Discipline (Pt. 2)

After we got the concert venue setup including the black sheets, I learned that because the space is used by students during the day we would have to tear down a major portion of what we had set up. Some parts of this made sense to me. We moved the lunch tables and chairs back to their original position and moved the soundboard cables out of the way, but some things we were made to take down seemed like a serious waste. We had to take all the sheets down despite the fact that they weren't really in anyone's way. Even more confusing was the fact that we had bothered to put the sheets up the day before the concert despite the fact that we had to tear them down an hour later. In the end we setup and tore down the sheets 4 times going through about 10 rolls of duct tape.

After we had torn the set down for the day I learned of the schedule for the next three days. I had assumed that we would meet maybe 2 hours before the show to set everything up, but it turned out that we were expected to arrive at 8:40am and essentially sit around until setup time. This highlights what I consider a strange insistence on fairness that I have observed in my club experience. The club leaders said that because other students use the room, someone has to be there to watch the clubs property, but to make it fair, everyone has to be in the room the entire day. This seemed incredibly wasteful of people's time though I was allowed to use my computer while I waited around.

While I personally felt that some of the things we were required to do were wasteful, I can see how they contribute to how smoothly everything in Japan runs. My club-mates followed the instructions of the leaders to the letter and no one complained. For example, we were instructed to tape the black sheets on all 4 sides of the windowsill. This ensured that they completely blocked out the windows, but it seemed to me that if we only taped the top and bottom of the sheets we could save 70% of the tape and still block out 99% of the light. I suggested we talk to the club leaders about this and was told that that is simply not how we were told to do the job. In the end, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Certainly there are probably cases where the complete unquestioning compliance of subordinates allows a system to run smoothly, though it seems to me that the discretion of those actually doing the work should be taken into consideration in some situations.

The other teams seemed to have a similar level of discipline and the concert went incredibly smoothly. There was even someone behind the drummer to hand them a new stick if they dropped one. Everyone was busy between sets though those who didn't have a job while the bands were playing seemed to be having fun. The division of fun and work time is a very interesting topic which I will go into next time. I will also describe the extremely stratified relations between older and younger members and past-members of the club.