When my mum first visited me in Japan, she travelled from New Zealand by herself. I met her at the airport and was shocked she wasn’t wearing a watch. “How can you travel without a watch?” I asked. She replied: “I just ask someone for the time.”

This seems like a simple idea, yet most of us don’t do it. However, living in Japan, I have noticed that it’s possible to know the time without looking at a clock or asking someone.

If you’re near a school, chimes are played to indicate the start and end of the school day and lunchtime. In my neighbourhood, in remembrance of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, every morning a nearby temple will sound a gong around 5:45 a.m. — close to the time of day when the earthquake hit in 1995. One morning, the gong sounded closer to 5:50 a.m. I wondered if a new monk recruit was operating the gong. I hoped he wouldn’t be disciplined too harshly. In the evening around 5:58 p.m., the gong will sound again, although I have yet to figure out why.

Japan’s public transport is famed for being punctual, but it’s not the only thing that operates like clockwork. On my weekday runs, I usually go through a park filled with people doing morning radio calisthenics. Everyone has their favourite spot, and some have become a kind of personal human sundial. There’s an aunty who always parks her bike behind a hedge. If I see her doing a windmill movement during the calisthenics, I know it’s around 6:28 a.m.

There are many ways to know the time in Japan without checking your own phone or watch. But I like how some people still make the effort to ask someone — just to connect with another person for a moment. A few years ago, I was walking through a crowded train station with a friend. I noticed the elderly woman walking near us suddenly seemed interested when she heard us talking in English. Suddenly, she left her husband’s side and asked me for the time in English. I replied in English and she thanked me. As I walked away, I glanced back and caught her looking very chuffed with herself, possibly for having a short but successful interaction in English. Her husband looked equally proud of her.

I like my mum’s willingness to ask a random stranger for the time. It’s actually the easiest way for one person to successfully help another. If you try this, just be careful that you ask “Do you have the time?” and not “Do you have time?” Depending on the circumstances, the latter might result in the asker receiving a slap to the face. (Samantha Loong)

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