Working in a international company in Tokyo, I am afforded the opportunity to work with people not only from Japan and American, but from all over the world. I recently had a discussion with both a partner of the company and my girlfriend in regards to the way people approach situations and the reasoning methods. Not only from a technical approach, but in general.

I recently have had some issues with people I am dealing with not being what I consider technically capable for their positions. For example, people that are supposed to be senior level technicians that cannot identify a difference between application layer problems and network level problems. I understand that people want to immediately blame someone else when their stuff does not work, and I fully acknowledge the possibility that the network or network related issues could be the problem. However, I do expect a senior person to be able to come to me and say “Hey, I have verified the services are running and that I cannot connect/ping/access/telnet to the port of the affected server/device. I have checked log files etc etc.” Please check the network.. I do not, I repeat do not, enjoy having to learn about your application because you do not know how to debug a problem on your own. “This is the nTH time I have used this application..” is not a valid excuse. DO you think I have used it???

Perhaps it comes from having an engineer father who was always encouraging in my endeavours to disassemble and reassemble something. Perhaps it comes from having a comp sci./math background? Perhaps it comes from being “intelligent” or perhaps experience?

While I do have a lot of experience with networking and computers, I in no way expect to be more knowledgeable then a 40 year old guy who has been doing this his whole life.

At the other end of the spectrum, I want to also say that I find the learning process of some people interesting. Again, perhaps it is a product of up-bringing or education, or even lack of experience.. If you are in the IT field working as an SA you really need to know how to logically approach a problem;

1) Isolate the problem; saying the application is not working is not enough. Thats what the end users says. When an SA comes to me and says the application is broke and they want to fix the network on the basis of that, I immediately feel the urge to head butt them.

2) Troubleshoot at the application layer. You know, the OSI model fabulous for troubleshooting. I fully don’t expect a SQL admin to understand anything below, say session level, but you can verify that you server is actually working.

3) Provide a valid explanation of your problem to your network admin / senior consultant. It actually saves time in the long run, and perhaps you get a little bit of respect.

4) Profit.

As for network troubleshooting, you really need to learn the OSI model and understand what is going on within the TCP/UDP[IP] streams. Just because you cannot ping a host doesn’t mean it is not up. Just because you cannot connect to an ftp port doesn’t mean that ftp is shut off.

Did I learn any of this in college? No.. I don’t think I gained this from experience either, per say. It just seemed logical to me…

Perhaps I am to logical.. perhaps they are just idiots…

So a quick update..

It’s hot as hell here. Summer is here and rainy season is all but over.

The job, well it is going awesome. Any doubts that I had about both the company and my abilities are all but gone. Everything I have encountered so far I have been able to solve, via my own ability or via delegating throughout my team. All in all, it’s good. The only problem I have is working with some central european country peoples. Italians, Irish, French Spanish, Tanzanian, Nigerian, Nepalese.. no problem.. others, not so much. And I am not the only one, so I don’t particularly feel like this is a weakness, but I need to try and figure this out.

Aikido is going, bjj is going (perhaps I will have to do some shiai if I want rank..), sabar still going. Japanese is increasing..

As soon as this project is over, I will get a long vacation and a huge bonus.. Planning on going to Nagano and camp in the mountains with girfriend and her friends that live there and then after that perhaps go to a music festival outside of kyoto that lasts for over a month. Also laying plans for a winter trip to Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam if anyone feels like joinging, around 14 days.

Interesting times all around.

(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….

Things have been busy lately.. Busy with work and back to enjoying Tokyo. Having moved to a more clean and green area of Tokyo, I have to say it is quite refreshing. I have two huge parks within 10 minutes bike ride from my apartment, fabulous view from my balcony, and huge cherry tree’s all around.. (Sakurashinmachi), Sandan test coming up soon if I decide to take it, super bonus coming up also. A friend from canada is coming to visit, again, and possibly moving back. All round, it’s going great.

That’s why updates have not been so frequent.. there is only so much time in the day. My schedule goes like this..

m-f 9-6ish work
tth 830 1030 jujutsu
fr 1830 2000 jujutsu
sas aikido and sabar
—
Outside of that, studying japanese and a decent amount of partying with friend… japanese summer.

Since I moved, my judo dojo is just to far away and there is a bjj dojo run by some high ranking bjj guys close by.. (and cheap!) so I started that..

I was able to meet and talk with the head of Hope international for a few minutes. Interesting guy. If I go to cambodia, I can help build a well now. Maybe around christmas.

ehhhhhh!

Well it’s been around a month, give or take, since I have posted any updates. If for any reason, because I have been busy. Between trying to recover from jetlag and family induced stress, to starting a new job and getting up to speed on projects..

So I will give you all a quick update.

First and foremost, thanks to all those of you that inquired as to the health of my mother. She is doing a lot better now. They put two splints in one of her arteries and performed angioplasty on another. They were able to remove the blockage from the 85% and 95% blocked arteries and on the angioplastyied on they were able to clear it to 40%. She is up and moving around very happy now. It was a good 20 days in St. Louis except, again, I didn’t get to see as many people as I hoped to.

Back in Japan, I started a new job. Back into the IT world full swing. I am working as a consultant for a large SP/integrator here in Tokyo. I am at the top of the infrastructure team and will be developing their networking/security group. This is a fabulous position with one of the most international groups I have ever seen. We now have people from over 11 nationalities working. Plus there is free espresso in the office, so it’s win win win… ( Plus stock options baby… and AlOTTTT of money.)

Other then that.. I have been enjoying the cool japanese spring.

Goldenweek was a bit odd this year, the days were not lined up so the holiday was a bit shorter then normal, but I did manage to make it to Kyoto for two days. That was a blast… anyway, slowly uploading pictures…

The 45 to 55 year old women sitting next to me, on skype, chatting with a friend about the latest Britney Spears pictures. Literally, she turned the news down so she could talk to her friend. Even after I asked to be considerate of others she is still being annoying as hell. If she wasn’t using her edge card for access I would be up in her shizznitaz. SO ANNOYING.

Next, there are is a gaggle of fat women here discussing their exercise routine. Which I think really consists of them making laps around the buffet during lunch… and dinner. *sigh*

On a side note.. things here are now as expensive as they are in Tokyo. It blows my mind. Recession anyone?

I went to the embassy this morning to have more pages added to my passport. I have to say I was impressed with the efficiency of the citizen services group. Perhaps the visa group isn’t so efficient though.

Not looking forward to the flight back…