Sometimes it's like walking up a mountain
Persistence. Here in Japan it is an essential quality and those without it quickly leave (or are somehow by buffered from reality by an unknown force and stay on for years blissfully unawares). I’m not talking about the persistence a tourist needs to find an out of the way temple or a restaurant with English menus. I am talking about the amount necessary to live here, the grit to get through the mazes we find ourselves in, the inner fire that blasts through the unexplainable barriers thrown up in front of us, you know, persistence.
‘What exactly do you mean there is no sake brewery here?’ I inquired politely to the receptionist at the Gekkeikan Sake Museum. She had just finished explaining that, yes, while I might (and she seemed very tentative about that) work for an alcohol magazine they didn’t make any sake here, it was just a museum and there was no way to see a factory. I looked through the open doors leading out into a courtyard and to what I knew was a sake brewery.
‘Are you sure about that? If you don’t make it here then where do you make it?’
A complex look crossed her face as she glanced at her coworker. ‘Please wait for a moment at the gift store while I get somebody to answer your question.’ That somebody turned out to be the assistant manager of the museum who took an hour and half out of his day to give me a personal tour of the brewery (which was in the process of making very high grade sake which I got a chance to taste).
‘I’m very sorry but we do not have any more rooms’ the friendly looking owner of a Japanese inn answered from the half open door. ‘Really, are you sure?’ I had just walked 50+km and the blisters that had formed were making walking very painful. The last seven places had all been full. ‘Yes, I am very sorry.’
‘Are you really sure about that? Anything would be fine,’ I asked again.
He took one more look at me and ducked back into the building. I heard a terse hushed conversation between a man and a woman for about a minute then he reemerged. ‘There is a room but it does not have air conditioning. We can give it to you for a discounted rate. Is that okay?’
‘So let me get this right. You want to cut my pay by 30% AND have me work the same amount of time AND starting at the end of this month?’ I choked. ‘Yes, that is what we would like,’ the financial guy at my company chirped looking slightly nervous but generally satisfied with himself.
‘You have got to be kidding,’ I answered and let it sit. He must have considered the matter settled because that next week when I came back with a counter-offer he was quite surprised.
‘I will take the 30% pay cut but you will need to cut my work time by the same amount and that it will start next month’ I stated. ‘OR, I will take a 10% cut and work the same hours.
‘But, but, that is not realistic. If we cut your hours by that amount you will only be part time, and part time workers make XXXXX (about a 70% cut from my pay at that point). It’s impossible! And we can’t afford just a 10% cut.’
I let it sit for about another week and a half.
‘Well, what is it going to be?’ I asked politely a few days before the start of a new pay period.
The financial guy looked startled, almost like a deer in the headlights. I don’t think he had ever been confronted with someone who didn’t just cave in, someone with a spine and a willingness to go for broke (no pun intended).
‘Uh, I guess we will go for the 30% cut of time and pay starting after next month’ he stuttered.
‘Good.’ Or at least as good as I could get it.
It takes a willingness to last just a little bit longer then they do. An inner strength to ask just one more question or try one more thing before shaking your head and walking away. You may be surprised with the result.
Only in Japan.
