Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

"The earthquake made me feel that my life can end at any moment, so I should just enjoy it to the max right now..." These were the spoken words of a colleague as we walked through the streets of our neighborhood, slowly filling back with people after two days of being deserted. Shops are opening back up and some are boldly trying to convey a romantic atmosphere to the passer-by. Yes, the first "holiday" since the quake was in, and people, in their defiance to the power of nature , are going to enjoy it to the fullest. This highly commercialized "holiday" is called White Day, a unique concept only in Japan and Korea when males who received chocolates from females on Valentine's (exactly a month ago) are supposed to give back certain gifts. The extensive social hierarchy means that often (rather, mostly), the gifts on both sides were given as social obligations rather than actual liking, and the social burden is especially on the guys to give back

With emergency meetings still under way in Rakuten , and some missing employees still unaccounted for, the short-term future of the company should surely be in the mind of every employee at the company. But just as it is important for Rakuten to help the employees (and the shop owners) in a top-down fashion , conversely, the employees, at their own individual levels, should be thinking of how best to support their own company through this massive physical and economic calamity.

With the explosion up north at the nuclear plant in Fukushima (which I briefly mentioned in my last post ) confirmed to be one that tore apart the outer layers of the nuclear facility, the public's nerves suddenly made a switch to a potentially more damaging problem, both short- and long-term, of extensive nuclear radiations in the nearby areas. Already, a 20km radius of the affected nuclear plant has been evacuated, leaving the people and the media to worry if actual situation is being hidden from public view and a more devastating second disaster is in waiting. The mental stress from the quake is still building up. More and more are seemed to be feeling "phantom quakes," or acknowledgment of the ground trembling even though no quake has occurred. The vast number of "phantom quakes" and actual aftershocks felt even now has led many to live through a couple of completely sleepless nights. Physical tiredness can surely only make the fragility of the mind mor

The disaster just does not seem to end. Another magnitude-3 aftershock struck up north, shaking Tokyo a bit, while the rumors of nuclear radiation up north somehow got upgraded to a rumor about potential meltdowns at the nuclear power plants as unusually high temperatures and unusual "sounds of explosion" circulate the media. The grave news are sure to test the fragility of the already scared and scarred residents of Japan many times more. But I, being safe and sound in my one-room apartment, deprived of the willingness and the ability, not to mention the destinations and means, to travel , and not particularly willing to put in more time for grad school and job applications when disasters are still about, is having a rather boring time at home. So, I am going to continuing focusing on developing my thoughts in my blog by composing the fourth post regarding the ongoing earthquake, tsunamis, and nuclear disaster. This time, I will introduce a game-changer: the (short) pos

The impact of the big earthquake yesterday no longer requires any further elaboration. Emergency team was created at the company to assess the damage done while employees got together to comfort and support each other . But as the seas returned to their usual calmness and the ground ends its seemingly endless tremors, perhaps it is a time for me to look ahead, at least at my personal level, what this quake will mean for us and the company. As I mentioned in my personal blog, this quake proved the weakness of human intelligence in the face of nature's power , but at the same time revealed the unifying quality of human emotions . But either way, the quake, at the ground level here in Japan, was and still is an entirely human experience. For Japan, and Rakuten, to stand back to her feet under the shocks will depend on whether her workers can stand back up. In this way, the quake attributes a whole new level of meaning to the company slogan「人は財なり」(roughly translated, "humans

Hope, unfortunately, has been on the decline. As efforts to seek out those lost in the tsunamis are undertaken, the only results are more dead bodies, more economic damages, and more tears from families and friends. Lost lives are unavoidable in a calamity of such a size, and a national humanitarian emergency is not only logically justified but rationally necessary and imminent. In her responses to the cries of help from the people, Japan, both at the government and private levels, shined and showed the world a fine example of disaster relief. At the government level, immediate efforts are taken by national and municipal levels to open up facilities for those stranded far away from home. Food and blankets were provided for free while government officials did their best to tally those who are missing and assist with people's desires to communicate with their loved ones. The efficiency, the transparency, and the passion with which the government bureaucracy that contrast sharply