Bad, bad day at work today...

It was the first time since I've been in a Japanese company that I really, deeply understood the idea of a cultural barrier.

If we'd been having the meeting in an English-speaking country, or even an English-speaking office, I would have told my boss that his idea had DISASTER spelt all over it, and that I would be the one paying the price for such poor planning two months from now.

But this being Japan, the Japanese culture and the Japanese language conspired to block me from doing so, and I feel frustrated as hell. It truly felt like a physical barrier had been put down in front of me.

I mean, I tried to use the cultural cues and signals that I'm aware of to show my dissatisfaction (long silences, staring down at a page, repeated "thinking" sounds) but none of it worked.

And so we're left with a plan that is going to cause needless work and considerable stress if it doesn't get changed. Oh, I would dearly like to kick something right about now.

Instead, I will go to yoga and try and stretch it out - it's only a job, after all.