Things About Japan

I'm fortunate enough to be friends with a very international crowd during a time when the world is made small by the internet. I get to learn about places far and wide, like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, all while I'm experiencing my own, unique life here in Japan.

One friend of mine from college, Jocelyn, is Taiwanese by birth but spent most of her life in the US. She's now living with her family in Taiwan and has been experiencing a sort of double-vision, being both very much a part of the culture and life there and yet very separated from it due to her time in America. The benefit of this, especially for readers of her blog, is a series of entries called "Things About Taiwan," where she explains a variety of things about Taiwan that outsiders to the nation might find interesting.

There are many things about Japan that I want to memorialize in this blog, and yet I often find that I can't tie it in to a larger theme. "Why write a paragraph-long entry, especially when I should write about last weekend..." I also fear that my view is too much the outsider, that I will be making assumptions about a culture that are based in a lack of understanding rather than a full perspective. Still, the will to write these quirks has not faded over my almost year and a half tenure here, so bear with me as I note my "Things about Japan."

You've suffered through a long appetizer, so here is your main course.

Things About Japan - Green Tea
Every day in the office starts off with a cup of green tea. It will always be green tea, and it will always be pipping hot, despite the weather conditions. After this first cup, one can drink whatever one likes, but the first cup must be hot, green tea. In fact, electric water-heaters called "mahoubin" ("magic bottles") are a staple in office settings for the purpose of serving tea. In many places, a specific person is put in charge of the tea preparation; this person is generally a secretary of sorts for the office and, along with his or her other duties, makes sure the mugs are ready in the morning, there is water in the water-heaters, and the tea supply is full. This person does not necessarily serve the tea, however; within the group divisions in the office, the least-senior person is delegated this task. Generally speaking, this is the newest, lowest-ranking woman within the group, though it's becoming more and more common for men to take on this task.

Also, when guests visit an office, they are served a drink within minutes. This is often green tea, hot, though they may be served something different, it seems, if they visit in the afternoon instead of the morning. This drink is often made by the aforementioned tea secretary, though a low-status office member (in this case, it's bound to be a female) may be called upon to do this job if said secretary is unavailable.