27-2-2011

"You will be able to do it if you have been doing it."

I attended a conference which promote Facebook usage in business today.  I wasn't a kind of person to intrest in IT stuff, but need is need.  I think it's a really trend and the world is changing in terms of human connection.

One of the presenter said at the conference, "It's not you do it because you can do it, but you will be able to do it if you have been doing it."  The advancement of technology is so fast these days.  New concept emerges every couple of years and if you hesitate to try it you are already behind the pack.  Nobody knew Facebook only couple of years ago and now it has more than 600 million users worldwide.  The idea is about just try it before thinking about if you can do it or not.  Whan you are doing it and continue it, before you know it, you can be an "expert."  That's the way it is. 

Continuous education and adaptability will be iportant for us to live in the 21st century.  It's tough but exiting, isn't it?

Jun 

25-2-2011

"Facebook me."

I went to watch "Social Network," the documentary movie about the Facebook founder Mark Zackerberg last night.  It was a well plotted story and I enjoyed it even it was relatively long and lasted more than two hours.

When Mark and his friend were in a theather, girls sat next to them askd them, "Facebook me."  I liked the expression.   Facebook is a noun, but in the context it is used as a verb.  The girls were flirting the future IT superstar and asking him to contact her by Facebook euphemistically.

Maybe I can borrow the expression next time.  "Facebook me!"

Jun

24-2-2011

This morning we had a meeting with our business advisor located in Auckland, New Zealand by internet video meeting.  We are currently testing Skype, ooVoo, Logicool Vid and Michrosoft LiveMeeting.  Each one has good points and bad points but anyway its nice to be in the 21st century, thanks to the advancement of technology we can communicate with people in thouthounds miles away as if we are facing each other.

Some research evidences shows that we use verbal cummunication only 35% of all our communication channels even those are unconscious.  Besids that we mostly rely on non-verbal communication ways such as body langage, apeparance, facial expressions, eye contacts, touchings, smells, tone of voice, distancing and even silencing.  By telephone we only use voice related channels but with video screen thare are several other information added so it's easier to communicate.

However, no matter the technology advanced, nothing can replace face to face meetings.  You know, sometimes I feel like to meet you!

Jun

22-2-2011

There are so many things need to be done and the time is limitted.  It is scary when I start questioning if I am making any progress.  I try to understand things take time.  But I can't wait what I could see when I reaches higher part of the mountain which I am currently climbing.

Time management is crucial.  From the start of this year I had my changed starting time of one of my works, pushed it back from 8.30am to 9.00am.  That gave me extra time in the morning.  It seems just half an hour but summing them up for one month (30m by 20 days), it equals 10 hours!  It's more than taking a day off each month for my other activities.

Jun

20-2-2011

ICL signed a contract with a certified tax accountant today.  It was an interesting meeting and I am exited to learn more about tax and accountig system with him along with developping my business.

Jun

Sixth Sense

I had mandatory annual optitical check-up today.  This was sort of full-scale examination that include cheking-up your sight, eye ball pressure etc.  At the end you are exposed very bright light that enables doctore to see your eye in detail.  However after completing this test you may not see things clealy for about three hours.

That reminds me that we are usually so much rely on seeing.  When you cant see, suddenly you start to catch sounds, smells, feelings more.  Yes, we are certainly talented more than we reckon.  Just neet trigger to use those ability.

Jun 

No pain, no gain.

If you ask me why I took such a risk, I would answer, because to get my SELF back.  I would like to live like I would like to be.

Yesterday, I received an email informing one of my junior high school class mates passed away.

Life is short.  So, why don't we try what we really  like to do, while we can.

Jun

Be my Valentine!

Today the 14th of February is St Valentine's Day.  In Japan St Valentine's Day is widely recognised as a day for women to tell her feeling to men she loves.  However it is transleted slightly differently in many other part of the world.

Wikipedia says that Saint Valentin's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimete companions.  The costoms are varied from country to country.

When I was teaching at the US Navy Base, the children of my class gave me some cards written something like, "Be my Valentine, Mr Jun."  It expressed thankfulness and affection.  That was nice.  In Japan women present chocolate to men.  That costom is a litte bit commercialised, introduced by a chocholate factory.  In the Western Countries giving flower is also common.

Today, I had my my new own business, "Inter-Cultural Lifestyle" resisterd.  Hope in coming years we are going to cerebrate our anniversaries on St Valentine's Day.

Coming out the other side, the real world goes away.

  "The night we left Natalie's party, she  asked if we could go somewhere to look at the sky, so we drove out through Sausalito, winding around and through to other side.  Past the town, along the bay, and out by the forts that the government built during World War Ⅱ, when they thought the Japanese were going to attack.  Under the Golden Gate Bridge, and through a long tunnel in a hill that supports the highway up above.  Coming out the other side, the real world goes away.  No street lamps, no cars, no people - nothing.

  Parking along one of the empty bluffs, we could watch the sky and stars without competition from human lighting.  We could look down on San Francisco Bay, over at the Golden Gate Bridge, and to the city itself."

(Davida Wills Hurwin, A Time for Dancing, p. 121)



I encounterd the book at a public library near my house when I was living in Auckland, New Zealand back in 1998 as a language student.  This is a story about two high school girls living in California, USA - their true friendship and pursuing their dancing.  It was such a moving story and above that the writing style was so beautiful.  I read the story again and again, sometimes read it aloud.

I still continue this way of language study - reading a favorite writiting aloud for hundred of times.  I named this way of study, "Speech Reading."  I'm not sure this word exist though.

Jun

If you are shining...

"Whatever happens, if you are shining, we can meet once again.  (君が輝いていれば　いつか　きっと　また　会える）"

In the summer vacation when I was at junior high school, I participated in a programme to stay in an unhabitad island in the western part of the Inland Sea between Shikoku and Kyushu, Japan.  I remember it was the first time for me to take an airplane and went furthest from my hometown of Tokyo.

The programme lasted 11 days and I experienced - now I am looking back that it will be a lifetime experience, building a bamboo house, making salt from sea water, cooking a living chicken etc.  There are about 100 participants and staff at ages from elementary school to high school and adults.

There are adventurous tasks assigned to us every day and those were challenging, but I really enjoyed myself learning smalls tips like how to tie ropes.  I was littele warried at the begining to be away from my family for such a ling time, but when the time goes by, I started enjoying to be with my new friends.

The last few days of our stay went fast for preparing for the festival night.  At the night before we leave the island, we sang a song, "We Love This Island Because You Are Here  (この島が好きさ　君がいるから）,"  hugging each other and cried.  We bulilt an intensive relationship in such a short time.

At the end of the programme, a teacher told us, "From now, whatever happens, if you are shining, we can meet once again."  Even after years, the phrase stayed me firmly.  I think the teacher wanted to tell us to try to be the best you can at any given time, to be proud of yourself, so that you can raise your self esteem, and people can recognise you and like to see you.

In life, time by time we experience farewell, with your family members, close friends or other important people to you, because of one of us moving, changing school/work, separation by other reasons or even death.  We miss them, so much.  But if you could take these situations positively, converting those huge energy into power, it's a chance for you to grow up.  If you are shining, you gain gravity.  You will have a power to attract people.

Jun

Trattoria Arino

"What do you say 'snow' in Spanish?

Last night I had dinner with my friend at Trattoria Arino in Hayama which is a small seaside town about 1.5 hours from Tokyo.  Even in the evening before a national holiday (11/2 is National Foundation Day in Japan), there aren't many customers at the restaurant, so we could stay at the counter stools and chat with the chef and the waitress.

The chef was from Italy who speaks Italian and English, the waitress is fluent in English and Japanese, my friend speaks English and Spanish, and me, English and little Italian - so we were talking in four languages.   We ordered red wine - it goes "Il vino rosso, per favore!"  Bread is "pan" in Japanese and "il pane" in Italian.  It was quite fun to discover the difference and similarity in each language or culture.

It was forecast to snow in Kanto area on the following day and the chef askd my friend, "what do you say 'snow' in Spanish?"  My friend who is from the southern part of North America couldn't remember the word, replyed, "Well, my friend, there's no word for snow in Spanish.  Because it doesn't snow in Mexico or Puerto Rico (those are countries belong to warm climate)."  Obviously there is word for snow in Spanish (la nieve - I looked it up on my dictionary later).  Sometimes we get lost in translation but it's really fun to communicate in multi-language!

Jun