Hangover

Hangover But Drunk More

I woke up at my hotel in Tokyo and oh my god!! I had really a bad headache.
Yes, hangover…
I had never gotten hangover, but since last year, I sometimes get hangover.
Probably it is because of my age??

I took a flight to go back to Osaka, and had lunch with my sis, and went back to my office after.
It was a pretty busy day at work, and I did not feel well because of hangover headache…
I really did not feel like going out to drink tonight, but look at me, I look really happy in the picture.
Yes, I finally felt better after work.

We talked a little about work, ate a lot and drunk a lot of course.
It did not take much time for me to get drunk tonight.
Everyone could tell that I was tired because I could not stop yawning...
How rude...

Although I was tired and wanted to go home, drinking out with co-workers from sales department is always fun.
They are such nice and funny guys.
They can drink so much, and if I drink as much as they drink, I would die.
I just get a little worried about the 23-year-old girl who just entered to our company this April.
She lives with her family and I bet her parents get worried about thier daughter if she gets home at 1 in the morning.
What a bad boss I am...

I Complain

Working With My Boss Is Not Easy

I had a quick meeting in this morning about pie shell.
Recently, we have several R&D meeting about each project.
I feel we had too many meetings, but we have to…
After the meeting, I attended a manager meeting from each department.
I was an amanuensis for the meeting.
And I went to restaurant to meet a chef to ask for a comment about our product.
I always get nervous to meet chefs, since I have to have certain knowledge about cooking about technical things and words.
He was nice and I learned a lot from him.
Meeting with lots of famous people is fun part about this job.

Since my day went quickly like this by doing many things, I was late for dinner tonight.
I went out to drink with 8 people from sale department from Tokyo branch and Nagoya branch.
People from sale department are funny.
They know how to entertain people because of their job.
They are tough and drink a lot.
We were all drunk and complained about my boss.
I should not have complained about my boss to them, but could not help since he was so hard on me lately.
I felt a little relief that everybody had the same impression about my boss and wondering how to treat him.

We went to Karaoke after dinner till 2 in this morning.
It is nice to hang out with them once in a while like this.
Ah, I wish I were a member of a sale department.

Food Food Food

Eating Too Much

Thai Fried Rice, originally uploaded by yikada.

Today was an eating day.
I went to Thai food restaurant with my assistants for lunch.

At 3PM, I tasted lots of food by my co-workers who took a cooking class from our chef who has a contract with our company.
All of them tasted really good.
I had like 5 menus…
And I went to a party at night with people from other companies for work.
I was a hostess, so I arranged the time, place and everything.
Everybody like the restaurant I picked.
It was a restaurant with all chicken.

Lastly, we went to Sushi to drink more.
I can’t believe why we could eat Sushi after we eat a lot from the last restaurant.
More surprisingly, at the Sushi place, I met a woman who knows really well about me,
I had mever met her, but she knew my dad.
She hesitated to tell her name, but she confessed that she has known my dad for a long time.
Who the hell she was?
Is my dad a “man”, like others??
Oh well…
I don’t think she was my dad’s lover or anything, but let’s not tell my mom.

Rare Friend

Meeting With My Rare Friend

Today was the first day to go to work with my new hairstyle.
When I was walking to my office, my co-workers came from the other day.
They laughed at me saying, “Ohhhh you look so cuuute.”
I felt embarrassed…
Most of them thought that I was wearing wig, and could not help laughing.
The picture above is pie ice cream we made for a recipe to cell our pie shell.
They are yummy!!

I supposed to meet someone tonight which I was looking for, but my friend had a cold and the appointment was canceled.
So I worked till late but did not feel like eating by myself so I called my different friend whom I have not seen for a while.
I have been friend with him since I was 14 years old.
Ryohei is a good guy but very different from me.
He is a type of guy whom I don’t usually hang out with.
However, he is a good friend for me whom I can be honest with somehow although I don’t get to see him that often.
He got married so it is hard for me to ask him out for dinner but ask him twice a year.
He came over to my apt and we went out to drink.
Ryohei can’t drink much but he drank much enough for me.

Since he is one of my good friends, I got drunk easily.
So nice to see a rare friend.
It was too fun and forgot to take any picture…
It was a nice night tonight.

Somehow

Feeling Sad

I tried to cheer my boss up tonight because he was down today.
I went out to drink with him till 11:30.
I wanted to go home since I was tired, but I did for him!
However!!! what he did to me was not nice.
He kept telling me all the rumors like someone does not like me.
I was like, "Okay, are you like 5-year-old kid or something?"
I tried not to care, but hearing such a thing does not make me happy.

He mentioned a lot about my weak points and at the end when we go home, he said,
"You know? I am on your side."

Huh????
I beg your pardon??
Some people love to hurt someone's feeling like he does.
All his info is not right, so I should not trust him, but still I care.

I regret that I tried to cheer him up.
Wait, maybe I did cheer him up by letting him to hurt me.
Oh well...

Okinawa Food

Dinner with Co-Worker

I had to take a train to work since I went out to drink last night.
I used to take a train every morning, but now it is something I hate.
I don't know why but I just got used to driving to work.

As I mentioned, I interviewed a foreigner today.
I thought he would be American, but he was actually from Brazil.
He spoke pretty good Japanese, but he was not someone whom I was looking for as my assistant.
It was interesting to meet through interviewing.
He was not the one, but I found the one and she will be working with me from next Monday.

I went out to drink with my co-worker.
He used to have my position, but moved to a different department.
It had been a while since the last time we talked in person.
We went to a restaurant which serves food in Okinawa.
It was pretty good.
He does not drink much, so I drunk for him.
It was fun and so nice to talk with him about a lot of stuff.

Drinking everyday make me be able to hold lots of alcohol.

Cheesecake Meeting

Organic, Cheesecakes And Alcohol

I took a flight to Tokyo and went to Saitama, where is 1 and a half hours away from Tokyo.
Recently I am close to president of an organic products distributing company.
He is from Main in the US.
I have been learning a lot about organic from him.
I like talking with him because we can talk very friendly.
We talk not only about business, but also non-business topics.
The picture above was my lunch at his organic cafe.

After I got back to Tokyo office from Saitama, about 30 or more cheesecakes were waiting for me.
Salesmen at Tokyo branch bought tons of cheesecakes and they wanted me to eat with him to discuss what to be sold.
Eating all these was not easy at all, made me sick.
However, I enjoyed hearing their thoughts about cheesecakes.
We are eating cheesecakes a lot lately because our new products for autumn will be cheesecakes, so we have to learn a lot about cheesecakes.

These are salesmen at Tokyo branch.
We went out to drink.
It was so much fun!!
This picture looks really stupid, though.
We went to Karaoke after this and got soooo drunk…
Always love to hang out with them.
Since all the people at Tokyo branch are nice, I feel comfortable being in Tokyo once a week.
Anyway, but they drink alcohol like monsters…

Future Management Meeting

Meeting With Alcohol

They are men who will be executives of our company after 20 years.
Well maybe…
We are all in the middle management now.
We are all suffering between subordinates and bosses by each way.
We decided to get together to talk about the future of our company.
One guy came from Tokyo, and we planned to do this a while ago.
Therefore, I could not say I could not go because I had so much stuff to do.
Tonight, I was not sure if I should left tonight.
Seriously, I am working pretty hard lately, but I feel horrible that I can’t get rid of them forever.
I feel ashamed that I was late to turn in my documents for the first time to a meeting on Saturday.
Well, I got it done today before Saturday meeting, but obviously I did not give enough time to other people to prepare for the meeting.
I still have lots of things to do for my former department, but whenever I try to work on them, I always get lots of other things to do for a new department.
I really don’t know what to do…

Okay, so I was with them, and I felt there is not sex discrimination at all in this company.
I don’t think they don’t know that I am a girl.
We drunk and talked not about work but about stupid stuff.
It was fun to hear what they think about their department.
Tonight one guy told me not to tell anybody that I travel abroad during my vacation time.
How come people don’t understand that I am financially independent?
Whatever I do fancy, they think that I get support.
Well, sometimes it is true, but most of the time I am taking care of myself.
Anyway, I want to go to Thailand again in May during my vacation!

I gotta get up early for a meeting tomorrow.
Totally I had a good time tonight, so I guess I made a good decision tonight.
I will cover my work tomorrow before the meeting!

Only Girls Allowed

Party Girls!

Today was the first day for me to work at R&D department.
I gave a little speech at my former department, and everyone was so surprised.
I felt relief that I don’t have to hide my position change to anybody anymore.
I moved most of my papers and files to other building.
There are two guys to help me moving so much stuff.
I felt a little sad, but at the same time, I am very excited to manage R&D department.

At night, all girls at our department went out to drink.
There were 13 women at our company.
We had such a good time.
When I started working, I was almost the youngest and there were only four women, but now I am one of the oldest business women at our company of 13 women.
We had dinner at my friend’s restaurant, which serve lots of vegetables.
After we ate, we went to bar and had a drink.
We are going to Hawaii next month, and I will teach all the girls Hula
I am not sure if I am capable to teach Hula, but I will try.
We will wear Hawaiian dress all together and dance in front of all workers.
I am so happy to have these nice companies.

Business Dinner

Business Dinner with Doctors

I just came home from a business dinner.
I had dinner with doctors who are in charge of our special products.
One is a veterinarian and the other is a pet dietician.
Have you heard a pet dietician?
I don’t think there are many of them, but a pet dietician direct pet owners what their pet eat.
It is such an interesting job.
We took them a nice steak restaurant, but it was too much.
I was the one who supposed to take care of everything, but I was kinda slow, so my boss took care of everything, like serving stuff.
I am bad….

Since they were our serious business partners, I could not take any pictures at the restaurant.
I hate to update this blog without any picture so I upload this picture, my sweets.
This is petite chocolate which we just started to sell for Valentine’s Day.
This is one of our popular sweets.
Ahh, Valentine’s Day is coming up!!

Oh, so after we left a steak house, I took them out to a wine bar.
Well, it supposed to a wine bar, but it wasn’t.
We researched by a magazine and totally misunderstood it was a wine bar.
I ordered red wine, but they kept the bottle in a refrigerator!!
No way!
Also the owner said, “I don’t know much about the kind of wine”.
Such a disappointment, but we had a good time.
Doctors are different kind of people from us.
I don’t know how, but different.
Very interesting, but there are so many technical words I could not understand.
Maybe I should study Japanese language more…
One of the doctors is from NY.
There are many similarities between us.
It was fun for me to hear a lot of unknown place in the US, which I might be able to visit the next time.
We will have them to our company to tour them our factories.
It will be a big day tomorrow again!

Communication Day

The Team Hiraoka

I feel old…
And it is unfortunate that I look really fat in this picture by the way…
Today I went to drink with some people of Osaka sales department of our company.
Mr. Hiraoka is a boss of this group and he invited me to join his communication dinner.
I have worked with Mr. Hiraoka a coupe times and he always said that he wants to give me an opportunity to talk with his people whom I usually don’t talk.
The reason why he wants me to communicate with them is that two of them will be my assistants when we exhibit our product at convention in February.
They are all young.
Mr. Hiraoka is an old guy who is very strict about common sense.
So I am careful about my manner a lot in front of him.
Therefore, tonight, I watched them how they act in front of their boss kinda strictly.
They should have researched where the restaurant is before they take us, so that we did not have to walk long. ( Mr. Hiraoka has Hernia)
Who had to hang everyone’s coat?
They had to order enough dishes without taking too long time.
Etc, etc, etc.
There are so many manners at a business situation in Japan.
I, myself, don7t know enough, but when I am with young people, I did not say anything, but I judged them.
That made me feel I am old and mean…
Elder Japanese people do the same to me, so I have to be really careful.
Japanese manners are very difficult...
Anyway, besides the mannaer, I had a good time in total.
Always nice to talk with mew people.
Food was all good, maybe I was the only one who eat the most…

It is Friday today, time goes fast…
Drunk, sleepy, and tired.
Japanese salary woman…

Japanese Business Hotel

This Is Where I Stay

Ahhh, I am drunk.
I did this again…
I wish I were brave enough to day that I can’t drink much.
I am in Tokyo today.
My business partner and I were going to come to Tokyo tomorrow without spending a night here.
However our boss told us to come for meeting this evening.
I still think we could do tomorrow morning, but he ordered us to come, so we worked in Osaka and took a flight to Tokyo for a meeting.
After a meeting, I went out to drink with people of Tokyo branch.
I drunk too much…
I stay at a nice hotel on special occasion, but I usually stay at this small business hotel.
We get paid 8300yen($80US) for hotel per night, but it is hard to find that cheap hotel in Tokyo.
Actually, since I stay this small hotel, but this room is over the budget so I have to pay extra from my pocket money.
Not fair!!!

I would rather sleep at my apt, so I wish I could bring my bed to everywhere…
The reason I hate about Japanese business hotel is the following.
1. Too tiny little room
2. Too thin wall. I even can her snoring of a man who stay at the next room.
3. Too stinky. I hate to wear PJ at hotel, but I have to since I can’t carry much stuff when I am on a business trip.
Compare to Tokyo business trip, business trio on abroad is much better.
I always can get to stay at nice hotel whenever I work in other country.
There is no budget for that, although I care about the expense

Ahhhh, I can’t take a shower tonight, I think I will be pass out now.
I am proud that I wrote this blog tonight...

Co-Workers

Communication by Drinking

I had to finish a design of a brochure of our new products.
A guy from a design company finally finished his work at 8PM.
I was so upset about how slow he was.
I mean I could understnad that it would take a while to get a design done.
I gave him all info, and tell him to every single things, but he had never understood.
So whenever he was excited and told me that he got his work done, most of stuff was totally different from I said.
I was scold by my boss, and I had to keep talking to him.
I just can't understand why he tells a lie.
Like he said he was working on it, but he wasn't, he said he understood, but he didn't, he said he would come to our office at 6, but he didn't.
We rushed the design company, so I could not tell him strictly, but I totally lost my trust to that company, unfortunately.

However, the good thing is that since I was at office till late, my female co-worker aske me to go out to drink.
She has worked at our company for a long time, and she is really funny girl.
We could not have much chance to drink together so it was a good opportunity.
I was going to go home early and eat at my apt tonight.
However, I decided to go.
My boss, who was listening to our conversation, wanted to join us, so we invited him and our other colleague.
When four of us were drinking, my other boss and two other colleagues from sales department called us to ask us if they can join.
We felt like drinking since only one more day left to have our winter vacation.
After we went to one restaurant, some of us except our bosses stayed and went to a bar.
Four of us were going to have just one drink, but we ended up to drink till 2 in the morning.
Again today was not the last day, but one more day left.
Dang! I am not sure if I can get up tomorrow.
Well, but it was fun night with my colleagues!

Japanese Pub

First Pub Experience

I work in Osaka today and left for Tokyo for business this afternoon.
I was going to meet a business-related person who gave me a book before.
It has been a while since I got the book, but I had not read it yet.
Since I did not want to be rude to him, while I was on a fight to Tokyo and on a train in Tokyo, I read a whole one book very quickly.
It was about a girl who took over her father’s business and got success.
The title of the book is “ If president of the company changes, the company would change too”.
Obviously, I am not going to take over my father’s business, but somehow he thinks that I am going to.
Also he thought that the girl in a book is really similar to me, so he bought a book for me.
It was actually an interesting book, and her characteristic was quite similar to mine…

When I got in Tokyo, I worked at hotel room and finished several work till the time I get together with people from other companies.
It was another “Forgetting Year Party” again.
Today’s menu was chicken, which was not my favorite.
After we had dinner, we went to a Japanese pub, which had a band who sings Oldies.
There were some girls who dresses sexy and served alcohol to men.
They make hella lot of money.
It was my first experience to see those girls in real.
It was interesting to see them, and I thought it seems like what they do is something I am good at.
I love talking with people, so smiling and serving alcohol to men is a piece of cake.
I sometime do the same thing for work situation, so I could work at pub and make a lot of money like they do.
Easy!

Before the band comes, it was Karaoke Pub, sort of.
Some Americans were there and sang lots of English song, but quite horrible, unfortunately.
They looked happy and they danced with other old Japanese people too.
I was invited to sing with an old guy a song “Hey Paula”.
I was a vocalist in a band when I was teenager, but I was so embarrassed to sing in front of lots of people at pub.
Look how horrible I look in this picture…
I could not refuse.
Anyway it was such a weird interesting night which I did the first experience in my life.
Being Japanese businesswoman is tough, huh??