VS Turkey

When I checked my blog, I found I wrote 99 articles here, and this article becomes No.100. It is not a surprising thing because some people are writing more. But certainly it must be a memorial one for myself.
In this memorial article, I want to write something memorial. Have I? Yes. I had something memorial last weekend.

It might be the sign of the memorial thing coming. Last week, Orhan Pamuk, a famous turkish novelist, got Novel prize of literature. When I got the news, soon I took the list of his works and tried to sell them to my customers. "He made it! Buy for him!" Any prize can be a business chance for booksales. Of course, the effect of Novel prize is best of best.
Some Japanese novel lovers expected Haruki Murakami to get the prize this time, but he couldn't. However, we can use the fact that he failed to get the prize. I tried to sell Haruki's books too. "He lost! Buy for him!"

Who is Orhan Pamuk?
I want to cite an introduction of him.
"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"

I've never been to Turkey. I don't know about Turkey at all. But, for a long time, the country has existed in the center of my interest. Why? I don't know the exact reason. Maybe I am interested in their exotic atomosphere. (And, the exotic women.) So, I had a desire to see Turkish for a long time.

Back to my something memorial.
At last, my desire was achieved last weekend.
The last weekend, after English discussion class (The topic was about Japanese emperor system and the new-born baby.), after buying a photo book of an American gravure model (She is a half of French and Philipina.), after eating Ramen (Yokohama style), after surfing (Good size wave effected by typhoon), I went to Takadanobaba in Tokyo, in order to listen to a rock band.
The band was three players; British man(vocal & guiter), Japanese girl(drums) and Turkish lady(vocal & bass).
Needless to say, my aim was to see the turkish lady.

To be honest, I would have fallen in love with her in a second after seeing her, unless I heared that she has a boy friend, the british guiterist. Fortunately, love affair is not my business. So, I could contact her as a gentleman.
I enjoyed the conversation with her. I could know about Turkey from her. It was nice.
However, now I think she was diffrent from my imaginary Turkish. It has no bad meaning at all. What I want to say is that I could see real Turkish. Before meeting her, my image of Turkish was both extremely passional and extremely polite. (I'm not sure where this image came from.) I can say I met an ordinary person like me then.

This memorial contact with the Turkish woman I met first in my life is making me being more interested in the country more and more. Now I am reading a cheap tour guide to Turkey. Someday I will visit there. By Turkish, I am seen the same as their imaginary Japanese?

VS Election

Today, the ticket to vote was sent to my house by mail. I knew an election would be held in my prefectue this month.

The political scene in Japan looks to become boring after the prime minister Koizumi left the government. He had very well directed an interesting political show for five years. I think his show was a B-class drama, but it was certainly interesting. Altough I don't support him, for now I miss him a little.
It must be an unlucky thing to be compared with Koizumi. Anybody looks less attractive than he. So, our new prime minister Abe will have a difficulty of appealing himself. I am not sure he has any appealing points, though.

During the five years, The Democratic Party in opposition had been weakend by the magic of Koizumi. After his leaving, altough now is the chance to get power again for them, their shadow looks still thin. They also don't have an enough appealing point. I think our political show is going into a new stage without main characters.

Looking at the world politics, I guess the president Bush feels lonely now.
Because, Koizumi finished his job happily and had gone. Blair wouldn't be happy, but he will be able to escape from a heavy duty soon.
However, Bush have to continue to stand alone more for a while. As we know, it is fashionable to come late to a party. And in addition, I think it is also true that early getting out of the party is cool.
For Bush, the cool way was difficult to choose.

Back to our new prime minister Abe, he will go to China and Korea tomorrow. I don't know why the two countries agreed with meeting him. I think his visiting has no more the meaning of saying-hello. I don't expect for any honest conversation among them in his visit. Only typical political performance will go.

I am not sure I will go to the election because this month I am very busy not only for business but also for barbecue, surfing, Halloween party and so many attractive events on.
I hope the candidates will give me the motivation to the election.

VS World Travel Fair (2)

I thought Korea and China booth was aggressive to the passangers in the fair, and I thought that was a good thing. When I walked by their booth, they always tried to talk to me,or give me some pamphlets. Of course, it was welcome for me. I could easily get many informations and chances to communicate with them.
They understood very well the reason why they were there; they did come to Japan and join the fair, in order to introduce their country's charming points to Japanese.
I think they made their mission completely.
On the other hand, as I wrote in the last article, the Arabic booths were not exciting. I was looking forward to an exciting conversation in Iran booth, but I couldn't have a chance to talk with the stuffs. They looked not to have the interest in Japanese customers. Or, they might lack the passion of their business, even though their booths were very gorgeous.

* When I talked about this experience and my impression
to my English teacher Sudhan, in my discussion class, he
said it's natural for them. Not only Arabic people but also
South Asian seem to have not so strong interest in unknown
other people, even in such a business fair. But, I heard from
Sudhan, they seem to be very passionate in a private
situation.

The conversatin in Belgium booth was good. Although I didn't ask the stuff for alcholic matter, she started soon to explain Belgian beer. I don't know why. I might have alcholic smell at the time.
Anyway, if you can drink beer but haven't taste Belgian beer yet, I can say it's a tragedy. Belgian beer is Art, the art of liquid. Like French respects their wine, Belgian respects their beer. It has its history, variety and unique taste. Honestly speaking, I know nothing for Belgium but the beer. My opinion is that drinking can break the barrier of language. So, I know I can share the same perspective of this world with Belgian, even though I don't have Belgian friends.

Many African countries had their own booths in the fair.
For Japanese, African countries are the most unfamilier ones. Maybe same for all people in the world but African.
Africa is the forgotten area.
So, I was a little surprised when finding many African booths.
I could have the oppotunity of talking with the stuff in Uganda booth. However, she was not African. She was just a representative of African tour company.
What is the appealing point of the tour in Africa? I didn't have any idea. She recommend me of Mountain Gorilla watching tour. In Africa, Mountain Gorilla lives near the human. She said they are very peaceful, not dangerous, so we can even touch them.
Compared with other countries, African countries have less resources for tourism. It might be taugh for them to compete with other develping and developed countries in a business exhibition.
I had complex feelings to listen to the Mountain Gorilla tour from her. The image of Africa is certainly fitted to the Gorilla plan. However, Gorilla is really only one resource for their tourism? Or, they are trying to adjust their business to our stereotype image of Africa?
In the booth, I became to want to know Africa more.

Travel fair must be a good oppotunity to compare with many countries' culture. On the day, Tokyo Game show was held in other place, but if you want unexpected surprise and finding, Travel fair must be better.

VS World Travel Fair (1)

World Travel Fair 2006 was held last weekend in Odaiba, Tokyo. This fair is produced once a year by JATA, Japan Association of Travel Agency. Because I heard that it is not only convenient for getting together the travel information, but also good for knowing a lot of diffrent countries' culture, I joined the event.

Each country has its booth in the exhibition area. At first, I went to Iceland booth with my friend Akira II. He is planning to go there this new year to experience minus 30 degrees. His problem was not his crazy desire but the lack of the information about the country. Fortunately, he could have a chance to talk with the persons who know the country very well. In winter season, the country's social infrastructure is freezed, therefore it becomes difficult to move freely. But he could know some bus routes are alive even in winter. His desire will be satisfied next year.

I visited China booth soon. I went there many times before, but I know only a small portion of the huge country.
China booth was divided into the smaller booths of many cities and areas. So, total China booths were as very big as the country itself.
I talked with a chinese staff in Shandong booth. Shandong is located almost between Beijing and Shanghai. She explained the city was the hometown of Chinese old philosopher, Koushi (This is Japanese pronunciation.). However, because we all didn't know his philosophy, we talked about famous beer, Thin Tao, which is made in the city. The beer is programmed rationally to fit to Chinese foods. Maybe, we talked about a kind of science matter then.

In Nepal booth, I talked with the staff about the country's political situation. This year, an inside war happened there.
For me, Nepal politics is very complex and difficult to understand. It was good to hear from the staff that now the social situation is peaceful.
Through the inside war, the king of Nepal lost thier political power, then the people in Nepal is discussing whether the king system should be left or not. I recommend the stuff to make the king just only a symbol of the country. Needless to say, it's the same system as Japanese emperor.

The most disappointing booth was UAE's. Now, Dubai is one of the most developing cities in the world. A learge number of oil money is coming to the city. I herad that my company will make a branch there. It means I can possibly work in the city, so I wanted to know it.
The booth was very crowded and there was a long line. I waited on the line for a long time. But, all I could get was just the hotel informations.
My impression is that not only UAE booth but also other Arabic countries' were gorgeous but not appealing. To be honest, within my short-time experience, compared with other countries, I thought they don't have enough skill or idea to introduce themselves to the people who don't know them at all. Still now, for me, they are secret. What different from me do they have? What same things do we share? I couldn't get them in the fair. Should I work in Dubai someday to know them more?
Hm, maybe it's a good idea.

(To be continued.)

VS Labour Market

Japan and Philippine had recently the agreement to open their labour market a little. Japan will get one thousand philippene nurses in two years. I heard that the hospitals in Japan don't have enough nurses now. So, I think the agreement is very good.
Now the population in Japan is decreasing, so my opinion is to open the labour market in Japan more to foreigners. We will need to get more labour power from foreign countries, and actually we know foreign workers have already been necessary in some industries. I hope Japanese government will have such agreements with much more countries.
For the agreement with Philippine, it doesn't seem to be an enough one. The worker from Philippine have to clear some high barriers to enter Japan; for example, the workers have to have a Japanese language lesson for a long time. I am not surtisfied with such barriers, but I can understand step-by-step immigrant policy is good for Japan because we aren't familier with immigrants. However, needless to say, the step should be accelerated.

VS Reprinted books

Most people wouldn't be familier with reprited books, even if they like to read books. Every year, a lot of books are published, sold, bought, left over unsold, thrown away and at last to be out of print.
The existence of such books were once forgotten, and the time had passed, and then one day somebody found out these books on a shelf in a dark library. If the somebody is a publisher, he must think about the possibility of printing and selling it again.
That's why a lot of reprinted version of books are published every year too. One of the important jobs in my book-sales is to sell these reprinted books.

I knew an university (it's my customer) has a large number of rare books in their library. These books were preserved in a special room in the library. Most people in the university didn't know the existence of them. They had not been used and read by anybody except for a few librarians for a long time.
Luckily, I am a book-salesman. I could have a chance to go to the library many times, and enter the special room several times. One day, I heard that the people in the library have the desire to introduce their collection of rare books to the public. So, my company offered them the plan of these books' exhibition. They recieved our offer soon.
Next year, the library will have the book exhibition in my company's gallery in Shinjyuku. They will exhibit a lot of antique books and photos for Japan study. Most books were published in 19 centuries, and written by the foreigners visiting Japan.

Now, I am recommending the people in the university to publish these rare books. But, I and they know it is so difficult to sell such special books though easy to reprint. If the sales is bad, they have to hold a lot of stocks in their warehouse.
So, I am offering them to publish digital version of these books. I think it's a good idea because they can escape from the risk of stock. As Google is doing, the digitalization of books is a big trend now. The technology itself is not special. The most important thing I think is what is degitalized.
Now I am not sure whether they are interested in my offer.
But I think these books are worth read by many people. It's a good business chance for them, and for me.

VS Cat Killer

Thinking about the world-wide risk of terrorism and complicated problems related to it, this topic is a good example of how Japan is peaceful. Now in Japan, not Human-killing but Cat-killing is a hot issue.

The issue began with an economical newspaper.
A Japanese novelist wrote an essay on it. She said in the essay that she killed a baby cat.
To be more precise, she has a female cat, and the cat had a baby cat. She, the novelist, throw away the baby cat near her house. Maybe the baby cat was dead after that.
Why did she do such a cruel thing?
First of all, she doesn't want to have more cats in her house. In this case, most cat owners make their cats sterile.
But, the novelist thought it was a bad thing. She thought her cat could have a right or something to experience bearing.
So, she permited her cat to become pregnant and bear a baby. However, she doesn't have a desire to have more cats. So, she threw away the baby cat soon after it was born.

As we can easily imagine, many people reading her essay started to criticise her soon. She doesn't have or know the spirit of animal protection!
But, some people started to protect her.
Now 400 thousand cats a year are killed in Japan. Why can we criticise her?
And more radical suporter says we have to think about human abortion first. Abortion is a legal human-killing. Why do we have to think her behavier is a big problem?
Suporter's point is that we have bigger problem before criticising her.

For me, the surporter's point is like a illegal parking car driver's excuse. "Other drivers do the same!" or "No parking space! It's the failure of city design!"
I can understand what they say, but first of all, the problem is you. You shouldn't be an annoying car driver, and a neighber. So, we shouldn't throw away a baby cat near our house.

The novelist has started to object the criticism to her in a magazine. I don't have an interest in this issue much more, so I don't read it. I am worrying that Japan is too peaceful.

VS Long Board

September is a good month for the people who want to start surfing in Japan. During summer time, the sea was heated by the high air temparature. Thus, now, the water temparature becomes very high. It is warm and will be kept until November( till the end of Fall). We can paractice to surf very well in the season.

At last, I bought my own surf board today.
It is a long board, 9.2 feet. The body color is cocoa, and the edge is cream with a thin yellow line.
Until now, I rented a surf board. Because I didn't know what kind of surf board is good for me.
But, I decided what is best for me today.
My surf life launched out on a new stage.
I bought it in my favorite surf shop in Shonan beach.
The board is cool and a little retrospective.
But the shop's staff said it look "delicious".
Ok. I name this board Delicious.

I rent a space to keep my board in the surf shop. It costs \5000 a month. I can keep my wet suit there too.
So, I can come to the surf shop without anything, and play surfing anytime I like. It's very convenient.
When I used Delicious for the first time, the wave was weak as usual in Shonan beach. But, I sometimes could catch waves very well. I don't know it's because of my skill up of surfing, or because of the new surf board. But anyway, my first riding on Deicious was good. I think we can be good partners.

VS Honeymoon

I'm planning a honeymoon now.

Recently, the couple without a wedding party is increasing in Japan. The party costs very much, and it is sometimes not only for the couple, but also for their families, in Japan. Even now, some Japanese think a marriage is not an individual matter but a family's one.
It is not bad in general to respect their family, but sometimes, Japanese wedding party is too formal and boring. So, the people who disike such a party, don't want to have a wedding party. I can understand it.

But, a honeymoon is diffrent. Many new couples like to have it. The first travel with his/her partner is a very important event. It must be a great memory for them. Moreover they can understand each other more in an unusual situation and place. It must be a good chance to test their partners for their long life. And, needless to say, the first travel includes the first night. All couples have to make a rule, a style, a format, a manner or something on their bed at the night. That's why a honeymoon can't be missed by all couples.

My friend Marcy will get married on Nov. And, another friend Kosei will on Dec. too.
Now I'm planning "their" honeymoon. Because, I want to attend them.
It is very good for me to know what kind of honeymoon is successful or not. By arranging it, I can sharpen my honeymoon skill for my honeymoon coming someday.

Now I present my plan to the two friends.
One is confused. Another is asking his wife.
They don't seem to understand why I can attend them. But, they will know the merit of my plan soon.
As we know in general or from our experiece, two persons' travel is very risky for their relationship. They can't escape from fighting.
Therefore, the existing of the person on a neutral position is very helpful for the couples' long time relationship.
I am waiting for their answer "We follow you."

VS Monkey Park

Still hot and humid in Japan. To wipe away our sweat on the face, blue handkerchiefs are needed still. But, we are also feeling a slight change of summer. It looks to prepare for leaving. The festival season is certainly gradually finishing.

I used a few holidays to go to Kyoto, my home town and the most classical city in Japan. I don't always have anything special when visiting my home town, but I go there a few times a year. What I do there is only to see my family, friends and a dog. For I'm not a traveller in Kyoto, I don't have to go to many sight-seeing spots. I can just be relaxed there.

However, as we know, when coming back from a trip, our friends usually ask us a lot about the trip; where did you visit?, what's happened in the trip?, how about the food? etc.
They must have many questions.
But, my answer can be "I visited my parent's house, watched TV with them and ate the dishes my mother cooked." That must make my friends disappointed easily.

That's why, though I didn't have to and want to, I went to a sight-seeing area with my friend. The aim was to make a special episode in this travel.
I went to Arashiyama area.

The area is located in the north-west in Kyoto city. It's famous for beautiful forests and rivers. In fall, the forests bocome yellow, orange and red beautifully. Many people visit there to see the beautiful nature in the season.

Even in summer now, certainly the nature in Arashiyama was beautiful. The air was cool, and the sound of rivers were comfortable. They were nice.
But...., to be honest, I prefer Human to Nature. So, I wanted more attractive events there.
Looking at a travel map for a short time, I found out a good event spot. There are a monkey park there.
Monkey. It's a human...in the future. So, it looked fitted to my preference.

In front of the park, we can see a notice soon.
"Don't look at monkey's eyes. If you do it, they think you are hostile to them, and will attack you."
Ok. I tried not to look at them in the park.

A few problems happend.
First. A lot of monkeys lives there. So, it was very difficult to avoid looking at them.
Second. The monkeys were often looking at me, maybe because they think I have something to eat.
Third. Only when looking at the sky, I could escape from the risk of looking at monkey's eyes. But, it was very boring. "Why am I here now?"

In the park, I tried to only "glance at" them, not look. And, I sometimes whistled to show my peaceful personality to them. I think(or I hope) they could understand my message.
But, maybe, their interest was only whether we have foods or not. So, they didn't seem to have any interest in me, because I didn't have any foods.
At the end of my walking in the park, no monkey looked at me. (They looked at only the people with some foods.) It might be good for me because I could easily avoid looking at their eyes.
However, I want to say, they were impolite.
They should study social manners a little more if they want to be a human someday.
I was a guest in the park, and they are staffs or something there. So, they sould show their politeness to a guest a little more. They shouldn't ignore the guest. They were disappointing.

Conclusion: Monkey has't been Human yet.

VS Samurai Base

Japanese has the desire to be boiled regularly with high-mineral water. So, we invented hot springs.
Last Saturday, I and my friends went to a Japanese restaurent with hot springs, JINYA.

This restaurant has not only hot springs but also hotel rooms, party rooms, a bar and a beautiful garden.
In addition, it has an unique history.
Long time ago, it was Samurai's base. It was used for Samurai's sword practice, in Kamakura eara, about 800 years ago. The existing houses are not the ones built such a log time ago, but they are 250 - 400 years old! Yes, historical enough. We can see Samurai's armors, swords and many other old stuffs there.

You might know TOTORO, an Japanese animation. I found a picture of TOTORO there. I didn't know its relation to the restaurant, but soon the restaurant manager explained it to us.

Fact 1: The restaurant was owned by Mr. Miyazaki.
Fact 2: TOTORO was directed by a famous animation director, Hayao Miyazaki. But, he doesn't manage a restaurant.

Answer: Hayao Miyazaki is a JINYA's relatives.

I heard from the manager that he is the restaurant owner's cousin.
He spent a lot of time there, and got the inspiration of his animation. That's why the picture of his animation character is displayed there.

We used only hot springs there this time, but didn't use the restaurant. When I used it with my co-workers for a party before, the dishes were very good. We could enjoy authentic Japaese foods there. And, the place's classical mood made the party very gorgeous. If you want to have a special party near my area, JINYA is good and reasonable(it's important).

VS Sydney(3)

My traveling policy is to forget my home culture and to focus on the local one. For example; for foods, I think I should eat the local food only.
However, in this trip, I ate a lot of Japanese foods in Sydney. One of the reasons was because my friend Peter loves Japanese food. Another reason was that I was interested in Japanese foods foreigner cooked. How do they interpret Japanese foods?

We went to a Japanese restaurant, KATSURA, which is located in Neutral Bay in Sydney, where many Japanese lives. The restaurant has two divisions; one serves Sushi and Sake, and another serves Yakiniku.
The chef was Korean. For me at first, it was strange that Korean cooked Japanese food. But, he was a good chef. I heard from him that he had studied Japanese dishes for ten years in Japan. In Australia, the materials for Japanese disies are limited, but I could enjoy his work very much.

Another Japanese restaurant, TOTOYA, was also great. It is also located in Neutral Bay.
It is completely same as Japanese typical Izakaya. I could enjoy Yakitori, Tofu, Karaage, Edamame, etc.
I don't know why, but all customer there except for us was Chinese people.

I could go to even Karaoke Box in Sydney, after drinking.
Second stage is generally needed in Japan. Sydney can give it us. For Japanese, no incovenient factor is there. We enjoyed singing a lot of Japanese songs there.

I couldn't have the chance to go to the most famous Japanese (or Japanese-French) restaurant, Tetsuya's. I heard that the restaurant is No.4 in a restaurant competition in the world. We have to book the seat before six months!
I shouldn't miss the restaurant when I visit Sydney next time.

Looking back to my trip to Australia, I have a lot of things I can write here. But, I stop it now.
The last thing I should write is that Syaney is a beautiful city. The wind from the sea was very comfortable. Many historical architectures were beautiful.
I wanna visit there again in Summer time. It may be soon.

VS Sydney(2)

I visited a typical Australian home one day.
When I came into the house, I was comfused; whether I should take my shoes off or not? Because, in the house, the sons and a daughter didn't put shoes on, but the parent did. I couldn't the shoes rule in the house soon.
So, I asked them what to do with my shoes.
The answer was clear. "It's up to you."

This episode was the impressive one for me to understand Australia, and maybe the countries like Australia.
As we know, Australia is the country that many immigrants come together. So, the society is very multi-cultural. It has British culture, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean and so on. Each person has a very different and unique backgraund. This cultural variety makes Australia attractive.
On the other hand, therefore, it looks difficult to share the same sense of value there.
As we know better, many conflicts can easily happen among the people with the diffrent sense of value.
But, Australian people has a good wisdom to escape from such a problem. "Up to you" is their culture.
They don't mind others too much.
Thus, I could be relaxed in Sydney very much. More relaxed in Japan, I think.
Of course, it doesn't mean they don't care for others. In fact, they are very friendly and easy-going.

Japanese and other Aisan countries' cultures seem to be diffrent from Australia.
Our culture is also internationalized to some extent, but still domestic.
The culture in Asia is a mosaic. Japan is Japan. China is China. Korea is. India is....
We might say that it is also a good point for Asia. But, it sometimes makes us to understand each other.

(To be continued)

VS Sydney(1)

I spent my 10 days holiday in Australia. It was my first visit of Australia, and English-speaking country in my life. Before flying to the country, I was very excited. To be relaxed, I continued to drink beer in Narita airport. It was a great taste.

Now Japan is in summer, but Australia is in winter. After 9 hours' flight, the season changed dynamicaly. I was in T-shirt. It was very cold. But, the temparature was about 10 degrees. So, for Japanese, it was like early spring. Australia is a basicaly warm country.

On the first day I walked around the center of Sydney city, and went to Manly to see my friend, Peter.
Sydney is a business city, a commercial city, a cultural city and a multi-cultural city. This kind of city isn't in Japan. If I have to find out a simillar type city in Japan, Yokohama may be closer. But, Sydney is very original.

My company, Kinokuniya, has a book store in Sydney. So, I went to check it first. It was a very big store, and I heard it was the biggest book store in Australia. I met a friend working there, and had a coffee in the store cafe. As I wrote above, Sydney is multi-cultural. Thus, the book store there is also multi-cultural. There are varieties of books there; English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and other languages' books. It's very interesting for working place.

In this trip, I drunk a lot of cups of coffee.
Actually there are many coffee shops in Sydney. Everybody drink a coffee outside. Outside drinking and eating is a very important culture there. It's very relaxing and makes our feelings open. Especially near the beach, it is very good to drink a coffee listening to the sound of the wave.

Food was also great.
I ate very delicious pizzas near Dee Why beach. Lamb meet pizza was so great. I enjoyed it drinking beautiful red wine.
In this trip, I enjoyed a lot of foods I can't eat in Japan.
Kangaroo meat was one of them.
It was very light, not oily, and easy to eat. I ate it when I went ot Hunter Valley, the most famous place for wine making. The meat was fitted to red wine very much.

If you like wine and have the chanece to go to Australia, Hanter Valley is the place you shouldn't miss the chance to visit.

(To be continued)

VS Kids Engish

When we can explain something to others, we can say "I understand it."

That's why I am trying the course of English teaching for kids.
I took a group lesson recently. It was very fun.
I could learn from a professional teacher how to teach English for kids. Her method was very logical, rational and very professonal. She is investigating kids' mind and has a great technique to catch their interest. I watched her demonstration lesson. During watching, I became a kid. I thought she was a magician.

Teaching not only English but also everything to kids is a difficult thing.
They don't share almost any knowledge with us. So, we can't use almost any resource to explain something.
When we teach English to kids, we sometimes use Japanese to explain. But, kids are not even good Japanese speakers. Thus, our explanation in Japanese can not be enough for them.
Therefore, we have to use gestures, body languages, games, songs, and so on.

If I quit my job, book-selling, it might be good to be an English teacher for kids.
In Japan, learning English is just a leraning.
But, I think learnig English or any other languages is to brush up our communication skill. We should understand and try a different communication style from Japanese.

To brush up my communication level, I will go to Australia today.
I am excited now.

VS SINKING OF JAPAN

I watched a Japanese SF movie "Sinking of Japan", which is based on the original novel written by Sakyo Komatsu, 70 years old, who is a famous SF novelist in Japan.
The original story was written around 30 years ago, and soon became a millionseller.
In the story, Japanese faces the crisis of sinking of their country. The mantle dynamics under the soil of Japan couses a lot of earthquakes. And, the plate on which Japan stands slides into the sea. At last, the land of Japan sinks to the depth of the sea.
The novel is an authentic scientific fiction. The description is very realistic. When I read this novel in my school days, I enjoyed and was surprised very much.

That's why I was happy to hear of the movie, even though I had almost forgotten the story.
Compared with the novel, the moive is less realistic. Maybe because we can use our immagination in reading more than in watching a movie.
The movie was not a "hard" science fiction but a love romance.
It may lose the greatness of the original novel, but it might be good for the sales of the movie, because most people like a love story. In fact, when I went to a theater, a lot of people was there to watch the movie.

Now, the book about the story after the sinking is on sale in Japan.
It is the most important book for me to read in this summer.

VS HO CHI MINH (2)

If you go to Viet Nam, you will find out soon a lot of moterbikes on the road. Moterbike is the most popular for Vietnamese traffic. Even though the economy of Viet Nam is growing, car is still expensive for the people to buy. And, the railway is not constructed enough. We can't use it for our moving. So, many people use moterbikes.

Watching Vietnamese driving, I thought I couldn't ride a bike there. For me, their driving looked crazy. Nobody looked to care for the traffic rule. The distance between bikes are short. They change the lane suddenly and rapidly, without no sign. At the intersection, all bikes from all directions are keeping moving. I can't understand why traffic accidents don't happen more there.

I remembered the crazy car drivers in Shanghai.
Their driving was also crazy when I went to China last year. Now Chinese is importing and making a lot of cars. We can see varieties of cars there. Maybe for Chinese living in a city, a car is not a special thing now. However, their understanding of the rule or manner related to a car life is not enough at all. I can say simply their drinving is very selfish.
So are Vietnamese driving. It may take more time for them to sophisticate their culture on the road.

It was unfortune that I couldn't go to many historical places in Viet nam in this trip. I didn't have enough time to visit many places.
But, I heard that the bar I went to with my business partners was a historical place. The bar name was Saigon Saigon Bar. It is in the seventh or eighth floor on a building. The place was used for many journalists during the Viet Nam War.
There are not many high buildings in Ho Chi Minh city even now. So, the view from the bar is good to look around the city. Many journalists stayed in the building, checked the situation in the city and reported the war to the world.
Thinking about the journalists' brave soul, I drunk a lot of whisky there. It was a great time.

My English teacher, Sudhan, asked me after my coming back to Japan, to say one word in order to express my image of Viet Nam. It was difficult to describe a country by one word, but I said "Peaceful".
I am not sure if I can get a correct image of Viet Nam by such a short stay. But I hope my image is fitted to the country which had suffered from a long war time.

VS HO CHI MINH (1)

Today, I came back from Ho Chi Minh city to Japan.
I stayed for three nights there. It was my first trip to Viet Nam.
The main purpose of my trip was for attending a business meeting. I could enjoy the meeting itself, and, in addition, I could enjoy to see a lot of people from many Asian countries. Of course, the culture of Viet Nam was also enjoyable for me.
This trip was very impressive for me.

I stayed in Park Hyatt Saigon. It's a five-star hotel, located in the center of Ho Chi Minh city. Very gorgeous! It wa very lucky for me not to pay the hotel fee. My business partner paied everything for me. Not only for the hotel fee, but also for all meals, drink, taxi, and so on. I was treated very much. Maybe too much!
I don't know when I became such an important man?
Certainly same as other developing countries in Asia, the living cost in Viet Nam must be cheap. But, same as other countries, five-star hotel are exception.

Before going to Viet Nam, I heard that the trip to Viet Nam is veru popular in Japan. I didn't know that, so I had no idea of the reason.
In this trip, I thought Vietnamese is similar to Japanese. If my impression is right, I can understand why Japanese traveler like to go there.

I ate a lot of foods there. Viet Nam food is very healthy and light.
Compared with Chinese food, it's less oily.
Compared with Thai food or Indian food, it's less spicy.
The original rice noodle, Pho, is very easy to eat. It's like Japanese noodle.
The food preference of Vetnamese is, I think, similar to Japanese.
May because of such a healthy food, the body shape of Vietnamese is very good. I didn't meet fat people there at all.

One day, I joined a dinner cruise on Saigon river.
This river is wide and long. It's clean and peaceful. The view form a ship was very nice. This river must be a symbol or an identity for Vietnamese. I was very impressed.
Now it is summer and a rainy season there. That's why it's very humid. But the great river brings cool air to the city, so I felt comfortable. Actually I thought it's more humid in Japan when I reachd Tokyo today.

(To be continued)

VS North Korea

Seven unlucky missiles were launched from North Korea toward Japan last week.
All of them dropped into the sea of Japan. Now Japanese government is searching for them, and investigating the details. Many TV programs are treating this issue. Now Japan is filled with the missile information.

I thought North Korea is a more challenging country than we thought, though nobody knows what they are challenging to. Their launch of the missiles must be surprising for all countries, because we can't understand the rational reason for North Korea to do it.

For Japan, North Korea is like a crazy neighbor. Honestly speaking, we don't want to keep in touch with them. But it is impossible, because they live next to us. We hope they will move somewhere someday. But it's also impossible. They are the pain in the ass.

Maybe Japan and US can't communicate with North Korea successfully. I expect China to control them. I don't think the friendship between China and North Korea is the real one, but they pretend to be a friend. So, North Korea may listen to only China.

Today I am going to fly to Viet Nam for a business meeting. I can meet many Asian people in the meeting. I will ask Chinese to scold North Kore

VS Viet Nam

After the lost of Japanese team against Brazin in the World Cup, my body condition became bad. It must be a summer cold. Now it is a rainy seson in Japan. So, many people have the difficulty to adjust to the weather change. I also caught a cold and suffered from a throatache. I couldn't drink, eat and speak for a while. It was too terrible.

Now I am OK. I have to hurry up for the prepareation for my trip to Viet Nam in a week.
I have no idea of Viet Nam at all. Today, I went to buy a guide book for Viet Nam.
My trip is mainly for a business meeting among Asian publishers and book-salesmen; from India, China, Shingapole, Thailand, Korea, Japan and so on.
I am now becoming intersted in a publishing world in Asian countries. I think this trip must be stimulating to me. One of my dream is to make an international publishing company in Asia, so this trip is a very good chance for me to know Asia.

I will go to Ho Chi Minh city. I see on the guide book that the city is both modern and traditional. I thought the image is similar to Shanghai in China. Of course, it's a just image from the book. The real image might be diffrent.
My stay is only three nights. And, two days are only for business. So, I can't have an enough time to go to many places. But, if I will focus on the center of Ho Chi Minh, I think I can enjoy the city fully.

Unfortunately I have no time to study Viet Nam language!
I think it's a fatal element in a trip whether we can communicate with the local people or not. So, if I can, I should study the language before going there.

"Xin chao" is Hello.
"Cam o'n" is Thank you.

How many phrases can I meomorize in this week? I'm not proud of my memory function....

VS Brazil

World Cup for Japanese is almost finishing. Now, only one winning point and the game against Brazil are left for us. I am not sure to watch the game. It will start midnight on Japanese time. The result is clear. Brazil must win. So, I don't have a strong motivation to watch the game. But,...

But, I would have a duty to watch the game. Compared with other countries, Japan team's level is lower, to be honest. But, they are progressing. In this World Cup, the second game was certainly better than the first game. Japanese players are studying and growing. Even if Japan has no chance to win Brazil, it might be better to watch their progress.

I don't want to complain to Zico. Many people say he doesn't do anything good to Japan team.
In the last two game, I thought Zico is believing the ability of Japanese players.
His style of using players is very impatient.
If he is my boss, I can respect him and try my job harder for him.
That's why I don't critisize his style.

What is the secret of Brazil's strength? They look to have no possibility to lose. I want to know what they are eating everyday. Maybe, beans. I have never been to Brazil, so my guess might be wrong. But, I think they are eatng beans very much.
Recently, to make a strong body, I am eating Natto, a bean food with strong smell, everyday. My body condition is good now. I can feel all my bad elements in my body and brain are killed by natto. So, Japanese soccer players should eat it everyday. Or, it is also Ok to eat it just before the game. Natto's smell might be a strong weapon for Japan to stop Brazil players.

VS The book of the dead

I recently watched a great doll animation, "The book of the dead".
The quality of the animation movie was very high. I enjoyed it very much.
In the movie, dolls are actors and actresses.
I could have the chance to talk with the movie's producer. She told me that it took two years to make the one hour movie, because every single second was divided to 24 scenes in the movie, and all dolls in the scene were moved gradually, a little and a little. I guess it must be an impatient work.
In the movie, all dolls looked living. Their move was very smooth. It was a great art.

The movie's original novel was written by Shinobu Origuchi, who were a famous Japanese anthropologist. The theme of the novel is how we can calm down the soul of the dead people. This theme was from Buddism.

The eara of the story is ancient Japan, 8 century. In the eara, Buddism came to Japan. It gave an effect on Japanese thinking about death. Before Buddism coming, Japanese thought the dead people would become something in the world; for example, a stone, a tree, a bird, an ant, a snake, a flower and so on.
But, after Buddism coming, we learned that we would go somewhere but in this world after our death.
Where is "somewhere"?
I am not certain that it equals the English word, "Heaven",but we call it "That world" in Japanese.

For the people in 8 century, the two types of explanation for death was very confusing. That's why it was a big theme for the ancient people, how to calm down the soul of the dead.
Such a theme is difficult even for us. So, the movie was more difficult to understand than we guess before watching it. However, I can say this movie is a good entertainment.

Now Japanese animation is popular in the world.
Most of them are, I think, for kids. The stories are interesting, exciting and easy to understand But, what we can express in animation is wide. The genre called "art animation" is also becoming popular now. It's a great art.

VS Big Wave

Last Saturdy, the size of wave is Shonan beach was big. I heard that the last time of this size was two months ago. I tried surfing then, but the strong and big wave was too difficult for a biginner surfer. I couldn't stand on a surf board at all. I was very shocked.
My instructer said to me, "It was a good experience. For me, at the first time, this size of wave was very scary. But, after the experience, other sizes of wave became easy."

I realised how the power of wave is strong this time.
The wave is always weak on Shonan beach. So, we have to paddle very much to surf.
But this time, I didn't need paddling. The strong wave enforced me to go toward the beach. i couldn't stand up on my surf board. Only I could do was to hold my board. It was like a body board. But I could fell and understand waht the catching a wave is.

Now I am afraid whether I can surf in Australia this summer. The wave on Gold Choast must be bigger than here. BBQ on the beach might be better for me. But, anyway, I have to practice more.

Many shops on Shonan beach are under construction. The sea will be open from July. During summer time, this beach becomes not for surfers but for the people who loves events, festivals, and romance. The surfer's activity is limited in the early morning or the night time. Not to say, catching a girl is as difficult as catching a wave.

VS World Cup

The world cup in German has started at last.
To be honset, I am not a super soccer freak. I don't watch soccer games so much. But, World Cup is special. Same as other people, I was looking forward to the event coming.

In the first league, Japanese will be able to experience emotional things.
Japan have to fight against Brazil in the league. It's unfortune to have the match with the strongest team soon.
I don't think Japan can go to the final tournamnet, but of course I will cheer them.
I will become excited, angry, happy and sad in the games in the first league.

In the final tournamnet, I will feel peaceful and relaxed, because there is not Japanese team there. Being free from a nationalistic factor, I will just enjoy the great games by the strong countries.

My problem to watch the world cup games is that I don't have TV. A few years ago, I stopped watching TV because I realised it is the waste of time to watch TV.
But, I want to watch the games!
But, I don't want to have a television.
However, I want to watch the games!
Nevertheless, I don't want to have a television!

Fortunately I have a solution.
Recently, many restaurants and bars near my house have set up big screen televisions inside. Of course, they are for watching World Cup! It's a good idea.
In about a month, my expense for drinking will increase. It's unescapable.

VS Murakami Fund

One of the famous Japanese shareholder activists, Mr. Murakami, was arrested because of his insider dealings. Honestly speaking, I am happy. Maybe, most lapanese has the same feeling as mine.
Some people would value his contribution to change Japanese stock market and companies, even though he was arrested. Certainly he would have done good things to some extent.
But, his opinion is quite a simple, and often too simple. He said to the managers in a company of which he has the stock, "Work more efficiently!"

He was a strong stockholder. So, the managers couldn't protest him.
And, "Work more efficiently!" itself is a difficult opinion to deny. His opinion must be true.
However, nevertheless, I didn't like him. Why?

The reason might be this. His purpose was to earn money in a stock market. That's why I thought he was not interested in each companies' activity. One company makes shirts. Another company makes redio programs. Of course, each one have to change themselves better. So, they have to try to work more and more efficiently. But, it is not Mr.Murakami's business. He couldn't know how each companies work. His interest looked to be how each companies earn money. If so, I think he has no right to say "Work more efficiently!"

Recently I doubt that efficiency is important.
I think inefficient life is very rich. For example, we drink too much at a night. On the next day, we can't get up in the morning. When we get up, it is afternoon. We say, "Gash. I can't do anything special today."
We waste a day? I don't think so. We must be happy. Because, we know the lost time doesn't affect our life bad. Certainly we lost time a little, but maybe we could be more relaxed. We don't have any serious problems at all.
Japan is the highly developed country. We don't have any difficulty of life. Enough food, enough drink. So, we would not be hurry to everything. In other words, we can enjoy Slow Life more.

Mr.Murakami was arrested soon.
Newspaper says, he didn't choose to fight in a court. Because, it will take a long time, so it must be time-loss for him. His life style is still very EFFICIENT.

VS Decreasing Population

In Japan, 20% of the gross population became the people over 60 yeras old recently. I am happy to hear that because it means Japan becomes more and more a long-life-time country.
But, many people seem to think that is not good. Because it becomes more difficult for the government to keep our pension system and other infrastructures. Actually, now Japanese birth rate is under 1.25. The number of young generation is decreasing.

We discussed about the topic in our English class today.
We know the main reason of decreasing birth rate is from the increasing unmarried women. Especially the number of 26-30 years old unmarried women is increasing.
Comparing the present with the past, the number of children a married woman has is same.
The couple without children is not increasing.

We didn't discuss so much what we can do to solve this problem. It's a big and difficult theme. Alternatively we talked about marridge.
"Women change after marridge." is the married men's idea.
I can't judge whether that's true or not, because I am a single, but two women students disagreed with the idea. Maybe, depending on the viewpoint, the idea can be both true and unture.

"Before marridge, Men hope Women will not change in the future. But, Women change after marridge." Onthe other hand, "Before marridge, Women hope Men will change in the future. But, Men will not change."
I can't judge this idea again, but it sounds true. A Japanese recent pop-song says a same kind of idea.
" I (man) want a unchanging relationship with you, but you (women) want a stimulating relationship with me." Mmm, I might see.

VS Branding in China

I read a Japanese economical book about the branding in China. This book treats the branding policy and tactics of global companies in China.
The examples this book treats are the car industry, the drink industry, the advertising industry and so on. I can learn a lot from these examples.

I can learn from this book that it takes a long time to spread the brand image. For example, Japanese has different images to Audi, BMW and HONDA in the car market.
For Japanese, the image of Audi is "reliable". BMW is "selective". HONDA is "unique". Each brand has their own character.
But for Chinese, these three companies have no difference. "Reliable" is the same image of them.
Why does Chinese think these companies have the same image? The author says Chinese people can't have the different images of each car companies now, because of the lack of the comsumer experience. For them, a car is a car. So, they don't have a special image for each cars.
To be more correct, they would have experienced the car without reliability made in their country. So, they would focus on the reliability of foreign makers.

For some Japanese, the image of Bentz is YAKUZA. Maybe, westerner is supplised that Bentz has such an image in Japan. But it's true. If you drive Bentz and change the lane, no car would interrupt you. I've never used my horn to Bentz in my life.

VS THE DA VINCI CODE

Why is this unspecial movie so cotroversial? This is my impression after watching THE DA VINCI CODE, maybe because of my lack of religious background.
Certainly I enjoyed this movie today, but I thought the description of each characters and facts were not enough. The original novel is a long story. So, it maght be impossible to pack the world in only a few hours film.
The key factor of the movie is SEX.
Religiously, it could be a big problem. But, culturally it is not. Now, anything about SEX are opener than before.
"Mona Lisa" is drawn on the book cover and the movie advertisement of THE DA VINCI CODE. But, it is not related to the story at all. It was surprising for me.
I heard thet the hair style of Tom Hanks was more controversial than the story. But, I didn't care for it.

Even though I think this movie is not special, I can recomend it.
Not only religious people but also the people to respect for any kinds of principle tend to seek for the authority, which makes battles among the people. The history of Christien is such a case. I think the westerb culture based on the history is most infulential on this world now, so we should study it more. I could learn many things from the movie.

But, anyway, I seem to have to read the original book. English book must be too tough for me. So, I will try Japanese-transleted book. Now, 5 million books are sold in Japan. It's a big sales. Of course, the book-shop people are very happy now. We are looking forward to THE DA VINCI CODE 2. It would be a cheaper story than the first one.
Mona Lisa beats a lot of monsters, and finds out a treasure. Hm, entertaining. Good enough. I can write the story.

VS Onshore Wind

The change of season is clear in Japan. Each season colors our life. So, we respect seasonal events very much. For example; In spring, we watch cheryblossams. In summer, we go to the sea. In fall, we eat very much (maybe, to prepare for winter -no food season -). In winter, we go to ski. "This is the seasonal menu!" is a popular advertisement in Japanese restaurnts.

I went to Enoshima beach to surf last Sunday.
For most people, May must be too early to go to the sea. But, for surfers, it's not early. Actually, the water is a little cold now, but our hearts are burning well enough. Watching blue sky and sea, we can't wait more. Surfer is a breaker of the season code.

The day, the wave was kind of big ,but a little random by the effect of onshore wind, which comes from a sea side to a shore side. The wave is sometimes big and sometimes small. That's why the wave condition was hard for the beginners. It also means hard for me! Maybe, my performance on the wave was not good.
However, by the support of my instracter, my surfing skill seems to be developing. I could sometimes catch the wave correctly this time. Training is important for anything.

To be honest, Enoshima beach is not a great place to surf. The wave is small an weak. In Kanto area in Japan, Chiba or Izu is a better place. However, Enoshima beach is a kind of brand. Many people come there. So, I heard that the openness to strangers is the culture of this area. On other beach, good wave points sometimes seems to be monopolised by the local surfers. Thus, strangers can't ride a good wave.
I've never been to other beach, so I can't judge which it's true or not, but I think the surfer's community in Enoshima is comfortable indeed.

I ate Mankin Gyoza after the surfing. I drank much water on the sea. So, to minus it, I had to eat an oily food. The raod to the real surfer is far away.

VS University Students

I graduated from University around ten years ago. When I was a student, I often went to a room of my seminar professer. We discussed about many things. I could learn a lot. It was a good experience. Moreover, I sometimes drunk with him and other seminar students. And, we played soccer and tennis. We went for a trip together.
After I graduated, I have been to his house at least once a year with my friends. My professer talks about recent interests, his university and his students. I talk about my job mainly. It is natural for me to keep in touch with my teacher.

Last week, I went to an University in Yokohama, which is my customer. After a job, I talked with a professor, about his seminar.
He said to me, " I had invited my students to my house before ten years. I arranged a wine party with my students then. We enjoyed together very much. But, recently, I don't have such an oppotunity. Because, the personality of students has changed. They don't want friendly-relationship with their teacher."

"Not all students. Some students still want it. But, they often lose the feeling of respect or politeness to their teacher. They treat their teacher as like a friend. They don't understand our relationship as it order to be. So, I am losing the motivation to have a better relationship with them."
He looked to give up something.

For me, the most interesting thing of what he said is this.
"Compared with male students, female students are more active and friendly to their teachers in their unversity days. They sometimes come to my room and talk about many things. BUT, after graduating, they don't keep in touch with me at all. On the other hand, male students contact me more often."

I think what he talked about is not only his case. The distance between universtiy students and professers seems to be becomig far. I've heard of same kinds of episode from other professers.
I don't know the reason why the relationship between students and professers has changed.
Shyness? Generation gap?
The reason is not important, but what I think is important is that we should have a skill or an experience to communicate with the people in a different generation. Looking at younger coworkers, I realise they are not good at talking with older people. They tend to be together with same age people. It's not a problem itself, but if it implies the lack of their communication skill, it's fatal.

VS Body Shape

Japan is between in spring and early summer. Basically warm. Humid rainy season will come soon. After that, we'll go into summer.
I checked a new surf shop in Atsugi. My surfer spirit became hot. I learned from the shop staff about various types of surf-boards, the character of wave in some areas in Japan, some surfing styles, the personality of Atsugi surfers and so on. I enjoyed talking with her.

I thought I had better make my body visually-good to go to the beach.
Six stomach muscules should be on a surf board?
I don't exercise recently, but I have been satisfied with my body. I am healthy. I am not fat.
But, I thought I should step on a haigher level.
So, going back to my home, I tried stomach execises soon.

I decided fifty-times execise everyday to get six muscles on my stomach.
It's May now. One, two, three months later, It's August, in summer. Then, my ideal body will arrive joust in time. Nice plan.

Good plan have to be followed by action. Of course, I did it.
I laied on a floor, and started stomach exercises. One, two, three, four, five.......
On the process, suddenly, I felt a storng pain on my stomach, which likely broke my stomach into six pieces. I stopped. I gave up. I got a heavy damage by my exercise. I would submit myself. I couldn't continue.
Gash! My muscule became weak! I was shocked.

To calm my body pain, I went to a bar. I thought cold beer is good, because I heard cool-down is needed after exercises. The day, I drunk earlier than as ususal. Maybe because my blood circulation became fast. My goal is far. But I have to reach it.

VS Copyright

I am a moralistic man. Moralistic man thinks everything naturally. He obeys only the natural order. So, his behavier is simple and easy to understand. What is natural isn't an important question. It's also not important that others wouldn't agree with what I think is natural.
For a maralistic man, Law is an enemy. It's too complicated, difficult to understand and usually boring. It's like a logical puzzle.It's far from the natural order.
That's why I am not good at legal things. When reading a newspaper, there are many articles about law. For example, a new company law started in Japan from this May. It seems to affect most companies very much. But I don't know it well, because It's a tough work to read such a article to make me sleepy.

However, I am NOT JUST a moralistic man. I am a moralistic "book-sales" man. So, I can't escape from a law related to my business; the copyright law. For my business, I have to understand it to some extent. I have to check my commodities for the copyright. Can it be sold for individuals or institutions? Can I sell it to schools, companies or government? Can I import it to Japan?
Before selling, I have to make these kinds of things clear. Cpoyright is a strong right like Patent. So, I have to understand it.

A school, one of my customer, is planning to publish the questions of entrance exam on their home page. They think it's very friendly for the appliers to the school. I also think so. But, now they are facing the problem of copyright. The problem is in exams for Japanese and English. They use many paragraphs from novels, esseys, articles in a newspaper and so on.
Any schools don't need permission from the people with copyright, to use the paragraph for their tests. But, when publishing the tests, they have to require the permission. It is more difficult than we think. Who wrote this article? Where does he or she live? How can I contact them? These investigations are very hard work. Moreover, even if we can contact the people with copyright, it is not certain that they will permit us to use their publications.
That's why the school's plan is stopping now.

In Japanese bookstores, there are red books whose title is a university's name. They are very famous books among high school students. We call them AKAHON, which is a collection of previous entrance exams of the unversity. I heard that this book could be illegal because the permission of copyright is not enough. If it's true, we can't sell such a book and many students could be in panic. Unnatural.

VS Reading

My Golden Week finished. I have to go back to my routine life. I think the recovery of my barin from holiday mood needs much time.

During this holidays, I finished reading "Elegy for IRIS" by John Bayley at last. As I wrote in this blog before, it was a tough work for me to read the book. Because I don't usually read this kind of love story. But, anyway, I made it. I was satisfied with my task. To be honest, I couldn't understand a lot of details in this story, because of my lack of English vocabulary. I could only trace the plot. However, it is okey for me. From the viewpoint of English study, or reading a book in general, it is a good experience for me to finish a book.

After finishing the book, I wanted to read another book. I thought the next book should be Japanese book, because I didn't have enough time to read English book during holidays, so I wanted to try an easier book. That's why I read the translation of "FOOLS RUSH IN" by Nina Munk.
This book was a business book. It treats the mergence of AOL and Time Warner, and the failure. I enjoyed this book very much.
The mixture of telecommunication companies and broadcasting companies is a big topic now in Japan. But, nobody seems to know what we should do next. In addition, I think it is not clear whether the mixture is good or bad. Too strong is the company governing telecommunication technology and broadcasting division?

“Freakonomics” is my next reading target. One million copies of this book is sold in US.
And, the Japanese translation is published recently. I think the Japanese version will be poplar too. This is a booksalesman's prediction.

VS Galbraith

If you have studied Economics, you would know the name Jhon Kenneth Galbraith. Today I knew from a newspaper that he died a day ago at 97 years old.(The news was a second or third top news.) I was a little shocked, because I read his book when I was an university student. Compared with other economical book, his books was unique and interesting. He used metaphor efficiently to explain the real economy, and made new words to describe it. His book treats economy, but his writing-style is like a novel. When I started to study Economics in university, I thought it was boring. But his book geve me a motivation to study it more. Studying Economics or Social Science helped me to think about everything in social context.

Fortunately or Unfortunately, the death of a person is a business chance of book-salesmen. I will bring a book-list of Galbraith to my cutomers tomorrow. He must be a giant of last century, intellectually and physically.

VS Golden Week

Japan starts Golden week, continual many holidays. It is not just a week. Nine or ten holidays have the people who work for a labour-friendly company or study in a heart-warming school. But, in my case, I can have only five continual holidays. Maybe my company is a bad one.
During this year's Golden week, a lot of Japanese will go abroad. I heard that the number of the people going to foreign countries are more this year than last year. It may symbolize the recovery of Japanese economy. Because the flight tickets are very expensive in this week.
As usual, I will spend my holidays in Kyoto, my hometown. It's the easiest plan.

I realised recently that I have bought books constantly but I don't read them almost at all! So, I will try to finish reading some of them during my holidays. I talked with a librarian who is my customer days ago. She told me that we have no time to read a long book. Actually I can finish reading a short and easy book, but long books have been unfinished for a long time.

My first target to finish is "Elegy for Iris" by John Bayley. I bought this book a few years ago, started to read it soon and gave up soon. It's the stroy about a novelist, Iris Murdoch, written by her husband. She was a great novelist young, but became Alzheimer old.
Although I am interested in the theme of the story, I am not good at the writing style of this kind of "love story". That's why it is taugh work for me to continue to read this book. But fortunately I read 90% of the story. Now it is in a climax. She becomes Alzheimer utterly at last! The goal is close!

I notice that I am satisfied with the saddest point in this book. Human feeling is complex even if it's mine.

VS America

Tha last topic in my discussion class was for the power of America and the possibility of alternative of another power in the world. It was a hard topic for just one hour discussion, but , I think, a good theme. This kind of discussion is becomig popular even in Japan.
Now, Japanese government's policy to America is very clear. They support America almost totally. The relationship between Japan and America looks strongest in history. Japan is the best follower of America now.
Indeed, America is the country we should follow. She is very strong and leading in the world. But, on the other hand, there are many countries which don't want to follow America for its too much strength. Iran and North Korea are such one. They are clearly the enemy of America.

Even in Japan, all people don't support America.
Actually I am an anti-America. (Notice! Not American.)
It doesn't mean I dislike America. I am just afraid of the monopoly of the power in the world. Like Microsoft, we have to weaken the too much strong power of America, for the progress of this world.

In my discussion class, most people supported the leadreship of America. It was a taugh work for me to crticize other's opinion. I know America is the only one leader of this world. But I am not sure whether America is the best as a leader or not. Even America could make a wrong decision and, I think, did it many times. Of course, whether the decision is wrong or right depends on each person's opinion. The decision some people prefer can be bad for others.
So, all I can say is this. In order to hedge the possibility of wrong decision and the risk, we should divide power into many countries.

"Empire" is now a popular keyward among intellectuals. Recently I sell a lot of books which have the old ward in the title. The meaning of the ward doesn't equal to America, but very close now. Although I don't know that the ward "Empire" is useful to analyze this world, we would need any catchy wards to think about a big issue. I think that American people will be surprised if the country they live in is typical Empire. Why do the people living in "Empire" have to work hard everyday?
The gap between a macro image (country) and a micro reality (people's life) is big ,and interesting.

VS Map

A isle is stoking tension between Japan and Korea.
Japan's ships are coming close to the isle for investigation, but Korea's are guarding it. Both countries claim to the ownership. Watching a map, the location is very confusing and controversial. Both countries have their own historical reason for claiming to their truth.

The tactics of Japanese government seems to make this land-ownership problem internatinally bigger. They want to bring this problem to International Court of Justice. However, Korea government is refusing it now. That's why both countries have to solve this problem by themselves.

I don't like to read or watch a map, because it is boring. But recently I found a good map on internet. This map is very very educational. We can know the distribution of resaurce in this world. The visual image is great.

VS A Cold

In spring, in Japan. My body has a difficulty of adjusting to the change of air temparature. Actually it changes very much in this season. A day is warm. Another day is cold. Daytime and nighttime is very different. That's why I caught a cold this week.
I know warming up my body is the best solution against a cold. I had a dayoff one day in this week, and went to a hot spring. I was warmed up in a large bath, sweated in a sauna and relaxed with a hot shower. It was so fantastic.
After the hot spring, a little bit of cooling dawn was needed. So, I ate a few piece of sushi, and drunk cold beer. Cold beer after hot spring. Cold after hot. This contrast is utterly beautiful. I knew it was not good at the time for my body with a cold. However, I couldn't lose the perfect timing for meeting real beauty.
Although my body condition became warmed and better once by the hot spring, the benefit would have been lost by the beer cooling dawn action. But I can say the action itself was the warming up for next action. I went to my favorite Hawaiian bar soon after the hot spring.
I ordered syochu with hot water there. In this stage, I couldn't order cold drinks. Warming up my body was the only one concept then. So, for foods, raw fish was not a choice. I ordered only hot foods like a baked beef. Hot beef gave me a energy very much.
I checked new menu in the bar, after a few cups of hot syochu. I found out the bar's original hamburger, which was one of new menu. In western countries, it is usual to eat a hamburger in a bar or a restaurant. But, in Japan, it is rare. In a hamburger shop, we can drink coffee, coke or something soft to drink here. So, I had requested for the bar master to give us a hamburger in the bar, for a long time. And, at last, he made his original hamburger.
Of courese, I ordered it soon. But, after the order, I realised I had a problem then. Japanese sake was not fitted to a humburger at all. I had to order another type of alchool.
When I have an big humburger on my left hand, what is good on my right hand?
Wine? No, it's too formal.
Whisky? Mmm, no. It's a mismatch.
Gin? No. The color is not interesting.
The best drink next to a humburger must be beer. I knew it from the first time. But, I had a cold at the time. So, I thought I had a problem then. Beer and Humburger. B and H. The yellow colored liquid with bubble and the colorful food tower.
Actually the food tower was very nice. The bread was a maffin. It was my favorite. And, there was inside a half-boiled egg, a thick sliced tomato and a hamburg baked with sauce. It was the best combination.
Facing the great meal, I ordered cold beer natually. "To hell with your health." I heard of the voice for God.

VS Text Book

In Japan, April is the biggining of a new year also for school. This month is busy for book salesmen, because we have to sell a lot of textbooks to students.
Have you ever carried a large number of books? It's an awful work. Book is very heavy. Although I like a beautiful book with photo, such a book is much heavier. In this season, I can easily hate a colorful book.

Carring is one part of this job. Next, we have to sell the textbooks. Students usually buy them between classes. After one class finishes, the wave of students come to the place for selling textbooks. We have to correspond to the wave within a limited time. It's like a war. It's too busy. I sometimes miscount money students pay. "Sorry, how much did you pay now?" Most students tell it honestly. I am lucky.

I am selling textbooks to an international school in Yokohama.
The deal between me and this school has started since last spring. International school use unque textbooks in Japan. I can watch a lot of interesting books. That's why I like to sell books for this school.
At the end of this month, the international school will have a big festival, International Food Fair 2006. I joined it last year. It was so great. I could enjoyed many country's food and reported it in this blog. Of course, I can't miss this year's.

VS Shouwa

In April, new fiscal year starts for company, and new educational year stars for school. Today, my comapny had a celemony for freshmen and freshwomen. They starts a new social life.
I works in sales division. This was the division mainly for men before. No women wanted to work here. Because women wanted to work in a bookstore, and liked to be surrounded by many books. And, men thought it was natural for women to work in a bookstore, and not natural to go out to many customers. But, now it is opposite. Freshwomen working in sales division are more than men. I heard form the person in my company's human resource division that the female applier for my company is more aggressive to get a carrer. That's why my company thinks women are more fitted to a sales person.

It is 18th "Heisei" year. "Heisei" is a name of era of the present Japanese emperor. Japan has an unique year-counting system. When an emperopr replaced an previous emperor, we name the year a new eara name. Before "Heisei", the year name was "Shouwa". I was born in "Shouwa".
There is no "Heisei"-born people in my company now, but they will come soon. Maybe, it is a little shocking for many people including me. For "Shouwa" people, the image of "Heisei" is very new. There is a genareation valley in our brain. That's why we can possibly be shocked to see the generation in my office, of course a little.

Now, 30's "Shouwa" is a boom. One reason is that a Japanese movie describing 30's "Shouwa" became popular last year. It was the period after about five years of the end of the war. It was my parent's generation's periods. Japan was poor, but recovering then.
My company's visual works division made a new DVD, "Japan in 30's Shouwa: Life of Family".
I watched it. It was very funny.
The DVD is a collection of a kind of non-fiction movies. A work discribes a husband on a wife in a family. In the work, there is no conversation between the husband and the wife. They support together, but no communication. Their kids were unconfortable in the situation, but can't complain it.
In a dinner time, nobody talk in the family, and they focus on eating. Only the father drinks sake alone. Everbody looks sad. However, they accept the condition.
When I thought what would happen after that, the movie finished suddenly.
Maybe for all people, this movie is strange. I think so too. But I can understand it. This was a typical old Japanese family. Father was strong but lonely in a home. Mother just obeyed her husband. Kids couldn't complain anything to parents. Such a condition is unusual now, and not supported by anybody. But now for many people, the old life style is a nostalgic one.
The DVD seems to be sold very much after it was introduced in a newspaper. It is an interesting phenomina in Japan.

VS Yasukuni

Cherry blossams season has come a little earlier in Japan. The season is short, a week. So, we have to rush to enjoy watching them. Hanami is a popular party now. We drink and eat under the tree of cherry blossams.

There are many good spots for Hanami in Tokyo. Yasukuni shrine is one of them. I and some friends went there yesterday. It was my first visit of the shrine.

We expected for a full of beautiful flowers, but 40% of flowers were growing when we watched them. Most street shops was under construction. Maybe, next week is better for Hanami.
We went into Yasukuni, and watched some statues and architectures.
My image of this shrine was big. However it was not . I know many bigger shrines in Kyoto, my home town. I was surprised at the gap between the image on TV and the real size.
Because we went late, we couldn't walk into a exciting museum in the shrine, which admires Japanese soldiers in WW2. We can watch a lot of weapons there.

Although the interest in Yasukuni shrine is increasing in the international politics, I heard that the donation to the shrine is decreasing. Because the generation experiencing the war is decreasing year by year. Yasukuni is not a general shrine. It is a special shrine for dead soldiers. So, it mught be difficult for Yasukuni to get normal religious supporters.
When I watched an advertisement of professional wrestling in Yasukuni, I was very surprised. ( We can watch it in a shrine! Gash! It is impossible in Kyoto.)
To eran money, this shrine have to have such an event.

We bought beer and snacks in a convenience store, and had a party in Yasukuni.
For Hanami, this place is very peaceful. Mr. President Koizumi should have Hanami party there.

VS WBC

March is the final month of a fiscal year in Japan. I have to finish many things in this month, and almost had done.
I went to a government office many times this month, because I was invited to some Bids. For new fiscal year, March is the bids month in Japan. Government calls us, and says "Come to the office for a bid at XX o'clock on XXth in March." Time and day are strict. We don't have a choce to change the schedule. That's why my schedule was very tight and busy in this month.

Today, Japanese baseball teams got championship in WBC, World Baseball Classic. I am proud of it. Compared with World Cup in soccer, the status of WBC is lower, but I hope this event become more popular in the future.
I can't understand why American team couldn't go to the final tournament. I heard that the team balance of American team was bad; too much homerun butters. On next WBC, America will change the team balance and revenge.
For Japanese, maybe most exciting game was VS Korea. I was very excited to watch it.
I watched the game in a rest room of Onsen, hot-spring, near my city.
I drunk a bottle of beer each inning. Total beer was nine. I was excited and drunk very much.

In this WBC, Japan won 1 game against Korea and lost 2. But, it got championship. I can guess this is a unsatifying result fof Korean people. They must hope for next WBC coming soon.

I think Japan vs Korea is very exciting for any sports. If I were a arranger of sports event, I use this exciting mutch every event. Japan and Korea has bad relationship on political level, but business is different from politics. We should use this "hostile" relationship for business.

Tomorrow, I have four bids. Too much! My free time is just in lunch time. I wish I can have a luch in Chinatown in Yokohama tomorrow.

VS DiSC

I took a psycological test recently.
The test name is DiSC.
This name comes from head letters of four words.
D is Dominance.
"i" is influence.
S is Steadiness.
C is Conscientiousness or Cautiousness.

I heard that we have all of four characters but the strongest one is different from each others.
I was gave a mark sheet and answered 24 questions.
It was an easy test, but we can know our potential character and our character that other people recognized.
I couldn't believe that such only 24 questions can judge our character, before the test. But, now I can believe it. Because I took the test with some my colleages and the test result was fitted with them very much.

I was categorized in "i".
The person who are in this character seems to be social, easy-going, passional and leading.
In addition, this person is dogmatic, undemocratic and fast to escape!

This is me? Hmm, I seem to rethink what I am.

VS Livedoor

I am reading articles about Livedoor on a newspaper everyday. I can learn many things from the news about this IT company's illegal deals in a stock market and untrue accounting. I've never thought that the company's young president is a hero, but I was interested in him because his age was same as me. He has a same generation backgorud with me. That's why his opinion was easy to understand for me. For example, "Creativity is meaningless to earn money. Just follow the successor.", "We should know more about our own value in a market.", and the most famous phrase; there is nothing we can't buy with money.
He corrected his saying later a little, but he seemed to value the power of money more than humanity. Such an opinion is extreme. But he was a millionare. So, I think his style of thinking had a large infuluence on Japanese, especially young people.

I heard that Livedoor's value of stock is 10% now compared with the peak-value. After the president was arrested for his breaking a law. The price of the company's stock decreased rapidly. So, many people lost their money.
Not only individuals but also companies are getting damage by the decreasing. Fuji television Co.Ltd was tried to take over by Livedoor last year. This TV company decided to take an alliance with Livedoor after the battle in a stock market and a court. Now, we know the alliance was a bad choice. Fuji will lose more than ten billion yen. I am not sorry for their bad lack. If they were proud of their job, they didn't have to worry about Livedoor's challange. But, they couldn't have a confidence in their business. So, they escaped from the long fight against the young IT millionare.

The stock of Livedoor is going out of the market soon. It almost means we can't buy and sell the company's stock anywhere. That's why the value of the stock is zero for most people.
At this point, I realised that I can take over Livedoor!
Now the stock's value is zero.
If I say "I can buy your stock by 1 yen.", most people will sell it to me.
And, if I can buy 50% of all Livedoor stocks, my taking over is successful!
I thought this idea is great. And soon, I checked how many stocks of the company there are.

Gash! A billion of stocks!
To take over the company, I need half a billion yen. (= US$ 8.6 million, RNB 69 million, EUR 5 million) Can I save such a big money in my life?

I gave up this plan.
I heard that some Funds have already been thinking about this kind of attempt. Ok. Please buy it if you want. Window shopping is enough for me.

VS Don

Busy days. Non-stop busy days are continuing from the beginning of this year.
Although I can enjoy the situation, I could lose energy recently.
So, I became to want to eat beef suddenly.
Beef and Beer. The double B can make me powerful. I went to a Yakiniku restaurant, DON, which offers us great beef.

Now, Japanese can't eat American beef because of BSE problem. The importing of American beef is inhibitted.
Don gives us one of Japanese beefs, Hida beef. Hida is an area name, which is a mountain area in Japan. So, the cows living in the area must have not only a strong muscle but also great oil in it to protect their body from the coldness. So, the taste is great! It's very juicy.
When I worked in Ebina city before, I sometimes went to the restaurant with my co-workers.
But, now I am working in another city. Five years had passed since I went there last time.

An old woman who was an owner of the restaurant was working there before.
And, when I went there recently, she was still working there.
I didn't think she remembered me, but she actually remembered me. She said soon, "Long time no see! How are you? You looks more matured than before. Do you married?" Machine-gun asking. But it's ok. And, she talked a little about the last conversation between us. It was five years ago! Amazing. When I talked with her, I was surprised at her memory.

When I was eating the good beef there, I was a little nostalgic.
I have eaten Yakiniku many times. I can eat Yakiniku anywhere, anytime. But, the taste at the night was memorial. Maybe, our purpose of eating and drinking is to make a memory.

VS Computing Reviews

I had an business meeting with an American publisher, in Tokyo.
I always talk with foreign friends in English, but I don't have a business conversation in English so much. Thus, the meeting was very taugh for me.
"The pricing policy of this commodity should be...."
"This general agreement means....."
"I think the most useful advertisement is...."

Too serious.
It was very difficult for me to catch up with these themes in English!
Actually, I lost the points we discuss many times. I needed the help of translater in fact.

In addition, the publication was also the difficult one.
It was a journal for computer science. The title is Computing Reviews.
I heard the journal is very popular in America and some Asian countries.
(Of course, the readers are only scientists and engineers.)
The publisher came to Japan, to make the journal popular in Japan.

To be honest, it is a difficult thing to sell English computer books in Japan.
Because, a lot of Japanese computer books are published now. And, English books are translated into Japanese soon. So, nobody have to read difficult English computer books here.

However, the publisher was a nice guy. I heve to help his business.
After the meeting, we went for a drink.
His visit of Tokyo this time was second times, but he didn't know about Japan at all. So, I took him to a typical Japanese Izakaya, and ordered many foods unfamilier for him. Raw horse meat, Milt, Angler's liver and so on. And, of course, I ordered Japanese Sake a lot, for him, and for me. He seemed to be happier and happier during drinking.

His wife is Greek. I asked him why Greek? He said,"Greek is a cosmopolitan." I see, I see. Also is Turkey. They are the place where West and East meets. All romantist love Greek and Turkey. I thought our preference was very similar. My responsibility of helping him bacame bigger.

I think he had an appointment with a customer next early morning. But, we drunk a lot at the night.
I am not sure that he could get up the day. If he prefered sleepning more to getting up then, he could be a real romantist.

VS British Bar

I went to a british style bar in Machida.
The name is Trafalgar. It is located on a basement on a narrow street.
I heard from the owner that the bar was open two yaers ago, but I didn't know it though I went to Machida everyday to go to my office.
The place was a Cajun food restaurant before. The restaurant was managed by an American owner and the food was so great, but it was closed a few years ago. So, I didn't go to the area where the British bar is located.

The bar offers us real ale. I enjoyed some beer which I've never tasted. One beer was very fruity. Another was very heavy. I saw that the Guiness in the bar was poured by a hand pomp. I heard that it is the authentic way to pour Guiness beer. It makes good creamy bubbles. But, most bar use a microwave to make bubbles.

I like good foods, so I don't eat typical bar food so much, for example Fish and Chips. But, I know TPO (Time, Place, Oppotunity) is important. In this kind of an authentic bar, we have the duty to eat authentic bar foods. So, of course I ordered oily Fish and Chips. Although water and oil can't mix together, beer and oil become a great mixture. It is amazing.

This bar gives us not only british beer but also Japanese local beer. Next time, I will try a beer made in Ngaano. The name is Yona Yona Ale. The meaning could be "the beer for every night". Sounds attractive.

VS Calligraphy

When I was a child, I learned Calligraphy a little, just a day. It was too boring for me. I gave up learning it soon. I couldn't understand the interesting point of just writing letters. Actually, when I was an elementary school student, I used a pencil and a notebook, so I wrote something very much in a class. No more writing was my feeling. So, I couldn't have an interest in Calligraphy then. But, recently I don't use a pen or a pencil. I don't write with them so much. I use a computer and put keys to write something.

I become interested in hand-writing or Calligraphy recently. Maybe it is a reaction of using computer too much for writing. But, anyway, I become to like a beautiful hand-writing. So, I went to Tokyo national Museum, to watch Calligraphy exhibition.

I went to the museum before noon on Sunday. The exhibition shows us a lot of Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy. It was very interesting to compare Chinese writing style and Japanese. Both countries use Kanji character. But, Japanese simplified some of Kanji to make their own character; Hiragana. It looks very soft. So, Japanese Calligraphy looks softer than Chinese.
We can know the historical change of writing in the exhibition. I din't think there are many veriations of writing letters before watching the exhibition. But, Each written letters have an unique character.

To understand Calligraphy, we can't forget the name of Wang Xizhi.
He lived in 7c or 8c. He was a big name in Calligraphy, like Pere in soccer. He established the art of writing letters. Even now, many people study Calligraphy by watching his works.
In the exhibition, a lot of his works were exhibited.
One of my purpose of coming to the museum was to watch them, but too many people were there!
I didn't think so many people come there.
Before noon on Sunday! Why don't they sleep until noon? Which is better, just watching letters written by somebody or sleeping in a comfortable bed till noon? The answer is obvious.
But, many people came to the museum and they stopped in front of the works of Wang Xizhi for a long time. I pushed softly the people in front of me. I jumped among a lot of people. However, I couldn't watch his works enough. Too bad!

This exhibition will move from Tokyo to Shanghai this spring. I heard that the people in Shanghai are interested in these great works too.

VS Earthquake

My long trip to my home was finished. Tonight, Earthquake occured around Tokyo. Therefore all JR trains stopped for a long time tonight. When the earthquake occuerd, I was in my office and ate a conveinence store food for dinner alone. It was a shit dinner.

I didn't think the earthquake was big. But certainly, the shaking time might be long.
After finishing a long shit work, I went to a station and knew all train didn't work!

However, another train company didn't have any problem.
So, I changed my route. I used another line and I could go home fortunately.
But it took more time to go home.

Why is JR train so weak? I can't understand.
After I went home, I knew the magnitude was 4. It was a middle class earthquake.
I happened to see my friend in a station. He told me that JR was so safety that it could stop soon.
Tolerant mind is beautiful.

VS Hostess

January is the baddest month for bars and restaurants in Japan.
Because most people used much money for drinking in December, we think January should be the cheaper month. So, we don't go for drinking so much.

But, if others pay money for drinking, we don't have the reason to avoid the oppotunity of drinking. Especially if our company pays money, drinking is the right an duty of labourer.
I went to drink with my customers recently. It must be a WORK. So, of course, I don't pay money at all.

We went to Yokohama. I didn't know a good drinking place there, but my customers knew very much. I followed them. In general, when drinking with customers, I should be a host. So, I have to arrange the time, place and everything for drinking. But, this time was opposite. It was a rare case.
We went to a new izakaya, and enjoyed good raw fish and a lot of Japanese Sake.

After a while, we became drunk.
One of my customer started to say " To be honest, your company's price is expensive!"
I was also drunk.
"No, you are getting good service."
Price or Service is a subjective matter. So, we can't reach complete conclusion at all.
Our argument was just a chat.

On 1st izakaya stage, my customers paid money. This was a rare and rare case.
I had to invite them to a next stage. But, as I wrote above, I didn't know a good place in Yokohama. So again, my customers took me another place.

The place was an old-style small bar. We call such a place "Snack", in Japan.
There were four hostesses there. They served us for drinking.
Their average age was perhaps over fifty. The head hostess must be over sixty. As you can imagine, the place was very classical and antique.
My cutomer had kept his own whisky bottole. We drunk his whisky. It meaned our drinking cost was almost zero. We enjoyed Karaoke in the Snack. I had to sing old Japanese songs, because the audiences were not young.

I could enjoy this drinking time, but this was also a WORK. So, I shouldn't be treated by my customers. Thus, I ordered another new whisky bottole for them. Of courese, I payed it. (Correctly, my company payed it.)
The price was 30,000 yen!
I knew the net price is under 3,000 yen. I was very suprised. However, I couldn't have cancel my order.

Maybe, most people might think why we drink in such an expensive place? I think so too, and I don't usually come to this kind of place.
This kind of place is a community for the people with power.
In fact, some customer I met in the Snack were company's presidents. They don't like a cheap and noisy drinking place for young people. I can understand matured hostesses are good for them.

I think this drinking was an impressive experience for me.
Now I can't forget the sixty-years-old head hostess with a sparkling red shirt.

VS Laffy Taffy

Laffy Taffy is a famous American candy.
(See: http://www.hometownfavorites.com/laffy-taffy.htm)
I got it as a suvenier from America by Lance. Before his going back to America during his holidays, I requested him to buy typical American sweets, which is very very sweet.

Laffy Taffy is not strongly sweet. But, once I eat it, it is difficult to stop it. Today, I'm enjoying it with "Mt.Fuji" whisky, which is very strong, 50% degree.
Laffy Taffy has some tastes. I love Banana taste. It's fitted to whisky very much.

American feels nostalgic to eat it? I, Japanese, can't. But, The taste is enough to remind me of my childhood. Maybe, the sweets like Laffy Taffy are not healthy. However, children don't usually take care of their health. So, unhealthy foods are the symbol of youth. When I look at the sparkring yellow colour of Banana taste Laffy Taffy, I can go back to my childhood days.

Two jokes are written on the package of Laffy Taffy.
They are Q&A style.

Q:WHAT IS A CAT'S FAVORITE COLOR?

A:"PURR-PLE."

Q:WHAT IS A BUNNY'S MOTTO?

A:"DON'T FROWN. BE HOPPY"

Q:WHAT DID THE NOODLES SAY TO THE BUTTER?

A:"DON'T TRY AND BUTTER ME UP."

Q:WHAT DO YOU CALL TWIN BROTHERS?

A:"A SUNSET."


Mmm, I can't get laughing points. They are jokes for kids.
My English level might not reach kid's level. I have to study more.

VS Mt.Fuji

I've ever climbed Mt.Fuji twice. It was too taugh work.
I don't know the reason, but Japanese loves Mt.Fuji.
My climbing was only in summer season. It is good for ameteur climbers. Because, when the bottom of the mountain is is summer, the top is in winter. The temperature of the top is under zero.
Thus, in winter season, only professional climber can climb the mountain.

Cimbing Mt.Fuji is not difficult. We don't need a special technique to climb it. It is like walking on a long slope. But, the slope is long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long and looooooooooong. Honestly I don't want to climb it more.

However, if you've never climbed Mt.Fuji, I recomend yu to climb it.
Maybe night time climbing is better, because you can watch the sun rise from the top of the mountain. It is very beautiful.
When I climbed it, fortunately everytime the weather was good and the view from the top was very clear. Even though I said "I don't want to climb it more.", I will challange to climb it again this year. Why? Mmm, I don't know.

Recently I am drinking a whisky, which name is "Mt.Fuji". It is 50% degree. It's too strong! But it becomes popular now in Japan.
In Japan, today is the holiday for the people becoming an adult, 20 years old. I want to recomend new adults to drink this top level alcohol. It is very bitter.

VS Shrine

I spent my new year holidays in my home town, Kyoto.
As many Japanese people do so, I ate Ozouni, a kind of stew, on the first morning in this year.
After that, I went to a shrine with my friend.

Going to Shrine sometimes becomes controversy, but It is a traditional work for a new year in Japan. Actually, for most people including me, it has not strong religious meaning. It is just for enjoying a new year's atomosphere.
Fortunately for me, there are a lot of shrines in Kyoto. So, I can go to some shrines easily. I went to the closest shrine from my house. The place was very crowded. I and my friend tried to reach the shrine, but we gave up soon. If we were more religious men, we couldn't gave up reaching it.

However, I donated a small money for the shrine later. The money was very very small, but my friend couldn't understand why I donated money, because I am not religious. My aim was only for preserveing a historical heritage. So, I paid 10 yen for the shrine.

Near the shrine, we drunk Ama-Sake. It is an old-style hot Sake, which is mede of Sake, suger, ginger and water. I tried it then for the first time. To be honest, the taste was shit! I couldn't finish a glass at that time. But, Ama-Sake is very popular in the place like Shrine, and many people drink it. I hope I can get fortune by drinking it.

This year, I can get 10 days holidays because I've worked for my company for 10 years.
It's a long time. I am surprised at it. This year's biggest mission for me is to use the holidays effeciently.