He was a rather round man. You don't really see so many overweight people in Japan. The average person is pretty slim their entire life. Of course, some women do get a serious complex and become anorexic, but in general people's weight is healthy.
This guy didn't look quite so healthy. He was about 45 but had the veins on his face of an older man. When we flagged him, he was about to go into a little public toilet in a park where taxi-drivers often take a break during the quiet hours of the day.
I asked if he was working. Many of the drivers will go ahead with their break and don't mind losing a customer. This guy wasn't going to let his toiletary duties get in the way of business. I kept saying we'd wait a minute, but he ushered us into the car and off we went.
His father's family is from Nagano, so he spent some time up there when he was a kid. He wouldn't like to live there now though. Too much snow. In his father's old house, they used to get two meters of snow. Unbelieveable for me - I've never seen more than a foot of snow. Funny - I was just up in Nagano and Niigata the other day. We saw some heavy snow, but the really heavy stuff seems to fall out in the country. I guess that's a good reason it's in the country - there was too much snow to build a city out there!
But no, he wouldn't like to live their now. He said that he was fat and might slip, fall down, and crack his head open. We all laughed at that. People are strange creatures. Why do we laugh at misfortune or the thought of it?
But the people up north in his father's generation were tough. They used to have huge columns in their houses to hold them up. A lot of houses built recently have been suffering stress problems and some have even fallen down.
People in the past knew how to keep things standing.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
43%
Back to Nagoya after the weekend on the road singing about potatoes.
There was a big queue of taxis at the station divided into two lines. One is for the big cars and one is for the small cars. I would imagine that the small cars do much better, but I must ask them sometime.
I got into the first car in the small car line. It was a kojin taxi. I'm getting more of those these days. They must be happy about that because they get almost all of their business from road and station pickups. They have a musen dispatch service that is run by their group, but it doesn't seem to give them that much work. The other benefit from paying into the group seems to be the annual trip to an onsen.
43% - that's what the average taxidriver gets to take home out of your fare. So when you get in a taxi that's been waiting outside the station for 40 minutes and you ask him to take you around the corner, don't be surprised if he doesn't look happy. It's not your problem, but it's nice to remember that he only gets 43% of the 560 yen that you pay out. That's about 241 yen. Certainly not enough to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks and not even enough for him to buy his daily pack of cigerettes even if they are among the cheapest in the developed world.
Becoming a kojin taxi driver takes 10 years of experience with a company. With deregulation of the industry, taxi companies can increase the number of drivers and cars as much as they like. It only takes a month to become a taxi driver. Laid-off from salaryman land one month, working as a low-paid driver the next. The companies treat their drivers pretty well really - providing cheap accomodation for the many drivers who come from the country to work in the big city. In Nagoya, most of the drivers of the eight thousand taxis seem to come from Kyushu.
My driver tonight was from Nagoya though. He had worked for 35 years in some kind of architectural business. Then he had worked for 10 years at Tsubame taxi company - now he had become a kojin. He looked far too young for all that experience. Something must have been lost in the translation. As well as the 10 years experience, a would-be kojin driver also needs to pass a test.
You aren't allowed have a crash when you're working for a company. Well, at least not a crash that you're responsible for. Otherwise, you'll never have the chance to become a kojin driver. You're also not allowed to commit any crimes. Interestingly, once you become a kojin driver, you can crash as many times as you like and they won't take away your kojin licence. I don't think that you're allowed to commit as many crimes as you like. For that you need to become a politician.
There was a big queue of taxis at the station divided into two lines. One is for the big cars and one is for the small cars. I would imagine that the small cars do much better, but I must ask them sometime.
I got into the first car in the small car line. It was a kojin taxi. I'm getting more of those these days. They must be happy about that because they get almost all of their business from road and station pickups. They have a musen dispatch service that is run by their group, but it doesn't seem to give them that much work. The other benefit from paying into the group seems to be the annual trip to an onsen.
43% - that's what the average taxidriver gets to take home out of your fare. So when you get in a taxi that's been waiting outside the station for 40 minutes and you ask him to take you around the corner, don't be surprised if he doesn't look happy. It's not your problem, but it's nice to remember that he only gets 43% of the 560 yen that you pay out. That's about 241 yen. Certainly not enough to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks and not even enough for him to buy his daily pack of cigerettes even if they are among the cheapest in the developed world.
Becoming a kojin taxi driver takes 10 years of experience with a company. With deregulation of the industry, taxi companies can increase the number of drivers and cars as much as they like. It only takes a month to become a taxi driver. Laid-off from salaryman land one month, working as a low-paid driver the next. The companies treat their drivers pretty well really - providing cheap accomodation for the many drivers who come from the country to work in the big city. In Nagoya, most of the drivers of the eight thousand taxis seem to come from Kyushu.
My driver tonight was from Nagoya though. He had worked for 35 years in some kind of architectural business. Then he had worked for 10 years at Tsubame taxi company - now he had become a kojin. He looked far too young for all that experience. Something must have been lost in the translation. As well as the 10 years experience, a would-be kojin driver also needs to pass a test.
You aren't allowed have a crash when you're working for a company. Well, at least not a crash that you're responsible for. Otherwise, you'll never have the chance to become a kojin driver. You're also not allowed to commit any crimes. Interestingly, once you become a kojin driver, you can crash as many times as you like and they won't take away your kojin licence. I don't think that you're allowed to commit as many crimes as you like. For that you need to become a politician.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Annoyed in Fukuoka
I've had so many good chats with taxi drivers that I sometimes forget my manners. Four of us jumped into a taxi at Fukuoka station to take us to the 5th hotel. The 5th hotel is a luxurious place. There was a huge marble bath and even with a collosal double bed in the room, there was still room for a 48 inch TV, a humidifier, lots of other gadgets and lots of space too. Of course, it was an accident that we were staying there at all. The company rep who booked it was new in the country and wasn't quite aware of all the cultural implications of the Internet website photos. It was so luxurious because it used to be a love hotel, or what the Japanese more carefully refer to as a 'fashion hotel' or 'boutique hotel' these days. Love hotels are so much nicer than regular business hotels. I can live with the scent of previous liasons in exchange for all that extra space and comfort.
We took a walk over to another part of the 5th hotel and saw the people walking in two by two, just as if they were entered Noah's arc. It was so romantic to sit there watching them walk by, stopping on their way to their true love tryst to select the room from among the photos on the electronic screen in the lobby. When I looked at the charge sheet for the hotel and saw that they still rent by the morning, afternoon, evening or overnight stay, I realized that there will need to be a 6th hotel before the love hotel business really closes down.
So anyway, on our way to the hotel, we had so much luggage that I put my guitar into the front seat with me.
When I tried to engage the taxidriver in conversation, he was very abrupt and said "I can't see anything on the left. It's very dangerous".
I apologized. We got out and moved on. Sometimes that's the only thing to do.
We took a walk over to another part of the 5th hotel and saw the people walking in two by two, just as if they were entered Noah's arc. It was so romantic to sit there watching them walk by, stopping on their way to their true love tryst to select the room from among the photos on the electronic screen in the lobby. When I looked at the charge sheet for the hotel and saw that they still rent by the morning, afternoon, evening or overnight stay, I realized that there will need to be a 6th hotel before the love hotel business really closes down.
So anyway, on our way to the hotel, we had so much luggage that I put my guitar into the front seat with me.
When I tried to engage the taxidriver in conversation, he was very abrupt and said "I can't see anything on the left. It's very dangerous".
I apologized. We got out and moved on. Sometimes that's the only thing to do.
The Joy of Mergers in Okayama
He used to own and run a small telephone maintenance business. It was good work, but then there were mergers and there were more mergers, and soon he found that his company had ended up four steps away from the customer. Multi-level non-work is a very Japanese solution to recession. The customer requests the product from a major company. The major company subcontracts the actual work to another company who sub-sub-contract it, until it has finally been sub-sub-sub-contracted to a small family operation like the one that my taxi driver ran. The one he ran until the unification in the industry meant that his profit lines had been cut to a meaningless figure - and he gave it up for the simpler life of driving a taxi.
Only the big places remain. There is no meaning left for the small companies.
As usual, I had heard the same story the night before in a different context. An American friend runs a computer software company. Much of his work is at the fifth step removed from the customer. On one assignment, he went into the major company and saw 120 programmers sitting around. Why do they need me if they have 120 programmers?
I find it hard to answer that question. Why shift the work further down the gravy chain, adding nothing except your own percercentage? Is it diffusion of responsibility? Is it laziness? Is it greed? Is it a feasible feature of our future?
Only the big places remain. There is no meaning left for the small companies.
As usual, I had heard the same story the night before in a different context. An American friend runs a computer software company. Much of his work is at the fifth step removed from the customer. On one assignment, he went into the major company and saw 120 programmers sitting around. Why do they need me if they have 120 programmers?
I find it hard to answer that question. Why shift the work further down the gravy chain, adding nothing except your own percercentage? Is it diffusion of responsibility? Is it laziness? Is it greed? Is it a feasible feature of our future?
Finding the Simple Life
He was only 42 years old, just four years older than me, but he seemed to have achieved so much more wisdom. Perhaps, it is in the next four years that I will gain his quiet demeanour. Somehow, I doubt it. I admired his quiet style as he drove me towards the shinkansen exit of Nagoya station.
Like so many other taxi drivers, he used to work as a truck driver. The money is good and although the hours are long, it has its compensation. This guy liked the long solitary drives from 11pm until 6am. He liked the absence of colleagues or nagging superiors. He was his own boss in his own truck.
He quit because it was time. You can'T be a truck driver for ever. It's tough on the body and it wears you down. You can drive a cab for ever, so it was time.
His salary was halved, but he doesn't mind. It's a simpler life. He gave up eating out and drinking out. Now he drinks at home and cooks himself some yaki soba.
The simple life is good.
Like so many other taxi drivers, he used to work as a truck driver. The money is good and although the hours are long, it has its compensation. This guy liked the long solitary drives from 11pm until 6am. He liked the absence of colleagues or nagging superiors. He was his own boss in his own truck.
He quit because it was time. You can'T be a truck driver for ever. It's tough on the body and it wears you down. You can drive a cab for ever, so it was time.
His salary was halved, but he doesn't mind. It's a simpler life. He gave up eating out and drinking out. Now he drinks at home and cooks himself some yaki soba.
The simple life is good.
Fake Chinamen in Nagasaki
When I arrived into Nagasaki, by a lucky coincidence, it was the third day of the lantern festival. The Lantern festival is a lighting up of the streets of the city, carried out by the Chinese residents until 12 years ago, but now embraced by the whole city. My driver was a member of the Lucky Group and we felt especially lucky because he was dressed a fabulous red Chinese outfit.
He wasn't entirely happy to be wearing it. The suit belonged to the company but he had to pay for the cleaning cost himself and it was pretty hot during the two weeks of the Lantern Festival. It wasn't strictly complsory to wear the suits, but most of the drivers in his group did. Probably that peer pressure thing again. For the week around Christmas, they don Santa suits but don't go as far as stick-on beards.
Our driver was a jolly chap, and despite his lack of weight, I think he would make a fine Santa. He looked young, but perhaps that was just the jolly Chinese suit.
He had only driven a taxi for 8 months. Before that he had worked for thirty years and a company before it had hit hard times and he had to leave. Luckily, he had earned his pension, so he wasn't that upset. It was a shock, but it was possible to move on.
Move on to a job where he gets to drive and wear funny suits. It sounds a little like a regular salaryman.
He wasn't entirely happy to be wearing it. The suit belonged to the company but he had to pay for the cleaning cost himself and it was pretty hot during the two weeks of the Lantern Festival. It wasn't strictly complsory to wear the suits, but most of the drivers in his group did. Probably that peer pressure thing again. For the week around Christmas, they don Santa suits but don't go as far as stick-on beards.
Our driver was a jolly chap, and despite his lack of weight, I think he would make a fine Santa. He looked young, but perhaps that was just the jolly Chinese suit.
He had only driven a taxi for 8 months. Before that he had worked for thirty years and a company before it had hit hard times and he had to leave. Luckily, he had earned his pension, so he wasn't that upset. It was a shock, but it was possible to move on.
Move on to a job where he gets to drive and wear funny suits. It sounds a little like a regular salaryman.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Kojin Taxi
Two kojintakushi in one day. That was a first. The term translates literally as an 'individual taxi'. After working ten years for a taxi company, it's possible to apply for a kojin taxi license. That gives the driver freedom over his working hours and a higher commission. Generally, they still work through a dispatch center.
The first guy had worked for 20 years. He works late at night in general and takes weekends off - Saturdays and Sundays. It sounds like a relatively civilized life. The company drivers work crazy shifts, changing from night shift to day shift twice a week and engaging in manic 23 hour shifts. Nothing like independence really.
He does pretty well, it seems. Tonight was Friday and that's his busiest night. He makes an average of 40,000 yen uriage on a Friday night. His car was in good shape. I don't know the first thing about cars, but it seemed like a fancy one. I asked him if he has ever gone overseas. This is a rather obvious question, and one of my standards. It's a good follow-up to the almost invariable 'what country are you from'. In general, I ask it as a mild provokation. Most taxi drivers haven't been overseas except for their homeymoon in Hawaii. That doesn't really count. He had been overseas. In fact, his son works as a pilot in the United States in Utah. I can imagine him spraying crops and batting off over-eager Mormons. The father goes to America once a year. He doesn't like it much. The reason is the food. They don't know how to cook well in America. They make big plates, but Japan is the only country with really good food, don't you think.
The second driver thought that 40,000 was brilliant and reckoned that the first guy was working really hard. Of course, the second driver was annoyed because I was going in the opposite direction to his house and he wanted to be heading home at 1am. That's early on a Friday night.
I asked him for a receipt because I've vowed never to lose things in taxis again. He said that his customers never forgot anything because he always checked thoroughly. He was right. After passing me my guitar, mandolin, amp, amp stand, several bags of cords and other miscellaneous stuff, he left another brown bag on the ground. It was only when he had driven off that I realized that it was a bag with a towel and other personal things in there. I'll call him tomorrow to tell him that I've got his bag. I'm glad that I got a receipt.
The first guy had worked for 20 years. He works late at night in general and takes weekends off - Saturdays and Sundays. It sounds like a relatively civilized life. The company drivers work crazy shifts, changing from night shift to day shift twice a week and engaging in manic 23 hour shifts. Nothing like independence really.
He does pretty well, it seems. Tonight was Friday and that's his busiest night. He makes an average of 40,000 yen uriage on a Friday night. His car was in good shape. I don't know the first thing about cars, but it seemed like a fancy one. I asked him if he has ever gone overseas. This is a rather obvious question, and one of my standards. It's a good follow-up to the almost invariable 'what country are you from'. In general, I ask it as a mild provokation. Most taxi drivers haven't been overseas except for their homeymoon in Hawaii. That doesn't really count. He had been overseas. In fact, his son works as a pilot in the United States in Utah. I can imagine him spraying crops and batting off over-eager Mormons. The father goes to America once a year. He doesn't like it much. The reason is the food. They don't know how to cook well in America. They make big plates, but Japan is the only country with really good food, don't you think.
The second driver thought that 40,000 was brilliant and reckoned that the first guy was working really hard. Of course, the second driver was annoyed because I was going in the opposite direction to his house and he wanted to be heading home at 1am. That's early on a Friday night.
I asked him for a receipt because I've vowed never to lose things in taxis again. He said that his customers never forgot anything because he always checked thoroughly. He was right. After passing me my guitar, mandolin, amp, amp stand, several bags of cords and other miscellaneous stuff, he left another brown bag on the ground. It was only when he had driven off that I realized that it was a bag with a towel and other personal things in there. I'll call him tomorrow to tell him that I've got his bag. I'm glad that I got a receipt.
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