VS SINKING OF JAPAN

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

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

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

VS HO CHI MINH (2)

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

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

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

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

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

VS HO CHI MINH (1)

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

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

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

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

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

(To be continued)

VS North Korea

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

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

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

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

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

VS Viet Nam

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

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

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

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

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

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

VS Brazil

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

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

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

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

VS The book of the dead

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

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

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

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

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

VS Big Wave

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

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

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

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

VS World Cup

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

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

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

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

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

VS Murakami Fund

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

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

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

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

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

VS Decreasing Population

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

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

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

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

VS Branding in China

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

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

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

VS THE DA VINCI CODE

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

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

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

VS Onshore Wind

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

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

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

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

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

VS University Students

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

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

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

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

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

VS Body Shape

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

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

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

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

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

VS Copyright

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

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

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

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

VS Reading

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

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

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

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

VS Galbraith

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

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

VS Golden Week

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

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

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

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