My own daylight savings

Japan doesn’t go on daylight savings time. No spring forward, no fall back. No climbing up on a step ladder twice a year to change the kitchen clock. Which is why we haven’t bought a step ladder yet.

It’s weird – not having daylight savings. I guess it wouldn’t matter much at the equator, but here, on the north side of the Tropic of Cancer, it seems like such a waste. In the spring the sun comes up about 4:30 AM here. Even the birds are surprised. Then, at about 6:30 or 7 PM the sun disappears. That usually happens when I’m in the subway heading home. So the last lights of day are the rays that linger in the subway station tunnels, as I make my way down to the train. Summer or winter, it’s dark when I get home.

Sure, I know daylight savings is like fake time. No sun dial ever went on daylight savings. Daylight savings is not natural, so it’s probably not good for you. But I hate missing all that daylight. So I decided to make my own daylight savings. Here’s how I did it: I get up earlier. A lot earlier. Like 5 AM. Not everyday. That’d be crazy. Usually 2 or 3, or even 4, times a week.

It’s pretty great actually, getting up early. Nobody else is up. Just the sun, some confused birds and you. The streets are silent. All the stores are closed. Oh, there is the occasional old geezer shuffling along the river path next to my house, feeding the confused ducks. I like seeing these grandpas. I feel a kinship with them. The daylight savings club. A club where the members never actually speak to each other–except for the occasional “good morning”–yet they understand exactly what the other is feeling: peace.

So daylight savings does exist in Japan, if you make it yourself. But it’s not “springing forward,” it’s more like “falling back.”