Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Emergency
By the watercooler, at work, there is a roll of plastic sandwich bags marked 'FOR EMERGENCY ONLY'. I am trying very hard to imagine what sort of emergency would lead to the requirement of small plastic bags. DOM: I am relying on your unique mind for an example. Please comment.
The food menu for Tuesday reads:
(A)Fried Horse Mackerel Japanese Style Sauce￥550 (B)Boiled Pork Japanese Style Yam Sauce￥500
On the subway today I noticed that most Japanese people have black hair. And the tops of their heads are in line with my eyes. I also noticed that most people's eyes are a couple of inches below the top of their heads. Click - it dawned upon me that I am taller than most. A world first. FANTASTIC. Hmm Damo (tall, white hair) will not go un-noticed.
I got a English language magazine on Monday, and I have pretty much decided how I should (read: want to, should laziness not consume me) spend my time here.
1. Learn some basic Japanese. Go to evening classes on Tue & Thu. Status: Pursued Tony for course fees, got an 8 character response which ended with '-off'. Called centre, places still available. Will get Tony to pay for it tomorrow, out of my salary instead.
2. Try and play some squash. I need to find a squash court. Perhaps some running too. Status: Pending shoes. Perhaps I will buy them this weekend.
3. Buy a hardcore SLR digicam and take photos of all the madness here. I met someone over the weekend who had a large Sony camera. She stopped people on the street, and asked to take their photos. They all more than willingly obliged, largely due to the size of her lenses. No euphemism intented. To me it was obvious that she was perving at all the girls in cute Kimono's, a fact she admitted later after 2 glasses of wine, yet there is an aura of professional integriry that surrounds a Gaigin with a large camera. There is, afterall, a chance that this is a Pro. So it was decided to buy a large camera, and then I, too, can get away with anything. I will stall until my birthday. Status: Budget approved on 1st September.
4. Get some fin-pivot action. There is good diving around these parts, so i just have to get schmoozing with a couple of the diving clubs I have seen advertising. Status: will leave this one until I have a bank account & Alien card here. This will make it substantially easier. Should get some kind of medical cover too. Will get this when I have an Alien card.
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> On the subway today I noticed that most Japanese people have black hair.
This is the kind of searingly incisive social commentary I was hoping for, excellent.
I appreciate the lost and too-intimidated-to-buy-food feeling. First time I was deprived of a recognisable alphabet was in Thailand with their wacky glyph-set. You realised how swiftly you are buggered when you can't recognise the simplest of words from one day to the next.
This is the kind of searingly incisive social commentary I was hoping for, excellent.
I appreciate the lost and too-intimidated-to-buy-food feeling. First time I was deprived of a recognisable alphabet was in Thailand with their wacky glyph-set. You realised how swiftly you are buggered when you can't recognise the simplest of words from one day to the next.
In Sweden there is a type of openish sort of sandwich called a smörgås. Mostly they are ost och skinka (cheese and ham) though other sorts can be found.
These are a famous delicacy in Japan and can cost up to a weeks wages. Traditionally they are only available first thing in the morning, so affluent Japanese workers may occassionaly buy one on the way to work and leave it open on their desks for the morning so they can savor the delightful aroma
while waiting until lunchtime, when they can eat it. If there were to be a need to evacuate the office during the morning (for an earthquake or possibly typhoon warning) the filling of the smörgås may get lost during the panic, so most respectable companies provide emergency sandwich bags by
their water cooling machines so the workers can place their smörgås in a bag as they file past in an orderly manner out of the building. The hapless worker can then forget about the death and destruction going on around him as he tucks into his undamaged and succulent Swedish ost och skinka smörgås.
These are a famous delicacy in Japan and can cost up to a weeks wages. Traditionally they are only available first thing in the morning, so affluent Japanese workers may occassionaly buy one on the way to work and leave it open on their desks for the morning so they can savor the delightful aroma
while waiting until lunchtime, when they can eat it. If there were to be a need to evacuate the office during the morning (for an earthquake or possibly typhoon warning) the filling of the smörgås may get lost during the panic, so most respectable companies provide emergency sandwich bags by
their water cooling machines so the workers can place their smörgås in a bag as they file past in an orderly manner out of the building. The hapless worker can then forget about the death and destruction going on around him as he tucks into his undamaged and succulent Swedish ost och skinka smörgås.
Butler: If i had a smörgås on my desk in the morning, you can be sure that it would never make it until lunch.
In fact, the building I am working in is so unfathomably large (20k+ workers) that despite being brimmed with places to eat, you still must have lunch no later than 11.30 in order not to queue outside the restaurants. Shocking. Now, it's 2pm, and i'm just getting ready for another smörgås. Soon, I will be bankrupt, and shortly after, hungry.
Perhaps the emergency bags can also be used to suffocate the delightful aromas of smörgås until such time as the worker is ready for food. But then they would just be sandwich bags. Not so marketable.
Bell: Quite a few chicks and some guys actually dye their hair, but it is not so common with men. There are no grey haired people here. They outsourced fear, worry and troubles to the American midwest. Which explains why they are so paranoid and deluded.
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In fact, the building I am working in is so unfathomably large (20k+ workers) that despite being brimmed with places to eat, you still must have lunch no later than 11.30 in order not to queue outside the restaurants. Shocking. Now, it's 2pm, and i'm just getting ready for another smörgås. Soon, I will be bankrupt, and shortly after, hungry.
Perhaps the emergency bags can also be used to suffocate the delightful aromas of smörgås until such time as the worker is ready for food. But then they would just be sandwich bags. Not so marketable.
Bell: Quite a few chicks and some guys actually dye their hair, but it is not so common with men. There are no grey haired people here. They outsourced fear, worry and troubles to the American midwest. Which explains why they are so paranoid and deluded.
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