night shift

I have been working on a shift since May. It is about once a month. I will work on night shift next week. It's very hard to adjust to the change in the working hours. Our night shift is from 23:00 to 8:00.

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク)

Do you know the virtual singer, Hatsune Miku who was featured in Google Chrome's commercial in Japan?

The virtual singer is a software for making song on PC. If you want to get to know her more, just click here. I read an article related to her. I learned that she is very in-demand, in fact she is not just in the virtual world but you can find her in some products, now totaling 10 billion yen (about $82 million) in sales.

Users can make original song and then upload on the net such as in YouTube. It attracts a lot of people and increases the fun.

sakura

I posted this picture today, even though I took this picture a month ago. There are a lot of sakura trees along the roadside. This spot is the most famous sakura tree viewing spot in the local area.

This area is near my relative's apartment, I often go to his apartment because he is near 80 years old. Whenever I visit him, I definitely go to a bakery named Honmoku-kan because I like their bread there.

smart pet

I want to share the toy named smart pet. I was attracted to the toy even thought it is very childish.

However, who is the target for the smart pet? People of all ages have iPhone and iPod touch. As far as this advertisement goes, the target are young women. I am not sure if they are going to want  to buy the toy.

The toy will be released in mid-June. I will go to check who were attracted by the toy at the sales floor.

REIMAGINING JAPAN: The Quest for a Future That Works

I read a book, entitled: REIMAGINING JAPAN. It is about Japan's challenges and its proposal from the perspective of its contributors.

There are two challenges in common among contributors:
First, is the decline of Japan's population. From the contributor's point of view, Japan is an aging society. Because a major part of this society was made in the period of population growth, we have to change our system to adapt demographic onus.
Second, is the delay in overseas advance.


The contributors of this book shared their different proposals but I think their proposal can be summarized into three important keywords. These are: Diversity, Innovation, and Leadership.

Company outing

 I went to Atami city (熱海), Shizuoka prefecture on our company outing. I was one of the stewards and a total of more than 350 employees attended in this trip. The preparation for this trip requires hard work from all of us until the actual day of our company trip. After working, stewards had a lot of meeting late at night. But when it was over, we talked about next year's company outing. Among those who came along to the trip, I think the stewards enjoyed the most.

I joined the company last December. This trip was a good chance for me to communicate with all the person in the other divisions.

workshop with alumni

I attended a workshop, which was planned by one of the alumni, though I was away from alumni events for about one year.
The workshop was very stimulating. The workshop theme was "tax system in Japan". It was very difficult theme for me. But the host invited a guest who is professional in dealing with taxes.

Baccarat

I went to the Baccarat shop in Marunouchi with an ex-coworker who asked me to come along with her. We bought clear, crystal tumblers as a gift for our former boss who got married last month. We'll have a party this month as a celebration for our boss' wedding and we will give him these crystal tumblers.

The person in shop gave us a bottled water with a Baccarat bar label as seen in the picture above.

This time, I know where the Baccarat shop got its name, it's actually a name of a village in France. It has a long history and it was established in 1764.

Sukiyaki

source: Takafuku

I had sukiyaki at restaurant named Takafuku (たか福). It was my first time to taste it in restaurant but it's popular dishes at home.

Before eating sukiyaki in Takafuku, a waiter would explain how to eat it. He said that it is recommended to eat a slice of beef first because it is Japanese Black Wagyu beef, the kind of beef that goes best with sukiyaki sauce. I tried it and the taste was really great. Afterwards, he told me that I can eat the beef with the rest of vegetables.

Wireless router

source: Logitec

I have set Wi-Fi in my room because my kindle needed Wi-Fi connection to transfer data.

I only bought a wireless router because I've already contracted an internet provider. The setting up of the wireless router was very easy. It only took me 20 minutes to set it up. And I finished transferring data from old kindle to new one without accident.

Other gadgets with Wi-Fi also use the network. My internet connection became a very useful tool in my room.

Gym

I received tickets for a gym, which is located at the 24th floor of a building in Tokyo. Even if I expected to run with good view, the treadmills were not near the window. I didn't take a class but some classes took place such as yoga.
Now it is very cold, I still like to run outside.

benefit package

The company I am working for, introduces education classes with benefit package. They have various classes, namely, management, IT, specialty, and language. I need to pay classes fee. However, if I pass the exam at the end of our class, the company will give me a 50% discount on the class fee.

I guess that I will take English course.

Kindle for internatinal

My former kindle with keyboard has not worked well since few months ago because of broken battery. Even if it has a full battery, the kindle works only a few hours so I bought a new one. But the problem is, although I was able to get a Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire, I can not buy it because I am not U.S citizen. But I have used it for two weeks. I think it is very good to use when commuting because it has a light weight and very handy.

Private import

I imported leather shoes through amazon.com last month. After ordering the shoes, Fedex Japan called me about the price of the shoes. It seems that it need to pay a custom duty. After that, I checked about import duty and I learned that it is import duty is expensive.

I bought it with import duty because it is more reasonable compared with Japan's store. I know need to pay shipping costs but I didn't figure out the duty cost. So, there are three costs; shoes cost, shipping cost, and duty cost.

Through this experience, I already know why leather shoes are very expensive in Japan.

Land a job

My long holiday finally ended this month. What I mean is that I got a job. It was very hard to find a job. I applied for a lot of jobs and it took very long time before I could get one.

I'd like to express my gratitude to my family and friends because they supported me a lot. I left my previous work to go to school. In other word, I did the things only I wanted to do. Nevertheless, they helped me. I really thank them.

TOEIC

source: http://www.toeic.or.jp/

I took the TOEIC which is the Test Of English for International Communication last month and I received my result. I achieved my year's target score at last.

My score has decreased the last three times I took the exam. So I am especially glad to meet my goal for this year and I decided to set next target score. I will try to keep studying English.

慧, Tsuneo Yamashita

  慧, Tsuneo Yamashita (山下恒雄)

 Chiyoda, tokyo

This artwork is placed near the Mitui Sumitomo Insurance Building in Chiyoda ward. When I went to take a Thai language exam, it just happened that there was this artwork in the exam site's way. I searched about this artwork but I got almost nothing about it.

Cupnoodles museum

source: CUPNOODLES MUSEUM 

Last month I posted about a big kettle of cupnoodles. It seems that the big kettle is the event for the opening of the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM in Yokohama.

The museum has a factory that makes your original cupnoodles where in you can select 4 soups and 12 ingredients. Moreover you can your own cup. It will just takes about 20 minutes to have everything done.

By the way, when you see the logo of the museum what comes to your mind? What came into my mind was UNIQLO which is a Japanese apparel company. I later found out that the museum and UNIQLO was both planned by Kashiwas Sato, a brand strategist.

Anyway, I want to go and make my original cup noodle!!!

praying mantis

I found a praying mantis a few days ago. I remembered that when I was child, I often see and catch praying mantis.

They appear in Autumn in Japan. So now it's their active season. I closely saw it after so long. It has a scary look on its face and it seems ready for battle.

By the way, I use to write my blogs lots of time. I think it's good chance to notice the change of seasons and minor affairs.  If I am not writing my blog, I wouldn't care about these things.

My shopping experience at Costco

As you know, Costco is a membership warehouse club. I went to there for the first time. My first impression of costco was big anyway. I mean, they have big store, big shopping cart and  big or bulk products.

I tried to buy some items. When I was shopping at the store, I was careful about eatable amounts. And then I came home and looked these items. I noticed to buy too much.

By the way, Costco food court was reasonable. I took a hot-dog and drink (including refills).