In Tokyo: Japanese sweetness in everyday life

Hi everyone!

I'm aware it's been almost two months since my last blog post.  The months of June and parts of July were really busy at work as we approached the due date for our submissions. As I'm sure my trainee friends will understand, the time leading up to a deadline can be a little rough...

Fortunately, after we had filed our submissions I was able to have a break.  The end of July and first half of August was spent seeing as much of Japan as I could - I climbed Mt Fuji (which may be the subject of another blog post), went to the Izu Peninsula, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Arashiyama, Miyajima and Hiroshima.  I now have only 2 weeks left in Japan before heading back to London.  The packing has begun...

I wanted to dedicate this blog post to some of the sweet things about Japan, things that stem from their polite and hospitable culture and that I will truly miss.

1. Automatic Door Man

I live in a serviced apartment here in Tokyo, and one of the things I will miss about this place is Automatic Door Man.  Automatic Door Man is a young guy employed by the residence, whose job in the mornings is to stand next to the automatic sliding door.  When I approach the exit, he quickly hurries towards the automatic door so that it opens for me. 

I'm not sure that it's exactly needed - in two extra seconds I would be close enough to the door for it to automatically open, but it's sweet and it makes me feel like a princess.

2. Unexpected bird sounds

I am constantly being surprised by the sound of recorded birds chirping. The first time I heard it was on the metro - being underground and hearing the sound of birds chirping really freaked me out.

I was sick one day and stayed home, and discovered that in the middle of the day, a set of speakers in my room begins to play ... you guessed it ... bird sounds.  While very sweet, I'm waiting for the day that Japan ups the anti and creates robot birds that help you with every day tasks:

3. Brushing your teeth at work

I was really confused when I first got here because it seemed that every time I went to the bathroom at work, some Japanese woman was in there brushing her teeth.  I'd go back to my desk, work for a while, head back into the bathroom and there would be ANOTHER Japanese woman brushing her teeth.  It didn't matter what time of day. I swear they were tag teaming it.

I found out much later that Japanese children learn that they should brush their teeth after every meal - not just once in the morning and once and night.  This was ingrained and carried over to their adult lives.  So I guess at any time of day, someone had just eaten. 

When someone finally told me this reason for the strange phenomenon I'd been witnessing for months, it felt exactly like that revelation scene in Amélie...

4. Confessions of a Cleaner

Finally, I wish to particularly dedicate this post to the lovely, sweet women who clean my apartment.  I never met any of them, but I felt that they left me many messages in the form of adorable ways they arranged my things.

Sometimes they did go a little too far... I mean does anyone need this many towels? Could they instead have been judging me?? I will never know.

Thank you Japan for being so sweet. I have a few things more to say about my time here, so fear not, there is more to come in the Tokyo instalment of the Bumbling Baby Lawyer :)