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Even After X amount of years in Japan I'll never get used to____

Juliet said:
I sincerely believe katakana is the reason Japanese people uniquely struggle so much with English. Many (most?) languages actually use the original English words instead of bastardizing them completely. Not even just the pronunciation but changing the meaning altogether! That must be so hard to unlearn and correct
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I totally agree with you. Using katakana to learn English properly is as futile as using roman alphabet to learn Japanese.
 
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This one came up last night while watching the weather.
It's a pet peeve of mine they Japan is so rigid on weather.

Yesterday was warmer, so it was like mid November.
The rainy season in Okinawa arrive 2 days earlier than last year
The Cherry Blossoms are 10 days late this season

This obsession with dates and times with weather (like my obsession with this obsession) grates me every time. I want to yell at the screen "Haven't you heard of averages "Every day in Mid November is not the same temperature".

I totally get the "it rained a bit more in June than usual", or "Looks like we're gonna get more snow this winter", but the exactitude shits me.

Rant Over.
 
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Rusty Trombone said:
This one came up last night while watching the weather.
It's a pet peeve of mine they Japan is so rigid on weather.

Yesterday was warmer, so it was like mid November.
The rainy season in Okinawa arrive 2 days earlier than last year
The Cherry Blossoms are 10 days late this season

This obsession with dates and times with weather (like my obsession with this obsession) grates me every time. I want to yell at the screen "Haven't you heard of averages "Every day in Mid November is not the same temperature".

I totally get the "it rained a bit more in June than usual", or "Looks like we're gonna get more snow this winter", but the exactitude shits me.

Rant Over.
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September 1 - no lifeguards, no beach huts, can't rent a beach umbrella or body board, drain the outdoor pools.......winter is coming!
 
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Xmas shopping with this in the background..... it is a good Xmas tune...Back Door Santa! (....not purely focused on anal)

 
On a Zoom call with dozens of Japanese now... started 2 hours ago. what I’ll never get used to is the excruciating details they apparently love to get lost into, and the colossal masochistic time-wasting which happens as a result
 
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Frenchy said:
On a Zoom call with dozens of Japanese now... started 2 hours ago. what I’ll never get used to is the excruciating details they apparently love to get lost into, and the colossal masochistic time-wasting which happens as a result
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Not sure if this is what you're talking about, but the needless formalities kind of annoy me at times. How much collective time does it waste as everyone says "よろしくお願いします" "お疲れ様です" etc and other formalities that mean nothing
 
Juliet said:
Not sure if this is what you're talking about, but the needless formalities kind of annoy me at times. How much collective time does it waste as everyone says "よろしくお願いします" "お疲れ様です" etc and other formalities that mean nothing
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Well if it was only that , I’d be happy
But let’s say that I’m more of a « big picture » guy and can’t stand long-winded explanations and debates about small details which could be discussed separately by the few people for which it really matters. It’s not just a Japan-only matter of course. The French can also be super fussy too , in their own way (which is usually more argumentative and even less productive)
 
Juliet said:
veryone says "よろしくお願いします" "お疲れ様です" etc and other formalities
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Those are just social lubricants, and in a lot of meetings, are more productive than everything else that occurs.

Imagine a 4 hour meeting where the guy who wasted a shitload of your time doesn't even thank people for attending....
(Which, FWIW, is something I've most commonly seen with Americans from certain states. States whose mottoes should include "yee-haw".)
 
Frenchy said:
I know right, shocking isn’t it?
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To be fair, though, the most charming person I know is French. Guy could sell refrigerators to an Eskimo village, upsell them for the maintenance contract, and negotiate a ten year renewal when the first one ran out.
 
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Sudsy said:
To be fair, though, the most charming person I know is French. Guy could sell refrigerators to an Eskimo village, upsell them for the maintenance contract, and negotiate a ten year renewal when the first one ran out.
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Are you sure he’s French? Usually our tribe is not great at selling .
 
Frenchy said:
Are you sure he’s French? Usually our tribe is not great at selling .
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This guy is an exception.

Also to be fair, the most repulsive human being I know is also French. But to be fair, he is only the most repulsive person I know because the people more repulsive than him are now deceased. And oddly, not a murder among them.
 
Sudsy said:
This guy is an exception.

Also to be fair, the most repulsive human being I know is also French. But to be fair, he is only the most repulsive person I know because the people more repulsive than him are now deceased. And oddly, not a murder among them.
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i get you. The most repulsive person I knew was French too. Ok, he’s still French and alive (I think) but I just decided to « un-know » him.
 
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Frenchy said:
On a Zoom call with dozens of Japanese now... started 2 hours ago. what I’ll never get used to is the excruciating details they apparently love to get lost into, and the colossal masochistic time-wasting which happens as a result
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My experience in Japan was sort of opposite, but it may have been a bit special. I was not allowed to draft any meeting minutes beyond A4 1-page. My bosses shared a belief that any meeting, however long it maybe, won't go over A4 1-page in substance. I thought it's a bit eccentric corporate culture. Even on a 12-hour meeting (shareholders v bondholders of a company about to go bankrupt), they didn't allow me to write about it over 1 page...they hate any meeting in the office but love night meetings in Ginza which usually go over many pages.
 
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Ken1988 said:
My experience in Japan was sort of opposite, but it may have been a bit special. I was not allowed to draft any meeting minutes beyond A4 1-page. My bosses shared a belief that any meeting, however long it maybe, won't go over A4 1-page in substance. I thought it's a bit eccentric corporate culture. Even on a 12-hour meeting (shareholders v bondholders of a company about to go bankrupt), they didn't allow me to write about it over 1 page...they hate any meeting in the office but love night meetings in Ginza which usually go over many pages.
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count your blessings then !
 
Sudsy said:
Those are just social lubricants, and in a lot of meetings, are more productive than everything else that occurs.
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Agreed. In the Middle East, first 15 minutes of a meeting is usually all about greetings just like super long opening credit roll of an Egyptian TV drama for Ramadan.
 
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Ken1988 said:
Agreed. In the Middle East, first 15 minutes of a meeting is usually all about greetings just like super long opening credit roll of an Egyptian TV drama for Ramadan.
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ah ah, reminds me a meeting I had long ago facing a Kuwaiti or Bahraini (or Qatari ?) bank representatives. For the first 15mn it was indeed diplomatic greetings and such and then suddenly they go like « You Insulted Us ! ».
it’s not that we said anything wrong during the greetings phase , it’s just that once the greetings phase was over they finally addressed the main topic, which is that they were pissed off and mad as hell. It was hilarious.
 
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Well at least you had the nice greeting period. I once worked for a name brand Japanese conglomerate and had to go to Moscow for a meeting with a reseller the first week I started there.

The Russian top guy keeps me waiting 30 minutes after our meeting time, then storms in and without even sitting down to the table goes to a 30 minutes long rant how my whole company and especially me suck dicks.

I was seriously wondering if I should just stand up and go back home but after he blew his steam off he sat down and we were actually able to have a good meeting. Later the same night he took me to a night club where I hooked up with a red haired spinner whom I then continued seeing every time I visited. :D
 
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MikeH said:
storms in and without even sitting down to the table goes to a 30 minutes long rant how my whole company and especially me suck dicks.
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Wait, you worked for Hinomaru?
 
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MikeH said:
Admit it, you have done worse than me in Hinomaru.
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Well, the girl who was so hefty that she lifted my end of the sofa when she sat down.... but to be fair she was actually quite sweet, just very large.
 
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