"Happy new year to you too!"

One of the more annoying things about getting back to work is the excessive “Happy New Year” greeting that you have to perform. It is compulsory, to greet each and everyone you meet in the office through saying “Happy new year, hope we can work well together this year too” (in Japanese: 明けましておめでとうございます。本年度もよろしくお願いします) and give a little bow.

Now, this might not sound too bad, but when you’re meeting the 20th something person and have to go throw these motions it gets pretty old and when you do it for the 40th time in the day you just wish that there was a more efficient way of getting all those greetings out of the way. The enthusiasm and the angle of the bow decrease significantly over time…

And it doesn’t really end here like you might think, even in the coming weeks I have to deal with the stragglers that I for one reason or another didn’t meet during this week and go through all the motions again. In a few weeks the invisible barrier will be reached and you don’t have to bother with this particular greeting at least for another year…