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.

Lunch

When I work in my office, I always eat lunch at a cafeteria in our office. I always buy a lunch bag, sandwiches, or rice balls in the shop of an office building. But there are a few shops in the building, so I get tired of them. Once in a while I go for a lunch with my colleagues in a restaurant. There are a lot of restaurants around the office, so we can select what we want to eat. But it is a little expensive to eat lunch at a restaurant. Previously I made a lunch bag by myself everyday, but recently I have been busy with work and I havn't made it. I think I should do that, but I can't. I wish there were some parks near the office, if so, I could take a lunch bag and eat it there. It may be confortable to eat ouside if the weather is clear in spring.
When I go out of the office on business, I always eat lunch in a restaurant and sometimes in a Shinkansen. The upper picture is a sushi lunch bag got in Osaka station. There are some smaller Nigirizushi. It's so cute. Many kinds of lunch bags are sold in stations of Shinkansen, so I don't like to get on a Shinkansen but I like to select a lunch bag and eat it in a Shinkansen. In Japan, these lunch bags sold in railway stations are called Ekiben, and they are very popular.

Climbing a mountain

This picture was taken on the Mt. Fuji two years ago. It was the first time to climb Mt. Fuji. I started climbing a mountain four years ago. At first I simply wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, and I thought I would stop climbing a mountain when I could reach the top of the Mt. Fuji.
When I went to buy climbing shoes and a backpack and I told a salesclerk that I started climbing for the purpose of climbing Mt. Fuji, he said that Mt. Fuji wasn't the best and there were much more beautiful mountains than Mt. Fuji.  I didn't understand what he said.
But now I agree with him. Actually Mt. Fuji was very beautiful, but there are a lot of mountains I want to climb.

This is Gurley

Today I introduce Gurley. He lives in the neighborhood same as Syary. He has a nice body and looks strong. He always cautious about human, so I have never been able to touch him.  As different from Syary he rarely appears around Sushi shop. But whenever I see him, he sits on the wall of Sushi shop. So I named him Gurley.
The reason why I named two cats Syary and Gurley is that they lives around Sushi shop. In Japanese Shari means rice with vinegar and Gari means slices of pickled ginger, and Shari is used to make Sushi and Gari is always eaten with Sushi. That is just a pun.
I havn't seen him for two months, so I am worried about him. I hope he lives well anywhere.

This is Syary

Today I introduce Syary. She lives in the neighborhood. Everyone calls her as she or he pleases because no-one knows her original name. Someone calls her Shiro-chan (Shiro means white), and another one calls her Mie-chan (Mie is a common name of cats in Japan). My husband and I named her Syary. Do you understand which Syary is derived from? Let me give you a clue. She always sits in front of sushi shop. The answer will be found another time.
She always lives outside even if it is raining, cold, hot, or stormy. She has to live in much tough environment. And if she gets a disease, no-one might take care of her. As compared with her, our pet Basil and Yuki spend in a confortable enviroment at home everyday and we can  take them to a hospital as soon as they get a disease. They don't encounter their enemy and they can have a full meal.
On the other hand Syary can go everywhere she wants and she can play with bugs or birds. But Basil and yuki only know our house and a hospital. They don't know bugs and birds and sky and grasses.
I don't understand which cats are happy. I think this is a difficult question.

My nephews

I have two nephews. One is four years old and called Haru-chan, and the other is three years old and called Sho-chan. We can't meet frequently because we are so far away. They are so cute and lovely. I think it is the best timing to play with them now. By the time they go to elementary school, they might not play with me. I feel rushed.
These picture were taken when we met last time.  The right toy was Sho-chan's and the left was Haru-chan's. I didn't have my toy but they kindly and heartily created my toy in the middle. I was very happy! I cherish this picture.
We are going to meet at the beginning of May. I can't wait.

My husband

Yesterday I wrote about my brother, so I am going to write about my husband.
We got married about seven years ago. We were originally classmates in college, so we have been always like friends since we got married. Both he and I have a full-time job, so generally on weekday one of us who comes home earlier do houswork. At first he couldn't do any houswork well, for example doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning. But now he become an expert at doing houswork. If he hadn't do anything, I couldn't carry on working.  I really appreciate him.
He is interesting in wine and he takes a wine course once a week to challenge a certification exam in Augest. He studies everyday until late at night. I want to be behind him. I am inspired by him and I am going to work harder with English !

my brother

Last week, I met my brother for the first time in years. He normally works in Mie prefecture but he is going to stay in Tokyo in two months. It was a first time for us to meet after he started working two years ago. He told me about his work a lot. I had heard his work was very hard, so I had been worried about his health. But he looked good and I was very happy to hear that he liked his work and enjoyed it.
I was very pleased to see him and hope that he will do his best.

Very cold day

It was very cold yesterday. I would like to go to Hanami(seeing cherry blossomes), but I couldn't.
This year cherry blossomes bloomed earlier than every year, especially in Tokyo. They were in full bloom two weeks ago but I couldn't see them because I went to Osaka. In Osaka cherry blossomes didn't bloom yet while I stayed. It is once in a blue moon that cherry blossomes bloom earlier in Tokyo than Osaka. I was very surprised.
The period of cherry blossmes blooming is so short that it is difficult to enjoy them every year. I'm sorry not to enjoy them this year. It was bad timing.
The picture was taken in Rikugien last year. Next year I hope to enjoy Hanami.

sales training seminar

Today my manager assigned me to attend a sales training seminar in May. A sales trainer in another country office will come to Tokyo office and make a training seminar about sales skill.
He speaks English and don't understand Japanese, so he will make every presentation in English. And although participants can discuss each other in Japanese because all participants are Japanese, I heard I have to make a presentation and ask him some questions in English!
I can't speak English well and perheps I may be able to listen his speech about 50%. And unfortunately every colleagues can speak English very fluently.
I am very nervous about the training seminar.
Basil, I envy you. You can relax all day long.

It's been a while

For a long time I couldn't write a blog. I think I have to write, but I couldn't.
It is difficult for me to continue to make a blog.
I guess I can't write a blog everyday, but for now, I restart from today!

Recently I have been worried about studying English. I have to use Englith in my work, so I go to English conversation lessons twice a week. But I don't think I get good at it. I have no idea.

For now, I decided to take a TOEIC test at the end of May. I should study English to get better result. I'll do my best!