ThursdayJanuary 26th 2023 - Second through 4th days in the office - Japan trip for work, days 2-5 - not a ton of walking until today

I don't want to write too much.  Basically work has been exhausting.  Working with people from the US West Coast means starting before 8 am.  Doing IT things when it's less likely to bother people means doing it from 6 pm until whenever it's done.  And I've not slept particularly well on any day I've been here.

By the end of today we'd accomplished not just the bare minimum that was planned but also a big optional item.  And Yukie and I walked both to and from the office.  I left the office very early, about 2 pm but what had been hoped to be a 2 hours break before starting evening tasks shrunk to barely 1 hour when I remembered another task that I needed to start and at least have partially complete or it would mess up my evening work plans.  Still, today was shorter and less stressful than all the other days so I have high hopes I'll sleep well.

I've had a variety of food in the past few days.  The lunches have all been bigger than I expected or needed, particularly the Thai noodle bowl from Tuesday.  Yukie and I had some grab and go food yesterday but even that was a heavy lunch.  Last night I was so busy that by the time I could look around for dinner some places were closed. Another place couldn't or wouldn't do take out.  I ended up eating a plate of ketchup spaghetti which wasn't as dreadful as it sounds but I should have microwaved it longer.  I was so exhausted it didn't really matter.  

Yesterday in particular but really my whole work week so far made me think about the Japanese stereotype of the 'salaryman'.  It's basically a white collar middle manager type worker in Japan who has a 'good' job but works long hours, maybe with a very long commute.  I'm only getting a sampling of this but I can certainly see how the expectations (self-imposed as much as external) could lead to a very dreary treadmill of work and commute and limited time with family or for fun.  That said, it also seems clear that it's because so many people work so hard and with such dedication that things are so dreamy perfect here.  The train doesn't run like clockwork arrivals every 2 minutes because somebody showed up to work 30 minutes late and decided 'almost round' was an appropriate share to grind a wheel to.  Everything here feels like it was sweated over because everything WAS sweated over.  So as a resident or a visiting worker you get to experience both the magically meticulous perfection of ordinary things here in Tokyo but also you get to experience the toil that it takes to make all that happen.  I'm truly getting at least a sampling of both on my trip so far.

The pictures are fairly random, just things I felt like photographing including my dinner tonight which was ordered from one of the very common Japanese kiosk machines where (in theory if you don't need help like I did) you walk up and place your entire order and pay for your food all from a kiosk.  You then get a pager and it goes off and you come back and get your food. It's a half step between full service and robotic.

Pictures from the laundry here at the hotel are of the amazingly microscopic box of laundry soap I bought and the washer which was part of a surprisingly large army of 14 washers and 14 dryers all neatly arranged in the hotel's 'con-op laundry center' which is 3 elevators and a good bit of a walk from my room but still in the same hotel technically






Tomorrow, my last full day in Tokyo, should be a shortish day with some sightseeing with Yukie.


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