Found In Translation

I'm now working in the translation department of a government/corporate collaboration. I recalled how I joined this department about half a year ago and decided to write a little but about business in a Japanese office.

My start here was something I'll never forget, and very different from my start at any other place. Some of what I'll write is typical of every Japanese company, some is unique.

The boss knew I lived too far to commute, I was living outside Tokyo at that time, and they wanted me to join quickly. So they put me up in a rather expensive "weekly mansion" (an apartment you can rent on a weekly or monthly basis). They gave me 10 days in the mansion (at a cost to them of about $1,200USD) so that I could have a 15 minute commute to work and my evenings as well as a few weekends to find myself an apartment in Tokyo.

Not only that, but the mansion was in posh Shirokane, an area of Tokyo mostly known for executives, exotic foreign sports cars, stylish middle aged women with diamond necklaced poodles 'teehee-ing' on the balconies of italian cafes.

They let me store 4 giant boxes of my non-essentials at the office for two weeks. They wrote out the forms and paid for those 4 giant boxes to be delivered overnight to the office, being picked up at the door from my home outside Tokyo. They asked me if I wanted to borrow any money to help with the move. They picked me up at the train station each time I made the trip, and paid the ridiculously expensive taxi fares for all the travel I needed to do.

They asked me what salary I wanted, I told them, and they said okay.
Further, they took my request of salary to mean my salary after taxes,
giving me a few hundred dollars extra a month. At this point I was just ecstatic.
They'd gone out of their way to do a lot for me, and I ended up in the city I'd
really wanted to live in. I work in Akasaka, a nice upscale business section of Tokyo.
There are skyscrapers and a big shrine surrounding the area and world restaurants all over the place.

My first 3 weeks of work were mostly spent playing on the internet and
studying Japanese from my desk. The company believes in weening people
into work very gradually. In fact, even now, my boss tells me that if I have no work to do,
I should study Japanese. Great, I can get paid to do one of my hobbies.

The second week at the company, they asked me to buy a monthly train ticket to get to my apartment from work. When I did, they asked me to see it, and added the cost of the train ticket to my salary. Paid transportation is nice, especially if I decide to walk or bike the trip instead.

I've found out I get 3 substantial bonuses throughout the year. My work is relaxed, hardly any overtime, I get an hour lunch break and a 20 minute break-break as well as however many smoke breaks a person could want. My boss and I goof around together. And I make good money doing what I like.

By the way, it's common for Japanese workers to sleep at their desks. Here, they usually fall asleep somewhat after lunchtime. They have a great technique where it really looks like they are reading something on their desk. It's not to avoid getting caught, it's just to keep up the image that they're working. more on that later.