I've been traveling a lot lately in various different homes, and the current place I'm staying at has a cat roaming around. It's pretty awesome to have a cat.......they're pretty predictable, they won't bite you, they don't bark at you, no danger of pooping right on the floor........all different than say, for example, a dog. (I once had to clean up a pile of poop from the living room of my friend with whom I was staying. It was awful!) This cat just jumped in my bed my first day like it owned the place (cats do act like they own the place from what I've seen) and started licking him/herself (I haven't really figured out a way to tell the gender yet). And its name is Veggie! Pretty cool.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that Japanese people love cats so much that they have many idioms about them (Koreans and Chinese go for their more powerful and mythical ones in the family, the tiger for idioms) but the Japanese have many, and most of them apply to the office I'm working at now.
1.) 猫の額- As small as a cat's forehead. Not sure out of all the small things in the world a cat's forehead was the apt comparison, but so it is. My office is cramped for space (one big room of 50 people) and a shared kitchen/common space area for about 150 people). I wonder what the fire hazard restrictions are there. Luckily, the men's restroom has 7 stalls, but it still gets a bit crowded especially after lunch......(I've discovered through many years of public restroom use that after lunch is the time with most traffic).
2.) 猫の子一匹いない- not even a single baby cat around. Most employees come in at different times, some are early people, some are late people, but by 6PM EVERYONE is gone and the office is eerily quite, like a ghost town. Kind of amazing how a place so lively at one time of the day can just totally become empty. I guess one's home is the opposite........different cycle. Human beings really are the most dynamic living creatures, I guess.
3.) 猫の手も借りたい - so busy that you would even borrow a hand from a cat! There's definitely a hustle and bustle in the office as everyone strives to reach their goals, and no internet use or cell phone use in the office (!) forces people to pay attention to what their doing. Only listening to music is allowed. In a way it's good to concentrate on a task continuously for hours (usually eight) as I've forgotten what it's like in the digital world to have to just do one task continuously and not get distracted by texts, tweets, emails, alerts, etc. Can't imagine what work days were like pre-internet. You'd have to talk to people to relieve the boredom!
4.) All that working is done at desks and while sitting, so it's vulnerable to developing a slouch- 猫背, or cat's back. To solve this, I've seen people get standing desks to stand up all day while they work, or elevated monitors to force you to sit up straight while working. I try to maintain good posture for like the first hour or so, but inevitably the body wants to sag and get comfortable.
5.) 借りてきた猫- like a borrowed cat, someone who behaves better than they normally are. Doesn't really fit, but my office seems to be full of "cat people," or people who are kind of shy, or just go about their own business. Aren't really friendly to me, don't reach out to say hi or anything. It's kind of weird since I say a bunch of people every day working in the same room and crossing paths in the hallway, but since there's so many people and everyone has their own cliques, people just don't feel the need to get to know one another. I actually don't agree with this as I feel like everyone in a company should try to get to know one another, but I do feel like it might be an Asian thing of "don't stir the pot" or being reserved. It's times like these I feel actually like a westerner or a dog, trying to make everyone happy and be on good terms with everyone.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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