This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
As the end of the year nears, it has become time to go to the store and buy a new Day Planner.
Perhaps that seems commonplace enough. I’m sure that many people all over the world use day planners. For me, however, this is something I never would have done before coming to Japan. It is also something that, since I started doing it, has become one of the many small details that make me feel like I am being absorbed into the daily norms and customs of Japanese life.
When I first came to Japan, one thing that struck me as odd was how so many of the people I spent time with could talk to me about dates two, three, or even four weeks in advance without looking at calendars. They would ask me questions at the beginning of the month like, Are you free on the 17th? Or, Do you have any plans on the 29th? Or, I’m free after 9:00 pm on the 11th, 24th, and 31st, and I'm free in the morning on the 9th and 15th if you want to do something.
Always, I would have to ask, What day is that? or Which days of the week are those? To which people were always be able to respond without hesitation, It’s Wednesday. Or, The 9th is a Saturday and the 15th is a Friday.
Their ability to know the dates and the days that correspond with them was like magic to me. If I’m perfectly honest, it still is like magic to me. It’s something that I can never fathom being able to do myself.
Having lived in Japan for some time now, rather than consider it magic, I have come to attribute this innate ability, which many people here seem to have, to the wide spread use of daily planners and the repeated habit of checking schedules that is ingrained in the people here from their first day of elementary school and onward. Even nursery schools in Japan establish what day of the week it is, what the date is, and what the daily plan for each day is with children first thing in the morning, before they are allowed to begin playing.
Life here is busy, for people of all ages, and keeping track of plans, obligations, and availability is very important. In Japan, where you are perpetually encouraged to think of the people around you and the impact your actions may have on them, canceling plans or obligations can mean possibly disappointing someone, possibly letting someone down or wasting someone’s time, or it can even potentially mean burdening someone else with obligations that you were supposed to fulfill. So, in a sense, it’s better not to make plans than it is to cancel them.
The backs of daily planners in Japan have many charts and cultural tips that are full of useful information for Japanese and non-Japanese as well.
How about you? Do you use a daily planner?
What about the people around you? Please let me know in the comments below.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Wow great information about the maintenance of time. Here in India all these scheduled time is planned only for VIPs.We have no Pre planned time table here for general people. We have our dauty time fixed 9am to 3pm in school. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful idea. Have a great day friend.
I noticed that time was observed a lot differently when I was in India. It was very interesting to me.
I saw a number of really cute calendars with dog photos at Tokyu Hands. They're so cute but the calendar holidays won't fit my own country's. What a shame. Pretty sure there are lots of nice daily planners as well.
Yeah, 2018 is the Dog Year, so dogs are a popular motif. There are so many to choose from. That's too bad that the holidays don't match your countries. I hadn't that of that.
I tend to prefer the vertical organizers, as shown above, which limits the planners that are available quite a bit.
日本人の日付感覚について非常に面白いPOSTでした。
特殊なんですね(^^)
その日付感覚は本当に凄いと思います。来日したら驚いたことことはあるとよく聞かれていますが、この日付感覚は一つです。
Here in the Netherlands we also use daily planners and we plan ahead. This means that we also plan visits to our family members, there are no or almost no unexpected visits. Sometimes someone calls and asks: are you free tonight, then we will ....... But that is an exception. We usually make appointments, sometimes weeks before the actual date. But mostly with our daily planner on your lap, not by heart.
I've been told a few times that life in the Netherlands has a lot of similarities to life in Japan. Based on your description of making plans, I would agree. That sounds exactly how it is in Japan. Sometimes, scheduling a get together can take a week or more because everyone's schedules are so varied. And, yes, spontaneous visits rarely happen here as well. Being American, I miss them.
I use day planners, and have since... come to think of it, I started emulating my dad when I was about eight or nine, so that would have been 1968.
That was in Denmark... and looking at your Japanese example, I think people are "busy" everywhere. but in some cultures that busy is extremely structured. Our busy certainly was... everything had its appropriate time, and if something was scheduled for 2-3, you STOPPED at three, even if you were having a good time.
The odd thing is, even as we were busy, we didn't seem to be "running" nearly as much as I experience it now, living in the US. Not sure I can identify how that works...
You're right, people are busy everywhere. I wonder if your sense of busy-ness has changed with age and perspective or if, as you said, the lack of timely closings/endings for events and plans leads to a lot of running around, trying to make up for lost time.
I do find it comforting to be able to say, Well, it's time to go. Let's get together again.
No time for spontaneous activities like, "I am feeling really disconnected from myself. I need to stop everything and take a walk in nature?" I am coming more and more into spontaneity in my life and feeling my way through my day following my highest excitement. It's 6:30am here in North Carolina, and while I have a rough idea of what my day will look like, I don't know what time I'm going to do things or what order I will do them in.
I would be curious to know what those tips are on the back of the calendar that you mentioned. I am fascinated by other cultures. :) Thanks for sharing.<3
Of course, there is room to follow your own spontaneity a little, and I think people do that. But more often than not, every day is full of obligations, so you have to choose your moment of spontaneity during a free time. And even then, I think many people here feel reluctant to choose something for themselves because of the way it might impact the people around them.
Some of the tips in the photograph are about attending events like weddings, funerals, and people when they are in the hospital. The tips include how much money you should give depending on your relationship to the person involved and which envelope you should put the money in.
Some of these customs are old and aren't practiced very often, so they aren't exactly taught to children. They get passed down to younger generations, but not in detail, so these reminders are helpful.
In the last couple of years, I've started using my phone, and now my watch. It's helpful to have the reminder show up, and even more so if it reminds you that it's time to leave, NOW, because of traffic :-)
That's funny. I use my phone sometimes as well. I could see a watch be very helpful as well. For me, I find the planners most helpful when dealing with work. I can write my lesson schedule down and easily check it whenever I have my planner with me. Then, I like using it as a diary, using the open space for each day to write down what I did and any notes about my children. I've done this part for the past two years and hope it will someday help everyone recollect how the kids grew up.
I do the same with a big desktop calendar at work and small calendars in the bedroom closet (walk-in, we dress there) and on the refrigerator. Wow! Those and the phone/watch. How much reminding does one person need? :-D
When it comes to keeping up with all my wife's, I need all the help I can get.
I think this new year I will start using my day planner more efficiently. I tend to stuff it full of things I need to do, and don't leave any room for things that crop up unexpectedly. I never used a planner until a few years ago. I found it did help me be better organised. Upvoted and following.
Thanks for the follow cecicastor. My planner is full of lists and conversations that get started but not finished as well. It's interesting to read back on those at the end of the year. I tend to be pretty forgetful of events and things to do, so using a planner has been very helpful for me.
This is a famous notebook in japan!
Is it famous? I've used this one for the past three years and have grown quite fond of it.
Yes It is famous.
http://www.takahashishoten.co.jp/notebook/
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
Once upon a time, they were a must for me... However, I am glad I don't have a need for them now, being semi-retired (dare I even say it... lol) and am purposely freeing up more of my schedule for me-time, and family-time... Somehow I seem to be more busy now than when I held a full-time job... ;)
I've heard that said about retirement more times than I can count. That's funny, isn't it? I imagine, though, that if you suddenly didn't know how to fill your time you'd find yourself in trouble.
Haha, never... for me! :D I have too many things that I want to do or maybe 'have' to do... A definite case of: So many things, so little time...
I think one has more time when working full-time as it's structured - you have to be at work at such and such a time, and leave work (approx) at such and such a time! Whereas when we are 'free' everything and everyone thinks you are 'free' and can do anything for them any time! Hence... ;)
I can see that. Work is often my getaway. I use it as a space I can get things done that I could never get done at home.