Oh, Japan, we love you so much. Morning stretches, or asa taisou, may look faintly ridiculous to many westerners, but it’s not uncommon for companies both large and small to have their entire staff standing up and performing a daily warmup routine each morning, often to music. Stroll past a construction site at around 8:30 a.m. and you’ll likely see a team of burly men wearing hard hats doing shoulder shrugs in unison or doing hip gyrations chanting one, two, three, four! Just this morning, however, we at RocketNews24 witnessed perhaps the greatest example of morning stretch routines ever; a spectacle that had us chuckling, scratching out heads and finally nodding in agreement. Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for the Michinoku Librarian Union’s daily exercise routine! Pure genius, we’re sure you’ll agree. It’s not just the sheer enthusiasm of the participants taking part in the routine, but the number of cleverly thought-out library-specific movements that blew us away. Theguitar kicks in and the exercise leader announces that they’ll be warming up “from the scenario of sorting books.” Strap yourselves in, guys; it’s going to be a thoroughly efficient and well-organised ride! Put those books back! Put those books back! On to the book cart! It’s loaded with titles! And push, two, three, four! But no sooner have we pushed our imaginary cart down the imaginary aisle than it’s back to the books! Is there no end to these things!? With the flexibility of a group of nine-year-olds, the MULU staff twist their bodies and lunge forwards, laying waste to the imaginary stack of books piled in front of them. Back on the shelf, dammit! Back on the shelf!!! The piece de resistance of the entire routine, however, has to be when the team practice the procedure what to do during an earthquake. Because of the danger of books falling and the shelves themselves toppling over during a sizeable tremor, the staff are trained to call out to patrons, telling them “Please moveaway from the bookcases! Please move away from the book cases!” as soon as a rumble occurs. This sense of absolute preparedness is just one of the reasons why I simply adore Japan. People approach their jobs with such earnestness that it’s hard to find fault in their work, and customer service everywhere from fast food chains to trains that arrive precisely on schedule – or are otherwise accompanied by genuinely apologetic announcements- is simply expected. If they were told by their boss to get up and join in the morning stretch exercises, most of my friends back home would likely tell their boss precisely where to stick their routine, but when it comes to Japan and company-wide warm-ups, even the tough guy who could drink you under the table at parties joins in without batting an eyelid. It was only when the routine reached the exercises to teach and practice how to avoid neck and eyestrain, however, that this writer realised that what a great idea it is. Hunched over my computer all
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