Not Ready For Working I had a headache and stomachache today. Ah how foolish I was to drink that much… I gotta think about my age, I know…
I woke up pretty early although I stayed up late last night, but of course I did not get out from my bed till late afternoon. Now I love watching Ally McBeal. So I am in a bed with surfing intenet and watching American dramas.
Since my grandma is at my parents’ house till tomorrow, I went to my parents’ to have dinner together. We had good time.
Now I have already chosen what to wear tomorrow. I just need to get ready for tomorrow in my mind. Well I have definitely not been ready yet.
Hello New Year I appreciate lots of people who support me. Thank to everyone who support me, I could get this new year 2009. We traditionally wear kimono and we have a little family serious new year party in the morning on January 1st. However we decided not to wear kimonos. It is kinda sad, but it was also hassle to wear them only for a couple of hours. We had our morning ceremony with our grandma’s maid who is 96 years old. He hardly hear us now…
After that we went to see our grandma who is in a nursing home. She can’t understand anything, but at least she opened her eyes and saw us. After the visit, we went to shrine as every year, and also went to our office to pray. Then, we drove down to Kyoto to celebrate with my other grandma. She could come to Osaka to celebrate with us but she cared about out dead grandpa and wanted us to come to Kyoto. Now she is thinking to move to Osaka and live close to us. She seems like she was pretty excited about it,
We just kept eating and eating. I love Osechi, Japanese New Year’s traditional dishes. Guess how many items we had at the dinner table? 60, sixty!!! This is the day I feel lucky myself to be born as Japanese.
Lots of Fun I had a busy morning. I interviewed five people to hire my assistant as a part time job. It was interesting to see many kind of people. Housewives, musician, and a guy who just keep doing a part time job... By interviewing many people, I learn a lot. Tommorow, I will have four more people to meet. One will be an American guy, but not sure if he would have visa...
BTW, the picture above is a miniture cherry pie figure. My sis, one of my assistants and I are collecting these figures lately. We have so many tiny sweets figures.
Went out to drink with people who works in food industry and making similar items. They are our competitors, but good to be friends so that we can share the same info. Two sales persons from each company joined. I am always the only one girl at this kind of party. I got used to but sometimes I feel bad for them since I bet they want to do men's talk.
We went to pub after this Korean BBQ place. Sang song in front of people. It was a pub which is owned by a gay boy, who used to be a girl. He (she) told me quite a detail how he turned to a boy from a girl. It was so interesting to talk a lot with him.
I got home just now like 1AM. I will go out to drink again tomorrow night. Hwaaaaaaa, sleepy...
Cry and Laugh I went to work at Tokyo office today. When I happened to see my old classmate from college at my friend’s meeting, we scheduled to see each other again in Tokyo. His dad died when he was college and now his mom is running business. He is taking over the family business, and I thought we have similarities. We had lunch and talked for c couple hours. He was not a smart guy but really really nice and kind but quiet guy. We barely talked each other since we take almost all the same classes. It has been like 8 years since the last time we hang out but we decided to hang out more from now on. I thought boys change dramatically by their job!! After nice chat with my friend, I went to see a famous consultant. He was really strict and gave me so many advices to me. I shouldn’t have, but I cried in front of him. I was scared, and I got shocked and, and , and… I just could not help crying. I have no longer have a people who tell me the truth or strict thing to me. Very spoiled only because I am a daughter of CEO. Probably I cried because I was happy to meet unusual business person who gave me honest opinion face to face. I really appreciate him now.
This is a party I went tonight. A birthday party for a guy who takes care of me really well lately, and also one more guy who is CEO of a fashion brand, who is on the picture above. The guy on the left is a famous guy in music world. I would say all Japanese know him. It was a crazy party. Lots of model, Miss Universe, Miss something, and so on. I felt I was such a short shorty litlle girl. There were so many celebrities at the party. Tokyo is crazy, and I can’t believe that my life is getting change like this.
After the party, I went to go out to drink with my friend. After drinking more, we went to eat Ramen (noodle) at 2 in the morning. Uhhhh, I shouldn’t…
Fun Last Day of A Week I got up at 6 am and left my hotel soon after without putting on makeup. I just needed to catch the first flight to go back to Osaka. After arriving at Osaka, I went back to my apt and took shower and got ready. And went to Umeda to meet up with my sis and had lunch with her. This is a place where my sis had lunch all the time when she was a high school student. Memorable place foe her, but the food was just okay.
Since I went to work after lunch, there were tons of stuff to do. However, I did not finish everything and left work early to have dinner with my friends from Hula lesson. This is my dessert plate, banana with FIRE!! Cool, huh?
It was such a fun dinner with them. We were not that close last year, but gradually we are getting good friends. All of us have different work, different life and different dream, so it is nice to get together and talk about many things. I took a train so we all got drunk and had such a good time. I feel that I am so lucky to be able to hang out with so many kinds of friends!
I went to work in Osaka this morning. I called American Bank Company to fight about my late fee. Although I explained something was wrong because I have made full payment the last time I paid, they did not admit. I talked with manager, but nothing changed, so I closed my credit card. They were really automatic, so the manager explained really fast about what would happen when I close the credit card. It did not sound that he was human being… I asked the manager to speak slowly and then he spoke like a robot!! What a jerk…
I took a flight in this afternoon to Tokyo. I went to an office about our Organic margarine. Our organic margarine will be on TV commercial with famous coffee in Japan. The famous coffee company wanted to use our organic margarine as gifts for their campaign for 400 people. That’s really good news for us! After that I went to attend a special dinner for women who manage a company in food industry in Japan. I was the youngest and I was so nervous when I had to introduce myself in front of 30 people. Guest speaker was a big star in Japan and Taiwan. She is an actress and singer, who is a good friend with Jackie Chan. Too bad that I could not take picture of her. I was not brave enough to do it because I am the youngest girl there. I learned a lot from lots of elder women. It was such a great opportunity for me.
I forgot to bring contact lenses and had to wear these red glasses today. They might not be appropriate for the business dinner… These women are smart great people, but some were like high school girls although they were 50s. Some talked to me and spoke ill of others… I hope they would not speak ill of me because of these crazy glasses…
This is a view from my hotel tonight. Nice view, huh?
*Song which made me feel better since I was teenager.
It was not a good day since it started. Yeah, it happens sometime. Things don't go like how I want...
I don't understand why I am the one who always have to decide what to do. I hate it. They should know how hard to make decisions all the time. I feel kinda lonlely today and I feel empty somehow. So listening this music made me feel better.
There was one good thing, though. I got an appointment for an interview to get a new job. It seems like my resume passed the first step! Very excited to e interviewed since it's been a while since the last time I was interviewed for job hunting. I have to see if I can get enough salary and get a job I really want at the company. We'll see. The interview will be on December 3rd. Excited.
Tired. Need to sleep. I will go to Tokyo on business for a night from tomorrow. It will be a good day tomorrow, I hope.
With Nice People I am drunk tonight again. I can’t hold much alcohol, so I did not drink much before. However, I love drinking lately. I enjoy drinking, and I feel really good when I am drunk.
It was a busy day today, but I felt comfortable. One of my assistants caught a cold and was absent from work. To be absent from work on Monday is the worst thing to do. Lack of moral as a businessperson.
I had Indian lunch today again. I like the Indian restaurant which is close to my office, which is run by Indian people. Today's curry was Pumpkin curry. Not that good, unfortunately..,
We got a new girl to my department, so we had a welcome party tonight. All my assistants came to my town since we all live aloes each other. We went to Japanese restaurant in Toyonaka.
We forgot to take a picture, so some of us who went home by my car took a picture at a parking lot. Nothing behind… One of my assistants drove my car and took me home. How lucky I am to have nice and cute assistants!
Lots of Tasting I had been so tired today. I know it is not good, but I had definitely been in a bad mood at work. Such a busy day as well. I had to attend a meeting half a day as a representative of R&D department. We had couple things wrong last month, so I had to apologized to everyone at the meeting…
I was tired because I had a hangover from last night. I need to sleep…
I ate so much today. Lots of tasting and big dinner with my colleagues. It was so much fun to eat many kinds of Organic lunch boxes for tasting. All of them were pretty good. We had those for our lunch and discussed about these. This is time I feel that my job is fun.
Tomorrow, I have to attend a meeting for Board of Directors. I wish I could sleep in tomorrow, but I can’t… Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Fun Work I got up really early for morning meeting this morning. Worked really hard. However, during my work, I wrote my resume and turned in to travel agency. I am not sure if I want to change this current job, but I wanted to know if I am acceptable person for other companies. It was kind of fun to review my life to write my resume.
I had a business dinner with my co-worker and also one more person who works in the same industry but at the different company. I like both of them. Although it was a business dinner, but I had a really good time and it was fun. I was a person who had to arrange this dinner. So I took them to a restaurant which is next to my apt. After dinner I took them to my bar. They liked both of them and they got really drunk. Once they got drunk, it means I did enough. After I see them drunk, I got releaved and I started drinking and now I got drunk.
Since I am so drunk now, I had a piece of Japanese pear. It is a huuuuuuge Japanese pear, which my sister got from a boy. Very expensive one. Tasty.
Need to sleep. I hope I would not get hangover tomorrow...
Drinking with Fever I am sick now. I have a cold and I have throat ache, stomachache, and nose running. I was high because of fever and tiredness. So I finally took a medicine and got a little better. The reason why I took medicine was because I had to go out with girls from work. We have girls’ night like four times a year. Since I usually talk a lot, they expect me and one more girl to entertain the table. I was really not feeling to, but after I started drinking, I felt better and we had great conversations.
We went to Karaoke after dinner and it was all right. I was just so tired and sleepy.
I was so ready to go home, cuz it was like 11:30 PM. But elder lady said she did not drink enough and she feel lonely. It seems like she have had problems mentally a bit, she came to me this morning and we talked a bit. I was worried about her, and also I thought it would be rude to say no since she is older than I. She really wanted to talk about her problems. I took her to a Jazz bar in my town, since she loves Jazz. We were there till 3 in the morning. I am sooooo sleepy now, but writing this with drunk. I had such a good time at the bar as usual. I was so happy that she wanted to share her problem with me today. She said I should tell her my stuff too, but I didn’t. She kept saying that I am too dry and she wanted to be closer to me mentally. It is kinda rare to be told that someone wants to be close to me. I was happy but I was not confident that I would be open to her completely. She is a nice lady, but I never be able to be close friends with colleagues, somehow.
We talked a lot with other customers at the bar. It was fun. But I am sleepy. I should go to bed now…
I can’t go back to read what I just wrote, because I am soooo sleepy… G’night.
I had been in Tokyo o business for two nights. I come to Tokyo for sales, meeting, or seminar most of the time, but this time was different. I met so many successful people.
On 23rd, I visited a lady who works at a branding company. She had lived in France for some years, and now she helps me with the idea for opening a store in the US. I love her characteristic so much.
I saw a nutrition for pets, who has been successful in that field. She was also successful in NY too. She is a tough lady, but really nice lady.
On 24th, I met a 60-year-old lady who is very very successful in food industry in Japan. She is from Hawaii and she can speak so many languages. It was very interesting to listen to her story about the time she opened her business 36 years ago.
I took a cooking class with a daughter of a Japanese famous sweets company. Cuz we got introduced a man who is a founder of the biggest cooking school in Japan. The picture above is him. I cooked with him, and I bet nobody would agree that it is a part of my job to take a cooking class. But it was.
I had dinner with the daughter, a man who works at a big broker company and two more interesting boys. One is the same age as mine. He opens his own business in Shanghai by himself when he was 24 years old and being successful. I learned a lot from him how to open a business outside of our company. The other is a web designer, but actually the owner of a host-club. Both are young but they have a strong visions, which made me realize that I have not thought enough.
Seeing lots of successful people are interesting, but to be honest, also tiring. Some motivate me, but the other depresses me. It was interesting long Tokyo business trip.
Board of Director's Dinner Today was a day which all the board of directors at our company get together. I am not one of them, but they let me join. We get together and talk about one topic to make sure that all of us are looking at the same vision. We do this one-hour meeting once a month, and three times of a year, we go out for fancy dinner. This time was traditional Japanese dinner. This is our special menu there. It was a nice night.
I went out to drink with three of them after this fancy dinner. We all drunk sooo much and talked about work for hours and hours. I think I love talking about my work. I drink everyday lately…
First Experience I did Omiai for the first time in my life tonight after work. He was president of a BIG company in Japan. Omiai is one of Japanese traditional brind date, sort of... It is basically for marriage, but not all the time. I felt really weird me sitting in front of unknown 46-years-old guy. It was interesting experience. He took me out to a steak house, and this is an apple pie I ate there. I don't think I would do omiai anymore.
Having Dinner With My Assistants We had MonjyaParty closed to my apt. I invited assistants to the restaurant. We had such a good time together. Maybe we should do frequently.
Who Is The Right Person For Me? I went to work this morning. I have to go to work every weekends lately…Bummer… After I went to work, I went to Spa. I think I should stop going to spa this often, but when I am at the spa, I can get relaxed.
Today I was going to hang out with my sis, but I totally forgot about other appointments. I got call from Shinsuke and he wanted to make sure if I am coming to see him and his colleagues. “Shooot!” He mentioned about the dinner thing 2 weeks ago and reminded me today! I totally forgot about so I felt guilty but I canceled an appointment with my sis. Recently I forget many things…
Before going to the dinner, I stopped by my apt and checked my e-mail. And I was shocked by e-mail from my ex boyfriend. The e-mail was basically about him being worried if I am trying to get back with him. I was very surprised because I could not figure out what made him to get worried, and I felt sorry to make him worry. I am a person who keep in touch with all my ex boyfriends because I was in a deep relationship with each of them, and they are important to me. I was in love in them so much, that’s why I still want them to be a part of my life with a different type of good relationship after breakups, is it weird?
Afterwards, I was thinking that maybe the ex got worried because I have not been in a serious relationship since we broke up. As I am busy and had no luck, I haven’t had much opportunity to see someone new. Also I can’t feel, “Oh, this is THE guy!” to anybody lately.
So at the dinner, we were talking about “How to meet THE guy”. One guy told me that first I should analyze what kind of person I want to be with. When I was young, I wanted to date with cute looking guy who is more than 20 cm higher than my height and funny and gentle…etc To find THE guy when I was young was easy. Now I don’t care about looking, but inside! It was kinda fun to analyze them and to discuss about them. It was fun to listen to other people’s opinions about what they want their girlfriends have too. Girls’ perspective and boy’s perspective are a bit different.
Here are what important to me. 1. Someone who loves his family and will love my family. 2. Someone who let me do what I really care without bothering me. 3. Someone who is sincere, not a liar. 4. Someone who has a big dream for his life.
Boy’s opinions were 1. Someone who can cook well. 2. Someone who understands what I am doing and does not complain. 3. Someone who has the same hobby. 4. Someone who can share the same space with doing different things.
He said if the points you find a person who clears these points, you should go for it. We were at the restaurant for 4hours and a half. Except Shinsuke, I had never seen them, but they were quite interesting people.
Hula Girls On A Stage I started washer for my laundry last night, and before it got done, I fell a sleep. I was so tired, but I got up at 4AM and took all my laundries out from the washer and dried them, and checked all e-mails. After the mess, I went back to sleep and got up at 9AM. I packed my suitcase for Hawaii and left to have lunch with my sister. I hung out with her for a while and left to the airport. I was not excited about this Hawaii trip much, because I was not interested in traveling all the people from work. However, after busy days from convention, I was getting so excited and was looking forward to going to Hawaii with them.
I had to take Northwest airline which is the last airline I choose. I don’t like their service and I think their airplane is cheap. All of us sat in a group, and I sat next to a huge guy who smelled like sweat. I feel bad that I don’t know his name, but I talked with him nicely for a while. Since our flight was only for 6 and half hours, I was rushed to get a sleep. Because we were going to get to Hawaii at 8:30 AM, I thought I would get a bad jetlag. So I was sleeping but the guy split a glass of water ON me. I asked a stewardess to give me a new blanket, but she blamed on me saying that I overreact with water. She goes, “It’s just water. Let it go”. Her behavior pissed me off. I told her, “I am not a kid, so I know it is just a water and it would get dry. But it is wet now, and I feel uncomfortable. Do you have a new blanket?” I argued with her a while and decided to write a comment card.
I can’t believe people who are in a hospitality business do such a bad behavior!! Anyway, we arrived at Hawaii and of course, I was stopped at the immigration. It happens a lot lately because I have so many stamps on my passport. It is such a hassle all the time. After we left the airport, we took a sightseeing bus and did sightseeing and shopping. It was fun to see all my colleagues’ private style. Most of their fashion is out of the day. They wear suits all the time, so they don’t have good taste for their private clothes. Kinda funny. We had 100 year anniversary party for our company at Hyatt in Waikiki outside. 8 of us danced Hula with Ukulele players and singers. Everyone wanted to take a picture with us, and we were like famous star. People praised my dance since I was the only one who has practiced Hula for 2 years, and other practiced only 2 days. I could talk with a lot of my bosses and colleagues and had such such a good time. My dad and mom were there too.
After the party, my roommate and I went out to town. All the stores open till 10or 11PM, unbelievable! We shopped a lot and had ice cream at Cold Stone! I missed all this American life! It is soooo fun. I think I can getaway from work for these 3 nights! Yeahhhhhhh!!!
Food and Movie It was hard for me to get up this morning. I had to because I had to do my laundry today and I was going to see Shinsuke. I had Spa appointment at 1 PM so the only time I could see him was this morning. So I had to leave my apt 10:30, but of course I was late. I am really bad at being somewhere on time so I am always late, but the worse is that Shinsuke who never shows up on time, even today when I got there 30 mins late… Anyway, we had lunch together and I went to Spa. My got stiff shoulders. After the Spa, I did some window-shopping and went back to my apt to hold my laundries. This picture is what I ate today at my favorite Italian restaurant. Gratin! Lots of cheese. Ahhh, too much fat.
After I did some tuff at my apt, I went to pick up my friend form college. She just got married last May, and now she lives pretty close to me. We sometimes get together and watch movies or just being lazy together. Her husband is such a hard worker and he works on weekends too. She was going to stay over at my apt, but since her husband has been sick, so she decided not to. They had been together for 10 years, and their relationship was quite weird. But now she cares about him like taking care of him when he is sick, so I am glad. Anyway, I was surprised that he went to work on Saturday when he got fever and sick till midnight. Compared to him, my work maybe nothing…
We had dinner together and she came over to my apt, and she just left. We watched “Black Dalia”. I did not get the movie. It is too complicated, and it was not that interesting. At the end, we discussed about the story, but both of us did not understand. I rented two more movies, so I think I will watch one more or go to bed.
Love Company Event Today, we had New Year’s Party of our company at Chinese restaurant. Early this morning, we heard what our company’s goal this year. I got motivated a lot by hearing it, and now I really want to do my best whole this year till I leave this company. What can I do? I would like to leave a great success at this company before I go. I love this company and all employees. So when we have this kind of event, I get really excited. The men on the picture are a leader of Nagoya branch and Hokkaido branch. I can’ get to see them that often, so we drink a lot together when we have this kind of event. Some of the employees told me, "I love you!!". (Of course they were drunk) I love them so much too, and I feel really happy to hear that they say that they want me to work with them. As I am a daughter of the owner, I was not sure what other employees feel about me when I started working here. There were people who hated me and people who tried really hard to be liked by me only because I was a daughter of the owner. I think there are still some people who feel like that way. However, it is true that there are employees who see me as a normal person now. It took a while but now I have worked with lots of people and we share a lot of things together. I am so glad that I came back to Japan to work for this company. I still remember when I had a hard time to decide if I should come back to work for him. Now I know that I made a right decision although this is not my job forever.
When we are excited to challenge new thing for a new year, it is a good idea to get together and share the ideas. I am going to sell our products a lot this year! I am going to produce new products this year!
Today I left my office without my apt keys. My mom who got my key is in Hong Kong now, so I was in trouble. I asked younger employee who left at office late to bring the key to me. I feel myself too bossy to ask such a thing. How come I am so careless…
I was born in Kyoto, Japan. I always wanted to be in the US. After I graduated from Japanese college, finally I went to Denver to get another BA. I moved to SF to work at hotel afterwards. Now I came back to Japan and work for a company in food industry. I do Internet business selling special sweets. I wish I can go back to the US soon.
This blog is my journal, so I keep writing about small stuff happened to me on that day.
