Tired people take a rest

It never ceases to fascinate me how good people are in Japan at doing things together. Somehow the small details of events get resolved in a way that they seldom do back in England, it is a part of everybody's instincts to 'chip in' to deal with the smooth running of things.

I noticed it again at the end of a party we attended on Christmas Eve. It was a kind of 'get-together' organised by a church group in Togane and we had been invited to sing and then to eat a buffet meal with the members there afterwards. The event was held in a large community centre and all the food and other gear like Christmas trees, decorations and keyboards had to be shipped in.

We were expected until six so we weren't there for setting up but we were there at the end of the evening. The party needed to be wound up at nine so that we could be clear of the building for the caretaker to lock up at nine thirty. By the time tables had been set up for around fifty people and a large hot buffet was laid out there was a fair amount of cleaning up and putting away to do but as usual it happened effortlessly in about ten minutes. Absolutely everyone including the children lent a hand and nobody needed to be told what to do and by the time we had got the last table stowed away and boxes carried down to the organiser's cars that large tatami room was completely spotless and exactly as it had been found at the start of the evening.

In a way this attention to detail and instinct for working as a group - I deliberately don't use the word 'team' which implies something subtly different - is absolutely ordinary. In part it is just old-fashioned courtesy of a kind many people in Britain seem to have lost. But what is extraordinary for me is the instinct people have for doing it. It just wouldn't be done to leave early or stop working until everyone can take a break together. 'O-tsukare sama ...' we murmur to each other at the end of some task ... 'Tired people ... (take a rest)' ... a phrase used often in Japan (even sometimes after such exhausting tasks as filling in a form at the library!) but not one you find in phrase books or dictionaries much.

It isn't that in Britain we don't often pile in and help out of course. Most people do, of course they do. Why is it so different? How would you ever set up a quantitative study to measure the distinctions? I think one obvious contrast would be the need for someone 'in charge' and so there would be overt subdivision of labour "You stack the tables while he takes out the garbage". Nor would people be so careful, nor would it be 'seamless' with the main content of the evening, just more of a chore afterwards.

Dunno. But if you want my distilled wisdom based on six years of living here it would be "Japanese people are very good at doing things together".