Sushi

Do you go to "Kaiten Zushi" often? If you want to try a new "on demand" type of sushi, you should know that a new place just opened in Osaka has customer touch screens for ordering.
The screens have fishes swimming around on them, and you press a fish to order it in your favorite Maki. The images even include short notes, such as "rich in vitamins," and "good for
stomach and head aches." Plus it also includes the biology of tuna and other species. This rather radical advance in sushi ordering has had good reactions from families with kids, who are
less likely to get bored. Although you now don't need to search through the rotating plates to find what you want to eat, you do still have to wait for the plate you ordered to show up.
In terms of human psychology, this new system reminds me of a Kaiten Zushi I went to in Chiba. There I saw a lot of sushi on the rotating belt, but they were all made of wax, not the real
thing. The cook was there, and he asked what I wanted, made the sushi, and instead of handing it out to me, put it on the belt. I remember wondering why he didn't just give me the plate as he made the dish. I guess that the anticipation of waiting for your plate to come through makes the customers hungrier. He at least was able to balance customer psychology with the cost savings of reducing uneaten plate wastage...
Which do you prefer for your sushi, a human or IT interface?

Cash, Card, or Phone?

Do you use bus card and other pre-paid cards for transportation? Ten years ago, JR started issuing iO cards. Then Metro cards and bus cards followed. At first I thought it was pretty convenient, but I found a problem. The fact is that these days, you probably don't use your phone cards often, because most of us have a mobile. Well, there was a news item recently that mobile phone users will be able to buy credits on their cell phones, that will act like tickets/cards for your daily transportation needs. Every time you exit a ticket gate, even without showing your phone, the ticket machine will let you through and record the transaction via your cell phone -- which you can just simply leave in your bag.
As some of you might have noticed, Japanese are not used to using credit cards, but instead tend to overdepend on cash. Debit cards certainly haven't worked well here, and the preference for chash may be one of the reasons. Maybe the banks should try to add debit card functions to mobile phones, so the consumer doesn't have to carry around so many cards...

Neighborhood

On the weekend, I took a walk around Azabu Juban. It's about 15-20 min walk from my home and I enjoyed it because there are lots of small stores with "natsukashii" stuff from the old days. It's been a long time since I was there last, and I was surprised that the street was filled with lots of tourists. It looks like they come down on the Ooedo line. Even the bread store I often go to was filled with people, and I gave up trying to buy bread. Everywhere I went was crowded,
and I ended up buying nothing. It must be good for the stores there that they have more customers coming, but my feeling is complicated: the town I used to know is changing. The new Mori building in Roppongi will bring even more people in future too.
I think everyone has their favorite town, and somehow you call it your own. I know it's selfish, but somehow I wish my space would just stay the same as it always was. I guess it's time to make an expedition to a new area -- and become one of those tourists I've been complaining about.

Bus

The other day, I took a bus home from Shibuya, and the bus stopped because the engine overheated. Luckily another bus soom came to pick us up, so the passengers didn't have to
wait in the cold weather too long. I don't remember the last time I was in a bus in Japan that actually broke down. So it was a kind of unique experience and in a strange way a little bit enjoyable...
I remember that I loved taking the very front seat of the bus when I was in elementary school. I guess I wanted to feel like I was driving the bus. Somehow, I started choosing the seat in the very back of bus in high school. You can see that the other kids and students have the same
tendency if you're on the bus.
Some people don't like taking the bus because it's never on time and some drivers speed and drive like crazy, but I like it because I can check out different views of the city which I can't see from the train. With only JPY200, you can go almost anywhere in Tokyo by Toei Bus. Time for a bus trip?

Brand

I heard the news that Converse filed for Chapter 11 protection, meaning that effectively they went bankrupt.
I remember when I was in 5th and 6th grade at school, we all joined the basketball team as part of our school activities. Everyone wanted Converse basketball shoes. But as time went by, I stopped wearing my Converse shoes and never really bought any more. Even though the brand recognition of Converse is still pretty strong, maybe we're entering an era where just brand image can't drive a business anymore. In which case, operators with strong corporate and brand management experience, like RVMC, will start moving in even more aggressively and buying up yesteryear's famous companies...

Real Work

We had a group of students from France in the office other day. It was part of their MBA course to come visit real companies in Japan. They went to some big Japanese outfits such as NTT Docomo, but commented that they liked visiting us best, because they could ask lots of questions to "real" people doing "real" work. The other companies tended to show off their beautiful office space, expressing how great they are. On the other hand, our office has used office furniture's almost everywhere since cost-effectiveness is key to making profits. The students were excited about how we run our own servers and make websites, programs, magazines -- in fact, we do pretty much everything by ourselves.
They are so young, and don't know what kind of challenges they'll face in future, but I hope that we could stimulate their interest in being entrepreneurs in the future.

Incorporation

As you might can see/hear I "scream" quite often these days. Yes, I'm working on yet another company incorporation: Layer-8. This time the process is much easier than last time with daijob.com, because now I know how it works. Time flies. The anniversary of daijob.com's
incorporation is just around the corner, on Jan 21st. I won't forget the days and nights we spent on the daijob incorporation/funding last year.... Now that DJ is doing so well, and I can happily let them leave the nest soon.
I'm thinking now how to get others to help me work on this stuff, particularly how to set up new companies. Of course, we could just use a consulting or law firm to take care of all the procedures, but the thing is that once the job is done they leave you. So later on if you need to know why certain decisions were made or how the company was described in the articles of incorporation, you have no knowledge within the company. In other words, you lose the flexibility to change the corporate documents as the company itself changes. So, we're going to keep doing the establishments in-house.
But the fact remains that I do need help, so my New Year's resolution is to pass my know-how to other people inside LINC Media.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Robots

It's said that the people are seeking better forms of relaxation and relief from the stress of working. The engineering department of Ibaraki University made some firefly robots. They even tested the robots effects on the public and the result was that people did indeed relax. Actually, many of them were surprised when they were told that the fireflies were not real.
The boom of aibo and the other pet robots is probably because people are looking for alternatives to their current life style. Particularly, they're looking for easy-to-be-around pets, but without the inconvenience in their small apartments of having to feed and take care of them.
I'm still scared of robots because they're not natural. Think about it: 20 years ago, robots couldn't walk by themselves, and now Honda has one that even walks naturally. Maybe we'll be able to
make an Astro Boy in the 21st century....?!

Pearls

I had a chance to go to a small pearl trading company to help one of my friends do some Christmas shopping. It's run by a foreigner who's been here for about 38 years, and they offer
pearls with pretty much your own design for a very reasonable price. The owner told us a story while we were waiting for my friend's pearls to be set.
Apparently, one day, a 15 year old kid came to the store, looking for a present for his girlfriend. He could afford only 10,000 yen which was a little short for what he could get at the store. Of course he was hesitating, but the owner was a real smooth talker and said to the kid, "You know, sonny, of course you could buy her nice clothes, bags, or books... but you're not going to win her with something so common. If she wants a real pearl, how badly do you want her?"
Of course the kid bought the pearl (with help from his mom), and the shop owner successfully made another sale. I had to smile at the story, when it comes to women getting their way, men are so easy to mind control -- even if by another man!

Old Friends

I went to the wedding of one of my old friends from kindergarten last weekend, and found it very interesting. I'm happy that she found someone good for her, and can share their lives together. But at the same time, I had this haunting feeling that I didn't belong to their culture anymore.
The ceremony was a typical Japanese one. She married a man whom she met at the office, which is the Tokyo Waterworks Department. They're both government employees, and of course, there were many people from their office. Both their bosses gave long, dry Japanese speeches (you know what I mean...), started karaoke, etc. All the guests looked like they were enjoying themselves with the conversation, food, and drink. Of course the older Japanese guys forced everyone to drink beer even though the person didn't or couldn't do so.
Many of my old friends were there, and I enjoyed meeting and talking with them a lot, but I also felt like a stranger. Half of the girls are married, and what they talk about is having babies, neighbors' gossip, etc. It's kind of difficult to enjoy this kind of conversation unless you live in the
neighborhood and share a lot of time together -- which I don't because I work.
Do you have ever had the experience of awkwardness when meeting a close friend after a long time and finding you have nothing in common?

Shogi

Do you play Shogi/Japanese chess? Nov. 17 is Shogi day, which hails back to the annual Shogi competition held by the Shoguns from Edo era.
The origin of Shogi is "Chaturanga" in India around BC200 - BC300. Chaturanga passed to the West as Chess. It also spread East, the you can see many similar games in Asia: Shatranj in Arabia, Makrook in Thailand, Karton in Vietnam, Tjyangi in Korea, Xiangqi in China,
etc.
The original game "Chaturanga" is a game for 4 people with 8 x 8 grid chess board, and it has 4 different forces, infantry, cavalry, tank, and elephant troops. It reflects the battle scenes around that time where many small nations fought with elephant troops. Likewise, Shogi has its characteristics influenced by the Japanese way of war. You can use the opponents pieces after you capture them. It might reflect that they use to accept captives as their slaves.
We use a 9 x 9 grid chess board for Shogi now, but there use to be more variety in size and rules: 12 x 12, 15 x 15, 17 x 17, 19 x 19, and 25 x 25!
As chess is a game of strategy, I guess that being in LINC for some of our staff is like playing 4 to 5 games of chess at the same time....

7-11

I watched a documentary of Seven Eleven Japan on TV the other day. It was very interesting how they grew their business to not only become the top convenience store, but also the top retailer.
The story goes like this: 2 employees from Yokado went to the US to purchase the brandname license for Seven Eleven, and over 100 folders of manuals. Since 7-11 US didn't plan to enter the Japanese market at all, they instead suggested a very expensive royalty. Although they staked their fate on this deal, Yokado, their employer, wasn't happy about it at all and became negative about the whole project. So, in the end the company decided to finance only 50% of the capital for the 7-11 Japan project. Those 2 employees left Yokado, dumped their savings into the new business, took out mortgages on their houses, and approached the banks to loan money. For two years, they worked more than 16 hours a day.
They started the business with the whole world against them. The concept of "convenience store" was very new in 70's, and there were a lot of resellers at that time. The two ventures looked very hard on how to cut into the market. One of their disadvantages is that they were all amateurs, but it turned out to be a blessing in discuss; although they were not experts for
logistics, wholesale, and retail, they were however flexible enough to change the old systems. Of course the wholesalers were not co-operative to those amateurs.
They checked inventory everyday by hand since they didn't have POS at that time; negotiated with the wholesaler to stock sufficient goods, not the minimum order of dozen; etc. What 7-11 has now, looks very simple to me, but no one ever tried to change this system before them. By this very painstaking process, they made their own manual, and which will 7-11 US in future to
restructure their business.
These 2 ex-employees are now Chairman and the President of the 7-11 Japan and they still run their business.
With passion, faith and the hard work, they achieved their today's status, and it's even taken as a reference to the Harvard University MBA class as a successful business next to the Kanban from Toyota. There are a lot of things we can learn from the pioneers but basic denominator looks that they can tell what is the common sense and what is not, and how to implement it to their business with enthusiasm. Does it give you a tip to your business?

3-day Weekend

It's getting chillier and chillier, and the season of food and reading is on its way. In case you haven't been watching the calendar, we will have a national holiday "Cultural Day" on Friday, Nov 3. I am eagerly looking forward to this 3-day weekend -- where I'll curl up with a good book and eat some
delicacies that my husband Ren (are you reading this?) will make for me!

Korea

There have been several Korean movies showing in the theaters lately, and I noticed the recent boom compared to a situation 2-3 years ago, where we never saw a Korean movie.
In 1998, the Korean gov't decided to deregulate Japanese movies, videos, and publications: gradually allowing the Japanese pop culture back into that country after 50 years.
Korea is close geographically, but it's very far from us mentally. Of course, WWII is the biggest and the worst reason why the two countries have taken so long to come closer together, but still,
it's surprising that we haven't even exchanged pop culture until recently.
My hope is that this kind of cultural exchange will it help people to develop a better understanding of each other's countries so that we get past the stereotype of Korean people eating Yakiniku everyday, and start a meaningful interaction between our two very unique nations.

2000 Yen Bills

Do any of you have a JPY2,000 bill? I've seen one, but never owned or used one.
When I was on the bus, I saw a notice saying "This bus does not accept JPY2,000 bills" stuck to the ticket machine. I remember that the media made a big fuss when the MOF decided to release the new JPY2,000 bills with the picture of Okinawa, but it turned out that they're not that popular.
The MOF Printing office printed 270m notes through to the end of August, but information sources say that only 120m notes were actually transferred to public banks. The remaining 150m notes are in the Bank of Japan vaults gathering dust. Amazingly, the MOF Printing office still plans to print another 10 billion notes by the end of next March.
So now everyone has to make new machines which can read JPY2,000 bills, including: ATMs, vending machines, etc. Or maybe not. Apparently, a lot of key players have said that they'll just ignore the bill's existence altogether.
When Japan's ex-prime minister announced this great (?) idea to stimulate the economy by releasing a new note, I knew it wouldn't work. But as bureaucrats always do, the MOF has no intention to stop printing; and they'll sell the notes to the Bank of Japan for JPY16.2392 billion. This will become revenue for the MOF. I guess we should think of the whole mess as a memorial bill for the millennium Okinawa summit!

Housework

The other day, I did a personal experiment of how housewives spend their time during weekdays. I had a compensation holiday during Terrie's business trip. I did laundry, cleaning, washing dishes, fixing my bicycle, buying groceries and consumables, and cooking meals. Many of you might think that housekeeping is not a professional job, but I can tell you that it's a lot of work. It's easy to imagine that the more family members you have, the more work you have to do everyday.
A few months ago, a book that bashes housewives was published, and I read that a lot of housewives strongly reacted to the ideas covered in the book, such as that they are: lazy, have
no motivation, get 3 square meals and a nap everyday (Sanshoku Hiru-ne tsuki). I believe it's their choice to stay home and do housework, just like the other people working in the office
choose their jobs. But this doesn't give others the right to accuse housewives of having it easy.
I guess that housekeeping is an essential part of your daily life, but perhaps you don't recognize its importance and necessity. When you're young and healthy, and out all the time, this is understandable. But what about if you get old or sick -- then you will definitely need someone's
help. That's one of the reasons why home helpers and the other nursing care businesses are becoming successful business areas.
If you had the choice would you like to be a housewife or house-husband?

Raw Eggs

For those of you who grew up in Japan, did you have raw eggs on rice when you were little?
The Chiba Egg Center will start selling eggs specially designed for those who like raw eggs. The new eggs are called "Kenta-kun" and come in two varieties: Red and White. The Red ones are rich in DHA (Docosa Hexaenoic Acid) which helps the performance of your brain (makes you smarter?!). Meanwhile the White ones have much less possibility of causing salmonella food poisoning.
I guess that most people from overseas have never thought about eating raw eggs for breakfast, but it's very common for Japanese. I use to eat this dish almost everyday, and for that matter for almost every meal. However, I had to stop after becoming allergic to eggs! Maybe Rocky/Sylvester Stallone will love this news and drink raw eggs to beef and brain UP. Do you want to try?

Underwear

Did you know that September 14th is "Man's Valentine's Day"? As if White Day wasn't enough,
now we're faced with a marketing plot from the Japan Body Fashion Association. The day is
6 months after the real Valentine's Day, Feb 14, and is supposed to allow men to approach their
lovers and spouses and show how they feel. But what really burns me is that they are supposed
to give a present of "underwear" instead of chocolate.
This may be a good promotion for the underwear market, but could also be the source of sexual
harassment. What would you think if you got an underwear present from a secret admirer?

Buried Treasure

I heard on the news that due to the water shortage, an old sunken castle has re-emerged
from the waters of Biwako. This is the biggest lake in Japan, but its deepest point is only
8m in the south part. The castle is called Sakamoto Jo, which was built by Mitsuhide Akechi.
If you are familiar with Japanese history, Akechi-san killed his Shogun after doing "kireta"
(flipping out) after being bullied by his boss. Sound familiar even with the young people of
today, doesn't it?
There is one interesting story that Akechi's men hid the family gold and treasure in a temple near
the lake, after being attacked during an ensuing battle. I wonder if there will be anyone out on the
lake with a metal detector-equipped dinghy this weekend?

Business Manners

The other day, people from a VERY major company came to LINC without an appointment. It's not so unusual for sales people to drop by without appointments, but these people looked
different: distinguished looking, aged in their mid-40's, and with gray hair.
Of course they were looking for our president, but he was out. Then they asked me to find our "Number Two". I thought that was strange for them to use that term, because it's not polite
speech and you normally wouldn't use such a term in front of customers and clients. The usual term is "vice president" or "senior manager". Anyway, I suggested that they leave their
meishi so that I could pass their message on to Terrie, and maybe arrange an appointment in the future. But, they insisted on meeting the "Number Two", even though they admitted
they were just dropping to say hello. Plus, and this is unbelievable, they forgot to bring business cards with them!
I suppose that they didn't appreciate my suggestion to come back some other time. However, at least I believe it's basic manners in Japanese business to exchange cards, and I wonder how they, with more than 20 year's work experience, forgot to bring their meishi when visiting?!