Work is Life

Obviously, I like Japan. I wouldn't have stayed here as long as I have otherwise. But after you've lived in a place for a while, you really start to see it for what it is. You get a more balanced view-- you see both the good and the bad. Because as I'm sure you all know, no place is perfect. No situation is perfect. Life is hard, no matter where you choose to spend it. Recently, though, I've been feeling more frustrated by the negative things, rather than reveling in the positive. So I thought it might help to write about it.

The big thing that's been driving me crazy lately is this:

In Japan, Work is Life.

I'm not exaggerating. This concept is a huge part of Japanese culture, and it's something people have instilled in them from childhood. For Japanese children, Studying is Life. Many elementary school children have extra lessons after school every day (English lessons, piano lessons, etc.), after which they go home to continue studying until bedtime. Unlike American children, Japanese children usually don't do chores around the house because they're expected to devote themselves entirely to studying (they do have to clean their classrooms at school, though). And they study so much that they're often very stressed and have little time to play with friends. (I taught some kids like this at the private English school I used to work at. There was one particularly education-crazed grandfather who brought his two grandsons in several times a week. They had lessons in other subjects, too. The poor kids were exhausted.) In junior high and high school, many students participate in club activities after school until the evening, after which they study until late at night and go to school again early the next morning. In university things are a little more relaxed... But then they graduate and get jobs, and the madness starts again. It's not uncommon for businessmen here to be at work at 7:00 in the morning and stay until 8:00, 9:00, or even 10:00 in the evening. They don't take much time off, either. One of my former adult students (a doctor) once told me he felt a vacation was a waste of time if he didn't get some work done during it. And it seems like this attitude is pretty common. School children are given quite a bit of homework to do during vacations, and often go to school for club activities and/or extra studying during vacations and on weekends. I guess this trains them never to take a real vacation even as adults. (To me, a "real vacation" means one during which you don't work. At all. But such a concept seems scandalous to a lot of Japanese people.)

To an extent, it is a good thing to take pride in your work and to put your best effort into what you do. But in my opinion, a lot of people here take this virtue way too far. At my previous job (teaching at a small, private English school in a rural area) it didn't affect me that much personally. I did see its effects on a lot of my students, which was difficult to watch sometimes. But my own hours were quite reasonable, I always had weekends off, and though I didn't get as much vacation time as I would have liked, I never had any work to do during it. I didn't have to stay at the school all day, either-- I could leave whenever I didn't have a class to teach. (It probably helped that the school was owned by an American, who happened to be a rather lax individual.) At my current job, though-- teaching at a girls' high school in a bigger city near Tokyo-- it's affecting me a lot more, and it's been the source of a lot of stress for me recently. My job involves a lot more than just teaching English classes. I'm treated just like a member of the regular teaching staff, which means I have the same responsibilities as the Japanese teachers. I have to help with various school activities and events, and to help students study before and after school. So I sometimes have to go very early in the morning, and sometimes have to stay until around 6:00 pm. Most days I'm able to go home around 4:30, so maybe I shouldn't be complaining-- my situation isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people's. (It's not as bad as a lot of the other teachers I work with either. A lot of them stay late every day.) And it's not like I really hate my job-- the people I work with are wonderful, and teaching can be a really rewarding thing to do. But recently there have been more long days, more extra jobs to do, more days I've had to go in on a Saturday or a Sunday. And it's really tough for me. Because there are so many different things I love, I can't devote myself to just one thing. Having to do so makes me extremely unhappy. It makes me feel trapped-- like I'm going to suffocate if I can't escape. It's impossible for me to make work my life, because there's no job in which I can do all the things I love to do.

There are many ways in which I am very, very Japanese, and overall I do feel like my personality is much more Japanese than American (I don't fit into American culture at all). But there are some ways in which I don't really fit in here either, and this is one of them. It is true that I don't have to adopt the Japanese work ethic just because I live here. I am pretty much stuck with my current job until the end of March, and it's looking like it's going to be pretty tough for the next month or so... But after that I could make a lifestyle change and make more time to do what I want while still living here. The concept is still soaked into the culture, though, and you can't really escape it completely. The sea of stony-faced people in business suits packed into the trains every morning is really rather depressing to see. (Seriously, all these people look miserable. I probably don't look so hot either.) And even if I worked free-lance, or just had a couple of part-time jobs, there would still be certain expectations. Everybody expects you to take your work very seriously. Going above and beyond is not the exception-- it's the rule. Also, if I continue to live here, the possibility is rather high (for obvious reasons) that I'll end up marrying a Japanese guy. It's likely that my husband would have to work long hours and wouldn't have much time to spend with me (or our children if we had any). If I had children, I would certainly do my best to teach them that there's more to life than work, and that they should do what they love to do, take good care of themselves and be happy. But if they grew up here, they would probably go to Japanese schools, and they would still be influenced by the expectations of the society around them. I'd want them to have plenty of time to play and just be kids, but what if all their friends were busy studying all the time?

Yes, this is just one negative thing, of course no place is perfect, and of course there are lots of good things about Japan too. But this extreme work ethic thing has really been weighing on me lately, and it's making me feel like I really want to get out of this country.

I'm sorry if this post is depressing, but I needed to get it off my chest. It's also why I haven't been updating much, by the way-- work has been rather demanding. Today, though, I fortunately had the day off (it's some random national holiday-- "Physical Education Day", I believe), and I do feel quite a bit better after getting lots of sleep, doing nothing involving work and then writing this post. =) I'll try to write something more uplifting next time!