The Return

Soon, is comming the moment i return back to my country but I also am conceiving a return in Japan in the futur. The time of goodbyes is one that everyone do but it seems to differ from culture to culture with one thing in common, it seems sad. Some people prefer to try and see it as a new begining and a chance to meet in the futur. To be able to return one must leave in the first place or in the last ....

Hard working

Today, i was speaking with my Uncle thanks to the marvel of techonlogy and we came on the discution about Japanese working "harder" and i was very happy to explain to him the concept that hard in Japan means more spending alot of time to work compared to his own working hard would be putting up with the occasional overtime were as here it would be expected. It is nice to see that over time i finaly can see that i undertsand and i can explain to him but the key work of the day was ... "different", because actually thats what it is different.

How far ahead is far?

Since i came to Japan i have seen alot of people with schedule planner and a small book to put all that in. I was always wondering how usefull it is since im more a day to day person even though i plan thing ahead of time by a far marging usually. Yesterday, i have been confronted with the mesurement of time with cultural distortion. One of my Japanese friend came to ask me when i was leaving because i might not be able to seen him again. This was not a big surprise but when he went to ask another person of my circle, I was. He had half the next year meetings all planned out in this small book with everything else he already has plan for that half a year. I was greatly impressed as sometimes i ask people or I am asked what i do in the weekend and I dont know sometimes until the friday night. Seems that it is the same for everyone here as Japanese have a long term view on things and this reflect to the "everyday day" planning that seems to expend to half years. I wonder how many people know what tey will do on the 15 of Septembre already which is part of the "daily" life schedule...