There are mysterious events in my town Thursdays at 5:00 am.
I walk to the train station every morning, and usually it is a pretty quiet affair. I see only two or three cars during the whole trip, and then I take the very first train of the day to head to work. Maybe I’ll spot a jogger, or maybe an old lady walking her dog. However, precisely because there is nothing going on makes Thursday morning events stand out.
As I get close to the station, I always walk past the big JA building on my right. The JA stands for “Japan Agriculture” which is a surprisingly large association that supports and profits from all the otherwise independent Japanese farmers. In addition, JA sells insurance, runs a credit union, and charges membership dues to the farmers that are part of the association. As an organization they have a lot of political clout and power in Japan, maybe too much considering the shrinking agriculture industry here.
The size of the JA building is impressive, especially for my small little town, with what looks like five floors and even a small credit union building next to it filled with ATMs. Despite having walked by at least twice a day for the past ten years, I have just once seen the top floor of the building lit up at night, the curtains left open to reveal opulent chandeliers illuminating an upscale banquet room. There is big money here.
But every Thursday in front of the JA building, rain or shine, cold or hot, light or dark, there is a group of ten to fifteen very sleepy people walking around picking up garbage. It is usually about a 60/40 ratio of women to men, of all ages. They carry small trash bags and long steel tongs to pick up paper and other trash lying about on the ground. There usually isn’t that much litter around my town (or any Japanese small town to be honest), but they are out there anyway, shambling around in lazy circles searching for stuff to pick up.
This kind of sleepy stumble has led me to dub them the “Thursday zombies” as they wander the otherwise desolate streets looking for litter instead of brains. Sometimes they notice me walking by and acknowledge me with a nod of the head, but we haven’t reached the level of making conversation because there are different people almost every week.
The real mystery is why they are doing it. It seems to me that employees of JA would do it during their work hours, or at least closer to their work starting time. They could be local citizen volunteers but it seems odd to do the job so early. My own theory is that the “zombies” are regular Joes who have taken loans from JA and do this as some kind of service to get a discount or something. But really, there is no way to know unless I ask them, and I don’t want to disturb their slumber at that hour. Besides, having the mystery is more fun.
This morning while walking by I noticed that most of the “zombies” had finished up cleaning and they had all assembled at the entrance to the JA building, just waiting for the last stragglers to show up. As is usual in Japanese social culture, everyone will wait until the entire group is ready to go on to the next step, which causes a certain amount of inefficiency, which in turn kind of stands out to me as someone from outside the culture.
In this morning’s case I had passed two stragglers still cleaning up trash about a hundred yards earlier, and they had appeared oblivious to any sort of deadline or wrap up signal. Their eyes were stuck to the ground searching for elusive cigarette butts. So I knew that it would be quite a while before they went over to join their compatriots, and that the others would have to wait for quite a bit more time. But none of them will complain, and none of them will leave for their nice warm homes, because the entire group must gather before they can finish.
I’ve experienced this a lot since I moved to Japan. The party can’t start until everyone sits down, the drinks cannot be drunk until everyone has one in their hand and the speech has been made. The trip isn’t over until everyone has gathered and a closing speech has been heard, and so on. From one perspective it is strongly emphasizing the cohesiveness of the group, but on the other hand it shows that your own personal time is less valuable than the value of the group itself.
But today most of the “zombies” will wait in the cold patiently for the closing ceremony before they return to their homes, and again next Thursday another group will be out there again. The end result is nice – relatively clean streets near the train station – but I’m not sure about the method of the whole thing.
As for me I know I would change a few things based on my own culture and perspective. But I’m living in somebody else’s culture, so I continue to play by their rules, and simply note the more interesting contrasts here.
