Something somewhat interesting happened yesterday and the day before. There was an earthquake recently and I heard that some of the water pipes in some areas of Tokyo were damaged by the earthquake. For the past few days, there has been construction going on very close to my house. While I am not entirely sure if this construction work is actually related to the earthquake, I imagine that it might very well have been, as although I did not get a clear look at what work was being done, the construction workers were working underground for several days, but now the street that was dug up to do the construction work has been restored to its normal state.

The reason that this specific construction was relevant to me is that it continued until at least 0230 this morning. I stayed up until then, partially due to the sound, and I continually heard construction sounds until then, at which point I decided to go to sleep. Today I asked someone about whether this sort of late-night construction is normal in Tokyo, and he told me that it is not.

Still, this does remind me of a similar even that happened several years ago at my old apartment. The apartment that I used to live in was quite old, and the plumbing had apparently started to cause leaking in the lower floors, so the building’s plumbing had to be completely redone. As a result of this, I had no shower for a month and ended up using a nearby internet cafe’s shower. In this specific case, I specifically remember that the plumbers who were doing the work were in my apartment past midnight on the final day of the construction, and although I forgot most of the details, I am fairly certain that they stayed past midnight on several other days, as well.

So what does this have to do with anything? Basically, I cannot help but to think about how this would have been handled in the United States. At the very least, there is basically no way that there would be construction occurring in a residential area well past midnight on a weekday. This is just one more example of things that happen in Japan that I have never encountered in the United States. Living in another country will likely result in encountering lots of things that you might not be used to, but it is part of the experience.