Surprises Part 1

There are some things about Japan that will never fail to surprise me. This is probably part 1 of a number of posts because I could go on and on.

The lifespan of businesses here is very puzzling to me. Not necessarily because they last a long time or a short time, but they begin and end so quickly and without warning. A few months ago, I was sitting at a newly established (and now my favorite) coffee shop. When I asked the owner of the shop, Nobu, how he was, he said good but mentioned the loud construction next door. I asked what they were building, and he said a crepe shop to be opened the following week. On my way out, I looked in at what was happening and it looked like a construction war zone. At this point I thought maybe the language barrier had gotten us again. Nobu couldn't possibly have meant that this mess would be a business next week, could he? And yet, the following week there was a cute little shop that now sells crepes and tapioca milk drinks (I almost feel like I don't have to say this, but it is now another favorite place). This all translates to me as a very high work ethic for Japanese people. What I have been told, and have experienced, about working in Japan is that if you look busy, you are busy. I suppose then, since the workers have a lot to do, and will almost always work overtime to do it, these construction jobs get completed very quickly.

Sometimes, I will be walking down the street and notice an empty shop. I'll pause, do a double-take, and realize that just last week that was a manga store or a little obscure business. All of a sudden, maybe after only one day, the shop is empty and there is no trace that the previous business ever existed. It's a little eerie. I'll attribute this to the ninjas.

Not only that, but many physical things outside seem to get done in an extremely timely manner. One day during lunch, I walked out behind my office to go to the coffee shop. When I walked by, there was a group of workers repaving a parking lot. They were maybe halfway through pouring the surface of the parking lot. When I came back out, probably 30 minutes later, everyone was cleared out and there was just tape around it so it could dry. By the next day, it was painted and perfect.

Sitting at the front desk of the bottom floor of an office building, I see a lot of delivery service people delivering packages. If you thought the UPS men were efficient, you ain't seen nothin'. These people run everywhere. They use dollies to cart huge piles of boxes up to the top floor. I never see them walking if the package is small enough to run with it. Luckily, that means that packages arrive pretty fast.

That being said, other things seem to take an abnormally long time to be processed. This is mostly official paperwork about important things, especially dealing with money. My coworker recently got engaged (!) and she is getting married in Japan. I get to hear first hand about how difficult that is. It is especially hard because she is American, her fiancee is French, and they are getting married in Japan. Due to some crazy laws, she has to apply to apply for some sort of paperwork like a marriage certificate or some such. I'm not totally sure what it is, but doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous? And since nothing in Japan is on computers, it is all conducted through physical paperwork.