Working for a living

Osaka is constantly renewing itself. I looked out the window of Nova, and counted, just in my eyesight, fifteen cranes. I took a stroll around the town after work today, and counted six buildings either being renovated or recontructed, none of which needed a crane operation. In toto, 21 buildings which I just happened to notice. I can imagine only NYC has a comparable rate of construct.

But, Osaka has always been that way, here today, gone tomorrow. Everybody selling to everyone else, everybody knows everyone else. The degree of separation here is reduced probably to two. Case in point: I go to the cafe at the base of my building most days of the week, because the staff is friendly, and the food is cheap--- and as far as cheap food goes, still pretty good. Last week, I was having a beer at Murphy's, and who should come into the joint but the materfamilias of the Cafe Sanmarino (sic). Well, everyone has the right to be in a bar, and many people come in, so, just a coincidence, eh? No. She was there to visit her friend, who just happened to be the barmaid.



All dogs are brothers*, and all shopkeepers know each other, and, apparently, so to do all food purveyors. So, you mess up with one, and you are history. But, that keeps the wheels of the city moving. Overall, Japan is like that too. Critics of the Japanese economy, I think, fail to take into account the fact that most stores want to keep people employed, so that they can have money, so that they can buy things, so that they can keep stores in business, so that those stores can pay their workers, so that people are employed....... I am not sure who would approve more, Mr Marx, Mr Keynes or Mr Ford. So, is the economy stagnant, or at status quo? Sure, salarymen can get fired now, but it still is uncommon. You have to work harder at getting fired than at not doing your job, and the only way that you lose your job is if your company goes belly up. Solution? Get a new job, work for a store, or another company which bought the one you use to work at, and is now making succeed, because it has quality, or cuteness, or whatever it lacked before. It is about as close to communism you can get without a planned economy, or social programmes from the government. Think about it: no one has religion, the government is comprised of an elite few and everyone has a job, and no one complains in public.
And, Osaka is in the middle of this racket, as it has always been; importing and selling all the things that Japanese corporations are making in China to people in Japan, who might work in a restaurant, who cook for people who work at an English school, who visit a bar and drink beer, where they all meet. Just like they did four hundred years ago, and will do four hundred years in the future.









*I adapt this phrase from the book, All Men are Brothers by Shi Nia'an , as well as the movie, All Men are Brothers directed by Cheh Chiang. The idea, in both, is that trouble falls on all of us, and by that we are all bonded as brothers. Dogs also love each other, initally, having intrinsic "dogness" as their bond, thus they all run around together and play around. You have seen it happen, when dogs get together. Thus, all dogs are brothers, all men are brothers, we are all equal, yadda yadda.**

**Can you tell I am ready for China? Only 13 more days.