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I’ve been working as a translator for a Japanese IT (information technology) company since June this year, even though I’m such a computer-illiterate person. lol Anyway, it just happened and my translation work doesn’t really require something technical so much, and even if it does, I can always ask around the engineers to get the exact image.

So my point here is that I’ve got a chance to see inside　of a Japanese IT industry.
I’ve worked at a few Japanese companies so far, but I’ve never ever seen that employees are working day and night almost without sleeping!! In fact, what’s happening in the company I work for now is that delivery deadline is close and employees are staying up (over-time work) till midnight or even till 3 or 4am next morning and then start working from 9am again next day (already the same day!) .

Some male workers are working overnight for 2 days and 2 nights. I’m so shocked to know that. I couldn’t believe what I heard and what’s more, it was even shocking to me that those who are compelled to work like that say it’s how it is and they don’t feel anything about that! I wonder how could such working condition be taken as granted and approved!? (FYI, the company I work for now is a large corporation that every Japanese person from children to the elderly definitely knows its name.) I wouldn’t be able to accept that if I were the worker who had to work like that. I mean, if it’s my own business and my own project and I want to do it overnight with excitement, based on my own will, that would be possible but being kind of forced by a boss and doing this every now and then as a matter or course is just no way to me!! (T___T)

I told this story to some people including my husband and again I was shocked how most of them said that it’d be normal in Japan. I still feel shocked today.

BTW, I found this graph from Expedia Japan how difficult it is for the Japanese to take paid holidays. The graph shows in gray how many paid holidays were given yearly (in 2012) and how many of them were actually taken in red. I remember a German girl told me before that it was normal in Germany to have 30 paid holidays besides some sick leaves. In Japan, we have to use paid holidays for sick leaves. I don’t know if sick leaves are given aside from paid holidays in all of the other countries in this graph. If so, that should be also mentioned to illustrate how our working situation is outstandingly miserable!!

As you can imagine, this company is not doing something illegal. The workers working extra hours get paid extra. This is how the Japanese workers defend the deadline to the death. There’s imbalance of employment in our society that such workers are working like a horse while many people are jobless. Work sharing has never worked out in Japan.

I wonder…would it be normal in your country as well to do over-time work till 3 or 4am and start working for the next day from 9am again and do such from time to time when deadline is close? I can’t believe most of Japanese workers think it’s normal, but what do you think about that?

Just a quick post to introduce you something very weird.
I can never think of such a service and also I wonder if there’s any demand for such a thing. But this is it. It’s a nostril hair notification. What??? (*w*)??
It’s called “Chololi” which is I guess from the imitative word in Japanese that illustrates something is hanging out…

This service can finally make you feel easy (?) to let your friend know that the nostril hair is showing from his or her nose. I see. It’s a delicate issue but it’s also difficult to ignore. Sometimes we’re not sure if we should tell it to friends or just keep silence… ^ ^;;

Oh, good news is that they have their website in English and Chinese as well.

That means you can make use of this service, even if you don’t read Japanese! The following illustration shows how it works.

Fill out this form and hit the “Request” button. Then you can double-check your message before it’s transmitted to your friend.

What’s interesting is that you can actually choose from several options how you’d like to tell it to your friend.
“Don’t request to pull out.”
“In a mild tone.”
“In a strong tone.”
“In a commanding tone.”
“In a scornful tone.”

How did you like that? Be careful not to send out this message randomly, some people might take it serious and get mad at you. ^ ^;;;

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I didn’t even notice there was a pot noodle stand in Shibuya station until the other day!

Do you know Donbei? It’s a long-selling pot udon and soba noodle made by Nisshin, the famous cup noodle maker in Japan. It’s common to see a soba stand (or a udon stand) in a train station, but I’ve never seen a pot noodle stand ever before. I thought it was new but I was wrong. It’s been there since Nov. 2010, according to their website. It was supposed to be a limited-time shop but they didn’t close the shop because people just loved it so much.

I’d have felt quite embarrassed to take pictures there if there had been more people around. But it was in the daytime and there were not many people around.

It seems that they serve Donbei that is usually limited to certain areas such as “only available in Hokkaido” for example.

Each Donbei seems to be priced 200yen or so here, served with hot water, while it’s sold at about 100yen at supermarkets. I see.
It’s a Donbei character fox. As always, setting an image character for a certain service or product is quite important in Japan. That’s how the service or the product is spread smoothly in Japanese market. But the point is that the character must be kawaii or cute, as you may notice! ^_^

I must say it represents how our economy situation is bad. Working men may live with instant noodle lunch as cheap as 200yen and they finish their lunch within 10 minutes. The other day I also saw a young working man who bought 2 pastries and 1 yogurt as his lunch and paid 187yen at a supermarket. It looks like a breakfast but he would work until 8 or 9pm. I think I’m eating more than that guy, and I’m already starving before 8. :p

As for myself, I don’t like pot noodle so much, but I believe many people love it. It’s true it’s cheap, easy and handy. A pot noodle station…but I don’t think it will be well-received in Europe, for example. How about other Asian countries or in your country? What do you think??