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My days in Japan: V

As the days passed I adjusted myself to the Japanese way of life, the life that was counting each and every second, the life which consisted workaholic weekdays and sometimes weekends too. For first few days I was struggling with my jet lag, I was not used to sleep till 1:30 in the night but very soon I was out of that state. I became confident to go out on my own, to get the monthly pass for my train route from ticket vending machine, to change the trains as per route, to order in the restaurants and to communicate with people in Japanese. I learnt to eat with chopsticks without demanding a spoon or a fork and I started liking the Japanese green tea.
    I found people of Japan passionate to be workaholic, the offices were used to be full of people in the evening and sometimes even in the midnight. Japanese people are very particular to maintain the politeness in the behavior, they do not tolerate even slight impoliteness from their colleagues. They follow these ethics very strictly while dealing with their customers. One would find it very funny to bow frequently or to keep saying "Wo tsukare sama desu" or you are very tired (after doing a lot of work), when you meet or see your colleague in the office or while leaving for the home from office or to accept the visting card from somebody with both of your hands and to keep it only after viewing it in pocket of your shirt at front, not in the pocket of your trouser at the back but these are their business ethics and they expect to follow them from you if you are dealing with them in their country. Sometime it irritates, some time you find it very strange and unnatural but Japanese people are least bothered, they stick to these ethics of politeness in their professional life.
   'Time' is very crucial part of their daily life, they do everything on time and they are very particular about punctuality. If a Japanese person say that he will meet you on certain time then he means it. They don't tolerate if somebody doesn't do something on time for them. My friend shared one incidence with me. During one meeting my friend committed to one of our customer that he will send status report on every day by 3 noon. On very first day when it was just 3:05 and my friend was about to send the report, he received an email from that customer that he still hasn't received a status report. For next 2 days the similar things happened,  my friend sent his reports 5-10 minutes late and he received emails from the customer without fail immediately after 3 that  he is still waiting for the status report. On fourth day when again my friend was late, he received an email from that person in extremely harsh words, saying that if you can not send what you have committed in time then I see very much uncertainty in our business association, you don't have any right to waste our time. When I heard this, I felt that this is too much, this is exaggerated or my friend is trying to fool me. But few days later I went through similar experience.
During the crucial part of our software project, we decided to conduct a meeting once in a week, on Monday, our Japanese counterparts finalized the time for the meeting by considering my convenience, 4 o' clock in the afternoon. At 3:45 my reminder reminded about the meeting and after taking some important printouts I left for the meeting room located at the very other end of the large floor. I entered the meeting room greeted my Japanese counterparts who were already there. The meeting was started and it was over by around 5 o' clock. When I was about to leave the meeting room, our Project Manager asked me to wait. When everybody else was out of that meeting room, he politely told me that now onward please be on time  for the weekly meetings. I was surprised, "I was on time", I replied. He looked at me and said sharply,"no, I think you were not, you entered the meeting room at 4:03 so late by 3 minutes". I thought at first, he must be joking but then realized he was serious. "Even if I am late, its just 3 minutes". "Its not just 3 minutes, these are whole 3 minutes, we count each and every second as crucial and important and you say its just 3 minutes late. Please make sure that you will be present in this room on time from next week or we won't wait for you". I felt ashamed and humiliated, it was my mistake. I remembered that my father always tried to explain me, even on the day of my departure to Japan, to be punctual, to do everything on time but I ignored him as usual. I felt strongly on that day that I should be punctual, I learnt the importance of punctuality in one day which I could not learn in past twenty years.
      Japanese or rather people of Tokyo have passion to travel by trains. The trains are the veins of Japan in general and Tokyo in particular. There are 7-8 private rail companies other than the JR (Japan Railways), the biggest of all. Sometimes I have seen people parking their cars near the station and then traveling by trains. Its the easiest, most economical and most convenient mode of transport. You can just get out  of your home during weekends and can travel aimlessly and fearlessly in Tokyo using its vast rail network. Almost on every line, station and trains, the announcements are bilingual, in Japanese and in English but at few places it is only in Japanese. But there is no reason to worry, if you have the maps and listening practice of the train announcements then you will be just fine. There is one more advantage of travelling by trains, you get opportunity to observe the people or sometime to communicate with the people. Sometimes I could see people in their traditional attire, in 'kimono', may be heading for any religious or cultural event. Younger generation was more comfortable in 'western attire', especially girls were wearing miniskirts even in the cold climate.
 Initially, when travelling by trains, I was feeling like everybody is looking at me or observing me by eye's corner, as I was different than them. But later I realized, it was not like that, nobody was hesitating to sit adjacent to me or looking in a strange manner at me, I was just like any other passenger for them. I started feeling safer to travel alone, to wander aimlessly to see the colorful life of Tokyo.
  Once while returning from the office, my friend forgot to take the box of brand new shoes kept on the upper rack in the train. On the way back to home by walk he suddenly realized that and we went back to station and entered the 'Lost and Found' section. Frankly speaking, I have a objection to call it as 'Lost and Found' section, rather it should be called just as a 'Lost' section because you never find lost objects there, its just a myth that you find your lost things there. That section just gives you a hope, that your lost things will be found and you can collect those from there. With the same mind set I advised my friend that just forget your brand new expensive pair of shoes and buy new one. He rejected my advice and went ahead to enter his details, the description of the lost shoes and the train which was boarded. The person at the desk told my friend that he will be called when the lost thing will be found and then you will need to come with your ID proof. "There was no need to give your phone number, you are not going to receive any phone call, because they are not going to get your lost property ", I muttered in sarcastic tone. My friend smiled and we returned to our home.
     To much surprise, my friend received a phone call from the authorities that there are few things they have found last night and there seems to be a pair of shoes in that, so you can come and can have a look. We visited the 'Lost and found' section that evening, the officer took my friend to their store room and told him to verify. After few minutes my friend came out with smiley face and the box of shoes in his hands. The pair of shoes was found last night and immediately it was brought to lost and found section, after verifying the complaints the authorities called my friend to come, verify, no doubt I was impressed.
     Train journey in Japan is a fun, I enjoyed it throughout my stay and I was so accustomed to that when I came back to India, I could not catch the local trains for many days.

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