Our family car

We have a car. We bought it about seven years ago. When we got it, we didn't have enough money because we were young and had just got married. We selected affordable car for us. It was not luxurious, but we loved it so much.

The best point is a large luggage space in spite of a compact car. We need to carry many things in the car since we often go skiing. We also like to go hiking, so we want to sleep in a car. When we fold backseats, luggage space is expanded. The space is so wide and flat that two adults can lie confortably in it.

Another good point is a ceiling. The ceiling doesn't open but is made by glass. We can see sky and also see stars at night. When we drive under line of the trees, we can look up the trees in the car, and it is very beautiful.

But our car have been old, so we are thinking to buy a new car now. We would like to have a little bigger and more luxurious car than we have now.

Different culture

I have ever visited some countries on sightseeing. I was always surprised how different culture is.

When I went to Germany, I was very surprised that there were not ticket wickets in any stations. People should buy a ticket for getting on trains, but no-one checks the ticket. While I stayed in Germany, there was no chance that my tickets were checked. I couldn't believe that. Are there people who don't buy their tickets? I think the system might be accepted because people trust each other.

One more episode. In France, I had some chance to see people singing in the train. A young woman, seems to be a student, suddenly started to sing a song. She sang very well. After she finished singing, she took around passengers. Then some passengers gave her money. I was very surprised. There is not such a custom in Japan. I guess people in France are more familiar with music in Japan.

There are a lot of different cultures in foreign countries. This is one of the reasons why I like to go abroad.

Business etiquette in Japan

Today, I'm writing about any interesting business etiquette in Japan.
 
We think business cards are important. So we usually exchange our business cards when we meet our clients for the first time. We put our business card on our business card holder, show it to our client, introduce ourselves, and exchange cards. After that, we should bow. We shouldn't fold business cards, and shouldn't write something on them. Don't put client’s business cards in your business cards holder immediately after you get them. You should arrange cards on the table as the same order as clients sitting in the meeting.

We like to express our opinions indirectly. Especially, we don't say "No" clearly. If Japanese people say "I'll consider it.", in most cases, that means "No". It would be better not to understand that directly.

We usually mind our hierarchical relationship. For example in a meeting or dinner, we decide sitting places under our relationship. A person of the highest status sits on the center of the table. A person of the lowest status sits on the nearest seat to an entrance. In most cases, hierarchical relationship has priority over lady's first.

Working in foreign company

I am working in foreign company. I worked in a small Japanese company, and the company was acquired in American company. After acquisition, I was surprised at a lot of difference between a Japanese company and a foreign company.

The biggest point I think is the way of thinking. Japanese think always negatively, but foreign people always positively. For example, in Japanese company, we often share failure cases because we think we won't make the same mistake again if we share failure cases together. In my previous company, when someone had made a big mistake, the person had to make a presentation about the mistake in front of all of our colleagues, and apologize their mistake.

On the other hand, in foreign company, we often share best practices. Someone who implemented a great job makes a presentation, and everyone praise the person.

In business situation, Japanese often accuse colleagues who had failure. "Why you made such a mistake?", "Why you couldn't accomplish your sales target?", and something like that. They do nothing more than complaining about their colleagues. I think it is not constructive.

But in foreign company, people don't accuse colleagues but try to solve the problem instead. They consider the way of solution. They are not focusing on the person making a mistake but the problem happened.

I think Japanese have a strong sense of camaraderie, and sometimes this might lead to a strong teamwork. But Japanese should more focus on the whole of the business not the personal problem. If we do that, we wl realize that accusing colleagues is not important and we should solve the problem instead.

Piano recital

I  attend a piano recital once in every year. Since I restarted piano, I have performed five times in a piano recital. I think there are some important points to play the piano in a recital.
First, it is different between playing the piano at home by oneself and playing it in a recital. A performer always has to consider that there are listeners in a recital. We have to play the piano in order to satisfy listeners as well as ourselves. When we play the piano as we like, we can't control ourselves, and in the result, our performance become so monotonous. We have to build a piece with considering where we should play emphatically or mildly or where the climax is, and so on. We always take care how our performance is listened.
Second, it is important to select an appropriate number to one. It is not good to be more difficult or easier than one's level. If it is easier, we can't get good at piano, and if it is more difficult, we can't master the number. We are expected to express music not to make just sounds.
Finally, we should enjoy ourselves. I can't perform as I expect because I always get nervous. I would like to perform with confidence.

I will have a piano recital in February in next year. I have already prepared the recital little by little. I am looking forward it.

Piano lesson

I love playing the piano. I started to practice the piano when I was 3 year old. I don't remember a time when I touched the piano for the first time, but I had enjoyed playing the piano since I graduated from elementary school. I was happy to become good at piano and to increase my repertoires. But I took a dislike to play the piano in junior high school. One of the reason was that my piano teacher was so strict. The teacher always angried about bad technique and accused me of less practicing. I was very gloomy when I had to go to the piano lesson. But I was enforced to practice the piano by my mother.
When I was third-year student in senior high school, I could stop the piano lesson because of an entrance exam of college.  It was very happy for me not to have to practice the piano. After that, I had rarely played the piano for about ten years. I didn't miss the piano and I thought there would be no chance to enjoy the piano in my life.
But three years ago, I was invited to play the piano by my friend. She loved piano and she introduced her piano teacher for me. At first, I didn't want to take a piano lesson, but I decided to play the piano again because I loved music.
Since I restarted playing the piano, I got into it. My new teacher was a very good teacher. She has never angried about technique and less practicing. She teaches me how to express music rather than how to move fingers. She doesn't teach me a lot of expression. She gives me a little advice and tells me I should think. When I was a child, I played the piano as directed by my teacher. I didn't consider how to express music. But now I consider what a composer would like to express and how I should express it.
I really appreciate my teacher and my friend who is introducing me a teacher, and also, my mother who gives me a chance to practice the piano. If my mother hadn't enforce me to continue the piano, I could not play the piano as well as now.

My job

I am a trainer. I train our customers how to use our database. I am responsible for scheduling training sessions with customers, preparing training materials, and implementing training. If a customer give me any questions in a training session, I have to answer that. But when the question is what I can't answer, I get back to an office and ask colleagues in development team or editorial team. After I get answer, I inform customers. And the database is always updated and improved, so I should constantly check information of it.