Thursday, July 27, 2017

Lifestyle -- Karoshi

This is another post for the series Lifestyle. About time.

I must have described already the dedication the Japanese have for work. And I must have mentioned already how important (or perhaps committing) a person's job is in this society. So important, in fact, that causes thousands of deaths linked to stress, exhaustion or overwork every year. Companies even emphasise the importance of medical checks relative to psychological state, and sleep deprivation as a form of prevention, with the hope that workers, in all honesty, would communicate their issues and seek help before it's too late. 

The Japanese language, to my knowledge, is the only one that has one word (with kanji) to describe death from overwork: karoshi (過労死). It says it all.

The worrying increase in number of hours of overwork (estimated to be about 300 hours in a year) on one hand, and the worrying decrease in spending on the other have forced the government to take measures towards establishing a balance: the Premium Friday campaign was born, kicked off in February this year.

This campaign basically invites workers to leave early (around 3pm) every last Friday of the month in order to stress less and enjoy life more, without their salaries or conduct being affected. It is now July, nearly a semester after the launch. Does it work? Well, probably we can guess the answer.

The sense of guilt all employees feel at the idea of leaving so early just for one day in a month is palpable. In many cases, still, company heads just don't adhere the initiative - maybe the bosses are old style and think that if they were hardworking in their time, so should their employees now - and in the case companies embrace the idea, although employers try several ways to motivate (or even force) their people to leave at 3pm, workers simply keep doing what they are doing.

Workaholism? Judgement fears? Consideration for others? Respect for authority? Whatever the reason, this Premium Friday campaign is not going as desired. Workers still clock-in several hours of overwork per week, feeling exhausted and missing out on life. Responsibility, guilt, honor, and image are the pillars of this society; even though ads, special discount offers, shopping campaigns, and tips on how to spend the few extra hours of the day jointly contribute to convey the message, workforce's ears refuse to listen. And I mean, all in all it does seem the Japanese can enjoy life, if they really are to do it...

Where I work, there are no premium Fridays, but we gather at the cafe in campus more than one Friday a month (after working hours eh?) and make our contribution to the weak Japanese economy. I guess we are safely away from the karoshi zone. Gambare Nihon! Kanpai!

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Ecco un altro post sulla serie Lifestyle. Era pure ora.

Devo gia aver descritto quanto i giapponesi siano dedicati al lavoro. Devo anche aver gia detto quanto sia importante (o forse vincolante) il lavoro in questa società. Cosi importante, infatti, che causa migliaia di morti legati a stress, spossatezza o sovraccarico. Addirittura le varie compagnie danno tantissima importanza ai controlli medici, soprattutto riguardo allo stato psicologico e alla carenza di sonno per prevenire il peggio, con la speranza che i lavoratori, in tutta onesta, comunichino i problemi e cerchino aiuto prima che sia troppo tardi.

Per quanto io ne sappia, mi pare che il giapponese e’ l’unica lingua ad avere una parola che significa proprio morte per straordinario: karoshi (過労死). Beh, dice tutto.

Il preoccupante aumento delle ore di straordinario (pare siano come 300 all’anno) da una parte, e il preoccupante calo della spesa media dall’altra hanno forzato il governo a prendere provvedimenti seri per ristabilire un equilibrio: ecco che a febbraio di quest’anno nasce la campagna Premium Friday (venerdì premio).

In pratica, quello che si vuole fare e’ invitare i lavoratori a uscire prima dall’ufficio (tipo alle 3) ogni ultimo venerdì del mese, cosi da potersi stressare meno e vivere meglio, senza essere minimamente preoccupati per una nota sulla condotta o abbassamento di stipendio. Ora, siamo arrivati a luglio, quasi mezzo anno dopo, e cosa e’ successo? Praticamente non e’ cambiato granché.

Il fortissimo senso di colpa che gli impiegati portano addosso solo al pensiero di andare via prima, anche solo un giorno al mese, e’ palpabile. Spesso sono proprio i direttori che non aderiscono all’iniziativa - chissà, forse pensano che siccome loro hanno sofferto un tempo, ora devono soffrire i loro impiegati. Pero’ ci sono anche casi in cui i capi accarezzano l’idea, anche se devono inventarsi modi geniali per motivare (o costringere in certi casi) i dipendenti a andare alle tre. Di fatto, nessuno si muove. Stacanovismo? Paura di essere giudicati? Considerazione per gli altri? Rispetto dell’autorita? Qualsiasi sia il motivo, sto Premium Friday proprio non decolla. I dipendenti continuano a accumulare ore di straordinario, esaurendosi e perdendo il gusto della vita.

Responsabilità, immagine, senso di colpa e dell’onore sono i cardini di questa società; seppure ci sono pubblicità, campagne mirate, sconti, offerte e altro per cercare di comunicare il messaggio di rilassarsi un attimo, la forzalavoro rifiuta di recepire. Che poi, dico, i Giapponesi sembrano anche capaci di godersi un po’ la vita, se proprio lo devono fare… 

Dove lavoro io, ahimè, non ci sono i venerdì premio, ma e’ anche vero che anche più di un venerdì al mese ci riuniamo al bar del campus (dopo le ore lavorative eh?) e diamo il nostro contributo alla debole economia nipponica. Credo che si e’ in salvo dalla zona karoshi. Gambare Nihon! Kanpai!





Tuesday, July 25, 2017

HEAT II -- How to keep it down

Say it is very hot in town and the beach is far (or inconvenient to get to). What to do to cool down? Although Tokyo and Yokohama don't have a city beach, they offer several ways to beat the heat in summer.

Mainly, there are three kinds places where to go, public swimming pools, hotel pools, water parks. Each pool or park may have restrictions, as for tattoos, wearing of earrings or accessories, some pools forbid the use of sunscreen an other body lotions, and I guess all of them have a system where rest times are enforced every hour or so (meaning you must exit the pools).

1) Public swimming pools (outdoor)

All those pools charge a small fee to use the facilities. Price varies typically between 100yen and 500yen, and allows hourly or daily use, depending on facility, and opening times are normally between 9am and 5pm or 6pm.
Shiba park Aqua Field swimming pool is in the heart of Tokyo, close to Tokyo tower, Zojoji temple, and the imperial palace. This is a perfect spot to refresh during the day before hitting the night scene in central Tokyo.
Meguro Citizens Sport Gymnasium offers an outdoor pool for use during the summer months. This could be good for swimming, as it is open until late, to those who can wait until all the families with kids have left.
In addition, together with the bigger and heavier controlled, there are swimming pools in every big neighborhood and in many major municipal gymnasiums, so in July and August local residents can enter and spend some chill time. Restrictions may still apply. There are also zillion other indoor swimming pools, and they tend to be open year-round (like sports centers in  Meguro, Sendagaya, Yokohama and so on), mainly available to those who are serious about the swimming business.

2) Hotel swimming pools

Many 4 or 5 stars hotels include a swimming pool among their amenities. The Keio Plaza in Shinjuku and the New Otani in Akasaka are two of the hotels that allow non-guests to use the swimming pool during summer, upon an entrance fee. The cost is usually high, but this is an option that somehow offers movie star level kind of leisure. Because these pools are part of a hotel complex and are in the middle of the city, they are open until 8pm or so, so that people can enjoy the night views.

3) Water parks.

This is the preferred solution among the Japanese. They go to an amusement park, spend the day there and have tons of fun with their kids or friends. They all come with several water pools, slides, and what not, ensuring lots of activity. Depending on what kind of facilities these parks have, and their sizes, entrance fees vary from something like 500 yen up to 3,000 or 4,000 yen. Their opening times are also usually between 9am and 6pm.
Toshimaen water park in Nerima ward is probably the most famous park in Tokyo, just north-west of Ikebukuro, making it one of the favorite destinations. The park is boasting a spa, a water park and a swimming pool.
The biggest in the area, though, is probably Showa Kinen park in Tachikawa, which has something like 9 pools and wave machines, but charges over 2,000 yen entrance fee. The park gets very crowded on weekends or holidays, so much that the blue of the pool is not visible.
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise is a big complex south of Yokohama, built on an island at the mouth of the bay. It boasts an amusement park, an aquarium, a marine museum, a marina and a hotel. Basically, it can be a weekend destination, and the advantage is that the park is open year-round.
Again in Yokohama area, in Isogo town, there is Yokohama pool center, a site with a huge square pool divided into zones, one of which is shaped as a circle right in the middle of this square pool.
At last, I think Tokyo Disneyland's Disney Sea deserves a mention. Although one may think that a Disney park is far from being in this list, the water themed Disney Sea park is an exception. All attractions in there include water, so even if one can't really swim, one can definitely get the heat down.


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

HEAT -- the unbearable Japanese summer

Japan residents all know about the unbearable Japanese summer weather. As a Sicilian I can tolerate high temperatures and strong sun, so I can't really get what other people feel when it starts getting hot. What I am not (even now) accustomed to is the high level of humidity in the air. I have said on multiple occasions how far away from nice the "nice season" is in Japan: it's basically cold and unstable until about May, then we can perhaps enjoy one week (10 days if we're lucky) of nice spring weather, and then all the worst climatic disgraces fall on us in rapid succession, leaving us gasping for fresh air.

Summer is that time of the year when clothes hung out to dry remain damp and smell of mould, when onion and sweat smells are undistinguishable, when shade brings no relief, when the stagnant air and its stale wafts envelops you like swimming through seaweed in a swamp. Even after the rain, there’s never the nice smell of clean, washed air and soil, no. Everything smells like rot and there’s no break from the heat.

There can be (again, if we're lucky) two weeks of proper enjoyable summer weather, when taking a dip in the ocean or a swimming pool can actually be refreshing. And just when the air gets breathable again, gloom and doom find their way through storms and typhoons and the "nice" season is over.

Although being by the sea, Tokyo doesn't have a city beach. I understand that the city is just too big, but for a Sicilian the concept of a seaside town with no bathe-able beach, no boulevards lined with cafes, restaurants or souvenir shops is simply unthinkable. All those living in Tokyo metropolitan area must travel distances to reach a decent (under-average, if you ask me) beach.

The good thing is, there are dozens of swimming pools, and a few huge water parks, scattered around the municipal districts that can be used. All outdoor pools open in summer (meaning July and August) and for a very small fee residents can go in and cool down. There are several problems, though, some of which are common to all aqua parks in the world (like crowdedness) and some are uniquely Japanese:

- every 55 minutes EVERYBODY must get out of the water and REST. For 5 minutes.
- both kids and adults enter the pools with big ring floaters. No, the pool is 1.50m the deepest.
- at the majority of pools it is forbidden to wear any kind of earrings or other accessories, it is forbidden to put sunscreen lotion on (thou must burn like bacon), it is forbidden to bare tattoos.
- many pools have lanes subdivisions to separate swimmers from soakers. This works in case one doesn’t want to have people cutting through, or bumping into or such. Still, it would be better to have a separate pool for swimming altogether, since the splashes from the others annoy a good deal out of you, but heh….space.
- many neighbourhood pools don’t have subdivisions, which means that everyone jumps and swims everywhere. Kids don’t seem to know the basic swimming etiquette (i.e. I am trying to swim a lane, don’t kick and splash right in my face, duh!), neither do some parents.

All this long intro was to say that the past weekend was a holiday weekend, which should have been spent at the beach (once one starts working, summers don’t exist anymore). But it was so hot and humid that I gave up on planning an escape for the weekend. So I then thought I could actually get a room at a hotel in Tokyo, one of those with outdoor pool, so I could beat the heat that way. I later realised that the available hotels with pool charged paying guests extra to use it. WTF. Long story short, I was only left with the neighbourhood pool option, which wasn’t a good idea either as it was full of noisy kids (see the above list) and, more importantly, was heated. HEATED!

No further comments.

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I residenti giapponesi sanno fin troppo bene quanto impossibile sia l’estate giapponese. Da siciliana, tollero benissimo sole forte e temperature alte, e quindi non riesco proprio a capire come possano soffrire gli altri non appena arriva il primo caldo. Quello che invece non tollero bene e’ l’umidità. Penso di aver gia reiterato più e più volte quanto lontana dalla “bella stagione” sia la bella stagione nipponica: in pratica fa freddo ed e’ instabile fino a Maggio, poi forse, ma forse, ci sono una decina di giorni (a fortuna) di bel tempo e poi le disgrazie climatiche piovono su di noi in rapida successone, lasciandoci ansimare per un po’ d’aria.

L’estate e’ quel periodo dell’anno in cui i vestiti stesi ad asciugare rimangono umidi e odorano di muffa, in cui gli odori di sudore e cipolla non si distinguono uno dall’altro, in cui l’ombra non da’ nessun refrigerio, in cui l’aria stagnante e le sue zaffate appiccicaticcie ti avviluppano come quando si nuota in un acquitrino algoso. Anche dopo la pioggia, non c’e’ mai quell’odore di pulito e fresco, piuttosto la presa del caldo non molla e tutto odora di marcio.

Se poi si e’ ancora fortunati, dopo ci possono stare anche due settimane di tempo estivo, bello e invitante, quando un tuffo in acqua rinfresca anima e corpo. E poi proprio quando l’aria si fa di nuovo respirabile, la maledizione torna con tifoni e acquazzoni e la “bella” stagione e’ bell’e finita.

Nonostante si trovi sul mare, Tokyo non ha una spiaggia cittadina. Ora, capisco bene che la citta e’ troppo grande per questo, ma agli occhi di una siciliana il concetto di una citta di mare senza zona balneare, senza bar, ristoranti o negozi che si allineano sul lungomare, e’ semplicemente impensabile. Quindi, se si vuole andare al mare, da Tokyo, bisogna fare chilometri per raggiungere una spiaggio-specie di costa che, tra me e voi, non vale poi tanto.

La cosa buona pero’ e’ che in citta ci sono tante piscine, e anche alcuni parchi acquatici, che si possono utilizzare. Tutte le piscine all’aperto sono attive tra luglio e agosto soltanto e per una quota d’ingresso irrisoria si può andare e rinfrescarsi. Ora, ci sono pero’ vari problemi anche qui, alcuni comuni a tutto il mondo (tipo l’affollamento), altri propri del Giappone:

- oggi 55 minuti TUTTI devono uscire dall’acqua per 5 minuti di RIPOSO.
- sia piccoli che adulti vanno in piscina con sti salvagenti enormi. No, la piscina più profonda e’ forse 1 metro e mezzo.
- nella maggior parte di piscine non si può entrare se si hanno orecchini o tatuaggi o altri accessori, e non e’ permesso usare creme solari (per la serie, bruciate tutti, maledetti).
- in molte piscine ci sono divisioni per corsie nuotatori e area paperellamento. Che e’ buono nel caso uno voglia nuotare indisturbato, ma in pratica non funziona visto che gli spruzzi di chi si diverte, o i salti e i tuffi dei bambini, non sono certo ideali.
- la maggior parte delle piscine di quartiere non hanno nessun tipo di suddivisioni, e tutti nuotano dappertutto. In particolare, ne’ i genitori ne’ i figli sembrano conoscere il galateo del nuotatore, al che se uno vuole fare due bracciate, abbandoni costui ogni speranza.

E tutta questa bella introduzione solo per dire che il fine settimana appena trascorso e’ stato di festa, il che tradotto significa andare al mare (quando si inizia a lavorare anche l’estate non e’ più estate). Pero’ faceva un caldo cosi umido che alla fine non ho fatto nulla. Allora ho ben pensato di prendere una camera in un hotel a Tokyo, uno di quelli con piscina, cosi ammazzo la calura. Ma nel prenotare, ho notato che gli hotel con piscina disponibili prevedono costi extra per usare la piscina anche per i clienti paganti dell’albergo. E quindi, alla fine, mi e’ rimasta l’opzione piscina del quartiere. Non e’ stata una buona idea neanche quella, visto che era piena di bambini chiassosi, e soprattutto, era RISCALDATA!

Non ho altro da aggiungere.