Coming back from vacation is never easy, but coming back to a broken hot water machine, the only source of hot water for the life blood known as coffee, is downright depressing. I trudged over to the contraption Monday morning and was quick to notice the out of order signs encasing it. As I stumbled away in a state of confusion, one of the office workers gave me a sympathetic look and muttered the words “故障” simply meaning “failure.” I suppose there is no good phrase for “fail of massive proportion” in Japanese. This means that I had to face a Monday, after a week of vacation, with no caffeine besides the puny little mints that I carried in case of emergency. Why oh why did I buy the lemon water instead of the bottle of coffee this morning?
One redeeming quality of these devilishly black Mondays is that most people in the office return with gifts. These gift boxes are found in nearly every store in Japan, from specialty street stands to supermarkets, and it is almost a crime to return from vacation without some type of goody for everyone. Most boxes range from $5 to $10 or so, so it doesn’t damage the wallet too badly. On Monday everyone passed out their goodies, and most people ended up with a healthy pile of sweets and savouries. In Japan gifts are also given when one stays at another family’s home or acquires a new job. This is one of the visually distinctive differences between Japanese and American work cultures, and it made this caffeine-less Monday just a bit more bearable. After two chocolate cookies, an apple cake, lemon cake, and miniature cheesecake I was still sleepy but very satisfied.
Update: Today (Tuesday) the hot water machine was replaced by a bigger-badder beast, and the caffeine buzz was almost too much for me to handle.