The pace of Change

I`ve been meaning to write about this for a while, it’s something that affects many aspects of daily life in Japan. For instance, in the 7 months that I`ve been here, in Kita Kogane, there has been several new houses built, a large showroom has been taken down and a new Origin Bento shop built from scratch and an ornate cemetary building has been demolished only to be rebuilt.  Added to this are signs that more work is taking place on the route I walk each day to and from work.

The pace of change happens when you dont want it to. Everyday I get some chicken to accompany my rice from Origin Bento, every day I have saku-saku chicken. Saku-saku chicken is like chicken nuggets with a sweet treacle coloured sauce drizzled over the top. But then change came. Now they don`t offer it and I have to make do with some second rate garlic chicken offering.

Change can also be good. Take for instance Suica cards. Suica cards are similar to Oyster cards in London, allowing you to buy credit and use it to swiftly pass though the gates at any JR station. It saves buying a ticket as you purchase credit of 1000, 3000 or 5000 yen in advance. I bought into this system, thinking that it would enable trips to Tokyo to be smooth and easy, hoping from train to train in a carefree and smug manner. Little did I know that Suica didn`t cover the Tokyo Metro and so when I would visit Shibuya using it, I would end up having to pay with normal money. But then change came and made it easy, now I can go from the Koges to Shibby in two easy swipes of the card.

Change seems to be something the Japanese are happy with, something that’s demanded. The variety and choice that’s offered in Supermarkets reflects this, there’s always a new Beer being released, Kit-Kat are always releasing new flavours and new products from abroad are making their mark here (Lynx/Axe has just landed in Japan).

Talking of Beer, the race between Asahi and Kirin to release new beers is ferocious. Asahi recently launched: Aqua Blue, Green Label, Zero Something or other as well as many others. Kirin have released Kirin Gold and Kirin Tanrei ( I have no clue what that means).

In a culture that works as hard as the Japanese do, I guess the phrase “A change is as good as a rest” is important and is probably a reason why things change so quickly.

mata ne    またね！