Vacation Time

When I first saw my employment contract, one of the things that I was very excited about was the 20 days vacation. Add this to the 3 weeks in Japan where all offices are closed (New Years, Golden Week, and Obon in August), and I was looking at enough vacation to visit the fam and still have time leftover for travelling through Asia...

Only - and I guess I should have realized this - no one takes their vacation time for vacation!! Several reasons exist for this craziness:

1. It seems that "vacation time" and "sick time" are the same thing. I.e. if you are sick you have to use vacation days to be at home. I.e. frigging everyone around me is sick right now and still at work. Wonder why I keep getting colds? I digress.
2. A person who takes vacation is considered to be a slacker. Yeah, good old Japanese hard working mentality. Must...continue...working...for 45 years....without ever taking a day off...Seriously, that is the goal of some people here.
3. NOT a reason - they are too busy. Seriously. They aren't.

Luckily for me, I have some gaijin smash power. Like the batting of the eyelashes to get my husband to do my bidding ;), it is something that should not be overused. Basically, the idea** is that Japanese people consider foreigners to be very different anyway, and will accept the things you do as the actions of a foreigner and allow you to do it.

Vacation is important though. So coworkers may not like it, and think I am a slacker, but I get my vacation time approved. I use my vacation days. As vacation. For example, I will be gone the ENTIRE WEEK next week. And I was gone THE ENTIRE WEEK in October when friends came to visit. Scandalous, でしょう？

By the way, getting vacation time approved is not a given! A friend of mine (who worked for the known most evil boss of the company - notice I said worked), asked for ONE DAY off after Golden Week to travel back to Japan since all the weekend flights were booked. ONE DAY. 1. He said no. Just 'cause. She had to cancel her entire vacation.

**I must acknowledge that the great Az came up with this term and explained it on his website in a much more humorous manner than I. Check out www.gaijinsmash.net.

Party Postscript

It wasn't that bad. Yes, everyone was wearing yukatas*, and yes, I got a glimpse of more than one co-workers underoos, but it was actually (other than the underwear sighting) kind-of fun. It helps that I won the trivia game...yay for a gift certificate!!

*A kind of Japanese robe, like a kimono but cotton, and provided by the Inn.

Party Plans, Updated

So tonight is the big "end of the year" (忘年会) party. From what I can figure out, the Legal Department here is pretty "special"-instead of just going out for a few hours and then drunkenly stumble about trying to catch the last subway home - we actually "get" to go to an overnight party.

Yes, thats right. Overnight. How would you like to share a room with your 45-year-old (female, thank god) colleague after a night of drinking? Yeah, didn't think so. Turns out Mr. Head of Department loves him some Onsen (that is public bath for you non-Japanese speakers) and this hotel has a great one.

Oh wait, didn't I mention that yet? Yes, indeedy. A public bath. As in, naked bathing with the people you have to see all year long. At least the public baths here are separated by sex. But still. Naked. How will I look at Ms. 45 again?

And the best part? There are actually 5 women in the Legal Department (out of 20, and 3 are secretaries, but still.) Of them, the 3 that have been here longer than a year (i.e. were here for last year's party) are not going.

Should I be worried??

"Voluntary" Parties

Work Parties in the US:
Time: a few hours
Occurance: once a year
Cost: free

Work Parties in Japan:
Time: at least 3 hours. Overnight stay (without significant others) at an inn for the holiday party.
Occurance: at least 6 times a year.
Cost: $30 a month, plus $30-50 per person per party

Which would you choose? And guess what I "get" to do this Friday?

Ugh.

Contract Review

Officially, I am "International Corporate Counsel" - how cool does that sound? :) And although I have some pretty cool sh** that I get to do, most of my job is contract review.

In the states, I think, corporate counsel will directly negotiate a contract. Here, however, that is rarely done. Rather, Mr. X from Y department gets a contract from Company Z. I look at it, revise it, and give it back to Mr. X (and yes, it is always a Mr.). Then he goes to Company Z, which hands it off to their in-house counsel, etc etc.

I actually got an email today explaining the appropriate process to have a contract received from a subsidiary signed by someone here at HQ. It involved no less than 8 people. 8. And this is after the dang thing has already been negotiated, reviewed, edited, etc.

I think the biggest thing I am learning is how a big company - especially a big Japanese company - works. Heaven forbid we actually insult No. 3 of 8 and go directly to No. 4 instead. horrors! loss of face! impropriety to the extreme!

And people wonder why it takes us so long to get things done...

Morning Exercises

Every morning at 8:15, the 300-odd people in my section all stand up as tinny piano music begins to play over the loudspeakers. A female voice gives polite encouragement. All around me, people stare off into space and - with varying degrees of enthusiasm - begin the exercises.

The first few months, I pretended I was too busy - urgent emails, memos, anything so that I could stay seated and hide my laughs at my colleagues. I even made a surreptitious video to show my friends.

Now, however, I stand up as well. I reach for my toes, then reach to the sky. I swing my arms back and forth to stretch my back. I even do jumping jacks. And I wonder why, when the exercise music starts up again at 2 pm, when we could all use something to wake us from out post-luncheon stupor, no one stands up.

Group exercises - a caricature of Japanese working life, the life of a "Salaryman" - is now among the things that occupy my days. So welcome to my new blog - a place for me to document, when the mood strikes, the strangeness working in Japan - as a woman, an American attorney, and especially, as a foreigner.