I spent around 12 days on vacation with my girlfriend. First we went camping in Nagano-ken for 3 days. We met up with some of her friends at a rock festival called Kiso-Kodo. It was fun and relaxing. Highlight of the camping was the food. Fresh grilled
seafood and wild boar.
After that, we spent the next 5 days in Okinawa. We flew in on a monday night, Naha then to Ishigakijima. We were on the tail end of a typhoon this night, so it was overcast and raining. The next morning we hopped on a speedboat and took a 45minute ride to Iruomotejima.
Continue reading ‘Been a busy past month.. Where to start? Vacation’
Well, it’s been a long 4 months but I finished my project. I was lead for the network implementation of one of japan’s largest currency exchange companies. The project started from the ground up, all new hardware and lines, including the build out of two data centers and upgrade of the office location and the implementation of a VoIP phone system. Then the migration of their current services from foreign hosted data centers to ones local to japan.
These types of projects are normally 9 to 12 month projects. We had basically 5 months, with a 4 month early completion bonus. So from initial planning, ordering and implementation… we made the 4 month mark!
I spent the last month doing config cleanup, training and documentation. Now, from tomorrow, I am spending my bonus on a vacation. Off to go camping in Nagano for 3 days, then to Okinawa’s Iruomotejima and Ishigakijima for beach bumming and more camping for a week and finally back to kyoto for a 3 day camping/music festival.
After that, I come back to a new project as a PM/Manager for Asian Operations for large financial company.. in Roppongi…
cya on the flip
Around two weeks ago, I made the venture back to where I used to live in Hiroshima to take part in the summer aikido camp. 4 days of Aikido, 3 times a day, followed with (un)health doses of drinking. It was great to be back in hiroshima and see how much saijo had changed. Very surprising for such a little town.
Pictures are up on flickr, at the normal place.
At the Enterprise 2.0 conference (which I didn’t attend), Don Burke and Sean Dennehey from the CIA gave a talk on Intellipedia, the CIA’s internal wikipedia. As part of their talk, they cited a manual, including, this from page 28:
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
This is pretty much the way all business run in japan….
Been busy as of late. An old honorable friend is in town and staying with me for a few weeks as he tries to make his re-entry back into this country. I am juggling with starting a new job that will be amazing, in every sense of the word and also dealing with those day to day japanese annoyances.
Continue reading ‘Busy Busy Busy’
Well it was a rough weekend. Friday morning I woke up with a sinus headache and the general onset of a headcold. Throughout the day I managed to load up on echinacea, zinc and some cold/vitamin drinks and managed to eliminate the general grogginess.
Saturday morning, up bright and early with a little drainage but feeling good. Off to the station to go to work. (It’s about a 10 minute bike ride from my apartment to the station I transfer at.) I usually take a thoroughfare that isn’t a side road, but is by no means a busy road. Today was no different. At 0830 in the morning on saturday, there are not so many people up in the part of tokyo I live… with that in mind, traffic is almost non-existent. I realized that I am now not the only person to know this.
Coming down a small hill, I had a yellow light, on the verge of green. I normally slow down a tad bit in these cases just to make sure that there are no cyclers or people wanting to do the ole St. Louis stop or rush the red. Today, however, I decided it was early and no need to do it.
Continue reading ‘A lesson learned…’
2008 All Japan Kagami-biraki pictures are up.. here.
Sumo is interesting..
More pictures to come from Akita..
Last year should have been the year of the rat (it was actually the pig.) Chinese astrology plays a large part in the culture in japan, so the new year brings in the new zodiac sign, the rat. Along with various lame and dumb television shows.
Made it back late saturday night from Akita. We weren’t able to have reserved seats coming back, so we had to hop between open seats until the train was full and then we had to stand (or sit in the changing areas..) Ended up spending about an hour actually standing. Not too bad since the trains were book to 150% capacity..
Anyways. The 7 days I spent on vacation were fabulous. I didn’t do anything except go to onsens (hot springs) everyday, a splendid fish market, play othello, go to 寒風山（ mountain on the coast) and eat way too much really fresh fish. There was plenty of snow outside and the pleasant odor of sandalwood wafting throughout the house.. perfectly refreshing!
-Things learned:
Women take a long time (up to 2 hours) to put on a kimono.. (however, they are easy to get off! giggetygiggety )
In traditional japanese homes, it is expected that if a girl brings a guy home, they are going to announce their engagement.
Akita has a lot of good food, but it is very salty. ( Due to the coldness, pickling of foods is common..)
I can play the shakuhachi.. (it is supposedly extremely difficult to produce sound on it..)
Pictures to come soon.
Merry holidays everyone. Hope you are well and enjoying yourselves.
I had a wonderful Christmas here with a fabulous home cooked meal by the girlfriend. We will be heading off to Akita this friday to celebrate the new year’s in the traditional japanese way with her family. ( visiting the family shrine and following it up with lots of fresh fish and sake!)
On a side note; the line at the KFC near my apartment was nearly 60 people deep with a 2 hour wait. Why you ask? Fried Chicken is the christmas food here, well that and christmas cake. I guess ham is not popular, that is fine by me though!
It is great being in a country with subsidized health care!! Just received my new insurance package for next year and wow, it’s great! It isn’t even the best available in japan, but it is pretty good, dental and eye coverage (except cost of classes) and general health-care related issues. Plus medicine is cheap and co-pays are cheap. Coverage for dependents is even amazing.. why cannot the US do this.. oh yeah, too much corporate interest.