Churning with Chopsticks - 3

The real beauty of Japanese system lies in there speed. Yesterday, I was in the Joyo Bank here for almost one hour. I wanted to open my account there. So, it took time and most of the time, I had nothing to do, but to watch them working.

It is really amazing, the way they work. The very first impression you will get is they value your presence and your time. You will never see them working at a normal (in the sense of the place I am from) speed, if your job is pending with them. Even in the small corridors between lines of tables and printers, they will keep running. Everytime, you go to the counter (or even look at the one working on your request), they will attend you with a little smile and gratitude. Why won't you allow them to take even an hour to complete the job, when you are feeling so homely?

I couldn't resist myself recalling a similar scene at a bank in my own country. At the entrance, you will see a big board with a lengthy quotation from bapuji. It is something like "Our customer is our asset. We are not serving him, but he is giving us a chance to serve blah blah". And it ends there and there only. You are hardly noticed inside. Go to the counter. You will either find an empty chair grappling at you or the clerk yawning at the roof. You have to make yourself feel homely...I mean, just like at your home you do everything yourself, no hesitation.


So far so good. The people here work at very high speed. The only problem is they are not the best in efficiency. And why?....for two reasons....
1. They are not flexible. If there is a way, that is the only way they will understand things. A rule is a rule. It is a very good habit, though more than disciplined you would like them to be practical. And some of the rules here are really impractical!

2. They don't understand your language. If you don't know japanese, you know nothing. They will try to understand you...very diligently...but most of the time they are helpless...due to your limitations on being expressive!

Hence, they are very energetic, hard working...but for you they end up doing nothing! That way I do feel homely....