Fondue and Big Cheese

On Tuesday I went with Lucy to Donita's house for fondue. She'd made gooey chocolate fondue and we all stuffed ourselves silly on chocolate, biscuits and pieces of fruit. She'd also made some salad and naturally that had to be sampled as fondue as well. I recommend broccoli (pleasantly nutty) but would suggest you steer well clear of cheese (unless you're pregnant or have lost all of your tastebuds in an unfortunate battery-eating accident). I met a Kiwi guy who's favourite comedy was Rab C. Nesbitt (the first time I've ever met anyone from outside the UK who's seen it, let alone understood it) and a Canadian girl who's taking the ferry to China this week. It sounds like a good idea (air travel is expensive from here) but it involves spending 50 hours on a boat and I'm not sure I could stand it. I also chatted to Kiyomi again, a Japanese girl who spent a year working in London. She's taking a holiday from work at the moment.
"I have to go back on Thursday, just for one day," she said.
"Then what?"
"Then I quit." Wow. This is serious. Japanese people don't quit their jobs, they work until they die. That is, they work until they die unless they've lived abroad and have seen how the other half live. I'd spoken to Dad the other day, Dad has a cushy job (except on days where pupils are feeling violent) working in Education support and getting naughty kids to come to school. The best way seems to be to not spend too much time in school, so Dad often takes groups of them fishing or rock climbing. In the phone call he'd spent the afternoon in Aden Park doing the crossword. I decided not to tell Kiyomi this.
A report published this week found that Japan is losing 30 billion off its economy every year because staff are falling asleep at work or are off work due to stress-related illnesses. If I was working 14 hour days six days a week I think I'd be stressed out too. Akemi, my manager at Takabata, looked like death warmed up the other day. She'd had to go to a meeting in Osaka with the "big chizu" as she put it. The big cheese does not seem like a particularly sweet cheese. They had their meeting and stayed up drinking. Drinking with the boss is obligatory. Anyone who left early would be fired. The big cheese stopped drinking at 4 A.M.
I like living in Japan but I'm very glad I'm not Japanese.