Office Politics

Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Happy Easter - I hope you are enjoying the day. Today is a really nice spring day in Tokyo, clear, and short sleeves weather. I've been working on the income tax but plan to get out shortly. I have picked a fairly famous garden that I plan to go to.

This week I thought I would tell you about the office politics instead of the standard description of the cherry blossoms, temples, shrines, or festival. There are office politics in Japan just like I suspect there are in every country. It is fun to watch them here because it is a bit like a silent movie - you can't understand what they are saying but you can deduce what is happening.

All of the engineers, and therefore guys, work on the other side of the building and you have to walk over there. As soon as you walk in you are out of place and accordingly there is nothing to see. But on our side it is much more interesting. We have Japanese secretaries, all women. They speak the best english at least partially because they are more frequently around westerners. The men are always called by their last names and add -san which is the typical sign of respect, similar to calling someone Mr. Smith instead of Jim. But the women we call by their first names and add -san. And they call us by our first names so I am Frank-san. If we were following standard Japanese protocol we would all call each other by our last names.

On Thursday I went to dinner with Hatta-san who is my project manager counterpart in Chiyoda. They know I will eat about anything and he took me to a specialty sushi restaurant in Tsurumi where we work. I had eaten everything there before, so not only did I not leave anything on the plate, I spouted off the names and told the owner how good it was in Japanese. This impressed her to no end and she spent about 15 minutes telling me how wonderful I was to eat fried fish head, sea urchin, and beach clams. Hatta-san was translating and it was just like in the movies. She would speak about 90 seconds and then Hatta-san would say "She said she has never seen an American who likes sea urchin". And I would wonder how come it took 90 seconds to say that.

Anyway, I used all the polite Japanese I knew and the staff followed us out of the restaurant. Most of them wanted to shake my hand and I got plenty of bows. The next day I was semi-famous at work and one of the Japanese engineers told me that even he didn't like sea urchin. Actually it isn't too bad - it is just mushy and doesn't look too appetizing.

I finally went to the seafood market here in Tokyo last Sunday. They were "butchering" a huge tuna at one place - it was as big as a cow. So I said to the guy "Maguro desu ka?" which means "Is it tuna?". They love this and you usually get about 2 to 3 minutes of reply in Japanese of which I catch very little. But this guy kept it simple and I caught some of it - he ended up giving me a piece to take away. Even knowing a little bit of a language can go a long way.

Well, I have put off the income tax long enough. I also have to get ready for the trip to see David in LA.

Have a wonderful Easter.