Dreams

Tell me about your dream.

読書

「夢をかなえるゾウ」水野敬也
"The Goldem Compass" & "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
「論理的に考える方法」小野田博一
「日経WOMAN」（雑誌）

職業

こんな風に思っている人もいるだね～。
面白かったのでリンク入れました。

05/12 at work

UPDATE: I have gone through 3 bosses this year. So, I still work for the IT M team (which is where I was hired in the first place) but also for IT S team.

today was such an interesting day.....all in a bad way.

I was asked by my new boss to present some data I have collected for her because I didn't have a chance to write my report on the results last Friday.

11:00 AM meeting- (without breakfast) I attended this meeting, and when it became my turn, my brain completely shut down. I know I didn't make any sense. Some how I finished my part, and the meeting went down hill. People couldn't come up with a plan to solve our problems, and we kept arguing about "what is the point in having this meeting." By the time meeting was over, it was well into lunch time and had to stop the meeting. Agreed to have another meeting with better ideas next week.

12:00PM Had lunch with my friends at this really nice place in Ebisu Garden (very fancy place) and had Japanese buffet on the 38th floor. (this was really nice)

1:30 PM Was called by my boss and were asked if I was receiving "sexual harassment ." I was like ???????? Turns out, during lunch I let a guy touch my head and touch my shoulders.
I basically told them that nothing to worry about, and I would be much more careful about it since I was now working at a big corporation and I should have known better to watch out my "American behavior" in a Japanese work environment. Not to say that American's hug and touch each other at a big corporation, but it was easy way to label me. I know large corporations are probably sensitive on this topic in the US as much as it is in Japan but it reminded me that I was now working for a real business oriented place.

3:30PM I finally realized how much I don't listen to people and how much I don't know stuff at work. I was asked to do some research on application systems we have at work. System that handles credit card transaction and mortgage transaction. They are VERY complicated and it is VERY hard to explain things to people when you don't know ANYTHING about how the system works.
Which explains my previous experience in the morning where I screwed up the meeting presentation because I fail to grasp the BIG picture.... which I think because I don't listen to people closely and talk without putting much thoughts.

5:00PM Some emails came back from a vendor we deal with on a regular basis. And it didn't make any sense. It was written in ENGLISH, and it still didn't make sense. So I took it to my M team manager, and he said "Tell them that they are screwing themselves and that you do not understand their English." To give you the back ground, my M manager and our vendor hates each other. Whenever they have the opportunity to fight, they jump on it by explaining to each other how to do their job. Our vendor is located in India, so yes, sometimes we fail to communicate with each other. Additionally, my M manager uses me as a "email English translator" just because he is too "busy" to write it in English. ( Hates English, so uses any opportunity to use me in every way!)

My day ended at 6:40pm. It wasn't a long day, but it was a rough day.
Now I am at home and drinking beer with Gavin, who made a wonderful Indian chicken for dinner.投稿を公開

A musical instrument i did not know

Costo Trip

Kaoru, Akiki, Yuji, Gavin and I went to Costco in Makuhari. It was about 15~20 min drive from our house but hard to get to if you don't have a car. We got there around noon-ish and had a whole pizza, a hot dog and Churros. We were completely stuffed, but I finally felt like I ate a REAL meal!!
I know it sounds weird but u will know what I mean when you eat Japanese pizza (and hot dogs). It is so unsatisfying to eat pizza here in Japan because of the size itself and the price that comes with the size.

So Kaoru drove to Chiba all the way from Tokyo, and took everyone to Costco. The stuff they carried in Costco was similar to the US Costco, but they defiantly had more stuff that you probably won't see in the US.
Example: Japanese Sake and beer, dried sea weed, big container of descant jell (to get rid of the moisture that builds up in the closet during HOT summers), good looking/tasting sushi, and Japanese brand washing machines.
Oh, so about the building size of Costco. You would think there is no way to build a building that enormous in Japan. Turns out you can. This Costro was separated into two floors; 1st FL is for groceries, and 2nd FL was for other stuff (toilet papers and such). Outside of the building was a tire center so it really felt like I was back in Fremont Costco!!
Well we really had a wonderful day, and want to thank Kaoru-chan for taking us there!!!

Golden Compass

Anyone out there who wants to read a good book, I recommend the "Golden Compass." I just finished the first book and it was a good read.
Akiki was the one who recommended me this book and I have to say, she is really good at picking out good books to read.
I also realized that I like fantasy books. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and now Golden Compass. As a child, I never read fantasy books, so maybe that is why I like them.
Anyhow, enjoy!!

Girl’s night out

I did my first girls night out with my friends in Japan.
My goal was to establish something I used to have in the states with my friends.

I often feel that living in Japan people are put into some kind of category at all times. I am often approached in away that asks where I work, what my marital status is and how old I am. (The age discrimination is quite interesting in Japan) I think it's a way for people to find commonality with others but after a while, it gets really annoying. Also once people figure out you have no commonality they say, "I can’t do X because of Y" as if they are trying to convince themselves why we are different.

Anyhow, the reason i am totally excited about the 'get-together' was that I really thought I would not be able to find friends in Japan who I would feel comfortable being myself. But you know me, I am always myself......but at work and stuff, i have to act like Japanese or act like an American depending on the case.

The more time I spend here in Japan; I am surprised to see my ideas on Japan are changing. In a nutshell, it’s easy to label behaviors as Japanese or American. But when it comes down to it, everything has it’s own uniqueness and beauty which makes it hard to talk about Japanese people in general.

I had this conversation with Gavin the other day. I need to learn how to relay American experience using Japanese sense. Because Japanese feel they are very unique in the way they feel, that I often have a hard time telling them that it’s something very common and it's a universal experience. My work as Japanese hasn’t finished yet….it seems like it just started.