Passion and Ecstasy
This is wonderful!
Superlegitimacy: passion and ecstasy of a Tokyo train driver
The comments thread goes on forever
but was closed too soon
so here's my 20 yen's worth:
During a Project Management course
apropos the Quality Cycle [or whatever it's called - plan, act, review, revise, iterate - ]
our teacher spoke very highly of the Japanese Train Driver technique:
they have a list of things to do [planned],
DO them [no shortcuts, no omissions],
tick 'em off [aids order & compliance, serves as evidence]
& hand 'em in [monitoring & review]
{nuclear submarine procedures are, understandably, even more severe}
& its true!
In Japanese department stores
there are elevators
and erebe-ta ga-ru [elevator girls]
They are uniformed [no pun intended],
wait patiently until all passengers have entered the elevator,
[Japanese elevators are NEVER crowded - they have such a firm concept of personal space - not their own but that of others! This is obscenely violated on rush hour trains though… I'm sure it's hell on many levels]
announce the destination [e.g. second floor - hardware],
warn the passengers that the doors are closing [doa wo shimaimasu],
close the doors,
perform an elaborate white glove-waving ritual on the doors,
announce the departure,
then press the button.
[oh, they do this ALL DAY, EVERY DAY THEY WORK!!!]
As a gaijin, I found this fascinating.
I could understand having the procedure
but not the glove-waving.
I asked the old & wise
and it seems that this ritual
stems from the Olden Days
when elevators had cages
that had to be closed by hand.
[anyone remember that scarey one off the Perth mall?]
Thus this flourish is a re-interpretation of the old established procedure.
It reassures the passengers & conforms.
Watashi heart Nippon!
PS In the comments thread there is a mention of J society as being "distributed, totally flat";
Society as God, Tann;
wasn’t that Communism?
lerevdr on Wed 18-Aug-2004 @ 10:23 e.s.t [permalink]
