just a minute...literally

.....I am forever saying, just a minute or just a second but not really meaning the full intention of what I say....simply just a figure of speech to hang on or wait. At the pool today, I was told I had to wait one minute, exactly 60 seconds, before I could enter the pool...it was 8.59am after all and the pool doesn't open until 9.00am......I have found many literal translations to these kinds of everyday sayings I use. Often the literal translation is very frustrating as I feel I use these kinds of things without a real or concrete meaning implying only a general meaning and nothing too specific......I feel a bit suffocated when there is a boundary.....but, Japan is a defined, bounded and very precise society so one minute is one minute, two is two and so on.....these things used to drive me totally nuts but getting over these things is part of the knack of living in a different society to the one you call your own..............the pool rules also makes you get out at 10 to every hour to 'test the water' so I had only 50 mins to swim....exactly.....