I was invited to Japan by Japanese
Society for the Promotion of Science as a Senior Fellow to lecture on Himalayan
wild fruits at different universities and research stations in Japan. At that time I was working as Horticulturist
the University of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni, Solan. It was in the year
1990 and the duration of the fellowship was seven weeks. My host professor was Prof Hiroshi Yamamura
of the Shimane University, Matsue. According to the programme, I was to report to
Prof. Yamamura at Matsue start work from that place in collaboration with Prof.
Yamamura.
According
to the programme, I was to stay at Matsue during the first four weeks. From here, both of us used visit different
places for lecture and discussions with the local scientists. During the last three weeks, I was to travel
independently.
So
stayed at Matsue like a faculty member.
The horticulture department there was not very big. It had two professors and one associate
professor. There was separate block for
the Faculty of Agriculture and various Departments were housed in that. There were about ten undergraduate students
and only one student, a girl from China, doing M.Sc. in Horticulture. The teaching was both in Japanese and
English.
The
working hours were from 9.30 to 4.30.
Everyone was quite punctual and reached office five minutes before
time. Our department was located at the
second floor. So we used to meet at the
lift door. There was only one key for
the main door and the last person leaving office in the evening would conceal
it at a place above the door. So when
people would come in the morning the first person will take it and open the
door.
The
work, which was a new experience for me would start after that. All the faculty members will put their brief
cases on their respective tables and pick up the brooms and start sweeping the
floor, collect the garbage and put it in the big garbage bin kept especially
for this purpose on every floor. Then
they will pick up mops and mop the floor, dust their tables and other corners
of the rooms. The whole affair lasted
for about ten minutes.
After
that the second work would start. All
the professors boiled water and filled their thermos flasks with hot
water. This was for their daily tea. The Japanese drink a lot of tea. In fact they continue doing it the whole
day. Their tea was, however, quite
different than what we take here. It was
some green powder of tea. They usually
put a small quantity in the thermos itself and the poured water over it. No
sugar or mild was added to it. This brew
had a light yellowish green colour and very mild taste of tea. A half cup of this tea was the first thing to
be offered to any visitor. This was the
first formality of courtesy at every place in Japan.
There
were no sweepers as we have in Indian offices.
The cleaning work of corridors and other common areas was
outsourced. So twice a week, a group of
cleaners will come like raiders in a vehicle; clean every place and will move
to their next destination. This
operation really used to be very fast like a raid.
But
that did not mean that their buildings were not clean. Japanese are quite fussy people so far as the
cleanliness is concerned. The building
used to quite clean from inside as well as from outside.
My host professors and students at Shimane University, Matsue, Japan
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