Finally stumbled upon a flaw in the Japanese.

It is really tough to find flaws in the Japanese. They are extremely courteous, patient,
good listeners, very intelligent, punctual, hard-working, drive sanely, accord the utmost importance to cleanliness and very eager to help. I could just go on - there are just too
many desirable traits in them.

During my last visit here, some months ago, I couldn't help wondering whether they do
not have atleast one flaw in them, some behaviour which could be seen as wrong. But no,
could not find even one.

This time around, I seem to have finally stumbled upon something. An important client
was coming over to our office with a couple of his subordinates to discuss about the project
that we were working on for them. I was told that I would need to be there at the meeting
which was scheduled for 11AM. Apart from me, my organisationwould be represented by
our local office manager and another engineer who works at our Tokyo office.

Knowing the Japanese penchant for punctuality, I was in the conference room 5 minutes
before the meeting, making some quick notes about the points on the agenda. As if by magic,
as soon as the office clock showed 11AM, the clients trooped in. To say that I was amazed by
the timing, would be a gross understatement. I have seen their metro trains arrive at the scheduled time, to the exact minute. But this was incredible.

Ofcourse, my deviant Indian mind, could not help thinking, "What if they had arrived some
5-10 mins earlier and were just waiting downstairs, having a smoke or something and then walked in at the exact time? " Even if this were to be the case, it is neither wrong nor does
it take away anything from their penchant for punctuality, because they still took the effort
to be at our place before the scheduled time of the meeting.

Anyway, they troop into the conference room and after the normal introductions and
exchange of business cards, we get down to business. We start of in English, but soon
I see (or rather hear) that they have switched to Japanese to converse among themselves.
So, while the group of 5 are animatedly discussing among themselves, I am sitting there wondering what the heck is happening. All I am able to make out are some tech-jargon
which they have kindly decided to retain in its English form.

I think that it's a temporary thing and that they will switch back to English, but even as
time goes by, I do not see any chance of it happening. If this were to happen in India, it
would be considered seriously rude behaviour. And it was not a one-off thing, because I
saw it happening again.

However, after that first experience, I have wisened up to the act. As soon as I see them
move to Japanese, I excuse myself and tell them that I have to get back to work and will
only be glad to come when I am required. Otherwise, I don't think I will be able to get any
work done here, if I remain in the conference room for hours, wasting my time in a meeting where I am just a mute spectator, and not a contributor that I am supposed to be.