Thank you Letters

Thank You Letter

Last night I was talking to my friend about how rarely it is for us to receive “thank you letter” nowadays. She works in Human Resource Department, and has many opportunities to interview people for the opening positions at her company.
“We often talk about how many people does not send “thank you letters” after the interviews,” she say.

For me, as I am not in the position to hire anyone at this point, it is pretty difficult to evaluate how much of a value people have on the letters. However, I always receive “thank you letters” from high profile, well-respected professionals regardless of what industry they are in. The letters are not typical standardized messages. They are for me, and the more letters I receive over the years, I realize that people who are genuine and sincere about others have the same attitude for their work. After all, the accomplishments at work are just the reflection of who we are.

Remembering the atomic bombing in Hiroshima

A book called "Hadashino Gen" which most of Japanese people are encouraged to read especially around this time of the year finally get published in English.
The book has a high reputation narrating story with vivid image about the atomic bomb fell in Hiroshima.
It is based on a true story of a man who lost his father and brother because of the boming.

The producer and the author are strongly hoping to show the movie and book to President Obama.

The Sales Calls

To find the best insurance service can be time consuming. Just to quote the best plan from each company, you have to put all of your personal information from your date of birth to your address. It does not seem to be much of a deal until thousands of phone calls hits your answering machine.

It is almost impressive to know how persistently sales people call the prospective clients every day. Sometimes, they even use different numbers so that they can get to the new clients for sure. The word “Give up” is not simply in their dictionaries.

Even though those calls are nothing but pain to the receivers, it is one of the most used marketing techniques in today’s society

Quated ...

I had a meeting with one of the prominent lawyers in NY yesterday. We discussed a new way of promoting his service through digital media. The lawyer seemed to grasp the concept of new media and follow it up pretty well. He told me that he started to put his bi-weekly blog on his website. Just like him, business owners started to move from print to digital. I do not think anything is wrong with that, but I strongly feel that the accuracy of information could be in question.

The more he explained about how he creates his blog, the more I found out that he is trying to get new costumes by getting quoted. The more he digs idea of quatation, the more he conducts unethical action.

The problem is that he himself writes an article and quotes himself in it. In the paper, he does not put his name, but instead he makes it seem like a staff writer on the website writes his article. The scarest thing is that he did not even seem to care this unprofessionalism.

After the meeting, I could not stop wondering how many others are marketing their services just like this untruthful lawyer does. Journalists and reporters are not the profession, but it is work done with pride and dignity. I truly realize that we, ordinary people have to polish our insight to find these problems hidden behind thousands of flooded information in today’s society.

My Cutting the Edge TV

With internet, we do not need to have different types of electronic items any more. For example, we hve skype for video phone and GPS for direction.

I thought the most internet service can offer is to let people download movies. However I found out that there is a website called Hulu that I could watch TV shows and movies all the time. The convenient feature for users is that all of the available TV shows to watch are placed in order. It is easy to choose which program to watch. I am not sure if the website has a contract with each TV station and air the show simultaneously. However it seems to be a bit threat to Youtube and cable companies. This site brings peace to viewers because they don’t need to lose their nerves waiting thousands of commercials to end that interrupt the show and takes their focus away.

I cannot watch TV at home now because of the installation problem. However, now I know about Hulu andI feel like I arealdy have a TV waiting for me after work.

A Porn Ad

There is a rule in an advertising industry that I just leaned today. It is that we cannot put the advertisement of porn companies and that of Japanese embasy next to each other.

Our marketing managers constantly get new clients and each time they do, they need to find space for them on a big sheet of paper that stick to the wall in the meeting room. Today, I needed to reserve the space for psychic reader. However, I did not know the neame of the company because I haven’t officially made the contract yet. So instead I put “E Grace.” What was supposed to mean was that it should be placed only for east edition and the name of the business owner is Grace. I did not even imagine that the editor in chief would ran into to me because of this name. He asked,”Did you put ‘E Gracce’?” I said yes and asked him why. He said that he thought it was a porn ad and needed to think of a special arrangement for placement.

He explained that some advertisers do not prefer to get placed right next to porn ads because it affect the imabge of their business. Whether it is positive or negative image, readers cannot help associating with one another.

Then, my co-worker jumped out of her chair and said, “What?? Are we getting a porn ad?” She was dealing with Japanese embassy in the U.S. and she was being really careful about who she would place next to her client’s ad.

She said that one of our competitors put his ad next to a porn ad by mistake and they lost the deal with the embassy.

I was purely surprised to know the power of a small size porn ad.

X-ray

My co-worker was sitting at her desk at 9:30a.m. She usually gets in about 11a.m. I asked her why, and she told me that she went to a dentist but ran away from him before she got any treatments.

It was simply funny to hear that news because the day before, not only she made a mistake about the date, but also she ran around many dental offices in a huge building because she forgot the room number. She had been excited about her teeth cleaning, and she looked really disapointed about the dentist today.

The reason why she ran away the office was reasonable. He was trying to give her an X-ray. She could not understand why he needed to do that even though she asked for whitening. To make things worse, it would add additional charge. Also, she felt danger by receiving X-ray because she has a cancer cell that is stage 4 out of 5.

At office, while telling me what happened, she kept wondering why he needed to take that procedure.

But I was just happy that she is still alive!

My Boss

My boss always calls me into his office at the end of the month. Usually it is the 20th something of the month. Sometimes I do not know the reason why, but most of the time, I know why. It is about my payroll.

I truly think that my boss is one of the best boss that I have. At times, our clients show some contempt to him because of the game he plays over the negotiation. However, there are times that he shows he is a human with feelings just like us.

When he goes over the payroll, he asks me if I could survive until next paycheck. Who would ensure my life like that? My parents would not even do that. Yes, my pay is not as high as people who are at my age, not any employee at my company. However, I adjusted my life accordingly, and I do not have much complaint.

So it is such a joy to know that there is someone who cares about my financial situation and willing to negotiate.

I give him respects and trust every month, and I think that this is such a clever to make me work, definnitely much more effective to tell me to work.

The Starbucks in the morning!

On the way to my work, I always find people pouring out of the small starbucks right next to my building. It is right before 9:30. At least there is 20 people inside.

What is it that attract business workers to stand up in line in the morning at Starbucks?

I always wonder why they are willing to spend precious time in the morning on just a cup of coffee. They can catch breaking news on the internet, or they can go over their schedule one more time to prepare for the day and make it most productive. Yes the coffeee at starbucks brings an distinct aroma and flavor. It is bitter than that of Dunkin Donut or Crumbs. But is it something to wait every single morning? Is it that difficult to make their own coffee?

In my office, we can have coffee from Peru for free. Of course the taste is completely differnet from that of Starbucks, and I do not have a fluffy form in the morning but it wakes me up enough in the morning. For me that what the coffee is for.

I feel that sometime we drink starbucks coffee because subconciously we believe that it is a must to have in the morning. For sure, getting a coffee at Starbuck in the early morning is becoming just a daily routine for some. That is why they can still buy it when they are half awake!

A way Japanese co-workers interact with each other

I believe that Japanese people have an unique way to interact with each other compared to that of other cultures. As I started to work at Japanese company, I realized more and more about this unique tendency that its society has. They tend to create insiders and outsiders among Japanese at work or at any community where people gather. For us, Japanese living in the States, we seem to have the greatest icebreaker to get to know each other. However it is not that easy in reality. After we acknoledge that we are foreigners, we just move on.

One of the good examples that illustarte about the concept of the insiders and outsiders.For example, one of the interns from our company is going back to Japan and apparently, "we" are having a party in "the room" that only certain people have the privilage to request. The person in charge send e-mails about this farewell party to most of the staff members, but of course not to everyone. The funny thing is the party host does not realize they are creating insiders and outsiders by this simply action.

It is okay to have a group of people that they like to hang out with. Unless they act as if they are the best of the all of the other groups or try to interfer with other group's activities. Another example is that some of people from work are going to the concert this week. It is great that they try to forge a relationship on a personal level ouside work, but I wish that they do not act as if they are the only chosen one to become a member of 'we are the best' group and make others who did not get invited inferior to them.

All in all, this is just one of the ways the islanders communicate and interact with each other. I do not know if this is good or bad. I just hope that people are not get used to this isolated way of starting relationships because it does not apply to any cultures for sure.

A joy from this day on!

It was just an ordianry morning, when I was running a little late for my work. Even though I was in rush, I couldn't not stop enjoying chilly but pleasant breeze on my face. I knew it was little before 9 a.m. and there was not many people around me as most of the office workers left probably an hour ago. I thanked again that I can go in at 9:30 a.m. I also felt happy to realize how forunate I am not to get squeezed in the subway for an hour every day. Such a beginning of a day!

Then, a newsstand on the street came into my eyes. The main page of the paper stick to the plastic window facing the street said 3 day sale and it had an image of a telephone. I needed to go back and see what paper they are. The paper turn out to be the paper a.m. I was suprised to know that they distribute a.m. around my neighborhood. The only time that I can pick up a.m. is when I get out of subway in midtown. Even though the content of the paper is not as rich as that of New York Times, I like this free paper because it covers from local stories to international stories, and it not too biased.

Now, I know that I can get the paper before I start a battle of pushing myself into crowds and staying there for an hour and half communite! I am very positive that my morning will be much more exciting and more meaningful!

New Intern

Summer time is the best time for students to have professional experiences at companies. What we offer as a compnay is an internship program just like the others. However one thing that seems different from my internship when I was in school is that our interns do only choirs and routine mandane work that anyone can do. Honestly I feel that the position does not require any skill at all.

For example, last month, a lady started her internship. She is pleasant and easy to work with. She seems always happy with what she does, even it it is just folding envelopes for hours. In the past I also have folded thousands of envelopes to get recognized at my internship. I voluntarily took any task that lied in front of me.

However, I cannot wonder enough if these so-called internship is just a convenient program for employers to cover up talented youngster with office choirs. I feel that this program is taking away one of the most precious summer experiences from students to enhance their profesional skills.

The scam on the craigslist

It came all unexpectedly. I was walking to the kitchn, holding the check for the rent . I was just going to give it the owner and then to get back to my room to relax. Then, it happened. The words came out of the Chinese owner's mouth completely stunned me.
He said," you need to move out of this apartment in a month." He went on,"the landlord wants to give this whole 2 floor to his brother who is coming from Hong Kong. He is coming with a work permit and he has a wife and kids."
Moving in a month? I have a full time job, and I have a work to do after my regular work. It is not that easy to find the apartment that I want to live for the next couple of years. I did not want to rush into it. None of these made sense to me.
First of all, is it reasonable to ask someone to leave the place in a month is out of norm. That is a very unprofessional way to deal with his tenants.
Second, the landlord insists that he will not return the deposite back until I move out under this unlawful situation.

Saving money

This one Sunday morning, I realized that the owner of my apartment was still at home. It was quite strange to see him sittig at the kitchen table and still eating his breakfast as late as 9 a.m. I did not question much about this bazzar event at the time. I thought maybe he was off work.
For the last couple of months, he has been telling me about how slow his restaurant got . He told me who got laid off every other week, but also told me confidently that he would not be the one who will be in the same situation because he was very close to the restaurant owner. He trusted the strong bond and business relationship over ten years with his boss at one of the expensive restaurants on the 5th avenue.
However, he was not special to the owner as much as he thought or wished to be. He lost the job that previous Friday.
He has a family to support three little kids and his wife who just bore a baby. He used ot have a pretty decent life-style. He brought tons of crabs and ripen fruits to the table every weekends,go out to play grounds in different areas by his SUV and for some reason, he is still able to do the same, after losing his job.
I believe that he had been saving money for their kid's education, and now he is spending it little by little to survive this current situation.
It was just nothing but impressing to know the power of preparing for the big changes in life.

Japanese kill themselves, while Americans strive to survive.

Every single day, we are reminded that we are in one of the most economically- challenged times in history. Conversation about lay-off fill offices and fear employees minds. TV morning reports start from the escalating number of unemployment rate. Soon ten out of one person will be jobless.

In these times, people’s true nature comes out. Especially among races. There was a study conducted by my9 in NY. Its report said that Asian American are less willing to ask for help, where as black receive various type of federal aids.

So what do Japanese people do when they face predicaments? According to Kyodo, a Japanese news paper, over 30,000 people committed suicide last year, which is the time when the economy started to disfunction. In January, 2645 people took their lives.

Meanwhile, in America, we rarely hear about the financially related suicide that will appear as a headline on the front page of the paper. Instead, we hear about the efforts that ordinary citizens and governments are making to reboot the economy. People are aware of unemployment benefit, food stamp and shelter programs and try to utilize as much as they can.

It is interesting to see how two different races react to the same situation. Some allow themselves to get defeated by the overwhelming fear, and the other strive to get back their live and keep on trying.

New Life for New Yorkers?

MTA is requesting a bail out from the government, there is no definite answer yet. However, if it doesn’t go through, the answer is clear. The fare will go up 23 percent and the trains come less frequently. This is not the matter of possible decrease of ridership. This transit crisis will change New Yorkers life styles dramatically.
According to MTA, 8,505,966 people use subway as the means of transporation every week. Even after midnight, trains still run locally, and different number or alphabet of trains run every twenty minutes. Public transportation in New York is essential to the residents.
Compared to any other major metropolitan cities, New York provides a relatively effective and helpful transportation that helps its people enjoy their lives, especially after work. For example, it is possible to pop on the train from Grand Central after work, go salsa dance in downtown and go back home in Brooklyn. It is possible because transportation is reliable.
MTA has been part of New Yorkers’ lives. Without this convenient system, they will withdraw from night life and find something else to do close to their home. Then, what would symbolize energetic and vibly New York City and new Yorkers? It is hard to imagine a New Yorker keep sitting on their luxurious couches watching a large flat screen TV in nicely decorated condo every single day after work.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning is essential for people in NY. It is the time for them to relax and return to who they are.
At the whole foods café at the union square, customers dress themselves casually and try to care less about the trifles in their lives. A lady, who must be walking in heels for work, let her hair as it is and allows herself to gobble her lunch in public. Not only her, most of women dress differently from their daily business attires: they are wearing simple T-shirt, sweat pants and sneakers. They put less of everything. They have less accessories and less make-up. They are being who they are, not how they are supposed to be or present themselves as according to the social standard.
At the place, various types of energies and vibes exist , but they have one thing in common: They are enjoying their lives in their spheres at their own pace.

Fashion Show In Real Life

Bryant park transform itself according to the season. In December, it turns to become an ice link. In Feburary it becomes a stage for the best fashion show.
However, the real runway exists outside of the white gigantic tent.

Competition

“Give me your sales report for January,” said my boss.
Reluctantly, I e-mailed my report to him. I was not proud of my performance. I was not able to accomplish the “goal of earning $20,000 revenue sale per month”
Now, I am working with two other account executives. Both of them have about twenty years of experience in sales. They spoke in a delicate and sophisticated manner. More than anything else, they have the skill to keep conversation going at least for fifteen minutes with future clients.

This work environment made me competitive about everything in my life. I dislike the emotion and it makes me ugly inside. It is daunting. For the last couple of days, I was blaming my surroundings. However, I realized that it was wrong.

Once I get competitive, my life becomes a game with others. Who wins and loses, who looks better or poor, and who is superior or inferior.

On the way to work, I see thousands of women in high heels with a brand new purse, a pair of shiny high heals and perfect make-ups. They are or at least look put together. I have a four-year-old purse, a pair of worn-out shoes and inperfect make-ups. It is easy not to lose confidence. The worst thing is even if I try to avoid looking at those perfect people around me, even if I keep walking with my head down, I can still see my old shoes.

Finding flaws in my shoes, feeling scaled by my boss at work, I feel incompetent.

In Philadelphia, I rarely compared myself to others. No one had much, but everyone was joyful, and I was happy with that. I never wish to have fashionable clothes, purses and shoes. I wonder how I turned such a competitive person. Is it NY? Is it clothes? Is it work?
I realized it was none of those. I was seeking an answer in the wrong place. It was not the environment that was making me miserable, but it was part of me which wants to feel superior to others. It was never outside, it had been inside.

Family

Family

‘xyientoayie!” said Chin-san.
“rhwoent!!” said his mother in law.
I did not understand the exact words. Iritation was coming out from both sides. but I knew that they were in argument about noise.
The owner of the apartment, a father does not like noise in the morning. Sneezes or coughs irritates him. The reason is because Chin san comes back home close to midnight working as a chef at one of the famous restaurant on 5th Avenue. He needs to sleep, and he does not allow anyone to disturb his rest. For that, he throws a roommate out of the room without any hesitation. Sleep is crucial for this Chinese man. He is a bread winner, holding a big family together by himself.
So, it was quite difficult for have his mother in law not walking around at 6:30 a.m. washing dishes and mopping the floor. Everyone in the house knows why she is staying, even though she leads a comfortable life in Flushing. This 60-year-old joyful lady keeps moving her fingers with knife to feed two infants.
Of course, she is not a mother of two. Her daughter is. She is at this house in Broolyn for her daughter. She quit her job to support her daughters’ family. She decided to live with roommates that converse with her son-in-law in English. She speaks only in Chinese. However, it seems to be an easy choice: anything for my daughter, for my grandbaby.
Her daughter was expecting a baby and on February 1st just bore the third baby, tiffany, the third girl in Chin san’s family. As much as every member of the family is happy, they are also getting tired of raising another child.
The day the baby saw the first light in her life, her father was filling the documents from the hospital with a small amount of light in the kitchen, alone.
When baby was still and sleeping, Chin-san was awake digging old baby court for the baby to be loved. Everyone sacrificeed something, and devoted themselves in this long process. However no one, not for once, complained.
This morning, for the first time, Mr. Chin snapped at the old Chinese woman. He knows that it is not respectable manner, but he could not resist his temper.
He said, “ I respect her, but she is too sturburn. She does not listen! And she will stay for a month!”
Listening to him, Mrs. Dudy came out of her room. She did not say anything.
She just started mopping the floor again.
Family is precious, but it is not easy to appreciate nor embrace it. Once you can’t reach them, you will miss them for whatever they did, either good or bad. Some might see the situation as break up, but others see as heartwarming.
Probably the latter knows what family truly mean.

Oh, my god my back hurts!

I wanted to go to work, I am not a skipper. However, today it was phisically impossible for me to get out of the bed and dress up for work. My cell phone was in reach, and I could have called in sick. However, I did not want to give up. So I pondered and think of strategies how to lift up my butt and open the door that is two feet away from my bed.
I kept thinking and thinking and thinking while the clock goes tick tuck tick tuck. I opened my eyes and realize that I still have another hour, if I skip my breakfast, to lay down and give myself time to rest and possibly gain the energy to at least sit up.
An hour later, my body was rigid and I came to the realization that I would not make it today. In five minutes later, headlines from daily newspapers and news reports hit my head. "job cuts, recession, unemployment goes up to 7.2 percent."
I got caught up in a thought that I might get fired for this unknown physical problem, which did not mamke any sense to me at all. I started to panic, and even harder I made an effort to get up.
Well, I guess while I was in fear of losing my job, three hours passed by, and I receive a phone call from my boss.
"Ms. Sato, it is 11.46 a.m. and I still do not see you. I am wondering what is happening with you today. Your clients are calling and please call me back as soon as you can."
That was it.
I called in, feeling ashamed and embrassed acting like a college kid who just want to skip his class.
However, later on I remembered what my mentor said one time, when I asked him what if I can't keep my promise to my clients.
He said, " it is not the matter of wether or not you can keep the promises. Things happen. Your car got broken down on the way, you get an emergency phone calls, and you might get sick, but what is more important is how you deal with it after that."
Today, staying in bed, I thought that I should have made a phone call immediately, so that I wouldn't have made any trouble to other co-workers. Yes, I might get sick or might not function well. I have a lot of work and responsiblities that might make me physically fatigued.
However, calling in sick on time is also one of my important responsibilities.

NYPL on Springy Night

I never thought I could sit down and relax outside around this time of year in midtown, NY especially under this freezing temprature.
However, on 23rd of January, I was ejoying each step that I make, feeling refreshed with warm breeze.I ended up sitting in front of the New York Public Library.
As each breeze touches my cheek, I felt as if it was already Spring. EAch smelll I felt like was the smell of flowers that was just born from the budd. Even ambulance siren made me remember about the hot singy summer.
It was such a nice feelings feeling refreshed, feeling as if I was in a different season. Trifle matters regarding to work,money,life dissapeared at that time. Winter makes me rigid and tense, but spring makes me unwind and smile. Each breath that I took made me excited for no reason, and it made me want to dash into sometihng, something big. The weather that night just gave me a room to relax and energy to go on with my life. I was surprised how deeply we are connected with mother nature that night.

The Professional World

My dad used to tell me that professionals start to focus on their benefit and forget about establishing a true relationship with each other after college.
Until recently, I never completely understood his comment, but being 24 years old, as a recent graduate, slowly but surely I began to feel the trutfulness of his remark.
At most of the networking events, business cards play a huge role. To me, they symbolizes the status in the society. They could even imply one's ability, intelligence and sometimes wealth.
I do realize the different type of reactions that I receive before and after school. It was as if others started accepting me as an visible object.
Recently, as much as other professionals try to dig something out of me if I had any, I found myself literally doing the same thing. I was looking others by their titles:labels.I deeply felt ashamed of and disappointed with myself because I have become one of those people that my dad used to talk about.
I am the person who does anything to achieve my dream. However, I will never allow myself to treat others inhumane.
After I learn about my flaw, I always ask myself when I speak with people.
"Am I speaking with this person because of what he does? or because of who he is?"

My sex and the city

People say: You never know what is going to happen in the future, and this is the answer that I get whenever I talk about having a husband someday. Before I knew it, this sentence became a habit: Oh, I don’t think, I’m gonna have a boyfriend soon because my plate is already too full. However, I decided to stop predicting my life and let it go.

One day, I was having lunch with my friend at work. I took off to the restroom to wash my hands before I eat. When I was just at the door, I saw a man who appeared to be decent, trustworthy, and have potential, but as usual, I passed by and pushed open the door.

When I came back to the table, I told my friend about the man. We started to plot a plan to leave my number like Carrie does in “Sex and the City.” I said, “That could really happen in New York. Whatever we see, in the romantic movie, could happen here.”

I wrote my number down on a napkin and asked her to give it to the guy who wears the red shirt. I was just joking. However, she did not take it as a joke and started to get excited and asked me if she could really pass the paper to him. She has been in New York only for two months as an intern from Japan. She wants to do anything “Americans do.” She asked me, “This is what you guys do. This is what Americans do, right?” and hesitantly, I said, “I guess.” So she stood up and dashed into him. She was fast, and she came back and told me, “I did it!! I was a little bit nervous. I even stuttered, but Takako, for you, I did it!”

Just image how sweet it was. She said, with her Japanese accent, “My…friend…want to…to talk…toyou.”

“Thank you,” I said. Well, that was about a week ago, and I’ve never heard from him. Period!

Do the English like Karaoke?

My lovely and "creative" boss, Mr. Hosoda pitched a story idea by massive e-mails.

People Fear Under the Economic Turmoil

This unstable economic situation is changing our mentality. A few of my fiends are suffering from minor depression. One of them hates his job, but cannot leave, because he expects that it would be difficult to find another employer. This is such a dilemma to him. If the economy was upward, he would have left his work without any regrets. The other friend of mine lost most of her work shifts. She was always anxious losing her job based on her incompetency at the hotel. At the end, putting a lot of pressure on her self, she made one of the biggest mistakes.
I believe that the vague statistics by the media would give people anxiety and fear. How does knowing the unemployment rate going up help our work performances? Much more likely, we can focus on our tasks without that reports..
Many statistics say that millions of people lost their jobs. However, I think it is crucial to understand which industry reduced its workforces. Not knowing detailed statistics make people to create the wrong assumption that every single worker including themselves are at risk of having a huge financial difficulties.
Fear will becomes true. We need to analyze and comprehend the all parts of the enermy that suffers us, then we should win the victory.

Yes Yes Yes Today is the day when the Eagles Win baby!!!

The babies

When I was younger, I dreamed of having my own baby. It could be because they look adorable or I thought they might bring me smiles and become the sunshine of my life.
In downtown Brooklyn, I am living with the Chinese family who has two little girls. One of them, Stephany, has her father's soft face feature, and the other, Melony... maybe from her grandmother. Their innocent-looking eyes and beautiful smooth skin always amaze me. I feel like I just discovered the mother nature in them. Everything they own seem pure.
Maybe three times a week, I come back home feeling tired and disappointed with my performance at work, and when I open my apartment door,these two angels run to me. They want me to look at the pictures that they made at school, while giving me some explanation in Chinese, which I fail to understand at times. All I can say is how much Stephany and her sister are helping me to keep my spirit up and give me comfort.
I am sure that raising children is difficult in terms of their financial situation and if the parents work, the time to spend with their kids. However, I believe that their children worth all of their parents' hard works and sacrifices

The New Year Continued

“Drink, Drink! C’mon in” ,said my co-worker, Mr. Ishiwata. These were the words that signaled sig.ugh.nal (negative practice). the kick off of the-end of the year party. Everyone knew that some w one, including themselves, will take off (drop the chin slowly) their shirt and start belly-dancing.
Drinking to the point of unconsciousness was always a ritual at this party.
No one had a curfew on this fanatical and foolish night.
This event seemed to erase the boundary between the juniors and the seniors.
However, nothing could bridge the gap between these two factions.
The young employees or juniors must not forget to be respectful to their elders or seniors.
In the Japanese culture, age deserves respect whether a senior administrator is highly compete tent or incompetent. He or she deserves respect. Why? Because a senior member of a business or a family is older, and age rules. That is the way it always has been and will continue to be.
Alcohol will never erase the truth, and juniors have to remember their place in the business hierarchy and on the morning after it is imperative for all juniors to read the atmosphere so that they quickly can recall who they really are- juniors in a senior world. - Young versus old, never the twain do meet. The next morning, it’s business as usual. The senior belly dancer is your boss. Miss this fact, and beware!!
Last night’s old belly dancer will make you today’s outcast and shame you in front of everyone.
Whether we work in the States, or in Japan, a proper Japanese junior never forgets his culture.