organisation happens to be NEC Japan under the Sumitomo Corporation.
So, what does it meant to me? I have all-inclusive confidentiality of what I do here. It is awkward that I cannot disclose in great detail to my bosses in Australia what exactly I do here. Add to this, this scrupulous trip, I have been requested to come to Japan by one of the senior most managers in NEC Communications – for NEC Electronics. I have no idea why he ‘chose’ me explicitly to come to Japan. I have been warned this noteworthy trip to Japan will be about 2 months. It is ok with me and with Monica; Lila would have been weaned by the time I return back to Melbourne.
My boss here, name withheld, is a total ‘people man’. He is technically brilliant. He gives enough time for all his people and he is one of the most Senior managers in NEC Electronics. He only addresses me as Dr.Nagi-san. I do not know why I occupy a position of importance here; if he is ill or away he sends an email to me cc:to other managers. Normally, I would have thought he sends an email to other managers cc: to me!!
He is a happy chap.
I am not sure if you have heard of this. No one beats a Japanese group – together they work very well. As a matter of fact, I have not seen teams who so explicitly trust each of its members – except in Japan. Oh yes, Kojima-san – yeah, he will handle this. Oh! Hayashi-san is taking care of that, we will receive input from her on Wednesday. On Wednesday, as promised, there will be an input – it would not matter if it good or bad news. They never panic. They smoke their fears and worries off.
Ah. One bad thing about Japan – You are allowed to smoke; Yes, inside the building. As a matter of fact, each floor has its own designated smoking area.
On a table, discussion table, the Japanese are cool headed. Ok, to be fair I don’t know crap about what they are talking about. It is all “Fukushima Takashima Hokaido Kashimada Mukaigawara Hirama des” type of nonsense to me. But, all of a sudden they will turn to you and say “So, …what is your opinion Dr.Nagi-san?”
Ah .. my opinion about “what” des ??
Hello !! You guys have been talking so fast in Japanese as if you are bullet trains. You think I understood you?
“Ito” .. sumimasen !!!! Oh. Sorry .. Japanesu .. I tranasaletu fora you.
Communication is the best part in Japan. You do not have to go to the gym in Japan if you a foreigner. You get more aggravated and burn more fat and sweat profusely by talking to Japanese than if you were to go to the gym. Train stations, security guards at the office, McDonalds, hotel reception: All of them give you a top notch work out. I am sure I have lost 3 kgs in the last 3 weeks.
Ok ! About the people at work; It is true not all of them speak English but the people I speak with, most of them have ‘satisfactory’ knowledge of English. To be fair, my skills with Japanese language are nothing compared with their adventures with English. They try very hard to accommodate me, the foreigner. I have to be patient. To cut it short, I actually do well at work. No miscommunications mostly; no worries there.
There are 7000 people working at the main office at Tamagawa; 5 mins from Kawasaki. [no typo there, yes 7000 people in a single location; 2 towers – NEC Japan’s main office]. NEC employs 100,000 people worldwide.
So, how big is this Tamagawa? It has 2 towers – North and South; about 50 floors on each tower. There is a sky link connecting the two towers at the middle somewhere.
How tall are the buildings? I cannot equate – but I get dizzy in the lifts [all glass]. Even from the middle, you can see the skyscrapers as far as Tokyo and Yokohama. On a clear day, yes, indeed you can see Fuji-yama. You can see Tokyo Haneda airport from here. So, they are 2 really tall towers. They have helipads on top of each tower for helicopters to land. The views will become rare sights in the future. There are many other sky scrapers coming all around. It looks like a concrete jungle.
There are 36 lift systems in total – all high tech. You cannot accidentally push the button in the lift – say for example, your laptop bag pushed ‘15th floor’ by accident but you wanted to go to 32nd floor? This can never happen. The buttons have ‘heat’ sensors. A ‘part of your body’ must push the button – else it will not go to that floor. If you accidentally pushed 40th floor you can just toggle it by tapping it again.
They have a massive restaurant, Starbucks, 2 convinient shops, Post office, ATM machines and blah blah.
Restaurant serves 6 different styles of food – Each style has its own menu.
The restaurant can seat 1000 people at a time – but it cannot seat all 7000 during lunch, can it ? So, they have a clever plan!!
Starting at 11:30am, the computer chooses 5 floors at a time and plays a “special music” when it is time for those “occupants of those floors” to go and have lunch. To force them to go out, the computer automatically “turns the lights off” when it plays the music. Ofcourse, there is manual override – But that is useless in Japan.
After 15 minutes, the computer selects another 5 floors and so on. The lights automatically come on ‘one hour’ after it was turned off.
When that music is played, the Japanese do one of two things.
1/ Rush to the restaurant.
2/ THEY SLEEP ON THEIR DESKS
Rumour has it that it is a good thing to sleep on your desk in Japan. I thought it is insulting to sleep on your desk. But in Japan, your boss thinks you are a hard worker if you slept at your desk!! What the bloody fuck? You must have been working all night that the next day at lunch you are overly tired?
Funny though: I only work 9 to 10 hours here. The previous trips, I used to put in 14+ hours each day!! Out of the 9-10 hours, I am in problem resolution meetings for 4 hours every day!! The other times, I am identifying the logical course for technical problems that need to be fixed.
Weekends are a drag. I think I may go to Okinawa or Seoul or some bull place for a weekend. Actually, where is Okinawa?
I am not in a hurry to get to work – I take the 9am train from Kawasaki and I am at my desk 10 mins later. There is this platform announcer for the ‘Nimbu line’ at Kawasaki station. I have nicknamed him GOAT-san!! He speaks properly – except for the last word. Hmm. Imagine, a goat saying the last word. He is hilarious. I am not the only one who thought it was funny. You should see all the Japanese folks. They giggle offcourse, cover their noses as if they are embarrassed! What the heck? I think this announcer has some sense of humour.
That is all for now.
My cousin handed me a spare mobile phone. I have 3 phones with me in Japan now. My personal PHS from NEC Electronics, my Optus Australia phone on roaming, my cousin’s Vodafone Japan WCDMA phone. Jolly good I should say !
Sankyu.
posted by Dingleberry Delight | 2:31 PM
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