Works Leaving Party

It was my leaving party for work last night. There was a big schmancy do the other week for the others that were leaving, which i missed as i was in china, so last night was a more cosy affair, with just my closest work friends. we started off at a lovely sashimi restaurant, followed by karaoke. had such a good night, but it was tinged with a great deal of sadness as i am very very fond of these people. professionally we have all had disagreements, but we've always been able to go out for a beer afterwards and be the best of friends. i finish work tomorrow (incidentally exactly a year to the day that i finished work in malsysia with Lotus), but i will be back in the office next thursday after i get back from hk/china.

i am going to really miss working here, and the people especially, its been an incredibly interesting time, and especially seeing the different working culture, which is like nothing i have experienced before. businesses here are built on relationships and trust, which often goes against any logical business or financial sense, which i have to admit, has probably been the biggest frustration working here. for example, parts sent from suppliers werent measured before they were sent here, (and these parts have to be correct to 1000ths of millimetres), but they werent measured by them, as it was seen as being rude and distrustful to ask suppliers to measure the parts, as 'we trust that they are correct' was the attitude here....now that is actually one thing that, although is a cultural thing, had to change, and was a real battle to change their attitudes, but things like that make working abroad fascinating.

its also hard here as you aren't allowed to raise your voice to anyone. in europe it is common place to raise voices in arguement in the work place, that simply isnt tolerated here, you really have to bite your tongue sometimes, and discussions can often take hours as people have to skirt around confrontation, rather than get to the heart of the matter, even trying my best, i have been accused of sometimes being 'too western'.

i guess the other major difference here is learning how to talk and have meetings/presentations through an interpreter. again, in the western world, meetings turn into open discussions, and presentations simply flow, working with a translator however, you have to speak, stop, wait, listen, reply...again, this makes some meetings take forever! and is difficult, if you want to jump in and make an important point, you simply have to wait until there is a natural gap in conversation...theres been many occasions where we've been in quite a heated meeting with the japanese team, and we've had big big disagreements, where we have asked them to do something, and they then go on a rant for about 10 minutes in japanese, then tomomi or which ever translator will simply translate back 'ok'...i mean, what was the rest of the 10 minute rant about??!! she has actually told me that she often has to tone down the words used by both parties, and has refused to translate a few things which were overly confrontational...apparently a colleague of mine was once sworn at by a a japanese colleague, which of course she never translated! never underestimate the job of a translator...

i dont think youll find a more challenging cultural different working environment than japan, and yes it can be frustrating at times, but im really going to miss it, and the people especially...