Today was the usual “No Overwork” day at the office. Just before 5 they call out through the loudspeakers that this is a “no overwork day so please leave your desk before 7 pm”. But in Japanese.

An old friend from my last time here, Uwe, works for NTT as a postdoc and they have the same rule as Sony Ericsson on Wednesdays. The government started this “tradition” and now many companies have taken after it to try to make people work a little bit less.

Usually I am an untypical Japanese so I leave the office around 5:30 pm or sometimes 6 pm. But today I was meeting Uwe in Shinagawa station for dinner. And he quit work at 6 pm but it takes him 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to Shinagawa. So I worked until just before 7 pm.

Uwe arrived at 7:40 pm and we met just outside of the Keikyu entrance. From there it was a short walk to TGI Friday’s where we had something to drinnk and eat. And caught up on what had happened since we last met. It was great fun to see Uwe again. And after an hour or so Chie joined us.

By 10:30 pm it was time to return home. Uwe took the Keikyu line and Chie and I the Yamanote line. It was still hot and humid outside. But that does not matter much when you just have had a good time with friends.