IX. Museum

Living, working and studying in Tokyo is a typical case of “work hard, play hard.” Work hard: although my working hours are more than decent and the work itself is very interesting, I am genuinely tired each night. At Hitachi, I have been working on my Corporate Social Responsibility research assignment, drawing up a framework and research questions. I’m very enthusiastic about this research project and don’t mind a little 残業 to make a deadline. Apart from this research, I sometimes get additional tasks such as translating or doing some research for projects that the team’s members are working on. The newspaper cuttings and magazines that are read by my colleagues are also passed onto me. I try to read most articles and grasp at least the essence of what is written, but I find my lack of kanji-knowledge renders me virtually illiterate. Especially since when someone reads parts of the article out loud to me, I can understand what is being said. This can be frustrating at times, although I try to give it a positive spin, trying to memorize new kanji as I encounter them in e-mails and the like. When it comes to using the Japanese-language version of Windows I can generally circumvent the problem as I have enough experience to know where I can find commands, even though I can’t read the kanji.

Play hard: whenever I have an afternoon to spare, I try to go and explore a new part of Tokyo. Last week on Wednesday I met up with some other JPP students for a drink at one of our favourite cafes in the Shin-Marunouchi building. An essential part of the Tokyo experience: drinking coffee & tea on the 7th floor terrace with CoolJazz floating out of the speakers and a view of the Marunouchi skyline. That day we also explored Ueno, strolling around the Tokyo University campus and having dinner at a dodgy izakaya crammed with blue-collar workers. This Wednesday was memorable as well. Although I must admit that I don’t know a lot about video games and had expected to hear a bit more about the company during our site visit to Sony ComputerEntertainment, it was nice to see how advanced the latest game computers are. I loved the idea of linking PS3’s worldwide to create a supercomputer capable of the most intricate calculations. It rather reminded me of SETI, a project that uses linked-up PC’s in order to scan the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life forms. It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but it is, in fact, a serious research project by the University of California, Berkeley.

Inspired by futuristic ideas, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi. It was terrific! We had an amazing view over Tokyo and saw some great pieces of art. The visit reminded me of how much I love modern/contemporary art and so I decided to spend part of my free (but rainy) Thursday at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, which was equally impressive. This is one of the things I love about living in a metropolis like Tokyo: there is such a large volume and variety of museums to choose from and you can pretty much go and visit one whenever you feel like it as some stay open until late. It is nice to get out of the city once in a while, like I did last weekend when I went for a hike at Mount Mitake, but museums and cultural life in general keep pulling me back to the city. There are more cultural things I still want to experience, such as a tea ceremony or a Kabuki play, so I’ve started to compile a list- I don’t want to miss a thing.