Witnessing his boss undress in a bar then yell at his underlings was a memorable introduction to the Japanese work life for Carterton native Rory Harnden.
Rory lived in Kobe teaching English through the international JET programme from 2010 to 2013.
Soon after starting his job, he was enveloped by the celebratory culture of professional life in Japan, where workmates will go out together on a Friday night and the strict, conservative and serious side of work life is stripped away, replaced by whisky, beer, karaoke and a lot of shouting.
Rory Harnden spent about three years teaching English in Japan as part of the JET Programme. Photo: Supplied
Tell me about going out with your workmates in Japan.
A large part of working in Japan involves socialising, so every time there’s a big event, like a cultural festival or a sports day, everyone heads out on a Friday night together – no spouses or friends, just you and your colleagues. It’s quite different to school life, where things are usually pretty straight in the office.
One of the biggest parties during the year is the farewell and the welcome party. There’s this thing they do that basically involves a lot of shouting by the youngest member of staff; they just shout the names of the people who are leaving. The vice principal wasn’t impressed with the way the youngest person of staff was doing it, so he took off all his clothes and stood on a chair and did it himself.
But the weird thing is that come Monday morning, nobody really mentions it; nobody is like, “Wow, remember that?” It just sort of happens, and is no big deal because work is so separate.
If a boss in New Zealand did something like that, it would be chuckled about for months, with evidence of it forever circulating on Facebook; perhaps a meme made in the boss’ honour. How did you deal with this weird impasse?
I found it quite strange to begin with, because I would want to make little comments and discuss things that had happened the previous Friday, but nobody was really interested – or they just smiled and nodded and moved on.
People will take their English books out of their bag and angle them in the hopes you’ll go over and talk to them
And the party keeps going, even on the trains home. What about your more interesting rides home on the Japanese rail system?
The last train is always fun because everyone is open and warm and friendly, even if they might not normally be, like the general members of the public.
There was a small air guitar performance going on in the corner and a Japanese woman told us to be quiet. We did – I mean, air guitar is pretty quiet – but then another Japanese guy came and joined the band and played lead guitar on his knees. It was pretty epic.
What about general daytime interactions with Japanese, away from the liberation of booze?
During the day, people want to talk to you but they don’t know how to go about it. In the daytime people will see you and take their English books out of their bag and angle them in the hopes you’ll see they’re reading an English book and you’ll go over and talk to them.
Other than going out with workmates and air guitar jams on the trains, what are the other memorable aspects of Japanese culture that stand out to you?
I think one of the things that really struck me – and will stick with me – is how much time and practice was put into activities that we'd probably consider sort of unimportant. School clubs, hobbies, sports teams... when people are into something, they’re really into it, and a huge amount of their waking time seems to go towards working with the rest of their team or club or group, and doing the absolute best that they’re capable of.
It was bizarre watching kids practice for three hours a day, seven days a week, on whatever they’d decided was their passion, when kids back home might realistically practice something for three hours in a whole week.
And the time spent is appreciated, too. I’d say 90 per cent of the gatherings I attended while in Japan, work or otherwise, were to celebrate how much work everyone had put into a certain event, even if the whole thing had bombed. People aren’t as hung up on what the end result is, but on how hard you all work to get there, and how much you learn in doing so.
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