VS Yokohama Stadium

The game arrangement of professional baseball changed a little in Japan last year. Japan has two diffrent leagues, and the games were basically produced in a same league. The team A belonging to the league X didn't fight against the team B belonging to the league Y. But, from last year, A vs B has been possible in the early summer season. We can watch more varieties of games now.

So, I went to Yokohama Stadium yesterday, to watch the game, Softbank howks vs Yokohama baysters. To be honest, I am not the fan of both teams, but I could enjoy the game very much. I sat on the seat of Softbank side. Unfortunately the day was not for Softbank. The picher of Yokohama was good the day, so Softbank couldn't get scores at all.
Even though our side couldn't have the chance to win the game, the fans had been excited through the game.
Japanese baseball fans are funny. Some of them don't watch the game. They are very busy for singing songs for each players, and dancing on their seats. Compared with Major league, the fan's watching style is very diffrent. I had thought Major league style was good for a long time, but yesterday I thought Japanese style is also okey. For loseing team's fans, the existence of another excitement is very good.

The location of Yokohama stadium is good. There is China town near it. The old-modern bars around Kannai station closest to the stadium are nice. In additon, the open-air stadium is very comfortable. Now, most stadiums in Japan are Dome-type. They are actually convenient even in a rainy day, but we can't watch the sky and feel breeze. I could find again the goodness of the old style stadium yesterday.

VS Human Death

Although I had many happy things recently in my daily life, I write down an unhappy thing here. Because it was the most impressive thing for me last week.

A man I know a little committed suicide in his company midnight. Before his death, he emailed his colleagues to apologize to them, because his sudden death would make them shocked.
One of his colleagues reported soon the email to his boss. The boss went to the company soon midnight with the man's family, to search for him.
The man was found by the boss in a warehouse at 3:30 am. He hanged himself in the cold place.
Soon after that, the police came to the place, and checked the hanged body for a while. To check it carefully, anyone couldn't move it. So, the body had to be hanged for a while even after it was found out.
While the police was checking it, the dead man's family stayed in a room far from the warehouse. Because it must be very shocking for the family to watch the man hanged. But, the boss who found the body was beside the police to check it together.

I heard that the dead man had a mental illness. It might be the reason why he commited suicide, but nobody know the real reason of his death. Some said that his bad working position killed him, and his suicide in his working place meaned his protest.(Actually his working position was bad. He had nothing to do in his company.) Some said the only one place left for him was his company, so he chose it as his death place.(He seemed to have no friend.) The rumors or interpretions changed, depending on the talkers.

I had the chance to talk with the boss for my business a few days after the incident. I thought he had heavy shock in his mind, before meeting him. But, he told me that he was not shocked even though the incident was a very sad thing.
He said to me, "A person will die someday. So, we have to think about human's death anytime. It must be sad for a person to commit suicide, but it is his/her choice. Before the suicide, he/she must think about it seriously. So, the only thing we can do is to respect and accept his/her decision. Don't you think so?"

When facing a human death, we tend to ask why? But the boss didn't care for it. He thinks the asking is meaningless. For me, his thinking was very impressive.
Afetr talking about his death for a while, we started to talk about our business soon.
Some might think the boss's thinking is cold. But I didn't. He told me that, when he found the body, he wouldn't scared with it. Watching the dead man's face, he thought the man looked relieved from something.
His impression might be too beautiful, without thinking about the dead man's mental crisis. But it's not my point to agree and disagree with him. The most impressive thing for me was that he always prepares for human death including his own death. Because I think I wouldn't die, his viewpoint of death and live was unique for me.

VS Science Fiction

At the end of this August, the world-wide biggest Science Fiction convention, Worldcon, is going to be held in Yokohama.
This convention has a long history in SF fan's community. The first one was held in New York in 1939. This year's one is 65th.
In the history, all conventions had been held in USA or Europe. This summer's one in Yokohama is the first time in Japan, and in Asia. Some Japanese SF lovers had invited the convention to Japan for a long time, and the dream will become true. That's why, it will be a very memorial one. Japanese SF fans must be excited in this summer.

My company is planning to have a booth in the convention, cooporating with some publishers. Maybe, we will try to introduce many Japanese SF works (for example, novels, mangas, movies and so on.) to foreigners coming to join the convention. I am looking forward to it.
Japanese SF is not famous in the world because of the language barrier, but I think the quality is not low. So, I think it is a meaningful job to join the convention, and to display great works of Japanese SF for the people who don't know them.

From my junior high school days to my high school days, I loved to read SF novels very much.
SF is a wide category. Some think Fantasy like Harry Potter series is SF. Some think Space Opera like Star Wars is SF. For me, Hard SF was real SF. It was like a science book. The detail of the description in such a book is very realistic, but not real in fact. Star Treck series on TV might be a good example to explain my preference. The logic or discription of space travel in the work was of course a lie, but looked realistic. Great SF has a great lie, and we know it must be a lie, but we can believe it might be true. Or, we are willing to be cheated. What the truth is isn't a problem. The problem is what we can think is the truth. I learned the important philosophy of our life from SF.

Many novelists, movie producers and artists will join the convention. So, it is cultural and academic to some extent. But, I am guessing the convention will be like Halloween party. SF fans must like to wear very maniac costumes. I think thier mentality is similar to manga or animation freaks. So, many people will come to the convention in strange wears. I have to find a cool costume for the party.
The costume of Super Justice in "Dai Nipponjin" might be a good idea. (What's Super Justice? To know it, please watch the starange movie. It's unfortune it has no English subtitle, though...)

VS Dai Nipponjin

Caution! The writing below is related to a new movie now on screen. If you will go to watch it, please read this blog after that. I don't want to give you any bias for the movie.

* * * * * * *

I went to watch the new movie, Dai Nipponjin (Big Japanese), directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japanese famous comedian. This work is his first movie. I was looking forward to it.
This movie didn't give us the advertisement. So, we couldn't get any information about it until it comes to the screen. Thus, our expectation became big.

It's difficult to say the genre of this work, but it is a kind of Hero movie. The image of Hero in this movie is very diffrent from our typical image, though.
This movie is filled with the Hitoshi Matsumoto's worship or respect for Hero character. It might be close to Taratino's maniac perspective. But, the expression style is utterly diffrent. Hitoshi Matsumoto's backborn is not movie but TV comedy. He prefers very cheap expressin very much.
So, watching this movie in a theater, everybody must think they are in front of television in their house.

The best part of this movie is conversation. The nuance of the conversation is great. To understand it, we have to master Japanese language. Fortunately I've already mastered it, so I could enjoy the conversation in this movie very mush. Some parts are very abstract and summarized too much. Even Japanese can't explain the exact meaning, but can laugh at it. Language is very interesting.

Like all jokes in the world, we have to have cultural resources to understand many laughing points in this movie. A lot of old Japanese comedy jokes are inserted into this movie. Many jokes look to have a special meanings in this movie, but they don't have it at all. But, we naturally think they mean something special. The tactics of Hitoshi Matsumoto is very magical.

But, to be honest, I think this movie is incomplete. Its basic idea is very good and interesting. But, the story is not organized well enough. I think this movie can be shorter. If it is more compact, it could be a greater work. When I finished watching it, the reaction of other audiences were disapointment. The lady next to me said "I'm sleepy."
I was not sleepy, but I could understand her feeling.

However, this movie is certainly very challanging. It has a great impact on the method of expression in movies. I think the blood of Japanese comedy was mixed with the world movie, in this work. So, I am looking forward to watching a second work by Hitoshi Matsumoto soon.

VS Under Construction

Typhoon season is coming in Japan. Two typhoons had already been born this month around Japan. They were weak, and their life time were short, but they had great power certainly. So, they could make good waves on the sea. I think you can understand why all surfers are looking forward to the typhoon season.

Now the water tenparature on the sea is very comfortable. On Enoshima beach, there are many people coming to swim or to get suntan. Of course, a lot of surfers are there too.
We can find many surf-school students there now. The sea is filled with a lot of surfing biginners now. Needless to say, their surfing is terrible. Even keeping their balance on the surf board might be very difficult for them. I was so too. Surf instructer is pushing the tail of the surf-board of the students, because they can't paddle well enough. Then they try to stand up on the board, but they drop into the water soon. And, they try again. The loop of push-stand-drop looks endless. However, they look happy. So, I think they will not give up surfing, like me.

On Enoshima beach, now, the rest houses on the beach (uminoie) are under construction. From July 1st, the beach will be open for the people coming to swim.
Of course, even now, the beach is open for them. But, the beach is used mainly for surfers. It's uncomfortable and dangerous for them. So, from July 1st to August 31th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the beach is monopolized by normal swimmers. Surfer's activity is limited.
The rest houses are for the monopolizing swimmers. They searve food, drink and the rest space. Some houses are open for 24 hours. They are used like dance halls! Enoshima beach is unsleeping in summer.

VS Golden Town

There is an area called Golden Town in Kabuki-cho 1 chome, Shinjyuku. The town is the area for drinking people. I went there last week.
There are over 150 bars in the area. All bars are very small. The average size is about 10 square meters. Each ones have 7 or 8 sheets only. They look very private places.

Golden Town has a long history. After the world war II, the area became a black market governed by Yakuza, Japanese mafia. But, some people started bars around there, and they became popular. And, soon the number of bars incresed very much. Then the area became the biggest drinking area in Tokyo.

A lot of novelists, journalists, poets, publishers, social activists and artists loved the area's atomosphere. So, the area became not only a drinking spot but also a kind of cultural place. I think, my company made the biggest bookstore then in Shinjyuku, for the area's cultural power. Actually the first president of Kinokuniya was a famous regular customer in Golden Town.

I went to a bar managed by a middle-age lady. I heard from others that she was an actress of pink movies. Without asking for my order, she searved soon whisky with water for me. And, without asking, she searved a small vegetable food for me. Perhaps, it is not cool there to order something there. Only I could do was to follow her searve.
When I and my colleagues drunk there, a drama directer came. He seemed to be a regular customer. I gave him my seat to him because I was a visiter. The local has priority. It's a sufer's rule, so I used the rule in the bar at the time.

Basically Golden Town is an old-fashioned place. So, it is for old men. But, recently, young people seem to start to work there. The nostalgic and unique atomosphere would give any impressions to them.

VS Head Office in Shinjyuku

Yesterday I went to the head office of Aeon, in Shinjyuku, to join a class for Kids-English teacher. It was my first time to visit there. From here, all schools of Aeon in Kanto area are governed strictly or loosely. I was a little excited before visiting.
Outside of the exit of Nishi-Shinjyuku station on Marunouchi line, Aeon staff waited for students. They had a sign to show the direction to the head office. I could go to the office smoothly by them. The office is in a big building. Family Mart is the landmark of the entrance of it. I bought Evian there.
Aeon head office is located on 16th floor of the buliding. It was more gorgeous than I expected. At the entrance of the floor, beautiful staffs waited for us, and checked our name and class. I was introduced to a big room next to their office room.
Before my class, I checked the toilet of the floor. I know the level of the toilet equals the level of the company. The company with a beautiful toilet must be beautiful. The company with an old toilet must be old-fashioned.
The toilet of Aeon head office is very gorgeous, clean and relaxing.
It has the wood-based wall, personal rockers and a wide window. Of course, it has enough toilet papers and a washing-machine in each rooms for a big size.

I wanted to check the gorgeous lunch box which Aeon staffs eat regularly, but I couldn't on the day. And, I didn't check 19th floor where there is a big textbook factory. Many new textbooks are developed there everyday. Zac did it before. We wouldn't or couldn't forget him forever.

The class for Kids English was good as usual. The teacher, Kaoru.T, was professional. I think Kids English is a kind of science, and a hard physical work! At the end of three-hours class, the teacher Kaoru.T looked to be almost dying, but she had kept smiling. Smiling is most important to kids. She was professional.
Next month, I will visit there again. I think I can study Aeon's managing system more then.

VS The Origin of 20 years old

"To be alone, and to be immatured, it is my origin of twenty years old." With this impressive sentence, the book with the same titile of this article starts.
This book was published 35 years ago in Japan, and prented again many times. But, it is now out-of-print.
The author is Etsuko Takano. She wrote the book when she was 20 years old. To be precise, she didn't write the book in order to publish it. It was a kind of diary for herself. She wrote down her thinking on a notebook. After her death (She committed a suicide.), her diary-like notebook was found out by her family, and published later.

She lived in the eara of Student Power.
Student Power... This word might be a dead word, so I should write the meaning. In 60's and 70's, the students all over the world had political power, or were seen have the power. They were very critical about their government and society. Vietnam war was a simbolic incident they should criticize at that time.
Student Power means the social movement lead especially by unversity students. Etsuko Takano spent her unversity days in the atomosphere.
She was not a political woman at first. But, she began to commit a political movement soon when she became 20 years old. The notebook was the document of her thinking in the movement.

She was influenced by political activists, but I don't think she was biased. She was very honest to herself. Soon after she wrote her political opinion in her notebook, she understood her bias and wrote down the possibility of her misunderstanding on it. So, she wrote that she was immatured. I like her stance.
Even though she committed a political movement, she was not a strong woman. Under the big pressure of politics, she committed a suicide. Maybe it is difficult for us to understand the reason of her suicide. Because for us, politics is the inncident on TV, not in our real life.

Now, my company is planning to reprint and sell out-of-print books. I recommend "The Origin of Twenty Years Old" to my company. I get tired of too many boring publications in Japan. I think this book is worth to reprint. I don't know it can be sold very much, though.....

VS Knock Forever

In this golden week, Knock Yokoyama was dead. He was a comedian and a politician, especially popular in the western Japan. It just happen I spent my golden week holidays there. So, I could watch the news on TV many times.
Even for Japanese living in the eastern Japan, he was famous. But, I think, for them, he was jsut one of many popular comedians on TV. It was same for the western Japanese. However, the position of comedians in a society is a little diffrent there.
For the western Japanese, TV comedians are sometimes our relatives. Sometimes, they are our friends, teachers or students. In short, the distance between TV comedians and other people is close.
So, the news of Knock's death was more shocking for the western people.
Unfortunately we couldn't watch him on TV recently. Because, when he was a president of Osaka prefecture eight years ago, he made a sexual harassment to a woman and had to quit his job. After that, he couldn't have the chance to come back on TV at all. Osaka people wouldn't forgive him. Because the relationship with comedians is close, the people would have not forget his crime soon. I think, if the same kind of thing happened in Tokyo, the comedian can come back on TV earlier than Knock.
Other comedians say Knock was shining among comedians' community. It was not only because of his bold head but also his personality. We don't forget Knock forever.

VS Publishing in Japan

The book titles below was the most sold ten books in Jpan in 2006. As a book-salesman, I have to check the trend of Japanese publishing world.

1. Kokka no hinkaku, (The dingnity of the nation)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Tokyo tawaa okan to boku to, tokidoki, oton, (Tokyo Tower, me and my mom, and sometimes my dad)
4. Enpitsu de oku no hosomichi,("Oku no hosomichi" traced with a pencil)
5. Byooki no naranai iki-kata,(How to live without becoming ill)
6. Oide yo doubutsu no mori. Kanpeki gaidobukku,(The complete guidebook for "Come in to the forest of the animals")
7. Hito wa mita me ga 9 wari,(The 90% of information conveyed without using words)
8. Shin ningen kakumei,(The human revolution, 2nd series, Vol.15 an 16)
9. Ko-sodate happii adobaisu(1)(2)(3),(Three volumes of advice on how to bring children up happily)
10. Kagami no housoku. Jinsei no donna mondai mo kaiketsu suru mahou no ruuru,(The rules of the mirror. Magic rules for solving any problems at all in human life)

No.1 is the book for Japanese national identity. Shit.
No.2 is a too long story. No.3 is the novel for Tokyo people. Unfortunately I'm Kyoto people. No.4 is not a book but a notebook. No.5 is none of you business. No.6 is a guidebook for a game. Shit. No.7 is the book for biasist. No.8 is for religious people. No.9 is for mothers. No.10 is for the people who can't think about their life for themselves.

All books are out of my interest. Therefore I've never read all these books.
I can be a good book-salesman?

VS Tissue Paper

After Aeon discussion class, in front of Hon-Atsugi station, I watched Aeon staff gave passangers the tissue paper with the advertisment of the school. I didn't have to get the school information because I am its student, but I wanted to get a tissue paper, so I came close to the staff and I got it.
The advertisement said "20% off, Until today."
I was excited a little even though I didn't know what is 20% off. Actually this tissue paper advertisement system has magical power.

When I got the tissue, I was completely free. I didn't have any plan at the moment. So, I continued to watch her working.
I didn't have any idea of the tissue giving job. Usually except for hey fever season, I don't get such a tissue on a street. So, I didn't know who get the tissue, what the technique of the job is and how hard the job is.
Standing next to the staff, I realised that old men and women got the tissue easily. Young persons ignore the tissue offer more, but old people don't refuse the offer.
In addition, some old people came close to the staff, and asked her to give them the tissue.
An old woman, who realised the tissue was the advertisement of English conversation school, started to talk about her son working in America for five years. He seemed to tell her to come to and live in America someday.
"Do you think the old woman like me can study English?"
She asked me. She seemed to think I was the school staff.
"Of course, Madame. It's no problem."
I answered with smile.

My answer didn't have any knowledge for old people's study, and my smile could include a natual reaction and intension of salesman. However, I don't think it was a problem. If she can trust her own possibility by my answer, it's ok. If she will decide to study English someday, I hope 20% discount extend until the day.

VS First Pay Day

April is the first month of a fiscal year in Japanese companies. Many new things start. New works start. New people start to work.
For booksales, this season is a textbook-sales season. As well as Japanese companies, the schools in Japan start a new educational year in April. So, all students need new textbooks. It's a big business for me. I am busy now.

New workers (a man and a woman) came to my office this month. I and other old staffs have to teach them many things. They don't know the system, the rules, the common sense or the way to live in a company world. The world has many interseting points and many boring points. If they will know only boring things before finding out intersting ones, they would quit and change their job soon. Actually, recently in Japan, around 33% of new workers quit the job within 3 years. It's very bad, at least in Japan. Nobody want such a situation. Everybody want young people to stay longer in their working place.

What kind of working place is comfortable for young Japanese? Recently I read an intersting survay in a newspaper.
Veteran workers think young people want to work free, as they like. So, the veteran don't say anything to the young.
But, from the survay, working free is not so much prefered by the young workers. What do they want?
The young workers want them to be taught very kindly by the veterans.
"Do it as you like." seems to be a bad order. "Do it as I explain how to do." seems to be requested by Japanese young workers.

Yesterday was my company's pay day. For new workers, it was their first pay day. I talked to them, "First pay day will not come again. So, this day must be something memorial. So, you have to eat something memorial. Now, you have two choices. Good fish or good beef. Which?"
They looked to undertand what I said.
Female worker's answer was "Beef." Male worker's answer was "I follow her." That's why we went to a good korean yakiniku restaurant. We ate top three expensive meats on the restaurant's menu. The meats' quality was very nice.
Maybe, the memory of the good yakiniku will be left in their mind for a long time. The bill was also memorial.

VS Enforcement

Don't push me, Mike. I need 15 days to think about and write political issues here..........

Now Japanese Government seems to be very sencitive to the word, "Enforcement". Two recent issues related to the perspective of historical facts have us know it.

The first issue is the one which Chinese people, Korean people and American Congress are interested in. The sexual slave in World War II is it.
Some Japanese politcians including the prime minister Abe denied recently that Japanese army and government "enforced" Asian women to be sex workers to Japanese soldiers during World War II.
This opinion made the people above be surprised at it and get angry with it.
But, in Japan, I think most people weren't surprised at it.
It doesn't mean they agree with the opinion. It means they are accustomed to listen to it.

The politicians don't say there were not sex workers to Japanese soldiers. They say Japanese army didn't enforce Chinese and Korean women to do it. What's their point?
They think about this issue like this:
Japanese army invaded the cities in China and Korea. In the cities, there had already been sex workers. They worked originally in their country. Japanese army hired them, and gave sexual services to the soldiers. In short, it was business, not enforcement.
They ask, "Are there any documents to certify the enforcement of Japanese army or government? I know the answer. The answer is Not."

Document. It's the key word.
Their asking is right to some extent.
For historical facts, the existence of documents is important.
In order to understand historical facts, historicians value the documents written soon when the facts happened.

An incident happend one day.(For example, A farmer met Alien.) The article for the fact in newspaper is very important for historical study.(A young farmer in Idaho could contact Alien this morning.) The diary for it written by somebody is also important. (Gash! Tommy was talking with Alien in his farm today. He is heavy!)
Alien's official report is very important.( Project code 1988. Mission: To calculate the farming ability of Earth people. Result: They can make only potatos.)
But, the importance of the book written later about the incidents is seen less. (In this summer, I had a trip for U.S. I met the person who said he had seen Alien in his childhood. He told me that they came to the earth to steal his potatos.)

Historicians think a historical fact or story will change gradually after it happens, depending on the talkers for the fact. So, they value the document written soon when the fact happened.
In this case of sex workers or slaves to Japanese soldiers, there are not this kind of documents. There are just testimonies given by the old women who were sexual slaves during the war, but the value of thier confession is seen low from the view point of historical studies. That's why some Japanese politicians deny the issue even though many people in the world get angry to them.

Testimony. It's the next key word.
It's really valueless? It is always the wrong description different from the real fact, like that Tommy explained Alien's purpose wrong?
There is the place that people value testimony very much. It's the Court.

Most criminals wouldn't make official documents to commit a crime. From the testimony by Tommy, we can know the Alien stealed( or, at least tried to steal) his potatos. But, from the official document written by the Alien, we can't know the fact. To judge this crime, we have to depend on the testimonies by the related people. It is clear that no document doesn't mean no crime.

Back to the sexual slaves problem, we can know the two diffrent viewpoint of the problem. Oviously, Japanese government sees it the problem of Historical Studies. But, Korean, Chinese and American Congress see it the problem of War Crime.
For Japanese government, the opinion of K, C and AC might be too emotional and not logical. But, for Korean, Chinese and American Congress, J's thinking might be cold, too self-defensive or foolish.

In addition to this issue, Japanese government recently erased a description in the textbooks of Japanese history: Japanese government and army enforced the people in Okinawa to commit suicide in the case that they couldn't fight against US army.
Actually, many Okinawa people committed suicide before they were captured by US army. We can know the same kind of story from the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima".
But, Japanese government says that it is not clear whether there was such an enforcement or an order by the government during the war. So, they erase such a discription in textbooks.
For this issue, the value of documents and testimonies are key words again.

In this article, I tried to show the point of the historical and political issues in Japan. Historical Study vs War Crime is the key point.
If I say my opinion, I think the viewpoint of Historical Study is more important. Because the things in the war are just histroy for me. However, over 60 years has passed after the war. If Japanese government thinks Historical Study is important, they should have studied it more earlier.
To be honest, I think they were not interested in these issues for a long time after the war.
So, I think the person over 60 years old can't have the right to insist on the viewpoint of Historical Study.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the prime minister Abe is under 60 years old. He might have the right to say his own opinion for history free. But he has a big problem. His talking is boring. That's why I want to recommend him not to use his right.

VS Leah Dizon

Now I'm writing this blog excited. Today I went to Leah Dizon's first memorial historical great super live in Roppongi. Maybe because my behaiver is good everyday, I could get the very rare ticket which the only limited people can get.

As you know (if you are Japanese.), she is becoming popular in Japan now. She started with a gravier model, and now she is a singer. She released her first songs recently. So, we can sometimes watch her singing on TV.
However, when it comes to me, I've never watched her on TV because I have only a broken television. So, the live was my first time to watch moving and singing Leah Dizon.

The live space was surrounded by a kind of enthusiasm.
It was her first live. Nobody had never watched her live.
I think it is very easy for you to understand the very special situtation. Everybody looked excited.
Especially, the girl sitting next to my seat looked very excited. Before the live, she looked not to wait for Leah's coming in front of us.

Then, at last, her live started with her new song.
My first impression was this.
"Gash. She is moving."
All audiences seemed to look at her moving and singing very carefully. We wouldn't miss anything in front of us in the live.
The girl next to me had repeated "Kawaii, Kawaii" many times. I agree with her. I also repeated it in my mind.

After some songs and her talk, the lot corner started.
Only five audieces could get the chance to take pictures with Leah Dizon on the stage.
Don't be surprised. I got it.

Again. I got it.
My seat number was called, and I was ordered to come to the stage.
If I express the feeling at the moment by one word, it was "guilty". Of courese I was very happy at the moment, but I knew the girl next to me was a super fan, so I couldn't look at the girl at the moment.
But, anyway, I was on the stage, very close to Leah Dizon. I could get a picture with her, and shaked hands with her.
I was required to say a comment on the stage, but I couldn't say anything special. At the moment, I was the sandwitch of Guilty and Happiness. There was no comment fitted to my feeling at the moment.

After the live, my friends told me that I finished to use all fortunes in this year. I think so too. But the fortune deserves one year. So, I'm satisfied with it. Cheers.

VS Kojima Usui

Kojima Usui. He was a banker in Meiji period. He worked for a bank all through his life.
But he had other unique aspects. He loved climbing and loved literature. So, he published a magazine to focus on nature writing. In addition, he was a great collecter of art works.
Now we can watch his great collection in Yokohama Museum of Art. I went to the museum with my customer recently.

I didn't know him before going to watch the exhibition. As everyone could do so, I realised soon his scale-wide world when watching the collection. He was interested in many genres of art, so his collection is huge.

At first, he collected a lot of Japanese pictures which went abroad. When he worked for foreign branches of his bank, he bought many Japanese pictures there.
Why did he buy them not in Japan but in foreign countries?
Japanese didn't understand the value of Japanese art at first, so many important Japanese art works were bought by foreigners in Meiji period. It meaned that Japanese lost their own estates.
Kojima Usui was the one of the first Japanese to understand the significance of Japanese art, so he tried to collect them in foreign countries. In the exhibition, we can watch many famous Japanese pictures by Hiroshige, Hokusai and others.

Not only Japanese works but also Westeners' were the target of his collection. Millet, Manet, Hugo, Degas, Renoir, Gogh, Picasso and many others are included. We can watch these big names at the same time in the exhibition. I think it's great.

In addition of these great art works, he collected strange things like advertisements. Maybe in the eara when he lived, people didn't see them art. But, now, from our viewpoints, these strange things look a kind of art.

I had the chance to talk with the professinal in the museum.
He told me that Usui's world was very big, so even for the professionals, it was very difficult to study him fully.
I heard that there are about 900 works in Usui's collection.
But we can watch only 200 works in the exhibition, because the museum doesn't have enough space to show all his collection. If you have a chance, I can recommend you to watch the huge collection in the museum.

VS St.Patrick's day

Now it doesn't deserve to be compared with Christmas day and even with Halloween day, but St.Patrck's day actually and steadily seems to become popular in Japan.
March 17th is the day. Irish people celebrate St.Patrick, who was the first person brought Christianity into Ireland.
I heard that everybody have to drink Irish beer Guiness all through the day on this weekend.

So, I went to Irish pub in Machida last night.
I went to the pub soon after it was open, because I wanted to drink in a happy hour. But, the day was special. All time was a happy hour.
When I went to the pub, there was only one customer drinking beer. But most seats had already been reserved.
And soon the pub became full.
I started with,of course, Guiness. The pub was decorated by green, Irish color, and Celt music sounded there. I don't know why, but a wolf man movie was on the TV screen in the pub. I thought it was fitted to the Irish festival mood.

I could enjoy the day fully, but the only one thing I don't know remains. How does St.Patrick's religious matter relate to the beer drinking? I read the explanation for the day in the pub, but I couldn't get enough information.
In Japan, the new year day has a religious meaning the most. Japanese drink sake in a temple or a shrine. The sake has a religious meaning then. People think it makes us clean.
I don't know Guiness beer has such a meaning, but the relationship of Religion and Alcohol is understandable, and even in the case that they have no relationship, I still continue to drink. Happy St.Patrick's day.

VS Sketch of Conversation

I listened to a very small part of a conversation between two ladies in a train by chance.

"You know? Even though she is a one-year-grade worker, she weared a cardigan today."
"Really?"

I didn't know the context of the conversation.
So, I couldn't understand what it exactly meant.
But, fortunately or unfortunately, I could supplement the lack parts, guess the exact meanig, and think the conversation was understandable or "natural". Because I am Japanese.

If you can understand the conversation easily, you are Japanese or japanised.

VS Okinawa bar

I found a new bar in Atsugi today. The bar name is Froggs. It is an Okinawa-style bar.
I've been to Okinawa a few times. It is a very relaxing place. For me, Okinawa is like a hometown, even though I don't have my relatives there. I can be peaceful there very much.
In the bar, we could drink Orion draft beer.
Orion beer is a popular Okinawa beer, but its draft beer is rare. So, when I drunk it in the bar, I was very surprised.

I ate some Okinawa original food there.
Tofu-yo was one of them.
Tofu-yo sounds like Tofu, but is diffrent.
It is like a cheese and has a strong smell. The taste is salty.
When we eat it, we can use a toothpick.
We don't pick it up with the toothpick. We just dig it a little with the head of the toothpick, and lick it.
As you can easily imagine, it takes a long time to eat Tofu-yo.

We can eat Gurukun, the fish popular and cheap in Okinawa, in the bar. The taste is not special. Honestly speaking, the quality of fish food in Okinawa is low. We can eat better fish foods in other areas in Japan.
However, because Gurukun is related to the memory of my Okinawa trip, it was very happy for me to find the fish in the bar. I've never seen the restaurants to use it around here.

KuuSuu should be drunk. So, I drunk it there.
KuuSuu means an old Sake in Okinawa language.
I don't know how to express the taste. "It is round on my tangue." I hope this explanation works well.
The bar has some types of KuuSuu.

New restaurants and bars are increasing recently in Atsugi.
I thought this city was dying before, but now it is getting alive again.

VS Foreign Settlement

It was strange that I took part in an academic workshop by chance last week. It was the gathering of scholars to study foreign settlements in Asia.
There were a lot of foreign settlements in Asia including Japan. Three big settlements in Japan were Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki.
But, the workshop's interest was not for the study foreign settlements in Japan but for the study of Japanese settlement in Asia, especially in China.
Some particepants are studying it from the view point of China-Japan relationship. Some are interested in it as the case-study of the company management in foreign countries. And, some focus on the culture in the settlements.
Each person had their own interest in the workshop.
When it comes to me, my interset was, needless to say, book-sales. This study is very young. Many books and documents will be published in the future. That's why I joined the workshop, even though I didn't have any knowledge for it. I thought I could get the hint for my business there.

For the people who study foreign settlements in China, Shanghai is a special city. It was the city which had foreign settlements most then. Therefore, Shanghai became very international. And, now a huge amount of documents for the settlements are preserved in Shanghai. So, it is the city easy to study.
In the workshop, it was said that Shanghai is focusd on too much for the easy-study condition, but other cities in China should be studied more. But, because I even didn't know that there were Japanese settlements in Shanghai, I thought the gap between professinals and ordinary people was big
. I think, most Japanese don't know at all where Japanese settlements were in China, except for Manchuria, the country made by Japanese government before the war and located in the northen China. Or, there is the possibility that even Manchuria is forgotten.
A chinese scholar joined the workshop, and he introduced us to some recent studies for foreign settlements in China. He spoke Chinese. He looked like a humorous man, and actually said a joke sometimes. Some participants laughed very much. I could understand it later by translation, but it was bad for me to lose the timing to laugh.
He told us for the universities in China.
From March 5th this year (Tomorrow), the university students in China are going to be oblidged to study official-history written by Chinese government. He studies history and he has his own opinion for history, which is diffrent from the official-history. But, he is oblidged to teach it to his students. He talked about it to us with smile. I couldn't judge at the time whether I should also simle, or not.

The study of history is sometimes difficult. I can be political. It can be emotional. Even in the scholar's workshop, some looked biased for me. But history could be like that.

VS Historical Animation

My company has the division to make visual contents. It made recently a DVD collection for the histroy of animation films in the world. I watched it.
The works are very old, made in 1920's or 30's. For example, Walt Disney's very early works are in the collection. They were the ones before Micky Mouse. Young Disney's works were very different from the ones we know as Disney animation. The most famous one was Alice series, in which a young real girl "Alice" acted with animation characters. Real film and animation were combined.
The works of Max and Dave Fleischer II were also impressive. A character they made are a very famous one. Betty Boop is it. Japanese calls it Betty-chan.
Watching some old mono-tone Betty series, I thought they were certainly unique. Even though the animation was for kids and the stories' themes were adventure, friendship or thriller for instance, the existence of Betty reminds us of sexuality. So, I guess that Betty was very exciting for the kids in early 20 centuries.
Very very early animations in 1910's were also interesting and exciting. The oldest clay animation by Willis O'Brien "Swat the fly" was very short (about 3 minutes) but the impact was strong. It enlarged the possibility of expression in animation. And, he made many films of prehistorical story, especially about dinosaurs. Their moving in his films was very realistic. Therefore, his skill of animation-making created one of the most famous monster character, King Kong later.

I sometimes drew pictures on the rims of a textbook in my school days, and made animations. The works would be historical in the future.

VS View of Enoshima

Last weekend, the view of Enoshima was beautiful.
Even though it was very cold in Japan then, I went to surf there.

Fine day. The sky was blue. Enoshima island was existing peacefully as usual, in front of horizon. We could also look at Mt. Fuji existing far away from the beach.
Far away. But, it's huge. I always misunderstand I can go there soon from there. Of course, impossible. The mountain is covered by snow now. Surfing on the sea with watching a snow mountain. It's funny.

There is an aquarium in Enoshima. It has dolphin shows everyday. I can listen to the music and announcement of the shows on the sea.
For some surf lovers, the loud sound might be noisy. Actually it erases the sound of the wave. It might be destroying the peaceful atomosphere of beach. But, for me, it's ok. For me, it's Enoshima beach.
This beach is always messy. In summer season, a lot of shops are built on the beach. Some are open almost for 24 hours. The access to the beach is very easy, so many people come there. The beach looks like a rush hour train. We can't count the number of people on the beach like the number of sand.
Not only in summer but also winter, many people come there. Some are for dating. Some for fishing. Some for just looking at sea. And, a small portion of some for surfing.
I think Enoshima souldn't be a silent beach. The unique atomosphere colors the beach.

Sometimes, fish jump up from the surface of sea into the air. When I saw it first, I thought they were playing. But, it's not true.
I knew they are fighting each other to keep their territory in the sea. And, the loser jump up into the air to escape.
Last weekend, I watched a lot of jumping fish on the sea. The battle in the sea seemed to be escalated.

I had stayed on the sea for three hours on the day. It was longer than usual. The longer I stayed on the day, the longer I wanted to stay. It might sound masohistic. But, the truth was that the water temparature was warmer than the cold air. That's why I couldn't get away from the sea. Now I realised, I should go to hot spring in this season.

VS Terrorist?

Everytime I get on a plane, I become very nervous. I always guess the possibility of the accident of the plane. How much is the probability of falling down of the airplane? How much is the percentage of my survival possibility in that case? I can't escape from calculating the risk of death before the flight everytime. Besides that, lately, to be worse, I have to think about the case of terrorist's attack of airplane.
That's why I had to be more nervous in this trip.

On my last day in Australia, after I ate dinner in the Sydney airport and drunk beer to be relaxed, I got on an airplane to come back to Japan.
In the airplane, two old male fight attendants and an old female one were working for us. Because I knew the working of old flight attendants didn't mean that the plane was old, I could rely on its safety flight. Even though I could lose the interest in the flight attendants a little, I was totally satisfied with the well-maintained airplane before its flying.
Sitting on my aisle seat, I waited for the flight without anything to do. I checked the movie schedule on the flight and the menu for night food, to kill time. But, suddenly, a young woman asked me to stand up for a few seconds in order to sit on her window seat next to me. I stood up gently soon, and she could sit down there softly. My interset moved naturally from the airplane-inside information to the outside view from the window. I wanted to memorise the beautiful scene of Australia then, even though it was completely dark outside. I could expect for the happening of drama in the flight.

Then, something happened soon.
A flight attendant suddenly started to check a Japanese passanger before flight. His board ticket and passport were checked very carefully, and he seemed to be asked for something. He looked surprised because he couldn't why he was checked.
Everybody near him were looking at him very well, including me. He looked an ordinary man. But, of course, his looking could hide his wrong political or religious thinking. It was clear that he didn't have any weapon at the moment, so if admitted, I could attack and submit him soon at that time, because now he concentlated on the flight attendant but me, so it was very easy for me to punch him from the back-side of him.
However he was seen clean.
Soon after that, another flight attendant came close to the guy next to him, and asked the guy to remove his bag under his seat to a shelf. He obeyed the attendant's suggestion soon, and put his bag up on the self.

I couldn't understand what exactly happened and was the problem then. Anyway, I started to be more nervous after that. I lost the room to glance at and check the window.
The terrorists were still sitting near us. I was not admitted to attack them. It was very natural that my feeling was very uncomfortable.
Soon after the plane taking off, I ordered a flight attendant a bottle of wine. The wine was not special, but I could be enough drunk by it, so I could be relaxed under the dangerous situation. But, of course, I didn't stop checking the suspicious Japanese men during the flight. If I was ordered, soon I could put my heel on their head from the dangerous angle of the buck-side. They would be calebrated by bloody-shower, and become in comma if I did so.
However they seemed to understand their situation. They continued to behave as normal persons till the plane reached Tokyo. That's why I lost the chance to show my diamond-heel-stamp-technique.

I drunk two small bottles of wine in the airplane. So, I could sleep very well. When I got up, I had already been in Japan. The terorrists looked to have a sleep very well, too. The woman next to me also looked to have a good sleep by the help of beer.
Finally my travel finished peacefully. The plane reached Japan, and I went home by bus. Three days travel to Australia was certainly short, but it took more days to go back to my daily routine life in Japan. I might be still dreaming.

VS Cricket

One of the purpose of this trip to Sydney was to watch an international cricket game; Australia vs England.
The game was the first cricket game I watched in my life.

Cricket is one of the sport Japanese are not familier with. I didn't know the rule, the palyer's name and the interesting point of the sport, before the game. I had no idea about it at all.
I tried to know the rule at least, before going to Austlaria. But it was impossible. I went to a bookstore in Japan (it's my company.) to buy a book about Cricket, but there were no Japanese book about it. I even searched for Cricket book in the database of book market, but there were no books I could get. Japanese don't have the chance to know about the sport. It's a shame.

I would have been a strange watcher in the cricket studium.
Australia vs England. The game was the important and high-quality game. I heard that the importance of the game was as same as the one of the world cup of soccer. The level of both countries was very high.
However, I didn't know the rule of the game. Imagine that the person who don't know the soccer rule comes to the game, Brazil vs Italy. The person must be strange.
So, in the studium, I was such a person.

The game started at 1:15 pm.
But I arrived at the studium at 11:00 am. That's why, I waited for the start of the game, with beer and humberger. I was so excited when waiting.
The ground was large and the turf was meintained beautiful.
I thought it's was very comfortable to play the game in such a good field.

At 1:15 pm, the game started with singing both countries' songs. As I imagined before, Cricket was a very strange sport for me. Historically, it seems to be the origine of baseball, but now they are utterly diffrent sports.
I saw cricket the combination of handball, hockey, golf and baseball. ( This must be the incorrect and misleading explanation of the sport. But, I thought so at the time.)

During the game, I sometimes went outside to eat, drink or have a break, because the game was very long! The game started at 1:30, and finished about 10:00. ( Actually, the end of the game was not normal. The game finished for the day's bad weather. So, it could be longer.)
It was very natural that we must sometimes take a rest during watching the game.

The game was often stopped due to the rainy weather. So, I didn't stay in the studium until the end of the game, to escape from traffic jam.
The rain was bad for the game, but would be good for Australia. Because the people in Australia suffer from the lack of water now.

It is often said that cricket is a gentlemen's sport. But, I knew it was not true in the game. Many supporters said to the going-out players "Fuck off! Go home baby!"
I heared that even the players wouldn't behave as gentlemen on the ground. Bad phrases like "You are dixx-hexx!" seemed to fly there. The ground looked very nice, but it was ertainly a battle field.
The players and the supporters were very energetic. For me, it was interesting to watch them, without enough knowledge of the sport.

I bought a cricket ball for official games, and brought it to Japan. It was a good souvenier for myself. Now, my mission is to make this sport more popular in Japan. I think it is fitted to Japanese people.

VS Harbord Beach

No, no, Mike. My dreaming was reality. Surely, indeed, at last, I stood on the soil of Australia again. It was the summer I dreamed of.

I had stayed in Sydney for just three days. This time, my trip was very short, but it was still ok for me to escape from winter for a while. I enjoyed the trip very much.
Ont the first day when I arrived at Sydney airport, I and Peter went to Harbord Beach soon. The reason was, of course, because we had to surf there. As I wrote it before in this blog, the beach is a memorial place, because the first surfer in Australia did surf on the beach. As an representative amature surfer from Japan, I had to respect the beach, so I tried surfing there.

It was cloudy on the day, but the sunshine was still strong. The waves were big and powerful.
It was Saturday's daytime. Many people were there. But, compared with Enoshima beach in Japan, Harbord Beach was not crowded at all. People were enojoying swimming, surfing or banana boating.

When I watch the waves at first, I thought it was easy to catch it. Because basically weak waves are more difficuly to catch, and I am familier with it on Eoshima beach.
But I thought wrong. Actually it was very taugh to surf there.
For me, the pattern of size-up of waves was irregular and random. Besides that, everywhere on the sea was waving. There were no flat space and time. That's why it was difficult to keep my balance. The waves wouldn't give me the enough waiting-time, and, without enough prepareation, I had to try the waves. If I had more skill and experience against such a condition, I could control myself well. However, I didn't have them. Even for Ausiee, the beach seemed to be uneasy for surfing. So, it was understandable for me to have the difficulty of surfing there.
Although my performance was not good at the time, I could say that I enjoyed my first surfing oversea very well.

I used Peter's surfboard, which was made by Manly Long Board Co. It was a local company in Manly.
The surfboard was cool. It was 9.2 feet long. The body was thin but strong, because it was made of a hard but light materials. Its float was strong, thus it makes us stand up on it easily.
At my best ride on the day, at the moment, I felt I was flying, not surfing. The strong wave was combined with the strong floating power of the surfboard, to make the feeling.
It is the most excellent moment when we surf.
It was lucky for me to get it at this time.

I will write about my first game of cricket I watched in my life on the next post.

VS Summer Dreaming

Strong Sunshine, Birds Singing, The sound of the waves crashing on the shore, Brown Skin, Beautiful Bodies, BBQ, Beer and Wine.
Am I dreaming............

VS Madam Butterfly

I will wirte again the things related to the exhibition of antique books on the last post in this blog.

Last weekend, I could have the chance to listen to a lecture in the exhibition. The lecture was for a famous opera and novel, "Madam Butterfly".
I am a book-sales man, so, of course, I knew the title. But, all I knew before the lecture was the title only. I hadn't read it, and even the author.
But, anyway, I had to go to the lecture. It was produced by my important cliant. I was inhibited to escape from it.

"Madam Butterfly" is the story of a Japanese woman in Meiji period after 1867. Japan changed the foreign policy then, and opened herself to other countries.
The story starts with the love romance between a Japanese lady and an American navy. They see each other in Japan and fall in love soon. And the Japanese lady becomes a pregnant. But, the navy have to go back to America. He promises to see her again in three years.
The lady waits for him, and lives by herself for three years. But, when he comes to Japan again, she realises that he got married with another American woman.
She becomes shocked, and commits suicide.

This story seems to be easy but modified many times by authors.("Autohrs" means six people have the relationship with the novel and opera.)
In a version of the story, she fails to commit suicide. I another version, she gets a lot of money from the man.
I heared from a professer of the lecture that the story "Madam Butterfly" influenced on the making of the images of Japan in Western countries very much.
Most interesting thing I know in the lecture is that five in the six authors hadn't come to Japan, even though the stage of the story was in Japan. It means they could know Japan very well by varietes of media at that time.

In this exhibition, the oldest and the most important books are a Hollander author, Montanus' ones. His book "Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen der Ooost-Indische Maestschppy in 't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan" was published in 1669. It is the oldest book in the exhibition ,very rare and very important for Japan study. But, Montanus hadn't come to Japan. The fact is very interesting.
Everytime I see old books, I can get new information. Tomorrow, I will go to the exhibition again. I am looking forward to my new finding.

VS Antique Books

This week, I sometimes go to Shinjyuku.
My company has a big book-store there, and there is a small garally in it. I go there.
Because, an university library (it's my cliant.) exhibits many antique books they owns in my company's garally. So, I have to check it.
The library has a great collection of antique books. Especially, the books for Japanology are great. Japanology means the study for Japan.
From the ancient days, many foreigners came to Japan, and studied and researched it. Especially for western people, Japan was a country very diffrent from their countries, so they wrote a lot of books for Japan.
From the view of book-sales, such books are very rare and valuable, and needless to say, very interesting.
In the exhibition, we can "watch" such books. ( All books are in show-cases. So, we can read just two pages, if the books are open.)
The oldest book in the exhibition was written in 17 centuries. There are some illustrations in the book. Old Japanese people and their culture are illustrated there, but they are very surprising. They doesn't look Japanese at all.
The illustrations look Chinese to some extent, Indian to some extent, or Islamic to some extent.
For old western people, the image of Japan and Japanese was the mixture of some Asian countries.
Watching this kind of books is enough interesting.

VS Frozen Surfing

I bought a new wet suit for winter surfing in Japan. It can protect me against cold air and water. I can enjoy srufing in winter season too.
But, the wet suit is not an air conditioner. Its proteciton is unfortunately not perfect. In the sea, I can find my body temparature is going down soon. Winter surfing is a very taugh work.

However, even in winter, there are a lot of surfer on Enoshima beach. They get up in the early weekend morning, go to the beach and wait for good waves on the cold sea. If I don't surf, I can say they are crazy. Now, it's the time for skiing. They should go to mountains, not the sea.

I am not sure that it is related to my surfing, but I don't catch a cold in this winter. My body may become strong by surfing. Certainly, it is a good excersice to swim on the sea.

Not only in summer season but also in winter season, female surfers are more than male surfers on the sea. I don't know why? When I went to a surf shop near the beach, I watched a few girls rent surfboards. It was certain that they started to learn surfing recently, because they don't have their own surfboards. Do you want to learn surfing in winter? At least, I don't.

Next month, I will go to Australia. It's in summer there. I can escape from winter for a while. I think I will surf there. My target beach is Harbord beach. The beach is the memorial place, becuase it was used for surfing for the first time in Australia. Now, Gold Coast is more popular for surfing, but I think the memorial beach deserves my first surfing overseas.

VS Overseas Migration

Japanese Overseas Migration Museum is an unique museum. It is in Minato Mirai area in Yokohama and managed by JICA, Japan International Cooperation Agency.
I have visited the museum for business before, but not watched their exhibition yet.
That's why I went to watch it recently. I could study the history of Japanese immigrants very well.

Japanese started to go overseas for working or studying at the end of Edo period, the middle of 19 centuries. Before then, Japan was almost closed to foreign countries, and most Japanese were inhibited to go abroad by Edo government.
After they were permitted to go overseas, first, they went to Hawaii for working.
Some went there to get much money. Some tried to study more progressive knowledge in America. At that time, Hawaii was a dream land for Japanese.
Japanese government didn't seem to encourage the people to go overseas at first, because they thought Japanese people were treated like a slave by American, but soon later it tried to help people go there. They realised the experience in the developed country was useful.

Japanese made their own community in Hawaii, and some of them went to other cities in North America soon.
As we can easily guess, the rapid increasing of Japanese immigrants caused strong reaction in America at that time.
They saw Jap a dangerous-being.
In an early last century, Anti Japanese Immigrant Law was adopted in United States. Therefore, Japanese stopped going there.
But soon, they changed their dream land. The new dream land was the south American countries.
Japanese government assisted people to go there very much, and the people made a new communities there.
Of course, the reaction to Japanese immigrant had happened there too, but it was weaker than the one in U.S.
That's why Japanese communities in South America are bigger than in North America.

Most Japanese don't know or forget the existence of Japanese immigrants living overseas. We lost the relationship with them. Why?
One of my customer (He is investigating the history of Japanese immigrant) explained me that Japanese family structure is the reason.
He says that the category of "family" is very small for Japanese. So, we seem to lose social relationship with our relatives easily.
Actually, my grand father's brother or sister is a special person for me. I wouldn't lend money to them.

To study the forgotten phase of Japanese history, I can recomend you to go to the museum, which is located near Sakuragi-cho station.
After I visited it, I found a Hawaiian bar near there.
To share the dream with the ancient Japanese, I drunk an Hawaiian beer "Tsunami" there. Mmm, delicious.

VS Prince Hotel

Last weekend, I had a party with my colleague in Prince Hotel in Yokohama city. The party was for my company's new vice president. It was a kind of celebration.
I didn't know why, but I happened to be an arranger for the party. My mission was to make the party looking gorgeous, within a strictly limited small budget.
I choose a bar restaurant in Price Hotel, Top of Yokohama which is located at 42 stories in the hotel. The bar restaurant is namely on the top of the hotel. The view from it was very beautiful. I thought the view was better for dateing than for a company party. Anyway, my colleague were very excited there.

My mission again. I had to arrange the party with a very tiny money. So, I ordered the lowest rank of food menu, and the middle rank of unlimited drink plan. My tactics was to make people drunk soon by the great view and alchool, before they would realise that the food quantity was small.

I succeeded.
Hungry people can be drunk easily. My colleague were incapable of finding my trick. And, the party finished successfully before they started to complain. Some people went to Ramen shop soon after the party, but I think they couldn't understand why they wanted to eat Ramen soon.
Drunk people eat Ramen in Japan whether they are hungry or not. But I know they were hungry at the time.

I note that a beautiful view is free. Maybe, party arrangement is good for my future job.

VS Iwo Jima

Today I watched the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" directed by Clint Eastwood. This movie is based on the battle between Japan and America on Iwo Jima island in World War II.
The island was located far from Japan, but important for both countries. Because, if American army got it, they could make a base from which they can attack cities in Japan easily. That's why Japanese army must have defended the island.
But it was an impossible mission. Before the battle on the island happened, Japanese navy to protect it got a deadly damage at other battles. So, the army on the island was isolated, and they could only wait for their enemy coming.

The result of the battle was easily predicted by anyone. The military power of America was huge. On the other hand, the one of Japan was very small.
But Japanese army didn't give up. To be more correct, they were not allowed to give up. They have to fight to death.

In this movie, the letters between soliders and their family are sometimes referenced. In the crazy battle field, only the letters remind soliders of their daily normal life. But, once the battle starts, they become crazy again.

From the middle of the movie, I had the feeling of going out of a theater. One reason was because it was sad to watch a lot of crazy and miserable Japanese soliders. Another reason was because I was very hungry. This movie is long, 2 hours and 40 minutes, but I forgot to eat lunch before watching it.
I forgot that it's important to control our physical condition when watching movies.

Unfortunately this movie doesn't have English subtitles. I don't know why? I think not only Japanese but also foreigners living in Japan have the interest in the movie.
I add that a young acter Ninomiya is nice.

VS New Year

My first week of ths new year has passed very quickly. I had a lot of events just in a week; the spending all night in Shibuya on the last day of the last year, the finding out a great "standing" sushi restaurant there, the meeting many relatives in Kyoto (Last time I met them were over ten years ago.), the nice-seeing again old friends, the having many new year parties, the traveling for Hakone and so on.

I can't write everything in this blog. So, I'll write only a few things impressive for me.

On December 31th afternoon, I went to Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, with Lance, Patrick, Akira, Koji and some new foreign friends.
As you know, it is common for Japanese to visit shrines on a new year day. Many people donate money and pray there. Of course, this event has a relogious meaning, but for most people, it's not serious. For most people, the main purpose is to spend a time there with friends. We can eat foods and drink sake there. In short, they come to shrines mostly for fun.

However, we can understand the religious regulation is still left. We usually think that we should visit there, after the new year starts. Maybe because we think it is meaningless to pray for the next year. As you know, Japanese values strict time-schedule in their life. And, it is the same in religious events. We think our hope have to be renewaled at the beginning of the year.

That's why, I had a strange feeling when I went to the shrine on 31th. If we obey Japanese religious culture, my visit at that time was meaningless.
Indeed, not so many Japanese were not there on the day. But, I thought many foreigners were there. I met a mexican family there, and they ask me about the meaning of fortune items which were sold in the shrine. I didn't know these items actually work, but I could explain the meaning, so I did. This item protect your health. That is for keeping your family peaceful.
"What's that pink one?" "It is for getting boyfriends." The mother and daughter in the mexican family looked happy to know it, but the father seemed to be comfused.

This year started with many funny events for me.
I hope I can enjoy my comical life more and more in this year.

VS Crab Party

Last weekend, I was on the sea.
As I wrote here before, I tried to surf on the Christmas day.
My wet suit was not thick enough to surf for winter season. But I didn't have it, so I tried surfing, and won against the cold water. But, I had better buy a thicker suit soon next year, or I will catch a cold before catch the wave.
The wave was a little high and strong then. I could enjoy very well. I have realised my surfing skill is getting better even though the tempo is gradual.
Every time I surf, I seem to find something out. Now I can't explain what the "something" is, but it's something deep.

After surfing, I joined a party produced by the surf shop in which I keep my surf board. It was my first and good chance to know very well the people in surfer's community.
The main dish in the party was Crab. The shop staffs bought a lot of crabs (25kg!) in Hokkaido on internet. We cooked and ate them a lot. Boiled crab, Baked crab and pasta with crab. Everything was great. One of the shop staffs worked for Italian restaurant before, so the dishes were very tasty.
It is generally said that Crab mekes us silent, but we spent a good chatting time with these foods.

I am still a green boy surfer. That's why, I always have to behave as a modest amateur on the wave. I don't surf in a good big wave area on the sea, which is for high level surfers. I have to obey and follow veterans.
However, in the party situation, compared with all surfers, I can say I am a real party veteran.
Once I drink, I can easily go into the deep inside of people, and can catch the wave of voltage in the party. Maybe, this skill is sophisticated in my English school, Aeon. I don't know how the school influences my English. But it actually influences my social communication skill better.
So, I could enjoy talking very much with other surfers I saw for the first time there.

Although about 25 people joined the party, we couldn't eat all crabs. The quantity was certainly too much. For a while, I will not eat crabs.

VS Adoption

In the last English class, we discussed adoption, based on the article for Madonna's adoption of an African boy in TIME.
Her adoption of the boy seems to be controvercial now in America. Some people think the boy is her accessory. They say that her aim would be to sell her name by the adoption. Madonna herself doesn't care for such an opinion, though.

In the class, everybody, including me, support adoption in general. However, we were not sure Madonna will be a good mama for the boy. Perhaps, she won't. She is very busy as a singer, so she couldn't stay in the house to bring up her new son.
But, I think we should support Madonna's case if it true.
We have to accept for the fact that kids can't choose their parents. In addition, also for new or alternative parents, I think it is true. That's why even if the parents can't spend their time with the kids, we shouldn't deny the adoption.

In Japan, adoption is not popular. Especially it is very rare for us to adopt non-Japanese. We have very limited choices to make a parents-children matching.
In the case that a Japanese couple can't have their kids for some physical reasons, adoption must be a good solution for them. But, Japanese doesn't look to prefer to it. We tend to value blood legitimacy. That's why Madonna's case looks very surprising for us.

I think we had better think things more logically.
Blood relation is not as important as we think.
Actually, a child relates to a mother in her body by blood before his/her being born. But the relation is a short period, just ten months. For a father, he can't have any blood relationship with the child. He can only find out a micro DNA level relationship in his son or daughter's blood.
For kids, the life after being born is more important than blood.
For example, if we find that we were thrown away when we were babies, and the persons we think parents found us one day, brought us to their house and had brought us up by now, and if now suddenly other persons came up to us, and told us that they were real parents, what will we think?
We can take a blood test soon. And, we realise the fact that they are auctually my real parents.
However, can we value the "my real parents"?
The answer must be "No". For us, the experience with the persons to bring me up until now must be more important.

I hope Japanese Madonna will emerge in the future even if Madonna couldn't be a good mama.
I think adopion will make Japanese society more flex.

VS Announcement

I remember a funny announcement in an airplane on my recent Nagasaki trip.

"Attention. Attention please. Thank you for using this plane for your trip. We are going to support your comfortable trip, and promise safety flight.
In this plane, two flight attendants who like to chat will help you.
Ms. Nakatani, standing on the front side in this plane, is from Nagasaki prefecture. Plesase talk to her in Nagasaki local language, if you are the local. She was a manager of a foot ball team when she was an unversity student. So, she is familier with treating sweaty guys. Please take it easy to talk with her even if you have sweaty smell.
Ms. Kumamoto, standing on the center, will also help you. Recently she broke up with her boy friend dating for a long time. That's why, now she worry about this X'mas plan. Who will she spand the time with? Please talk to her. Thank you."

I laughed very much.

VS Artist

I had the chance to drink with a film directer recently. Invited from my customer, I watched a movie, and after that, I could talk about the movie with the directer in a drinking place.
The movie was a bibliography for a Japanese artist, Isson Tanaka. He was a genious drawer after the world war II, but now he has been forgotten for a long time in Japan. Because, he didn't sell his pictures to others at all, except for only one.
If an artist wouldn't sell his works, nobody can know his existence in this modern capitalism society. That's why the existence of Isson Tanaka was forgotten in Japan. The film directer knew the artist by chance, and made the film.

Isson Tanaka was known as a talented artist when he was a student in an art school. However, he couldn't get along well with the authorities in the artists' society. He was honest to his own sense of beauty. So, he could criticise his teacher's work.
That's why, many people hated him, alas, in any competitions, he couldn't get a prize.

But, Isson was not interested in comercial success, so he threw away the connection with the community of artists, and went to Amami islamd, which was the farest western place before Okinawa came back to Japan.
On the island, he lived in an old, thrown house, and had worked as a painter in a factory for three years. After the three years, he quited the job, and started to draw pictures.
For the cost of living in the island was low, he could concentrate on his artist's work for two years.
After the two years, he restarted to work, and after next three years, his artist's work restarted. His life was like that.

Altough he was a strange man, the people in the island loved him. But, nobody watched his works. Because, he didn't show his works to others.
His aim was to have the exhibition of his works in Tokyo someday. It might have been his revenge against the authorities in artist's community. So, until the day, he would not like to show them to anyone.

For Isson, No.1 artist was Picasso. And, No.2 was himself.
I couldn't judge whether it's true or not, but the film directer told me that his works were certainly great.
However, in the end, he couldn't have his exhibition in his life. Because he was poor. It's too costly for him to have an exhibition in Tokyo.

Isson was supported by many people in the island, especially by a family managing a small souvenier shop. The shop had sold cheap plates.
One day, some tourists came to the shop, to find something interesting in the island. But they were not interseted in the plates.
When they went out from the shop, they broke a plate by their carelessness. They asked Isson (He was there by chance.) how much it was.
He told them very expensive price.
The tourists were surprised, and became angry soon.
But, Isson was more angry with them. For him, any art work is "only one". He couldn't excuse their fault.

This episode impressed the shop owner, who had thought his works were not special. He respected Isson's thought of art, and asked him to buy his work. Isson told him that the work cost a million yen. The price was very high for the shop owner. However, by using his saving, by selling his house and by borrowing money, he bought one of Isson's works.
The work bacame the only one exception to be sold in a lot of Isson's unsold works.

Isson died unknown in Amai island.
I think "only one" is his discipline of art. He valued the first meeting of art works, so didn't show his works to others. For us, his thinking might be too strict, but it could be an important idea in this eara that we can't be surprised at anything when watching it, because everything looks unspecial.

VS Nagasaki China town

I stayed in a hotel near Nagasaki China town.
In Japan, there are three China town. One is in Yokohama. It is the biggest one. Another is in Kobe. And, the last is in Nagasaki.
Nagasaki China town is small. It has just two streets. (They are crossed.) We can walk around the town within ten minutes. After the ten minutes, we would lose the things we can do.
Why did I stay near the small town? What could I do there?
My aim was the only one thing. It was to eat an unique noodle food there. The food name is Chanpon.

Chanpon. The meaning is "Mix at random."
When we drink wine, beer, wokka and any other alchool at a single night, we call it Chanpon in Japan. The noodle food is like that.
A lot of sea foods, meats and vegetables are used in the dish. So, the looking is very gorgeous, and the taste is complex and heavy.
I went to Kouzanrou, the chinese restaurant famous for Chanpon, with my friends. Before going to the restaurant, we had a research in Nagasaki. We asked some people, taxi drivers and hotel staffs, where we should go to eat Chanpon.
Some people recommend us to go to Kouzanrou.
Autually, the recommendation was good. We enjoyed great Chanpon there.
To be honest, I didn't like Chanpon before because the taste was not organized or sophisticated for me. But this time, I changed my opinion to Chanpon. It's a great food.

Walking around Nagasaki city, I found another unique food.
The name is "Turkish Rice".
Turkish Rice?
It is the dish of a humberg, a spaghetti and a curry rice on a same plate. It's Chanpon of the dishes Japanese kids love.
I don't know why the dish name is Turkish Rice. But, anyway, I understood the eating desire of Nagasaki people is tremendously strong.

VS Two Cultures

Kyusyu seems to become my hometown-like area in Japan. Last weekend, I went there again to celebrate my friend Kousei's wedding. On the day before his wedding party, I had a drink with my friends, Unchained Dogs Four, in Fukuoka. And, the next day, I went to Nagasaki, the city for the wedding party, with a dull headache.

I heard from an old song that Nagasaki is rainy everyday, but it was fine on the wedding day. I think I had visited Nagasaki in my childhood. But now I don't have any memory of the visit, so when I reached there this time, it was the same as the first visit.

Nagasaki has the sea. The view of the sea is very beautiful.
On the other hand, the view "from" sea is nice too.
The land of Nagasaki is almost a mountain. On the mountain, a lot of houses and buildings are built. So, at night time, the night view from the sea-side to the mountain-side is very beautiful.

The wedding party was a kind of mixture of two cultures.
The groom is from Aomori prefecture. It is located in the north-east of Japan. It's cold in winter. By the effect of the climate character, the people is silent and patient. The groom is not actually silent, though.
The bride is from Nagasaki prefecture in Kyusyu, which is located in the south-west. It's a warm area. The people is basically aggressive. In addition, Nagasaki has a historical character. It was only one place where Japanese people can contact with foreigners during Edo period, 150-400 years ago. So, the life style of Nagasaki people is multi-cultural.

The groom and bride came into the party room with the music of Tsugaru-Shamisen, which is an old musical equipment in the north-west. The music was uncommen in a wedding party, but it was fitted to them at the time.
Wedding party always starts with a short( sometimes unfortunately long) speech by a guest, and a call of "Cheers!" by another guest.
However, this time, we started with "soup drinking".
It is Nagasaki culture to celebrate people.
Although Japan is small, I have a lot of cultures I don't know. I could enjoy new things in the party.

Once the party started, all I should do is to drink, drink, drink, sometimes pour beer for others, drink again, drink, drink and drink.
The quantity of my drink is proportional to the extent of the happiness I shared with the groom and bride.
That's why, I was heavily drunk at the night. I can't remember when I went back to my hotel?

VS Animal Rights

Even though the word still sounds too radical, the word "Animal Rights" becomes popular recently.
Literally the word means that animals has rights.
If you think so, you couldn't eat any animals. Even if you like sushi, you could be inhibited to eat it. The rights can throw us into a food crisis.
That's why, if you say "Protect animal rights!" in Japan, people might think you are strange or dangerous. But now, we can't ignore the idea at all.

Animal Rights. This idea was claimed by philosophical thinkers or social activists at first. Politicians, lawers, government officials or the people living in the realer society have no interest in it. For them, it's a crazy idea. To be honest, me too. I can't agree with it, without any conditions. But I can agree taht this idea actually gives us a new perspective to our world.

A few years ago, the court of Amami black rabbits was held in Japan.
A local government planed to make a new golf course in Amami isiland, which is located near Okinawa.
On the land, a lot of rare animals lived at that time. Amami black rabbits were one of them.
Some NGO tirying to protect nature refused the golf course making plan. But, they were not the residents on the island, so under Japanese law, they didin't have the right to rufuse the plan.
But NGO got a miracle idea soon.
They became a representive of rare animals living in the island like Amami black cat, and fought against the local government.

The representive of rare animals. It was a crazy idea at that time. So, everybody thought NGO would lose in court. And, actually, they lost. the Court refused their claim soon.
However, in the judgement, the Court accepted the significance of the right of rare animals a little, and added an opinion to the judgement.
"Law can't protect the animal's right. But, we shouldn't ignore it at all."
The court itself was unique at that time, and in addition, the opinion of the Court was unique too.
So, the court was broadcasted very much, and people started to be interested in the plan, and criticize it.
Therefore, the making of the golf course was stopped, and the nature has been kept until now. The NGO substantially won. It's an interesting example to show that a new idea, or a new word, can change the world a little.

VS Winter Surfing

If you hear that somebody says winter is a good season to surf, you must think the person is crazy. Yes. You are right on a global standard.
But, not in Japan. Real surfer should surf here in the winter sea.
The cold wind from the north is actually cold, but it becomes an off-shore wind on the beach of the Pacific Ocean side. The wind make the shape of wave better, because the wave coming from the Ocean (from the south) hit the wind from the north, and at the point, the wave grew bigger rapidly. It bocomes surfer's preference.

As usual weekends, I went to Enoshima to surf yesterday.
These days, it becomes cold gradually in Japan. So, before going to Enoshima, I didn't want to surf. I wanted to stay in my bed. But, once I reached the sea, my surfer-spirit suddenly and naturally emerged.
I rushed to go to the beach.

The water temparature was.....higher! Higher than I imaged before going into the sea. And, my full-body wet suit could protect me against the cold wind. I felt very comfortable in the sea. Great.
As winter coming closer, the air seems to be clear.
On my surf board, I could clearly see the outline of Mt.Fuji existing far away. It was very beautiful.
The water of the sea is also more beautiful now than in summer time.

Although the water temparature is still okey for me to surf now, it is also true that the chilliness make me more tired than before. That's why I should buy a thicker wet suit soon, for the coming real winter.
The staff in the surfshop I always go to said, "During winter season, the day after rain or snow is good for surfing. The wave is very good."
Surfing after snow.
For me, it still sounds like a suicide. But I have watched the picture that Santa Claus surfs. I think the picture was about the Chirsitmas day in Austlaria.
He made it. So, I should challange it.
I will spend this Christmas day on the sea.

VS Coup d'etat

Two months ago, a coup d'etat happened in Thailand. The country's army made it to beat the government. The president escaped to a foreign country. Now, a new government is established, and most of Thai people seem to support it.
But, because the government change was certainly undemocratic, other countries blamed for the coup d'etat soon. Even if the previous president was a bad person, a coup d'etat can't be agreed with from the view point of democracy.
I can understand the idea to some extent. Basically, politics shouldn't be infulenced or changed by army. It's right.

Recently, by chance, I had the oppotunity to talk with a co-worker working in Thailand now. I asked him about the social situation in Thailand.
I had thought it was very dangerous especially during the days of the coup d'eter. But he said very honestly, maybe too honestly, that the social situation was good at that time because Thai people can't concentrate on serious things for a long time, even if it's a coup d'eter and revolution.
Mmmmm, really?
If it was truely so, it's surprising and disapointing.
For me, social change is like a festival. So, it have to be dynamic and energetic. As I wrote above, I can understand an undemocratic social change is not good. However, to be honest, I can sympathize with it easily. Because I know festival is important for our life.

Anyway, I knew form him that the coup d'etat in Thailand was very peaceful. He said," Thai people are Buddists, so they wouldn't kill people."
I think his understanding of Thai people and Buddist is too extreme, but he would get a point.

VS Dubai

Latest newspapers say that my company will open a new bookstore in Dubai next year. Of course, I knew it before the news.
But, I didn't know the scale.
The bookstore will have 500 thousands of books on the floor.
Although maybe most people can't image the amount, I know it's a crazy amount of books.
And I knew from the newspapers that the bookstore in Dubai may be the biggest one in the world.
Oil money will change into a huge number of books? If so, it's good, at least for book-salesmen.

Why does my company make a new store there?
I don't know the detail of the reason, but I heared that the government officials came to the head office of my company a few years ago and asked for a new store in Dubai.
Not only for my company but also for Japanese publishing business, it must be a challanging job. My company decided to make a now store there. Now my company is searching for new staffs to work there.
Unfortunately I am not in the branch for the new job now. So, I think I don't have a chance to go there for business. However, someday in the future, I want to try to live in Arabic countries. It must be fun.

In democratic countries, publishing business can make a success. So, in Dubai, my company can succeed.
But in some other countries, still now, it's difficult to do a publishing business and book-sales. Because some people see free publishing dangerous. They regulate the business a lot. So we have to avoid the business in undemocratic countries.
But, on the other hand, I think it is also true that publishing make the country more democratic. That's why, in a difficult business situation in such a country, doing a publishing business must be challanging and fun.
Ok, next target should be North Korea. I think it's the most challanging.

VS Mental Illness

Now I am reading a science book, "Warped Passages" written by Lisa Randall, a physicist studying extra dimensions. In this book, we can know the possibility of the existence of another world. We can recognize only this three-dimension world, but she says we can expect that there are other dimensions we can't see if we think of this world more logically. It means there is another world.

Without any scientifical background, I can believe in the idea. Because I myself live in another world everyday.
In the world, I am a super hero, a successful man, very intellectual, strong and rich. I am very confident there.
This another world seems to have the connection with our real world. Sometimes, I in the another world infulence on me in this real world. So, I can be sometimes confident here, even though I am an ordinary man.

The another world the book treat is the challenging topic of pure science. My another world is, maybe, my goal or ideal.
They are very positive.
However, the another world one of my friends will live in is different from them at all.
Now, the person X is going to another world. It looks to give bad influence on X.
I realised X is getting mental illness.

X can read my blog, but I write this article.
One day, suddenly, X called me. I think X's last call was over one year ago. The call was very sudden.
X told me that X found out a fact.
X found the fact that there is a relationship between sexual desire and pimple.
Without any context, even without saying hello, he told taht to me. And, X said to me, "Everybody knew the fact long time ago. But although I am an adult, I know it now. So I am fool."
X regreted it, then X apologized me.( I don't know why?)
It was certain that X's talking was the crazy person's.
I think X is on the first stage to become mentally sick.

I talked about this episode to my friend. He told me that anybody including us have the possibility to have mental illness. We have to know that some percentages of people in our society have it. So, we have to get along well with the people.
I can understand it in general.
But, I think illnees has its reason. If we can identify and want to remove the reason, first of all, we should do it.

I think X is a typical Japanese, who is inconfident, tends to compare itself with others, follows others easily and/but has pride very much. And lonely.
I thought X cared for others too much. That's why X is very negative to speak frankly with others.
X looks always protecting Xself.

My advice in the call was "Don't compare you with others."
I am not sure whether X understood my advice at that time.

When I was a child, I requested my mother to give me a gift on Christmas day. Because my friends got it from their parents.
But my mother said with or without a smile, "They are they. You are you."
From then, I have finished comparing me with others.
It's silly.

VS Wedding Party

I am writing this article in Fukuoka now. I came here to join my best friend Nomura's wedding ceremony.
The ceremony and party had continued almost for 14 hours, and finished successfully this early morning. I enojoyed very much, so I was not tired at all last night.
Even now after a short sleep, I am still excited.

Everytime I join my friend's wedding party, I think about the friend's life until now. Looking at the participant surrounding the bride and groom, we can know the life of them. Parents, Friends, Colleagues, Teachers etc. Great people are surrounding them.
In a wedding party, I look like a part of their life. I am proud of it. And, I can know other parts there. And, all parts are combined completely there. I can understand my friend more deeply.
For Nomura's party, he has a lot of parts in the life. And, his wife Maki has them too. Actually the party was very big. Over one hundred people joined it.

After the long party night, I walked around in Fukuoka city with another Nomura's friend. I saw him the night for the first time. I asked him to go to eat Ramen. He took me a Ramen shop. After that, we went to a business hotel by taxi, and stayed there for a short time. He paied everything for me.
I said "I can pay! You don't have to pay for me!"
But, he refused me to pay.
Because, he said "You are Nomura's friend. So, in Fukuoka, I can't allow you to pay money."

Friend. It's great.

VS Promotion

I got promotion suddenly this week. I was surprised very much, because I didn't expect for it at all.

I belong to Unchained Dogs Four in my company. It is composed of four members, including me. We work very hard for theirselves and for their customers, but/and are very critical to their bosses. That's why their relationship with the bosses are totally and utterly bad.

When I started to work in my company around ten years ago, I realised soon my boss at that time shouldn't manage my branch for the lack of his management skill. And soon, I asked a head office to change my boss.
This request from a new comer seemed to be shocking for my company. Needless to say, the relationship between me and the boss became very very bad later.

So, I had not expected for promotion, and I had thought it had no meaning in my life.
However, suddenly, all the members of UDF were ordered to promote by the head office. What's happened with my company?
I asked my present boss why I would promote, but he didn't know the reason, and even my promotion! Gash.

VS Sales Job

Very nervous feeling in my mind had continued in the last month, because of a lot of taugh businesses. But now, all my struggles are almost coming to the end with successful results. I am very relaxed at this point.
I beat my business competitors. I negotiated successfully with my customers. I convinced my boss of my decision. From the successful results, now I think I am a natural-born salesman.

Not so long time before, sales job was regarded as a men's job in Japanese companies. However, recently, in my company, the number of sales-women are increasing rapidly. Why? Because, a lot of new famale staffs in my company hope to work for a sales division. My company's human management policy is very simple. The person who wants to do the job is the best person who should do the job. So, a lot of ladies are working as saleswomen now. On the other hand, a lot of men don't hope for the job. Why? Mmm, I don't know.
I heard that more new female workers will come to my division next year.

This month, a lot of universities in Japan are going to have their students' festival. I like them. They remind me of my first experience of sales job.
When I was a student, I sold frankfurt in my university's festival. I searched for a good meat shop, negotiated with the butcher for the meat price, calculated the cost-benefit balance, decided how many to buy and how much to sell, and even cook them by myself.
Maybe my management and cooking were terrible at that time. The commodities produced by me were often too salty, and sometimes still cold. Frozen-frankfurt would have been original, but immatured, literally. When a customer complained of a cold frankfurt to me, I had nothing but to give him an additional cold one free.
Even though the management of the frankfurt shop was crazy, fortunately I could get a little bit of revenue. It was a funny experience.
That's why I am looking forward to going to some university festivals in this season. I might see a funny business by students.

For book-sales, I don't have to cook books. It's an easier job. I don't know the reason why guys don't want the job.

VS Dog House

As usual, I took part in Aeon's Halloween Party last weekend. Altough Halloween becomes pupular in Japan, the costume party still makes us nervous a little more than relaxed. In the party, we have to be in strange. However, we don't like to be seen strange. So, we tend to weaken our strangeness even in Halloween party. But, we know weak strangeness mekes us boring, and bored. That's why we have to break something in my mind before the party. Therefore, we become nervous. And, I was nervous then.

Recently it becomes easy to find and buy costumes for Halloween. For example, we can buy them in Tokyu Hands, which has a special selling area for it. But, it is risky to buy our costume there. Because, other people can easily buy their coustume there. Same Costume. It is a fatal mistake not only in Halloween party. Even if the costume is a great one, when we find others in the same one, it loses uniqueness. In Halloween, we have to be the only one. It makes us nervous more.

Without a good costume idea, the party day had come. My friend told me to wear a surfer's costume, but I refused. Now it's not a costume for me. It's my uniform. Halloween party is not an uniform party. So, I can't wear it.
When I walked around a home center, I found a small dog house. I checked it.
It was light, and I thought I could make a hole on the bottom.
I thought I could wear the dog house.

Fortunately nobody weared a dog house in the party. I could be an only one.
It was confortable to stay in the dog house, but inconvenient to drink, eat and chat with others in the party. So, I kept my head out of the house from the entrance. I understood the feeling of dogs to want to take a walk.

Also as usual, the party continued until midnight.
The last stage was a Sushi restaurant. Halloween and Sushi must be an unique combination. Compared with other Halloween parties, our party could be original.