Earthquakes

On tuesday I felt two earthquakes while I stayed in the office. Both were situated in the same region, a little north east of Tokyo out in the sea. The first one was at 5.4 in strength, the next one was at 6.0 in strength. No tsunami warnings were sent out and the Fukushima reactors were reported to still be stable. The strength was of course a lot lower in Tokyo than in the epicenter, but it was still noticeable. I first realise that it was an earthquake by feeling a bit dissy, a little bit seasick, maybe like being on a boat. This is only due to the quite slow swaying of the building we work in when an earthquake of low frequency. The last one of the two earthquakes was a bit bigger than what we normally have, but not big enough that it was any scary. At least I got a video from it! You can only see a very small shaking of the plant we have in the office.

Even though this was not a big earthquake, it´s good to know that they take EHS seriously at the office and are prepared for bigger earthquakes in the future. Elkem Japan has actually moved office after the 9.0 earthquake in March to a safer building now. We all have a helmet (to put on if there is a big earthquake) underneath our desk. In addition there are blankets, water and some food stored in case of a bigger emergency. And as you may have read there is a 70 % risk of a big earthquake (over 7.0 in strength) hitting Tokyo within 4 years. Then it´s good to be prepared and on the safe side!

A regular day at work

Maybe one of you is wondering how a regular day at the office in Elkem Japan is. In that case, I will try to provide you with some information.

I can first answer some of the questions I had before I went to Japan about work culture:
-Do they only speak Japanese at the office? No, my co-workes are very fluent in English and several of them have lived outside Japan in English speaking countries for several years.
-Is it possible to go home before the boss goes home? Yes, but it is still a different culture for when it is ok to go home here compared to in Norway.
-Do they smile, nod and sai yes (hai) often? Yes. (And as you see, I'm getting affected) Especially in phone conversations.

Before I came to Japan I had been working in two different Elkem departments. My first trainee period was in production in Elkem Solar and my second was in the Product group. This was also in Elkem Solar, but I was there working more with research. A regular day at work differed a lot between these two departments and naturally, working in Elkem Japan differs again from this.

As the office of Elkem Japan is situated in Tokyo, one of the busiest cities in the world (but yet, very ordered), the rush traffic is pretty heavy. You have probably already seen the YouTube videos of the Tokyo metro in rush hour. In case not: you are in for a treat and please feel free check it out. I am lucky and do not have to use the metro in rush hour, but this is what I have learned to do if it is really full of people: Go in with your back first. Never use a backpack or go with any big luggage in rush hour. Try to not be an average Norwegian, but pretend you are thinner. Try to find a free space to breathe (here it helps if you are a tall Norwegian) until the next stop where you cross your fingers that there are more people going off than there are people coming on.

The work day here therefore starts at 9.30 to avoid the worst of this rush hour. The main reason is though that this enables us to have contact with offices in Norway within working hours for both Elkem in Norway and in Japan. The day starts with a short morning meeting where everybody at the office informs each other of what the program of the day is. In production in Norway morning meetings were also important and one had to be ready with information of the previous day's production. The difference is that in production the morning meeting started at 7.30, while in Japan one can sleep two hours more, but have to stay longer at the office in the evening.

Some weeks I'm only at the office, but most of the weeks I will have some days out of the office in Tokyo or somewhere else in Japan. I can be having a technical meeting, visiting a potential customer, promoting our product or maybe catch up on some of the latest research in the field. Sounds great, right? I know I'm lucky, but it's still hard work.

Underneath here you can see some pictures from our office and also a picture of me wearing a Japanese welcome gift from the two nice co-workers in the picture. Kawai desu ne?