Japan: Keep To The Left
This morning as I walked into the Shinagawa Grand Central Tower which houses Microsoft Japan, I attempted to scan my Pasmo card instead of my company ID to pass through the gate to the elevator. This mistake was the culmination of a two week long process of adaptation that I hope remains a work in progress, because I'm still making mistakes all over the place!
Keep to the left. No, this is not a political post, it's a neuroscience exploration. The move to Tokyo is a huge change in environment. At 54 years-old, the adaptation is noticeable and it's amusing if I can keep my sense of humor. In Japan, cars drive on the left and people walk on the left (except where they walk on the right). So, keep to the left!
On the first day of work, two weeks ago, each step was an amazing invocation of information I had read in e-mails, some I printed out to study and other pieces I received via delivery services from Japan. I drew upon the experiences of thirteen prior visits to Japan over thirty years, I scanned Google Maps and requested my son's guidance. Of course, I forgot the most essential papers in my suitcase, but that just served to provide more adrenaline to engage my slow thinking faculties.
When I say "slow", I'm referring back to one of my favorite books. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman which describes the two major faculties of our brain. Our fast thinking brain controls our automatic behaviors which control, among many other things, our ability to walk down the street, avoiding obstacles without conscious thought, while composing that e-mail which we have to send when we get to work. On the other hand, our slow thinking brain is the one composing the e-mail. It's the part of the brain which requires conscious effort and can execute arbitrary recipes of instructions, step-by-step, to succeed at tasks which we've never performed before.
My new environment posed a huge number of challenges:
The transition from slow thinking control to fast thinking was not smooth because my fast thinking really had not learned how to navigate this new environment automatically.
- Without thinking, I would rush on to the train and find I'm heading away from my destination. Whoops, wrong side of the platform.
- I would have to push my way in desperation out of the train because I was standing on the wrong side.
- I found myself on an elevator going down, but with no button for my floor in the wrong bank of elevators.
- I'd find myself walking all the way around the building to find the café or my office. I needed to take the south door, go right by the women's bathroom and then left.
Gradually, life is becoming automatic and mental fatigue is reduced. Gradually, I could order my coffee without stressing about pronunciation. I could enjoy looking around as I walked.
I'd relax, but that just encouraged my fast brain to take over more, then I'd bump into someone as I'm crossing the station. What navigation rule am I breaking? I'm on the right. But, is the right for the US or Japan? In the process of my fast brain taking over, my "default" automatic rule has been lost. It's like my fast brain was executing the rule of walking on the "opposite" of my "normal" walking side. But, having done that so much after two weeks, it couldn't remember which side is normal to walk on any more. So, my slow brain had to kick in again to figure out which side is "normal" and gradually my fast brain's rule can shift from "opposite of normal" to the "just normal".
If I can really create a life in both Japan and the US one day, will my fast brain automatically apply the right rule based on context? Does anyone else think about stuff like this? LOL.
As I looked around the Microsoft lobby embarrassed, I return my Pasmo card to my pocket and pull out my company ID. I just had to laugh at the new mistake my fast thinking brain incurred. Yes, the gate looks like the ones in the train station, I see what I was fast thinking...
Keep to the left. No, this is not a political post, it's a neuroscience exploration. The move to Tokyo is a huge change in environment. At 54 years-old, the adaptation is noticeable and it's amusing if I can keep my sense of humor. In Japan, cars drive on the left and people walk on the left (except where they walk on the right). So, keep to the left!
On the first day of work, two weeks ago, each step was an amazing invocation of information I had read in e-mails, some I printed out to study and other pieces I received via delivery services from Japan. I drew upon the experiences of thirteen prior visits to Japan over thirty years, I scanned Google Maps and requested my son's guidance. Of course, I forgot the most essential papers in my suitcase, but that just served to provide more adrenaline to engage my slow thinking faculties.
When I say "slow", I'm referring back to one of my favorite books. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman which describes the two major faculties of our brain. Our fast thinking brain controls our automatic behaviors which control, among many other things, our ability to walk down the street, avoiding obstacles without conscious thought, while composing that e-mail which we have to send when we get to work. On the other hand, our slow thinking brain is the one composing the e-mail. It's the part of the brain which requires conscious effort and can execute arbitrary recipes of instructions, step-by-step, to succeed at tasks which we've never performed before.
My new environment posed a huge number of challenges:
- What do I need to bring to work?
- How do I get from my apartment to the subway station?
- Walk on the left! Watch for traffic when crossing streets by looking right and then left!
- Within the station, which line do I take and where do I enter it? Walk on the left!
- Which platform and which side of the platform is the train I must take?
- Is there an express train I should wait for and does it stop at my station? This is the Yamanote-sen, so all trains are local.
- Which stop do I get off to transfer?
- Which side of the train should I position myself to get off in time?
- Where do I go to find my next line?
- Which exit do I take from the huge Shinagawa station?
- Which direction is the Shinagawa Grand Central Tower?
- Etc, etc. Sorry if I went on too long. :-)
The transition from slow thinking control to fast thinking was not smooth because my fast thinking really had not learned how to navigate this new environment automatically.
- Without thinking, I would rush on to the train and find I'm heading away from my destination. Whoops, wrong side of the platform.
- I would have to push my way in desperation out of the train because I was standing on the wrong side.
- I found myself on an elevator going down, but with no button for my floor in the wrong bank of elevators.
- I'd find myself walking all the way around the building to find the café or my office. I needed to take the south door, go right by the women's bathroom and then left.
Gradually, life is becoming automatic and mental fatigue is reduced. Gradually, I could order my coffee without stressing about pronunciation. I could enjoy looking around as I walked.
I'd relax, but that just encouraged my fast brain to take over more, then I'd bump into someone as I'm crossing the station. What navigation rule am I breaking? I'm on the right. But, is the right for the US or Japan? In the process of my fast brain taking over, my "default" automatic rule has been lost. It's like my fast brain was executing the rule of walking on the "opposite" of my "normal" walking side. But, having done that so much after two weeks, it couldn't remember which side is normal to walk on any more. So, my slow brain had to kick in again to figure out which side is "normal" and gradually my fast brain's rule can shift from "opposite of normal" to the "just normal".
If I can really create a life in both Japan and the US one day, will my fast brain automatically apply the right rule based on context? Does anyone else think about stuff like this? LOL.
As I looked around the Microsoft lobby embarrassed, I return my Pasmo card to my pocket and pull out my company ID. I just had to laugh at the new mistake my fast thinking brain incurred. Yes, the gate looks like the ones in the train station, I see what I was fast thinking...
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