X. Spring

Spring in Tokyo is quite a spectacle. This week, all the cherry trees in the city decided to bloom simultaneously, turning the parks and boulevards of the city into bright swatches of pink. On Wednesday I went cherry-blossom viewing with a couple of JPP classmates. During our lunch break we went to Hibiya Park, which has immediately become one of my favourite spots. This verdant pocket of tranquillity right in the middle of busy Marunouchi is an example of what I love about Tokyo. It has got an idyllic pond and a beautifully landscaped garden- surrounded by some of Tokyo’s tallest high-rise buildings. I love this contrast. Later in the afternoon, we went to the Ichigaya area where we walked along a boulevard lined with cherry trees. Salarymen were taking pictures of the blossom with their cell phones and students sat on blue plastic sheets for an early hanami. As the sun set, the slanting evening light rendered the blossoms almost transparent and made them look even more delicate. As I strolled down the boulevard, taking lots of pictures and gazing out over the river, I could completely understand the Japanese fascination with this fragile and transient beauty. It made me think of Lucebert’s poem ‘de zeer oude zingt’(the very old one sings), famous for its much-quoted line ‘alles van waarde is weerloos.’ (all that is valuable is defenseless)

On a more mundane level, this week at Hitachi has been busy but interesting. The research assignment I got from one of my bosses turned out to be more difficult and time-consuming than I had expected. I love a challenge, but in the end I wasn’t completely satisfied with my piece; basing research on online sources only is something I’m still very sceptical about. However, my boss seemed content with the end result and announced with a smile that more research work was to come. But for the time being I focused on assisting with the preparation for the HISTEP orientation day, cutting and folding nametags. On this orientation day the Japanese teachers that will be going to the US and Europe as part of the HISTEP exchange programme were briefed about their stay abroad. The first part of the day consisted of discussing practicalities concerning travel and the exchange programme’s schedule. It was relatively easy to follow and amusing at times, as every little detail was addressed and often discussed in great length. The teachers worried about things like fitting everyone’s luggage in a European taxi (a problem that we Westerners would just solve on the spot) or whether there would be a blackboard in the classroom (I assured them that yes, usually, European classrooms provide for adequate teaching material). Although this Japanese trait of meticulously planning everything beforehand often seems funny and sometimes stifling, it must be said that when Japanese plan something or create a schedule, there are very few mishaps or delays. Still, I think they go too far sometimes in their desire to plan and control everything beforehand, focusing more on the dangers and difficulties of such a trip than anticipating the pleasure it will give.

A similar principle applies to business meetings. I am, for example, allowed to sit in on the team’s weekly meetings on Friday mornings (to my surprise, I can understand a reasonable part of what is being said). What strikes me about these meetings is that we spend a lot of time going over what has been discussed last week, checking off whether everything is still going according to plan (it always is) and only discuss a handful of new additions to the unit’s planning, which, of course, have been discussed beforehand in one of the countless uchiawase (preliminary meetings). Coming from a country where holding meetings and reaching consensus are essential elements of the decision-making process, I understand why regularly confirming we’re still on the same page can be key to the team’s success, but sometimes I wonder whether all those meetings are really helping us improve our performance. Then again, if precision and perfection are what you’re going for, then the Japanese approach is definitely the best.

Luckily, it’s not just ‘all work and no play’ in the office. On Monday the China Business Department took me out for lunch in a traditional Japanese restaurant. It was great! They are a very lively group and asked me lots of questions. And although I can hold my own in casual conversation, I was glad they had a lot of patience, rephrasing or clarifying their questions in Japanese instead of switching to English, as some people do. It was great to get to know them better and I’m truly in awe of the Chinese in the team, whose Japanese is virtually accent-free. Apart from the Chinese team, we (my female colleagues and I) regularly have lunch with women from other departments and today, we had lunch with several men from our team as well. At the moment I am really looking forward to next week, as I will attend the 入社式 (welcome ceremony for new employees) next Tuesday. I’m curious to see what kind of people from my generation start working for Hitachi and how they are welcomed. I’m sure it will be another memorable ‘only in Japan’ experience and I will definitely write about it in my next report.