Flair

When my ICT advisor pulled a scale (ruler) out of his pocket last week and two mini stuffed animals fell out after it I was reminded that I had been wanted to write about the obsession with cutesy flair in Japan. The stuffed animals are not the limit of what he keeps at the office, attached to his scale are Finding Nemo charms and he uses a Chipmunks water bottle cover. While W may be above average with regard to the amount of flair he keeps in the office he is certainly outdone by many OLs. When M was still at the company she kept a collection of Hello Kitty items including a computer mouse and desktop trash can and there is an OL who holds an equally impressive assortment of Winnie the Poo items including a fleece blanket.
In the parking lot flair is taken up another notch. Car decals are common as is loads of stuff on the dashboard and hanging from the rear view mirror. For me many of these cars look like they belong in a High School parking lot rather than one for Engineers.