"I was born in Japan." "I spent my first 5 years there." "Leaving Japan was for me a real uprooting, a real exile." "So much, that when I was almost adult, I came back to live in Japan, hence to work there." "I felt I could accept anything to resettle in the country that for many years I felt was mine." "This is how I tried to become a real Japanese." "Tokyo, January 8, 1990" "Mr Haneda was Mr Omochi's boss, who was Mr Saito's boss," "who was Miss Mori's boss, who was my boss." "I was nobody's boss." "So in the Yumimoto Corporation," "I'd be at everyone's "beck and call"." "But I was proud of myself:" "I'd landed a 1-year contract as interpreter in a big Japanese firm!" "The first morning, I jumped out the window." "Miss Amelie!" "Why didn't you tell Reception you'd arrived?" "I'm Saito, head of accounting." "Follow me." "I'll introduce you to Mr Omochi, my boss." "Please behave properly." "Excuse us." "That's Mr Haneda's office, the president of Yumimoto." "You should never try to meet him." "This is your work station." "That's the desk of your boss, Miss Mori." "She's in a meeting." "She'll join you early this afternoon." "Gentlemen!" "This is our new employee:" "Miss Amelie." "Do you enjoy challenges?" "Do you enjoy challenges?" "Yes." "Good." "Here's one for you:" "Mr Johnson has asked me to play golf on Sunday." "Write a letter in English to say I accept." "Who is this Mr Johnson?" "The exercise seemed easy." "I wrote a polite letter:" ""Mr Saito is delighted to play golf next Sunday with Mr Johnson," ""and sends you his regards."" "Start over." "Had I been too friendly or familiar with Mr Johnson?" "I composed a cold and distant note:" ""Mr Saito acknowledges" ""Mr Johnson's request and will play golf with him on Sunday."" "Start over." "I wanted to ask what mistake I made, but my boss didn't tolerate questions." "Start over!" "I had to decide how to address the mysterious Mr Johnson." "Start over." "I spent the next hours composing missives to this golfer." "In the end, I must have tried every silly permutation of the words in that sentence." "Miss Mori is back." "You'll work with her this afternoon." "Meanwhile, get me a coffee." "A weak one." "Miss Mori?" "I'm Fubuki Mori." "Please call me Fubuki." "I was transfixed by the splendour of her face." "All beauty is moving, but Japanese beauty is even more moving." "Lily-white complexion, soft eyes... a nose with inimitable nostrils... lips so perfectly drawn..." "The complex sweetness of her features, and her manners, made her a work of art that defied understanding." "Except for her amazing height," "Fubuki was Japanese beauty to perfection." "Her face was like a carnation, symbol of noble beauty in ancient Japan." "Perched on her towering silhouette, it was destined to rule the world." "Yumimoto was one of the world's largest corporations." "Mr Haneda ran the Import-Export department, whose catalogue was truly titanic:" "Finnish-Swiss cheese, Singapore sodium," "Canadian optic fibers, French tyres, Togolese jute, they didn't miss a trick." "At Yumimoto, money defied human comprehension." "Beyond a certain accumulation of zeros, the sums ceased being numbers, and became abstract art." "Good morning." "All these documents were prodigiously dull." "I used none of the qualities I'd been hired for." "Or knew what my role in the company would be." "But I wanted to work in a Japanese firm:" "I was in one!" "Above all," "I was delighted with my co-worker." "To look busy," "I learned by heart all of the company's employees, and their marital status," "including wives and children." "The days went by:" "Mr Saito asked nothing of me, except to bring him cups of coffee." "In a Japanese company, one's first job is the okachumi:" ""The honorable function of making tea."" "I applied myself to this role:" "It was the only one I had." "For Mr Unaji, coffee with milk, 2 sugars, at 10 AM." "For Mr Mizuno, 1 goblet of Coke per hour." "For Mr Okada, at 5PM, English tea with a hint of milk." "For Fubuki, green tea at 9 AM, black coffee at noon, more green tea at 3PM, a last black coffee at 7 PM." "Mr Omochi is receiving executives from a sister company:" "Coffee for 13 people." "Hurry!" "This humble task was the start of my downfall." "Thank you for coming." "Think of this meeting as the first of a series that will be held each month." "Thank you for inviting us into the heart of Yumimoto." "Please." "Here is coffee." "Next time you will visit our company." "Excuse me." "Do you take sugar or milk?" "Here's a detailed report on our results for the last 2 years." "If you please..." "Please, here's your coffee." "Saito!" "Who is this girl?" "What are you up to?" "Why does she speak Japanese?" " Stop it at once!" " I'm sorry, sir." "Miss Amelie!" "Follow me!" "The delegation of the sister company went away angry!" "When you served coffee, you spoke perfect Japanese!" "But..." "Sir..." "I do speak Japanese." "Be quiet!" "How dare you defend yourself?" "Mr Omochi is furious." "The negotiation was called off." "Those are very important customers for our company." "How could they discuss secret matters if a foreigner understands us?" "Never speak Japanese again!" "What?" "You no longer understand Japanese!" "Got that?" "But my knowledge of Japanese is why Yumimoto hired me!" "I don't care!" "I, your boss, am giving you an order!" "You don't understand Japanese anymore!" "That's impossible." "No one can obey an order like that." "There's always a way to obey!" "Western brains must learn that!" "Maybe a Japanese brain can force itself to forget a language." "A Western brain can't do it." "Of course." "I understand." "But give it a try." "At least, pretend!" "You've been given orders." "Is that clear?" "Logically, I should have quit." "But I'd worked hard to get this contract." "I'd studied local business terms, taken many tests." "In Japan, to resign so soon meant losing face." "So how could I obey Mr Saito's order?" "If language is a forest, could I hide Japanese trees behind French trees?" "Mori," "Fubuki's family name, meant "forest"." "What did the boss tell you?" "He ordered me to forget Japanese." "Did you talk as you served coffee?" "I hate Mr Saito." "He's mean, and a fool." "No, you're wrong." "Of course." "You're kind, you don't see evil." "Only a fool gives such an order!" "Calm down." "The instruction didn't come from him." "He only transmitted Mr Omochi's orders." "He had no choice." "Then Mr Omochi is a fool." "Mr Omochi is rather special." "But he's the vice-president." "We can't do a thing!" "What if I spoke to the president, Mr Haneda?" "What kind of a man is he?" "Mr Haneda is remarkable." "Very intelligent and very kind." "But you have no right to speak to him." "You may only address your immediate superior:" "Me." "Thank you, Fubuki." "I realize you can't do much for me." "But I thank you deeply." "Your kindness does me a lot of good." "What's the ideogram for Fubuki?" "Snow storm!" "Fubuki means "snowstorm"?" "What a beautiful first name!" "I was born during a snowstorm." "Of course on a day when the beauty of the sky met the beauty of the earth." "In the majestic city of Nara, with all its bells." "How do you know it was in Nara?" "I studied the list of company employees." "I, too, was born in Kansai." "In Shukugawa, near Mount Kabuto." "I'm glad we're both children of Kansai province." "That's where the heart of old Japan still beats." "It's also where my heart beats." "I spent a delightful childhood there." "It's where I lived until I was 5 years old." "I, too, left my heart there." "Back to work!" "I felt great inner peace." "I was a co-worker of Fubuki Mori:" ""Snowstorm Forest"!" "I started serving without any courtesy formulas." "The staff wondered how the nice white geisha became a coarse Yankee." "But serving tea wasn't enough work." "But serving tea wasn't enough work." "Without asking anyone," "I decided to distribute the mail." "My trolley enhanced me..." "Mail!" "As did knowing the employee list!" "Here's your mail, Mr Shiranai." "Your little Yoshiro is 3 today!" "Happy birthday!" "This task also enabled me, several times a day, to play "throwing myself into the view."" "Miss Amelie!" "Come here!" "You took on a function without asking a superior." "That's a serious offense." "The company mailman, who starts in the afternoon is close to a nervous breakdown." "He thought he'd been fired." "Please forgive me." "Stealing someone's work is a very bad deed!" "You're entirely right." "May I go apologize?" "Go back to work!" "What work?" "I had nothing to do!" "Sir?" "The calendars here are rarely up to date." "May I update them?" "Sure." "At last I had a real job!" "Advancer-and-turner of calendars!" "I liked my new job." "It amused my audience!" "Not too tired?" "It must be exhausting!" "Yes, I'm taking vitamins!" "Thank you." "This peaked at the end of February." "I had to turn, or rip off the month's page!" "Banzai!" "You said I could update the calendars." "That's no problem." "But don't make it a spectacle!" "You're distracting the staff." "Photocopy this for me." "They're off-centre." "Start over!" "They're still off-centre." "That's not true!" "Not true?" "It's bad manners to say that to a superior." "I'm sorry." "But I made sure my photocopies were perfect." "They're not!" "Look!" "What's wrong with it?" "There, see?" "The text isn't absolutely parallel." "You think so?" "If I say so, yes!" "Did you use the automatic feed?" "Yes." "That's why." "Don't use it." "It's not accurate enough." "But then it will take me hours." "So what?" "You weren't busy enough!" "I got it:" "I was being punished for the calendar affair." "I finally read what I had to photocopy so carefully." "The rules of Mr Saito's golf club!" "Suddenly I had an appalling vision:" "Japan's forests were being razed to punish a nobody like me!" "I was reminded that Fubuki's family name meant forest." "Good evening." "I'm..." "Mr Tenshi." "You're head of dairy products." " Yes." " You're going to..." "Yes, I'll photocopy them myself." "It's late." "There's no one left in my department." "Please." "Go ahead." "Why don't you use the automatic feed?" "Mr Saito's orders." "I see." "You're Belgian, aren't you?" "Yes." "Good." "I have an interesting project with your country." "Would you agree to do a survey for me?" "Here's what it's about:" "A Belgian cooperative has developed a new process to remove fat from butter." "I think it will work." "I believe in low-fat butter." "So do I, I always have!" "Can you come to my office tomorrow?" "Good morning." "Mr Saito says to start over." "They're off-centre." "He didn't look at them!" "I calibrated them one by one." "Took me hours!" "All for the rules of his golf club!" "He's torturing you." "Don't worry." "It amuses me!" "Fubuki..." "You're so nice." "I'm glad you're here." "I need a full, very detailed, report on this new low-fat butter." "You can use Mr Saitama's office:" "He's on a business trip." "All right, I'll go there." ""Tenshi" means "angel"." "Mr Tenshi's name suited him perfectly." "He gave me a free hand, and had taken the initiative alone." "In Japan, that's rare, he took a big risk!" "I now felt totally devoted to Mr Tenshi, the devotion every Japanese owes his boss." "I'd fight for him to the end, like a samurai!" "Has the Ministry of Health done surveys on new food habits in Japan?" "Yes, we have." "As you'll see, by consuming more butter, obesity and heart disease are gaining ground." "Are you the sole owners of this patent?" "Yes, we are." "It's a totally new technique." "It has great advantages over former methods." "I'll fax you all this at once." "Thanks!" "You've been so helpful!" "Give Belgium a big hug for me." "Sure." "See you soon, I hope." "See you soon!" "I didn't sleep all night." "And I wrote the report of the century!" "Better, but still not perfect." "Start over!" "A great report, and you did it so fast!" "In the meeting, may I say you're its author?" "Better not." "Your initiative would be criticized." "You're right." "But I could suggest to Mr Saito and Mr Omochi that you'd be useful to me." "Would Mr Saito mind?" "On the contrary." "As you can see he'll be glad to be rid of me." "You won't be offended if I attribute your report to myself?" "No, I'd be honoured if you took credit for it." "We parted with high mutual esteem." "I looked forward to the future with confidence." "I thought I knew what a scolding was." "What I got a few days later showed my ignorance." "I instantly read the look on Mr Tenshi's face:" ""We'll endure a terrible ordeal," ""but we'll endure it together."" "You're both traitors!" "Evil snakes!" "Sly and deceitful!" "Suddenly, I understood many aspects of Japanese history." "To make the screaming stop, I'd have invaded Manchuria, persecuted the Chinese, died for the Emperor, crashed my plane on an American warship, even worked for two Yumimoto companies!" "You, Mr Tenshi only schemed to sabotage the company!" "Mr Tenshi isn't like that." "I begged him for the work." "It was my fault." " You dare defend yourself?" " No." "Only I deserve to be punished." "You dare defend this snake?" "He doesn't need it." "It's a mistake to accuse Mr Tenshi." "You dare imply my words are false?" "You're unspeakably rude!" "No, I'm not..." "Please don't hold it against her she doesn't know what she's saying." "She's a Westerner, young, inexperienced." "I made the mistake." "I'm so ashamed." "True, you have no excuse!" "However much wrong I did" "I must emphasize the excellence of Miss Amelie's report, and her speed." "That's not the point!" "This was Mr Saitama's job!" "He was on a business trip." "You had to wait!" "Other firms are competing for this low-fat butter." "We couldn't wait for Mr Saitama to return." "Still criticizing Mr Saitama's work?" "Absolutely not." "But he doesn't speak French or know Belgium." "It was easier for Miss Amelie." "Be quiet!" "Your odious pragmatism is like a Westerner!" "Forgive my Western indignity." "There's gain to be made from our error." "I warn you:" "That was your first and last report!" "Get out of my sight!" "Forgive me for dragging you into all this." "Not at all." "All my life, I'll be grateful for your kindness." "It was brave and generous of you." "But... you shouldn't have said I wrote the report." "I didn't." "Remember our discussion:" "I wanted to discuss it discreetly at the very top." "It was our only chance." "Once Mr Omochi knew, we were headed for disaster." "So Mr Saito told him?" "He's a bastard, a fool!" "Don't be too critical of Mr Saito." "He's better than you think." "And he didn't denounce us." "I saw the note put on Mr Omochi's desk." "I knew at once who wrote it." "Mr Saitama?" "No." "Do I have to tell you?" "You must!" "The note was signed by Miss Mori." "Fubuki?" "That's impossible!" "I can't believe it." "Fubuki is incapable of doing that." "Why?" "Does she hate you?" "No, she didn't do it to spite me." "This whole business harms you more than it does me." "You lose the possibility of promotion for a very long time." "Fubuki is my friend." "Yes." "As long as your tasks were updating calendars and photocopying." "Then why?" "Why denounce me?" "Miss Mori struggled for years to reach her position." "She hated you getting a big promotion after only ten weeks." "I can't believe it." "She's not that mean." "All I can tell you is that she suffered a lot here." "And wants me to share her fate?" "Miss Amelie do you know what it means to be unmarried for a Japanese woman of 29?" "For 7 years, Miss Mori's whole life was her work." "By being impeccable, she passed the age for marriage." "Her reaction to you comes from deep inside herself." "I have to speak to her." "You really think so?" "We must talk it out." "Earlier, when you spoke to Mr Omochi when he heaped insults on us did that solve anything?" "Only talk can solve it!" "I'm even surer of this:" "If you speak to her, you'll make things worse." "Let me reassure you:" "I won't involve you." "But I must speak to her, or go mad!" "Fubuki." "Can we talk?" "I thought we were friends." "I don't understand." "What?" "You deny you denounced me?" "Deny what?" "I followed the rules." "Are rules more important than friendship?" "Friendship?" "I'd say "good relations between co-workers"." "I see." "Will our "relations" continue to be "good"?" "If you apologize, I won't bear you a grudge." "You don't lack humour!" "How amazing!" "You act as if you'd been offended, when you were at fault." "Your taste for denouncement is odd in a country with a strong sense of honour." "You think you can give me morality lessons?" "Why did I ask to speak you?" "It was reckless." "It was to reconcile us!" "Fine." "If you apologize." "You're intelligent." "Why pretend you don't understand?" "Don't be pretentious." "You're simple to figure out." "Then you should understand my anger!" "I understand it and disapprove of it." "I had reason to be offended by your attitude." "You solicited a promotion to which you had no right." "Even if it was a chance for me, it didn't harm you." "I've been in this position for one year." "I fought for years to get it." "You thought you'd get a similar rank in a few weeks?" "So that's it." "You want me to suffer, too." "How childish!" "Like you now talking to me this way, aggravating your case!" "Is that proof of maturity?" "I'm your superior." "You have no right to speak to me so rudely!" "I know..." "I have no right." "But I'm disappointed." "I admired you." "I'm not disappointed." "I didn't esteem you." "Next morning, Miss Mori informed me of my new job." "You'll stay in this department." "And do accounting." "You'll stay in this department." "And do accounting." "Me, an accountant?" "Why not a sumo wrestler?" "Accountant is a big word." "You don't have the talent to be one." "These are all the recent invoices." "These ledgers correspond to our 11 departments." "It's a simple task, within your skills." "First classify the invoices by date and department." "Like this one:" "11 million for Finnish cheese." "A coincidence:" "It's "Dairy Products"." "In the DP ledger you copy the date, the company, the amount." "Then file the processed invoices in this cabinet." " Isn't it computerized?" " Yes." "Once a month, by Mr Unaji." "Thanks to your work it won't take him long." "True, it wasn't hard." "Though at first I had trouble picking the right ledger." "What's Reming Ltd?" "Non-ferrous metals." "Department MM." "What's Gunzer GMBH?" "Chemicals." "CP department." "This work was totally boring." "So much the better:" "I could dream as I admired my denouncer's exquisite face!" "The weeks went by." "I became quieter and quieter." "I reached "invoice serenity", a sort of Zen of accounting." "I embraced this mindless but voluptuous activity." "How silly I'd been to get a college degree, when my brain could blossom in repetitive stupidity." "I realized I was devoted to the contemplative orders." "Writing down numbers as I looked at beauty, was bliss!" "Fubuki was right:" "I took a wrong path with Mr Tenshi." "I didn't have a conqueror's mind." "I was a cow grazing in a meadow of invoices, waiting for the train of grace to pass by." "How nice it was to live without pride or brains!" "At the end of the month, Mr Unaji computerized my work." "I was proud to be an able link in the chain!" "This is odd..." "This is very odd!" "Miss Amelie!" "What's this?" "It's an invoice from the GMBH company." "The GMBH company?" "Did you say GMBH?" "Explain to me what the GMBH company is?" "It's a German company." "Why is "GMBH" always preceded by one or several names?" "They're subsidiaries!" "You idiot!" "GMBH is German for Ltd." "Or Inc." "The companies you grouped under GMBH have no connection!" "It's as if you grouped under Ltd all our US, British, Australian partners!" "How much time will we lose catching up your mistakes?" "The Germans are weird." "To say GMBH!" "What nerve!" "You blame your stupidity on the Germans!" "Calm down." "How could I know?" "Your country has a common border with Germany!" "Yet we, so far away, knew it?" "I almost brought up Japan and Germany in WW II." "But I avoided that tricky course." "Don't just stand there!" "Get the invoices you classified under chemicals!" "It took us 3 days to put the ledgers back in order." "On the morning of the 3rd day..." "Now what has she done?" "I was born in Japan." "I spent my first 5 years there." "Leaving Japan was for me a real uprooting, a real exile." "So much, that when I was almost adult, I came back to live in Japan, hence to work there." "I felt I could accept anything to resettle in the country that for many years I felt was mine." "This is how I tried to become a real Japanese." "Tokyo, January 8, 1990" "Mr Haneda was Mr Omochi's boss, who was Mr Saito's boss," "who was Miss Mori's boss, who was my boss." "I was nobody's boss." "So in the Yumimoto Corporation," "I'd be at everyone's "beck and call"." "But I was proud of myself:" "I'd landed a 1-year contract as interpreter in a big Japanese firm!" "The first morning, I jumped out the window." "Miss Amelie!" "Why didn't you tell Reception you'd arrived?" "I'm Saito, head of accounting." "Follow me." "I'll introduce you to Mr Omochi, my boss." "Please behave properly." "Excuse us." "That's Mr Haneda's office, the president of Yumimoto." "You should never try to meet him." "This is your work station." "That's the desk of your boss, Miss Mori." "She's in a meeting." "She'll join you early this afternoon." "Gentlemen!" "This is our new employee:" "Miss Amelie." "Do you enjoy challenges?" "Do you enjoy challenges?" "Yes." "Good." "Here's one for you:" "Mr Johnson has asked me to play golf on Sunday." "Write a letter in English to say I accept." "Who is this Mr Johnson?" "The exercise seemed easy." "I wrote a polite letter:" ""Mr Saito is delighted to play golf next Sunday with Mr Johnson," ""and sends you his regards."" "Start over." "Had I been too friendly or familiar with Mr Johnson?" "I composed a cold and distant note:" ""Mr Saito acknowledges" ""Mr Johnson's request and will play golf with him on Sunday."" "Start over." "I wanted to ask what mistake I made, but my boss didn't tolerate questions." "Start over!" "I had to decide how to address the mysterious Mr Johnson." "Start over." "I spent the next hours composing missives to this golfer." "In the end, I must have tried every silly permutation of the words in that sentence." "Miss Mori is back." "You'll work with her this afternoon." "Meanwhile, get me a coffee." "A weak one." "Miss Mori?" "I'm Fubuki Mori." "Please call me Fubuki." "I was transfixed by the splendour of her face." "All beauty is moving, but Japanese beauty is even more moving." "Lily-white complexion, soft eyes... a nose with inimitable nostrils... lips so perfectly drawn..." "The complex sweetness of her features, and her manners, made her a work of art that defied understanding." "Except for her amazing height," "Fubuki was Japanese beauty to perfection." "Her face was like a carnation, symbol of noble beauty in ancient Japan." "Perched on her towering silhouette, it was destined to rule the world." "Yumimoto was one of the world's largest corporations." "Mr Haneda ran the Import-Export department, whose catalogue was truly titanic:" "Finnish-Swiss cheese, Singapore sodium," "Canadian optic fibers, French tyres, Togolese jute, they didn't miss a trick." "At Yumimoto, money defied human comprehension." "Beyond a certain accumulation of zeros, the sums ceased being numbers, and became abstract art." "Good morning." "All these documents were prodigiously dull." "I used none of the qualities I'd been hired for." "Or knew what my role in the company would be." "But I wanted to work in a Japanese firm:" "I was in one!" "Above all," "I was delighted with my co-worker." "To look busy," "I learned by heart all of the company's employees, and their marital status," "including wives and children." "The days went by:" "Mr Saito asked nothing of me, except to bring him cups of coffee." "In a Japanese company, one's first job is the okachumi:" ""The honorable function of making tea."" "I applied myself to this role:" "It was the only one I had." "For Mr Unaji, coffee with milk, 2 sugars, at 10 AM." "For Mr Mizuno, 1 goblet of Coke per hour." "For Mr Okada, at 5PM, English tea with a hint of milk." "For Fubuki, green tea at 9 AM, black coffee at noon, more green tea at 3PM, a last black coffee at 7 PM." "Mr Omochi is receiving executives from a sister company:" "Coffee for 13 people." "Hurry!" "This humble task was the start of my downfall." "Thank you for coming." "Think of this meeting as the first of a series that will be held each month." "Thank you for inviting us into the heart of Yumimoto." "Please." "Here is coffee." "Next time you will visit our company." "Excuse me." "Do you take sugar or milk?" "Here's a detailed report on our results for the last 2 years." "If you please..." "Please, here's your coffee." "Saito!" "Who is this girl?" "What are you up to?" "Why does she speak Japanese?" " Stop it at once!" " I'm sorry, sir." "Miss Amelie!" "Follow me!" "The delegation of the sister company went away angry!" "When you served coffee, you spoke perfect Japanese!" "But..." "Sir..." "I do speak Japanese." "Be quiet!" "How dare you defend yourself?" "Mr Omochi is furious." "The negotiation was called off." "Those are very important customers for our company." "How could they discuss secret matters if a foreigner understands us?" "Never speak Japanese again!" "What?" "You no longer understand Japanese!" "Got that?" "But my knowledge of Japanese is why Yumimoto hired me!" "I don't care!" "I, your boss, am giving you an order!" "You don't understand Japanese anymore!" "That's impossible." "No one can obey an order like that." "There's always a way to obey!" "Western brains must learn that!" "Maybe a Japanese brain can force itself to forget a language." "A Western brain can't do it." "Of course." "I understand." "But give it a try." "At least, pretend!" "You've been given orders." "Is that clear?" "Logically, I should have quit." "But I'd worked hard to get this contract." "I'd studied local business terms, taken many tests." "In Japan, to resign so soon meant losing face." "So how could I obey Mr Saito's order?" "If language is a forest, could I hide Japanese trees behind French trees?" "Mori," "Fubuki's family name, meant "forest"." "What did the boss tell you?" "He ordered me to forget Japanese." "Did you talk as you served coffee?" "I hate Mr Saito." "He's mean, and a fool." "No, you're wrong." "Of course." "You're kind, you don't see evil." "Only a fool gives such an order!" "Calm down." "The instruction didn't come from him." "He only transmitted Mr Omochi's orders." "He had no choice." "Then Mr Omochi is a fool." "Mr Omochi is rather special." "But he's the vice-president." "We can't do a thing!" "What if I spoke to the president, Mr Haneda?" "What kind of a man is he?" "Mr Haneda is remarkable." "Very intelligent and very kind." "But you have no right to speak to him." "You may only address your immediate superior:" "Me." "Thank you, Fubuki." "I realize you can't do much for me." "But I thank you deeply." "Your kindness does me a lot of good." "What's the ideogram for Fubuki?" "Snow storm!" "Fubuki means "snowstorm"?" "What a beautiful first name!" "I was born during a snowstorm." "Of course on a day when the beauty of the sky met the beauty of the earth." "In the majestic city of Nara, with all its bells." "How do you know it was in Nara?" "I studied the list of company employees." "I, too, was born in Kansai." "In Shukugawa, near Mount Kabuto." "I'm glad we're both children of Kansai province." "That's where the heart of old Japan still beats." "It's also where my heart beats." "I spent a delightful childhood there." "It's where I lived until I was 5 years old." "I, too, left my heart there." "Back to work!" "I felt great inner peace." "I was a co-worker of Fubuki Mori:" ""Snowstorm Forest"!" "I started serving without any courtesy formulas." "The staff wondered how the nice white geisha became a coarse Yankee." "But serving tea wasn't enough work." "But serving tea wasn't enough work." "Without asking anyone," "I decided to distribute the mail." "My trolley enhanced me..." "Mail!" "As did knowing the employee list!" "Here's your mail, Mr Shiranai." "Your little Yoshiro is 3 today!" "Happy birthday!" "This task also enabled me, several times a day, to play "throwing myself into the view."" "Miss Amelie!" "Come here!" "You took on a function without asking a superior." "That's a serious offense." "The company mailman, who starts in the afternoon is close to a nervous breakdown." "He thought he'd been fired." "Please forgive me." "Stealing someone's work is a very bad deed!" "You're entirely right." "May I go apologize?" "Go back to work!" "What work?" "I had nothing to do!" "Sir?" "The calendars here are rarely up to date." "May I update them?" "Sure." "At last I had a real job!" "Advancer-and-turner of calendars!" "I liked my new job." "It amused my audience!" "Not too tired?" "It must be exhausting!" "Yes, I'm taking vitamins!" "Thank you." "This peaked at the end of February." "I had to turn, or rip off the month's page!" "Banzai!" "You said I could update the calendars." "That's no problem." "But don't make it a spectacle!" "You're distracting the staff." "Photocopy this for me." "They're off-centre." "Start over!" "They're still off-centre." "That's not true!" "Not true?" "It's bad manners to say that to a superior." "I'm sorry." "But I made sure my photocopies were perfect." "They're not!" "Look!" "What's wrong with it?" "There, see?" "The text isn't absolutely parallel." "You think so?" "If I say so, yes!" "Did you use the automatic feed?" "Yes." "That's why." "Don't use it." "It's not accurate enough." "But then it will take me hours." "So what?" "You weren't busy enough!" "I got it:" "I was being punished for the calendar affair." "I finally read what I had to photocopy so carefully." "The rules of Mr Saito's golf club!" "Suddenly I had an appalling vision:" "Japan's forests were being razed to punish a nobody like me!" "I was reminded that Fubuki's family name meant forest." "Good evening." "I'm..." "Mr Tenshi." "You're head of dairy products." " Yes." " You're going to..." "Yes, I'll photocopy them myself." "It's late." "There's no one left in my department." "Please." "Go ahead." "Why don't you use the automatic feed?" "Mr Saito's orders." "I see." "You're Belgian, aren't you?" "Yes." "Good." "I have an interesting project with your country." "Would you agree to do a survey for me?" "Here's what it's about:" "A Belgian cooperative has developed a new process to remove fat from butter." "I think it will work." "I believe in low-fat butter." "So do I, I always have!" "Can you come to my office tomorrow?" "Good morning." "Mr Saito says to start over." "They're off-centre." "He didn't look at them!" "I calibrated them one by one." "Took me hours!" "All for the rules of his golf club!" "He's torturing you." "Don't worry." "It amuses me!" "Fubuki..." "You're so nice." "I'm glad you're here." "I need a full, very detailed, report on this new low-fat butter." "You can use Mr Saitama's office:" "He's on a business trip." "All right, I'll go there." ""Tenshi" means "angel"." "Mr Tenshi's name suited him perfectly." "He gave me a free hand, and had taken the initiative alone." "In Japan, that's rare, he took a big risk!" "I now felt totally devoted to Mr Tenshi, the devotion every Japanese owes his boss." "I'd fight for him to the end, like a samurai!" "Has the Ministry of Health done surveys on new food habits in Japan?" "Yes, we have." "As you'll see, by consuming more butter, obesity and heart disease are gaining ground." "Are you the sole owners of this patent?" "Yes, we are." "It's a totally new technique." "It has great advantages over former methods." "I'll fax you all this at once." "Thanks!" "You've been so helpful!" "Give Belgium a big hug for me." "Sure." "See you soon, I hope." "See you soon!" "I didn't sleep all night." "And I wrote the report of the century!" "Better, but still not perfect." "Start over!" "A great report, and you did it so fast!" "In the meeting, may I say you're its author?" "Better not." "Your initiative would be criticized." "You're right." "But I could suggest to Mr Saito and Mr Omochi that you'd be useful to me." "Would Mr Saito mind?" "On the contrary." "As you can see he'll be glad to be rid of me." "You won't be offended if I attribute your report to myself?" "No, I'd be honoured if you took credit for it." "We parted with high mutual esteem." "I looked forward to the future with confidence." "I thought I knew what a scolding was." "What I got a few days later showed my ignorance." "I instantly read the look on Mr Tenshi's face:" ""We'll endure a terrible ordeal," ""but we'll endure it together."" "You're both traitors!" "Evil snakes!" "Sly and deceitful!" "Suddenly, I understood many aspects of Japanese history." "To make the screaming stop, I'd have invaded Manchuria, persecuted the Chinese, died for the Emperor, crashed my plane on an American warship, even worked for two Yumimoto companies!" "You, Mr Tenshi only schemed to sabotage the company!" "Mr Tenshi isn't like that." "I begged him for the work." "It was my fault." " You dare defend yourself?" " No." "Only I deserve to be punished." "You dare defend this snake?" "He doesn't need it." "It's a mistake to accuse Mr Tenshi." "You dare imply my words are false?" "You're unspeakably rude!" "No, I'm not..." "Please don't hold it against her she doesn't know what she's saying." "She's a Westerner, young, inexperienced." "I made the mistake." "I'm so ashamed." "True, you have no excuse!" "However much wrong I did" "I must emphasize the excellence of Miss Amelie's report, and her speed." "That's not the point!" "This was Mr Saitama's job!" "He was on a business trip." "You had to wait!" "Other firms are competing for this low-fat butter." "We couldn't wait for Mr Saitama to return." "Still criticizing Mr Saitama's work?" "Absolutely not." "But he doesn't speak French or know Belgium." "It was easier for Miss Amelie." "Be quiet!" "Your odious pragmatism is like a Westerner!" "Forgive my Western indignity." "There's gain to be made from our error." "I warn you:" "That was your first and last report!" "Get out of my sight!" "Forgive me for dragging you into all this." "Not at all." "All my life, I'll be grateful for your kindness." "It was brave and generous of you." "But... you shouldn't have said I wrote the report." "I didn't." "Remember our discussion:" "I wanted to discuss it discreetly at the very top." "It was our only chance." "Once Mr Omochi knew, we were headed for disaster." "So Mr Saito told him?" "He's a bastard, a fool!" "Don't be too critical of Mr Saito." "He's better than you think." "And he didn't denounce us." "I saw the note put on Mr Omochi's desk." "I knew at once who wrote it." "Mr Saitama?" "No." "Do I have to tell you?" "You must!" "The note was signed by Miss Mori." "Fubuki?" "That's impossible!" "I can't believe it." "Fubuki is incapable of doing that." "Why?" "Does she hate you?" "No, she didn't do it to spite me." "This whole business harms you more than it does me." "You lose the possibility of promotion for a very long time." "Fubuki is my friend." "Yes." "As long as your tasks were updating calendars and photocopying." "Then why?" "Why denounce me?" "Miss Mori struggled for years to reach her position." "She hated you getting a big promotion after only ten weeks." "I can't believe it." "She's not that mean." "All I can tell you is that she suffered a lot here." "And wants me to share her fate?" "Miss Amelie do you know what it means to be unmarried for a Japanese woman of 29?" "For 7 years, Miss Mori's whole life was her work." "By being impeccable, she passed the age for marriage." "Her reaction to you comes from deep inside herself." "I have to speak to her." "You really think so?" "We must talk it out." "Earlier, when you spoke to Mr Omochi when he heaped insults on us did that solve anything?" "Only talk can solve it!" "I'm even surer of this:" "If you speak to her, you'll make things worse." "Let me reassure you:" "I won't involve you." "But I must speak to her, or go mad!" "Fubuki." "Can we talk?" "I thought we were friends." "I don't understand." "What?" "You deny you denounced me?" "Deny what?" "I followed the rules." "Are rules more important than friendship?" "Friendship?" "I'd say "good relations between co-workers"." "I see." "Will our "relations" continue to be "good"?" "If you apologize, I won't bear you a grudge." "You don't lack humour!" "How amazing!" "You act as if you'd been offended, when you were at fault." "Your taste for denouncement is odd in a country with a strong sense of honour." "You think you can give me morality lessons?" "Why did I ask to speak you?" "It was reckless." "It was to reconcile us!" "Fine." "If you apologize." "You're intelligent." "Why pretend you don't understand?" "Don't be pretentious." "You're simple to figure out." "Then you should understand my anger!" "I understand it and disapprove of it." "I had reason to be offended by your attitude." "You solicited a promotion to which you had no right." "Even if it was a chance for me, it didn't harm you." "I've been in this position for one year." "I fought for years to get it." "You thought you'd get a similar rank in a few weeks?" "So that's it." "You want me to suffer, too." "How childish!" "Like you now talking to me this way, aggravating your case!" "Is that proof of maturity?" "I'm your superior." "You have no right to speak to me so rudely!" "I know..." "I have no right." "But I'm disappointed." "I admired you." "I'm not disappointed." "I didn't esteem you." "Next morning, Miss Mori informed me of my new job." "You'll stay in this department." "And do accounting." "You'll stay in this department." "And do accounting." "Me, an accountant?" "Why not a sumo wrestler?" "Accountant is a big word." "You don't have the talent to be one." "These are all the recent invoices." "These ledgers correspond to our 11 departments." "It's a simple task, within your skills." "First classify the invoices by date and department." "Like this one:" "11 million for Finnish cheese." "A coincidence:" "It's "Dairy Products"." "In the DP ledger you copy the date, the company, the amount." "Then file the processed invoices in this cabinet." " Isn't it computerized?" " Yes." "Once a month, by Mr Unaji." "Thanks to your work it won't take him long." "True, it wasn't hard." "Though at first I had trouble picking the right ledger." "What's Reming Ltd?" "Non-ferrous metals." "Department MM." "What's Gunzer GMBH?" "Chemicals." "CP department." "This work was totally boring." "So much the better:" "I could dream as I admired my denouncer's exquisite face!" "The weeks went by." "I became quieter and quieter." "I reached "invoice serenity", a sort of Zen of accounting." "I embraced this mindless but voluptuous activity." "How silly I'd been to get a college degree, when my brain could blossom in repetitive stupidity." "I realized I was devoted to the contemplative orders." "Writing down numbers as I looked at beauty, was bliss!" "Fubuki was right:" "I took a wrong path with Mr Tenshi." "I didn't have a conqueror's mind." "I was a cow grazing in a meadow of invoices, waiting for the train of grace to pass by." "How nice it was to live without pride or brains!" "At the end of the month, Mr Unaji computerized my work." "I was proud to be an able link in the chain!" "This is odd..." "This is very odd!" "Miss Amelie!" "What's this?" "It's an invoice from the GMBH company." "The GMBH company?" "Did you say GMBH?" "Explain to me what the GMBH company is?" "It's a German company." "Why is "GMBH" always preceded by one or several names?" "They're subsidiaries!" "You idiot!" "GMBH is German for Ltd." "Or Inc." "The companies you grouped under GMBH have no connection!" "It's as if you grouped under Ltd all our US, British, Australian partners!" "How much time will we lose catching up your mistakes?" "The Germans are weird." "To say GMBH!" "What nerve!" "You blame your stupidity on the Germans!" "Calm down." "How could I know?" "Your country has a common border with Germany!" "Yet we, so far away, knew it?" "I almost brought up Japan and Germany in WW II." "But I avoided that tricky course." "Don't just stand there!" "Get the invoices you classified under chemicals!" "It took us 3 days to put the ledgers back in order." "On the morning of the 3rd day..." "Now what has she done?"