A note on Time

I was in assembly the other day, and the gym teacher was giving a speech about the importance of time keeping, to instil punctuality into the students. (VERY important in Japan.) Needless to say i understood very little of this speech, but an English teacher gave me the jist of what it was about. The gym teacher used an example of a University student in Japan who handed her dissertation in at 5.02, when the deadline was 5.00. 2 minutes late. She had to resit the whole year again. I shit you not. I was like, surely not, 2 minutes late, and my English speaking friend told me she knew quite a lot of instances like this, that she also had a friend who was maybe 5 minutes late and had to resit the whole year. Blimey eh! That 2 minutes is a very high price to pay.

So anybody who knows me might know that when it comes to time, i`m pretty lacsidaisical. For instance, the Uni, where I worked for 2 years, was a 10min bike ride from my house in Fenham, so I would get out of bed about 8.30, prioritise breakfast and so not usually leave until 8.55, which meant I would usually swan through the door about 9.05. How I managed to get away with this for as long as I did is astonishing. I seemed to give people the impression I actually worked hard aswell. Which again is astonishing, because there often wasn`t a whole lot to do. We all hear these stories about the obsession with time in Japan, and to be honest, I was terrified about how I would adapt myself to becoming more punctual. So far however, so good. I often do turn up 10mins late, but i`ve never missed a lesson yet, even though I have nearly given myself the occasional heartattack trying to get to the bus/train. On one occasion I did sleep in, I think it was my first week here and I was probably jet lagged; i was supposed to be in the office for 8.30, and at 8.31 my phone was ringing and my supervisor was asking if I needed to be taken to hospital. Stirling is late quite a bit, and everytime this happens, Youkouchi (our supervisor) takes him to the manager of the Office and he has to apologise officially. For real. However, things may change a bit now we have a new supervisor, who can`t speak any English. Only time will tell how far I can push the limits of my not so punctual time keeping!