Work Routine

So how is life in Japan, really? Well it’s amazing overall, but my average workday is fairly structured by now and thus my week can be mundane at times, as I imagine the traditional working world can occasionally get. Sometimes at work I even forget I am in Japan.

My room is on the 4th floor of building A (of two) of the Hitachi Chemicals dorms. There are a total of 6 rooms on my floor, but there are only two other coworkers on my floor. I never see my neighbor (I don’t even know his name…) and the other guy (Maruyama-san) lives on the opposite end of the hall, by the bathrooms. I do “hang out” with Maruyama-san, and he sometimes gives me a ride to work in the mornings, especially if I am running late.

So my workday usually began with a shower/bath, when I still woke up at 5am without being able to fall back to sleep. Now, I either wake up too late to fit in a shower and still be on time, so I either do that the night before or I just don’t. But as I have previously said, I really like the Japanese bath system, especially after biking from work for 30 minutes in the freezing rain. Also, since breakfast is provided I tend to eat it (when not running late) although I don’t normally.

Getting to work can be an adventure sometimes. There is one bus that gets there in about 20 minutes and everyone from my dorm who takes the bus (maybe 6 of us) takes it at 7:30am. I did too until I realized that there is another bus that departs at 8am, and gets me to work just in time. I do not know why nobody else takes it, but I just enjoy my 30 extra minutes of sleep. I rode my bike to work once, and it was fine but on the way back there was freezing rain, so I basically parked the bike on the road and took the bus. It rained for 2 days after that, and so the bike stayed on the sidewalk all that time. Good thing that crime in Japan is way low, compared to the US or Mexico. On the third day it was only cloudy so I picked up my bike and started riding, but of course it had to rain again. I just sucked it up and rode home anyway (yeah hot tubs are great sometimes). I haven’t ridden to work again, but mostly because it’s always raining (and they told me the rainy season is in June). Other days, I get a ride with a coworker.

After getting to work, I swipe my ID card at the front door, change my shoes, and go to my desk on the third floor. Then I turn over my nametag on the whiteboard from red to white, signifying that I am in fact present and then I walk to the fourth floor locker room. Here I change into my uniform. Then I grab my two plastic bottles from my desk and go to the break room to fill up on water, something my coworkers never do, because not buying overpriced drinks from a vending machine would mean giving up one’s Japanese citizenship.

After this I usually work until lunch when, if the weather is nice, I inhale my food (though not as quickly as some of my peers, hmm Japan and eating competitions, sound familiar?) so that I can still have circa 30 mins to play tennis. Basically I am the worst tennis player here and my serves are pitiful, but they tolerate me and it’s fun overall. On Mondays there is a company-wide gathering to discuss things like safety, financial stuff, or other announcements, but they are kinda boring and in Japanese so I have stopped going to them. After the meeting though, we all throw out all the trash from our lab and desk area. There is surprisingly a lot of waste, from gloves and towels, to pipettes (I now refer to them only as spoids) and glass, but at least they dispose of it correctly.

Some days my lab group has a joint, elongated break at 3pm, full of overpriced drinks and the occasional candy. With my experiments, there is a lot of downtime as I wait for things to filter or dry or react, etc. so I take short breaks throughout the day. When people do this they normally go to the break room or the smoking room, but I tend to go to my desk and use the interwebs. Since the net at work is super restricted though, I read the news, which I never do normally.

After work I ride the bus back to the dorm and go to dinner. The remainder of the night is usually spent either reading, laundry, or playing games on my iPod.

So there is the glorious story of a chemical intern in Tsukuba, Japan.