Ups and ups at the workplace

Emotion is a strange beast.

Yesterday I went to bed dreading waking up this morning for work. This morning I woke up dreading getting out of bed for work.

Then I got up.

It's about this time my mind just kind of crapped out on me. Emptied itself of emotions or thoughts of any substance. I took a shower, got dressed, brushed my teeth, grabbed all my shit and went out the door. With my iPod on John Prine, some cheesy old country singer I never would've dreamed I'd listen to voluntarily five years ago, I walked to the station. Mind still empty, I waited for the train. Pulled out my iPod to read some more of the Sword of Truth series. Just finished Soul of the Flame last night and started the next book this morning. Got on the train. Got off the train at the next stop to transfer. On the next train. Off. To the bus station. Waited, read some more. On the bus. Off the bus. Into the office. At my cubicle. Turned on my PC.

Hey, you know, this isn't so bad after all. I can do this. It may not be the thing I want to do, but it is what I am doing. So I'm going to make the best of it!

I got to work. As in, I put some real effort into it. That's not saying much, considering all I'm really doing at the moment is just research. I had to teach myself about Microsoft Search Server in order to teach my superior. He said he was thinking about implementing it but wanted to know all the benefits and costs and requirements, but he's not too great at English. (Way better than I am at Japanese, though. Props to him.)

I got the job done. Well, mostly. Now I need to put it in words easier for him (and possibly other Japanese speakers) to understand. I've also got another thing I need to look into, but that's slightly more complicated and will require a bit more time for me, at least, to understand. It's not what I'm used to working with. Data replication for disaster recovery.

With contentedness driving me through the day, I had a much more positive mindset than yesterday. And boy did it pay off!

We had pizza for lunch today. We, the IT team, that is. It was a welcoming lunch for me. When my boss walked up to my desk to tell me about it and ask if I would be able to attend, I of course said yes. When he asked in that super-polite Japanese manner, it came off more as, "Will you grace us with your presence?" than a normal kind of request. It was really kind of hilarious, in an endearing way. Different cultures.

The pizza was pretty great. Shrimp and such, tomato slices. Plus some popcorn shrimp sides and tater tots. Well, not really the tater tots, but the same texture and taste. Different shape. No pictures, sadly. I don't take my camera to work, because I think they'd be kind of freaked out if I did. They're pretty protective of "sensitive data" and such. Anything that can carry data to the outside world, bar pencil and paper, is a big no-no for me, a foreigner. Due to export laws and such. Not that I actually have access to any sensitive data, of course. It's all just precautions. Also I'm sure me having a camera at work out in general is just plain weird. I know I would think it weird in America.

But yeah, a nice lunch. After lunch, though, was another surprise. Monthly cleaning! Who needs janitors when we can do it ourselves! I expected the daily after-lunch speech-which-I-don't-understand, and got it, but afterward was informed that the third Friday of the month is special. Cleaning special. I got suckered into - I mean, I got to vacuum the cubicles in my little corner of the office! How exciting!!

After that, the day went on and I left at about 5:30, satisfied.

Some other peculiarities in the Japanese workplace:

1. Bells chime at certain times, the kind of chimes you'd hear at a church on the hour (only without the following 5-rings-for-5-o'clock sorta thing). But I'm not entirely sure what the pattern is. I know there's a chime at noon for lunch. At noon 45 for after lunch. At 3pm-ish, and again at 5:15pm-ish (quittin' time). But there's also seemingly random chimes throughout the day. Sometimes on the hour, sometimes not. I suspect that the 3pm-ish bell, at least, is for "short calming break time" as it is also accompanied shortly thereafter by a woman and man talking and some calming music. Dunno what they're saying, though. There is so much I don't know!
2. The guards salute as people enter and exit the campus! I'm pretty sure I've never seen that happen in America! They say something in Japanese to go along with the salute that I vaguely understand - but only vaguely.

All in all a grand day.

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And then, a couple hours ago, I went and ate dinner. Some shrimp, egg, sweet chili sauce combination. With rice and egg drop soup. It was interesting. Not bad. But the real fun was tobe had on the way back!

I was stopped by the cops and very confused. They asked if I walk this street every day (after multiple attempts I finally understood the question) and I said yes, because I guess I do now. Then they asked if I walked the street last night. I said yes. They said what time, etc. etc. etc.

Turns out someone broke the door to the little police box there last night. I of course knew nothing about it, and didn't even notice it was broken last night.

Oddly enough, I think that's literally the first time a cop has ever talked to me and asked me questions about anything. Let alone a shameless and horrendous act of vandalism! Oh, the horror!