I am a bit functioned out in this job.

I will admit that it is terrible to be complaining about being treated to great meals in fancy locations, and about having the chance to talk directly to some pretty influential people. But these extra social events after working hours sure do eat into your free time.

I mean, take for example the thing with the president on Tuesday last week. The meeting part went really well, and I got some really positive feedback about my future plans with the company. But then the dinner and drinks went on till well after midnight - and this was on a school night! I'm usually in my jammies and tucked up by 11 or 11.30 of an evening. I'm not one for cigars and cocktails in the Shangri La hotel until the wee small hours of the morning. Though I would go back for the toilets alone - they were so much nicer than my apartment. I mean look at that little pyramid of hand towels. They were nearly too nice to touch.



However, I'm getting better at avoiding these social obligations. For example, I declined the kind invitation below.


I mean, me and the ambass have been besties ever since I walked at the front of the parade with him last year. Ah, how proud my poor mother was! But I just suffer from such crippling shyness at these things. I'm not great with new people as it is, never mind big parties of people where you have to make small talk and try and sound interesting for hours on end.

Give me a nice quiet night out with a small group of friends in a simple Japanese restaurant any day. And sure, the owners of these wee places tend to be the kindest people you'll ever meet over here. Just look at what the owner of one such place gave me the other day as we were leaving his restaurant.




They're little Hina Matsuri candy. I've blogged about this festival before - just follow the link. I love how much attention to detail is paid to a simple sweet that will just be handed out to customers as they pay their bill in a shop. It tells you something about Japanese customer service. More than that, it illustrates how important the idea of gift giving is in Japanese culture. If you come over here, even just as a visitor, you will get given presents left and right. And try as hard as you might, you will never win - a Japanese person will always end up repaying whatever small kindness you try to return to them, and then some.

It's in the area of ceremonial gift giving that some remnants of the bubble-economy days still remain. It's looking like we're going to be suffering through yet another period of deflation in the coming months and years. Despite this, look at the price of these oranges snapped at a small fruit shop just around the corner from me.


6,200 yen is about 50 euro for 8 pieces of fruit. I know it's not exactly the infamous 100 dollar melons of the 90s. But like I said, this is just from a wee store over the road from me. Admittedly, I do live in the financial district - a mere stone's throw away from the marbled halls of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Bank of Japan, and countless securities companies and hedge funds - so probably it'll be some of those billion-dollar bailouts funded by poor old tax-payers around the world that'll be bankrolling such extravagance. Oh, hark at me getting all political.