XVIII. Tea

Although I try hard not to think too much about it, the end of the Japan stay is gradually coming into view. June will be a very busy month at work, with me spending the first two weeks at different divisions. After that, I will be busy helping to organize the HISTEP conference, and little time will remain for my own research into CSR. In July I will be working on my final presentations (in addition to the JNI presentation, I am also expected to give a presentation at Hitachi). All this means that I am now working hard to finish a draft version of my Corporate Social Responsibility research report before the end of May.

I must say that I am looking forward to working with the other divisions for a while. My own division, GBR, is great, but it would be nice to get a broader view of the company’s activities. The first week in June I will be working with Hitachi’s internal branding division. The second week will be spent with advertisement. Last week, someone from branding came over to discuss my tasks for the four days I will be spending with them. This turned out to be a fine example of the non-communication that can occur in a Japanese setting. According to the schedule he had received, I had supposedly spent several weeks with different divisions already and given numerous presentations in Japanese. I was surprised- my schedule had the same date stamp on it, but was completely different. Assuming that I had lots of experience giving presentations in Japanese, the branding colleague proposed I conduct several surveys and use the results for a 20-minute powerpoint presentation- in Japanese, of course. Seeing my surprise, he suggested that if this was a problem, I could also give a presentation in English. But then he added that 80% of the audience probably wouldn’t be able to follow it. Indirect communication, anyone? In the end we decided that I would send him a summary of my work at the GBR division, and have another meeting to further discuss what I can do at branding. I hope my boss will be there as well, so they can straighten out their miscommunication errors.

With the “finish line” in sight, I have also made a list of non-work related things I should go see and experience. This week, I have been able to cross several off my list. Last Wednesday I went to the Kanda festival, to go see an open-air Nōh performance. Like natto, uni sushi or karaoke, Nōh is an acquired taste. Many people think this art form too highbrow or longwinded. But I was mesmerized. The hypnotic music, the fantastic costumes, the highly stylized dances and the simple story lines make for a unique form of fairytale-like theatre. The performance lasted three hours and consisted of a Gagaku performance, two acts of Nōh theatre and one Kyogen comedy piece. Unfortunately the seats we could afford were located at the back of the festival tent so we had to look over several heads- if I ever get the opportunity to go see a Nōh performance again, I will select better seats.

Another must-see on my list was the Sanja Matsuri at Asakusa, which I visited on Saturday. Moving through the crowd I felt as if I was in the train at rush hour; the place was packed. Luckily I was taller than most female visitors and therefore able to see most of the procession of Mikoshi. What a great experience! As the Mikoshi passed by, people were almost dancing, clapping their hands and cheering on the bearers, shouting something like “oisa.” It struck me that many of the bearers were women, although not the exquisitely manicured Ginza-kind. After the parade I sampled various Japanese foods at the countless stalls.

On Sunday, I had been invited by two ladies from my choir (both in their sixties) to attend a 茶の湯 (cha no yu, tea ceremony). One of the ladies, Oyama-san, has a mother (aged 86!) who teaches the tea ceremony to younger Japanese women. Together with four pupils, I sat down on the tatami mats of a specially reserved room in the older lady’s tiny apartment. Using proscribed, stylized movements, one of the pupils made us a thick and tasty kind of matcha. Oyama-san’s mother taught me the appropriate way of accepting the cup offered to me- when to bow, what to say, how to pick up the cup, how to hold it, from which side to drink, and where to place it when finished. It turns out that the tea ceremony is also an exercise in geometry, with objects placed at specific positions on the tatami, evenly spaced and in a set order. Basically the tea ceremony is an exercise in politeness, with cups being offered and accepted in a way that is mutually pleasing. With all this formality, I was surprised at the relaxed atmosphere. Only our host managed to remain in seiza position (sitting on the knees) throughout the ceremony (she has been trained to do so since childhood), and in between cups the women were chatting away, telling stories, making jokes and asking me all sorts of questions. All in all it was a unique experience that most short-term visitors to Japan won’t be able to experience. I did not have to pay any tuition (which is, incidentally, very elegantly presented in a white envelope placed on a spread fan), but I did bring some small Dutch gifts. They were unwrapped (!) and very well received: it’s amazing to see what effect tulips and windmills have on Japanese.

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.