Beverage Culture

Today was my first full day in the office. Having absolutely nothing to do (as school doesn’t start until the end of August), I basically sat around and studied kanji all day. I “worked” from 8:30 am to 4:15 pm and was allowed a one-hour, paid lunch break, during which time I went home and made a grilled cheese. This actually seems shorter than an American workday to me but I’m pretty sure that JETs don’t work nearly as many hours as everyone else. I’m told that educators in Japan generally work fewer hours than people working in other sectors, for whom 8:00 am to 12:00 am workdays are routine (especially if you figure in “mandatory” after work drinking parties and such). As Charlie later said to me, “It’s like going home to see their wives is the last thing they want to do.” I think in reality, it’s probably slightly more nuanced than that, although it cannot be denied that Japanese work culture often has a chauvinistic slant to it.

On that topic, I’ll briefly address the topic of beverages in Japanese offices. It’s widely believed that there are young women whose primary responsibility is to serve tea to their male superiors. From what I have observed so far, that is entirely true. Whenever someone from outside the office visits to talk to someone, it’s customary to bring out tea for all parties involved (usually Japanese green tea or iced mugicha-barley tea), even if no one drinks it. So that day that I went around visiting everyone, I drank probably 10 cups of tea. Cups are very small here, though.

There are four people who work in my office, not including me; Kondoh-San (my boss), Mrs. Okubo (the office assistant) and two other mysterious office ladies. One of them is responsible for, among other things, the distribution of beverages throughout the day, to both normal staff and visitors. Here is a rough schedule of beverages that were delivered to those working in my office today (note that they were simply presented to me without my asking):

8:20 am – Arrive at work
9:00 am – Iced Mugicha
10:30 am – Coffee
12:00-1:00 pm – Lunch Break
1:30 pm – Iced Mugicha
3:00 pm – Cappuccino

I must admit, it’s actually quite nice to have these things spontaneously delivered to my desk, aside from the subservient position that it puts the office lady in. I’ve never heard of (or seen) a man working in such a position in Japan but I suppose that’s just how it works. I have been told by other JETs though, that the type of service I’ve observed in my office is somewhat atypical.