Wonderful people who I met via CS

I met some people via CS(Couch Surfing.com) recently.

I’m keen on meeting foreign travelers via CS.haha.

Most of them have nice personalities, as I’ve written in my previous articles.

But the most interesting thing for me is to get to know their points of view about Japan and Japanese culture.

So I think I want to meet CSers one-on-one at first, not in a group.

Recently I’ve met a French woman who is a writer on town planning issues.

Her age is in her fifties, and she has a daughter whose age is similar to me.

At the first time, we met at her hotel in Aoyama-icchome after my work, and then moved to a Japanese restaurant which had a very nice atmosphere.

We talked about many topics, and had a very good time. Her experiences in her life impressed me very much.

The second, we met at her hotel again on the weekend, and I guided her around Omotesando, Harajuku and Kagurazaka.

She is very fashionable, and we enjoyed window-shopping in Omotesando.

I seldom go window-shopping these days, so it was a lot of fun for me too.

In Harajuku, we ate Crepes. It was typical Harajuku style.(Many Harajuku girls love to eat Crepes, while enjoying shopping and talking with their friends)

After Harajuku, we moved to Kagurazaka.

Kagurazaka is the one of popular places amoung people who love traditonal Japanese culture.

It wasn’t me who chose those areas.  My new French friend was interested in there. haha(Sure, me too.)

The other day, I met an Italian girl who is studying in Tokyo.

It was funny that the first person who contacted me via CS was her brother. Incidentally he introduced me to his sister.

We met at Hiroshimayaki restaurant in Kanda, which is not so far from my office.

A well-known food in Japan is Okonomiyaki, local Osakan cuisine, but  Hiroshimayaki is also a well-known local Hiroshima food.(The shape of Okonomiyaki and Hiroshimayaki is similar.)

Her Japanese was good, so I could understand everything that she said. But that day, my condition was not good, so we said good-bye early.

After I met the French woman on the weekend, I met the Italian sister and her brother in Mitsukoshi- mae, the nearest station of my office.

We moved to an Oden restaurant near Nihonbashi, Mitsukoshi-mae and Nihonbashi are very near.

At the Oden restaurant we really enjoyed talking about many topics. And after the Oden restaurant, we moved to Shiodome to see the night view.

The Italian sister and I enjoyed the night view at Caretta Shiodome, but her brother was very tired after his long trip.

So we said good-bye before getting late.

I met a Rusian woman who is also studying Japanese in Tokyo.

I set our first meeting near my office after work. I introduced her to the same Oden restaurant.(I really like that Oden restaurant, because their style is traditional and the price is nice.)

We enjoyed conversation there and  talked in Japanese sometimes.

On an other day, I met a Madagascan woman who is from the UK.

We exchanged emails several times before her trip to Japan, so I could get to know her personality a bit before we met.

We went to a Monjayaki restaurant in Kanda.

Monjayaki, a local Tokyo food, belongs to the same type of cuisine as Okonomiyaki and Hiroshimayaki.

She was interested in modern Japanese culture, especially J-pop music and Manga.

We really enjoyed our conversation at the Monjayaki restaurant.

All meetings were very very exciting, so I decided to invite all members to my house at the same time.(The first person who I was planning to invite to my house was the Madagascan woman, but I changed my plan.)

And the final person I invited to my house was a Swiss guy who also contacted me via CS. I thought  his personality was nice, so I imagined all members could become good friends.

What an amazing home party!

We ate Nabe(hotpot) and I showed them a Shamisen performance.

We exchanged our cultural differences and the experiences of traveling in Japan. All members really enjoyed the party.

The Swiss guy had been living near my house for 7 years, so I was very surprised at his deep knowledge of Ogikubo and Asagaya.(my residential area)

There were 6 different nationalities at the party.

2 days after the home party, I went to the Swiss guy’s farewell party in Yomiuriland-mae.

There I met 2 people who were friends of the Swiss guy. One of them was an Israelite, and the other was Canadian.

All members had a good humor sense, so we had a very nice time together.

I experienced very interesting gatherings within one month.

But I know for me, someone who is studying English, it’s dangerous to become addicted to such gatherings.

I need to spend my time to read grammar text books and memorize English words, because my goal is not only daily conversation but also to master business English.

The meaning of work

Many foreigners who I guided told me that Japanese people work very hard. (compared to foreigners)

I agree them.

I think that most Japanese don’t think about the in reason for working, because they are too busy every day. They just think that they need to work to make a living or get more salary or achieve status.

Some people are very confused when thinking about the in reasons for working.

In my case, I was very worried about my career until recently.

Because most of my friends are starting to give birth around in their thirties.(I’m 31 years old)

Some of them gave up their dream of a career, and decided to become a housewife.

In my case, I want to have a baby, however I can’t decide when is the best time.

I also want to get a better salary and title, and enjoy my life.

But I failed to find a new job recently.

So I changed my mind about my situation.

I do my best in my job everyday, and never get angry at my managers and colleagues.

All things which happened to me have a reason.

For example, if my manager orders me to do something which I disagree about, it’s the best chance to develop my persuasion skills.

When I joined my company 2 and half years ago, there were some colleagues I didn’t like.

But I’ve changed my attitude to try to understand their thinking and position, so I’ve become closer to them.

It’s only me that can have an influence on other people and situations.

Returning to the first topic, I want to give some advice to people who work hard and are worried about their future.

It’s only you who can change your situation.

Please think about your motivation working, not only your salary and title.

I usually have some trouble in my projects. But I think it’s a chance to heighten my skills of negotiation.

By the way, thanks to my husband, friends and parents, I could change my attitude.

Although I might quit my job someday, I don’t want to regret everything. So I do my best for everything(not only my job, but also everything in my life)

The trip to my parent’s house – Part.2

To tell the truth, on the next day of our trip to Kochi, we were planning to go to Kagawa, which is located in the north of Tokushima.

But all members were very tired, so we changed our schedule.

In the morning, we stayed at home and just relaxed, and in the afternoon, we went to 2 temples, which are not so far from my parent’s house.

Before write about these temples, I want to write about “Ohenro“.

In Shikoku, there is a peculiar Buddhism custom which is called “Shikoku-henro” or “Ohenro” or “Ohenro-san”.

There are 88 temples in Shikoku, and some people go on a pilgrimage to visit 88 temples from no.1 to no.88 or in reverse order.

To visit these temples is one way of fulffiling their wishes, or overcoming their physical or mental problems.

Nowadays, it is a popular tour to visit these temples, so tourists go there by bus or car or bike.

However some people visit all temples on foot. It’s very hard physical and mental training.

In Shikoku, if we come across”Ohenro-san”(people who visit temples wearing white costumes), we should treat them kindly.

For example, we give them rice balls, some fresh fruit, and of course, give them directions, if they are lost.

Someday, I want to be a “Ohenro-san” to train my spirit.

My parent’s, my husband and I went to the no.1 temple which is called “Ryōzenji“.

After visiting Ryōzenji(the no.1 temple) and Gokurakuji(the no.2 temple, which is near from Ryōzenji), we went back to my parent’s house before going to a steak restaurant to eat dinner.

My favorite aunt reserved the restaurant, but unfortunately she couldn’t come with us, because her relative died suddenly, so she needed to go to the funeral.

We had a nice dinner together and talked about many topics.

The next day, my husband and I left Tokushima early in the morning.

This time, I didn’t have enough time to talk with my grand mother and aunt, so I checked the schedule of future cheap flights to Tokushima.

I want to talk with my family more, so I’ll go back there on July 4.

The trip to my parent’s house – Part.1

In Japan, there is a long national holiday in May, which we call, “Golden Week“.

Generally it starts on May 3, Constitution day, and ends on May 5, Children’s day.

Especially this year, Golden Week was longer than usual because of the weekend.

My husband and I went back to my parent’s house, which is located 1 hour by plane from Tokyo.

In Golden Week, it’s difficult to buy discounted tickets.

In this season, many people travel by planes, therefore the airlines don’t discount tickets.

I was not able to get a good flight time(morning and afternoon), because other people had already booked them, so we went back to Tokushima prefecture(my hometown) ,at a somewhat late time.

I was very happy to see my parent’s, because it was last October when I went there last.

The next day, my father, my husband and I went to Kochi prefecture, which is next to Tokushima prefecture.

It was very far from my parent’s house our destination in Kochi.

My father drove for about 4 hours through the mountains, and by the time we reached our destination, we were all tired tired.

At first, we went to Kochi castle, which was the setting for a famous TV program in Japan.

There, we ate local ice cream which is called “Ice Crin”, the Japanese old name of ice cream.

I really like this ice cream!

The shop’s staff said to me, it was free to add other flavors during Golden Week. We were lucky!

After Kochi castle, we moved to a big and famous market in Kochi, which is called ‘Nichiyo-Ichi (Sunday Market)‘.

I remember this market, from my childhood, as I once went there with my parents.

By chance, I could get a free paper at the market. According to an article, there are more than 500 shops there!

It was very very crowded, because of Golden Week!

Vegetables, fishes, pickles, knives, flowers, etc are sold at many similar style of small shops!

The prices of them are not too bad, so we just enjoyed the peculiar atmosphere of the market, and bought small dried fish and one kind of miso which was packaged in a small container, for our breakfast when we returned to Tokyo.(Actually they were very tasty! So now I regret that I didn’t buy more!)

After passing through the market, we looked for restaurants for our lunch.

But there were not so many restaurants around us, even though there were many small shops!

I didn’t want to enter a usual restaurant.  To eat delicious local food is very important for me and my husband.

So we bought some fish cakes, tempura and grilled bonito which is called ‘Katsuo no tataki‘ at another market, and ate them in my father’s car.

I think it was a nice idea, hahaha.

We left Kochi at about 3p.m. and reached my parent’s house about 4 hours later.

All of us were very tired, but we really enjoyed the trip to Kochi. And I was able to talk with my father in his car after a  long time.

Oh! I have another thing that I want to write about.

On our way home, we stopped at a parking area in Tokushima, where I saw a wonderful sight!

There were many carp banners, which are called ‘Koinobori‘ over the river.

On Children’s day, we cerebrate the growth of children by decorating carp banners above our house.

In Some rural areas, the Koinobori are decorated over rivers, or between mountains.

To be continued!

Two new experiences of communication with foreign traveler

First of all, I invited a Singaporean couple to my house, because I trusted them fairly well.

I exchanged emails with the husband several times before they visited Japan, and I could get to know about his family, job etc.

Actually it is one of  my dreams to tell people about Japanese food, especially my hometown’s local food.

Although I stopped organizing my food event in Tokyo, at that time I wanted to popularize “Tarai udon”(my hometown’s local food), so I sometimes had events.

When I decided to invite them to my house, I asked my aunt to send me some “Tarai udon”.

It was very nice time to eat it with them.

To tell the truth, it was my husband that cooked not only Udon but also other Japanese dishes.

After lunch, I played the Shamiesen for them, and told them about Kimono culture a little.

I want to keep in touch with them, because it was also a lot of fun for me.

Next, I guided a Finish guy who contacted me via CouchSurfing.com.

We exchanged emails several times and discussed some topics before he came to Japan, so when I met him for the first time, I felt like we were already friends.

It was my first experience of CS(Couch Surfing).

As I wrote about him in my previous article, he was really kind and gentle.

At first, we met in Kanda, and went to a cafe and an Izakaya(Japanese restaurant or pub), where we talked about many topics.

Second, I joined an international gathering which he had told me about, in Siba park.

I met several people of 6 different nationalities!

I enjoyed this event.. but to tell the truth, I like more deep discussions with small groups of people than such large events.

However, I like cultural and international events, so if I had have continued to organize my own event, maybe I would not feel this way.

But now I want to communicate with a few people at a time, and become close friends with them.

Third, the Finish guy and I did some shopping on the weekend.

I think if my English was better, I could have helped his shopping more!

I’m planning to meet an Italian guy( I already met his sister, who studies Japanese and Japanese culture in Tokyo! ) , another woman who will come here from the UK, and a guy who comes from Morocco, who will be in Tokyo till August.

I hope our gatherings will be nice and we will become good friends.

To guide someone who travel in Japan

In my free time, I sometimes guide foreign travelers who contacted me via the Internet.

I started this interesting hobby about 1 year ago.

The first website I registered with was Hi Everywhere!

Untill now, I have guided or just had dinner together with many people who were from America, Singapore, Peru, Sri Lanka,England, Bhutan and so on.

It was a very exciting experience, but I stopped it while my mental condition was not good.

About 2 weeks ago, I restarted doing this interesting hobby.

Another Singaporean couple contacted me via Hi Everywhere!

I invited them to my house to eat lunch together after we had exchanged emails several times.( I think it ’s better to exchange emails and get to know each other’s personalities before meeting )

Actually, I had made some mistakes in the past by meeting someone too quickly.

At first, I volunteered to guide them, as I just thought that I wanted to speak English and enjoy exchanging cultures with them.

So I didn’t think about their personalities very much and what they wanted me to do for them.

Some guys think that  Hi Everywhere! is a dating site. It is stupid!

That’s why I became to think the most important thing for me when volunteering to guide them( I don’t know other people’s thinking ) is to treat them like my friends.

I need not only exchange cultures, but also become friends with them.

Several months ago, my favorite friend, a Japanese American , recommended another website which is called CouchSurfing.

I think CouchSurfing is more useful than Hi Everywhere!

Around at the end of winter, some people contacted me via CouchSurfing .

And last week I met a guy who was from Finland.

We exchanged emails several times and discussed some topics.

He was a very kind, gentle guy! So I was very happy to see him.

Later I checked other users’ comments about CouchSurfing.

I guess the user quality of this website is good, specially for women to meet men via the Internet is dangerous.

I’ll write the details of my new experiences of guiding new people in the next article.

Frost/Nixon

I went to the theater with my colleague to watch “Frost/Nixon” in Shinjuku.

My friend recommended me to see that movie.

It was so nice even though I didn’t know the importance of the Frost/Nixon interview.

I’ll write about some parts of that movie, so if you have not seen it, and want to watch it from now, please don’t read this article.

I think the most important thing in this movie is character’s emotional struggles.

Both Frost, an interviewer, and Nixon, the President had the same mental problem.

At first, I thought, this movie was a complex political movie, but soon I noticed it was an interesting human drama.

Frost wanted to have a acclaim especially in America even though he was already famous in the UK and Australia.

So he tried to interview President Nixon who had committed a huge crime.

When Frost saw Nixon on TV by accident, he noticed Nixon’s complex expression.

At that time, Nixon did not admit to his crime, but Frost thought, if he could get a confession out of him, he would get both wealth and honor.

But he was a mere TV host, so nobody thought he could succeed.

On the contrary to everyone’s expectation, at last Frost could succeed in getting a confession out of him.

Why was Frost able to do it?

I think the key point was the same emotional complex that both Frost and Nixon had.

They didn’t trust other people, and were never satisfied with anything.

They were both very greedy and lonely.

So Frost could notice the loneliness and guilt Nixon was feeling.

The process of their two lonely hearts that became close to each other was very interesting.

I really like this type of movie.

Next time, I’ll watch “Slumdog Millionaire”.

My Aunt

I have not written this blog for about 1 year, even though I have continued to study English.

I decided to restart writing this blog from now.

At first, I want to write about my recent life.

Last summer I gave up  Awa-odori( traditional Japanese dance ), which I had done for about 4 years.

I belonged to an Awa-odori group, but I couldn’t agree with the senior leader’s instruction.

I tolerated the situation for a long time, because I really love Awa-odori. But finally, I insisted on expressing my opinion to them.

So they said that they didn’t want to dance with me any longer.

I felt really sad, and did not to want to remember them or Awa-odori.

As a result from last summer to the beginning of this year, I lost my passion for everything.

Even the shamisen( traditional Japanese instrument ), which I had played for the same time as Awa-odori, I lost my passion like I did for Awa-odori.

I don’t know why?

Concerning my job, the situation was same.

I guess, no one could notice my bad condition except my husband.

I was really tired at that time.

Regarding my job, I even tried to change company, and registered with many recruiting agencies.

But from last October, the Japanese economy became very bad, and at last I gave up to change my job, and decided to stay at my present company.

At the end of last year, I cleaned up my apartment, and threw away many things.

I imagine from then, I started to recover from the situation I had gotten into.

Now I leave my office around 6:30pm, and after work, go to the super-market and buy meat, eggs, vegetables and so on for the next day’s lunch.

When I reach my home, I usually do some house work, and after the house work, practice the shamisen for about 1 hour.

And after practicing the shamisen, I start to study English, and go to bed around 11:00pm.

Every morning I wake up around 5:30am and study English again for about 1 hour and eat breakfast with my husband.

I go to my office before my colleagues.

This regular life style brings me stability.

The biggest change for me is not to feel anger against someone’s behavior.

And I feel my attitude is becoming positive.

I think I was tired from everything, and I needed to take a rest.

Now my dream is to improve my English more and practice the shamisen everyday, and to become a  shamisen master within 2 years from now.

It was  my past dream, but I had lost that dream.

Today, I got a letter from my favorite aunt.

She is my mother’s elder sister and I often went to her house and talked with her about many things.

She is not married and doesn’t have children, but she really enjoyed her life as teacher.

She started her job as a music teacher, and 38 years later when she retired, she had become a principal of an elementary school.

I can’t imagine what kind of effort she required, and what she had to sacrifice.

As soon as I received her letter, I called her and said congratulations.

I’m proud of her; her way living to fulfill her dream and her will power.

Through the process of trying to change my job, I could know my lack of experience and skills, and could come to understand what I want to do now.

I probably I can’t live like my aunt, but I want to live as I like.

Working style in Japan

I’m working for a small Japanese IT company in Tokyo.

Our staff are just under 30 people, but half of them are from 7 countries different.

And I have some foreign friends who are from several countries.

We sometimes talk about the working style of each country.

Most of them said to me that Japanese work too hard.
(They are working for Japanese companies.)

One of our coworkers is Danish.
He suggested us that if we could change our working style, some good things might be happened.

(He said that for example, it was good for us to work for 4 days and rest 3 days.)

He and other foreign coworkers(American,Australian) have the same way of thinking about an appropriate
working style.

By the way I also sometimes guide foreigners around Tokyo.

All of them also said to me that Japanese work too hard.
(Some of them came to Japan for business.)

Their home countries are different from each other, so now I think the “Japanese” working style is the strangest in the world.

One day, I said to my Korean coworker that I would change my working
time.

Now, my company starts at 9:00am and finishes at 6:00pm.

But I often must do over time.

So I sometimes finish my work too late time(for example,9:00pm or 10:00pm)

If I didn’t have so many jobs, I could meet my friends, learn English or other languages, read books, do house work, practice the Shamisen, run, and more after my work.

So, I talked about this topic to my Korean coworker.

But he said to me that our client’s schedules are the most important thing.

I think so too, therefore I like my job.

But I think that more important things in our life are good health of the body and mind, and good relationships between our families and friends.

He addied mind that, in Korea, the circumstance is worse than Japan.
The Korean social security system is 10 years behind than Japan.

He said that he guesses the Chinese social security system is much worth.

But, I heard from my Chinese coworker, in China, that the people’s working style is similar to Europe.

In Japan, to continue working for young woman who have children is very
difficult.

But in China, to continue working for a woman is easy, because her family generally supports her.

I think job is very important for us, but a side from our jobs, there are many important things.

In Japan, our parents and teachers had never thought us about the meaning of jobs.

So when we graduated from school and started working, we were confused.
But, then we didn’t have any chance to think about our jobs, because we are all very busy everyday.

I’m very lucky to know about some working styles in several countries.

I’m 30 years old, I like my job and I want to enjoy my life more.
But time is coming which I must decide about my future.

So I’m thinking about this topic.

How about in your country?

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Tsukuba

I went to Tsukuba space center with my friend on June 1st.

He and I met in Korea by coincidence. We stayed at the same guest house in Seoul and talked about many topics and ate lunch together, so we became friends.

He said to me, he is a researcher of solar batteries and he is working at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

It sounded very interesting! So I wanted to go to his office.

He said to me there is tour to visit the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency 4 times per day.

He kindly reserved this tour for me.

I arrived at Tsukuba station early in the morning, because I had to join the practice of AWA-ODORI in Koenji from 4:00pm.

We didn’t have enough time to visit there and eat lunch, but he kindly fitted in around my schedule.

This day was a special day for all Japanese, because a Japanese astronaut, whose name is Hoshide, went to space.

His mission was very important.

In space, 15 countries are forwarding their plans to develop an International Space Station.

Japan are involved this project and developed “Kibo” which is the first manned facility for Japan.

Hoshide’s mission was to fix the robot arm on Kibo.

At Tsukuba space center, we could some real parts of “Kibo”, rockets and artificial satellites!

It was very amazing!

If I had had these experience when I was a child, I would have been interested in space and wanted to be an astronaut.

I found out that only 1 astronaut is woman!

He said to me, it was a rare experience for him, because he has been working there everyday.

After visiting of the center, we ate Soba at an old house with windmill.

I like this style of house very much, because I like the local areas of Japan!

After lunch, we went to a famous cake shop which he recommended to me.

We ordered 3 cakes and shared them. I like cake….

I left Tsukuba at about 2:30pm, and joined the AWA-ODORI practice.

I was very satisfied with such a wonderful experience.

by the way, Tsukuba is not so far from Tokyo.

There is the Tsukuba express from Akihabara to Tsukuba. We can go to Tsukuba from Akihabara in about 1.5 hours.

In Tsukuba, the air is very clean and there is a lot of nature. I wanted to run there.

I want to go there again, and try to running or climbing Mt.Tsukuba someday.