Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

With Dec 31st steadily approaching its end, I would like to reflect on my experiences during 2010, a year of undoubtedly major transitions from college to work for me that is bound to have major consequences for my future careers. But in the back of my mind, there always seem to be that thought of "am I really doing the right thing? Am I really moving in the right direction?" as listen to more and more complaints from my fellow coworkers, words of doubts from prospective employees, and most importantly, stories of major responsibilities and progress from my classmates back at Yale. Well, first, lets see what we, the new employees here in Rakuten, have done for our first three months since entering on Oct. 1st. We have been subject to continuous lectures on the core values and ideologies of the company from Day One, our hopes of being identified as the leaders of English-nization at the company and working at our own favorite departments are mostly dashed for the time-be...

Another weekend, another day trip. Last weekend, I had the fortune of stopping by Kurihama (久里浜), a beautiful little seaside neighborhood in Yokosuka (横須賀) City in Kanagawa (神奈川) Prefecture. Yokosuka, besides being famous as the largest base for the US Navy here in the Far East with aircraft carriers making it their home port, is, somewhat relatedly, the first landing spot of the first US Navy visit to Japan in 1852. The gunboat diplomacy of the Commodore Matthew C. Perry at the time successfully forced a Japan closed to the world to sign a trade treaty with America. So, why am I sitting in my room at 8pm on the first day of New Year's break reminiscing what I did last weekend? Besides the fact that I am bored (yes, true that), the impact of that sudden visit by a bunch of American ships in 1852 has deep social implications for Japan that particularly resonates in a time like the New Years. To be specific, the behaviors of people during such vacations precisely display that c...

After finishing some company work in the morning, I finally got to sit down, read the news, and relax a bit on this fine Christmas day (well, like I said in the last post , before going off and getting drunk somewhere). But even as I am finally relaxing a bit, I know that some of my colleagues are still working hard at their desks, finishing certain documents for the Monday that seems so close from now. My immediate superior is certainly up to that, making some documents based my work for this morning and calling me a couple of times to clarify my wording in the little note I submitted.

Living in Japan, one starts to think of Christmas not as a day for family gatherings (thats done on New Years), but as day to get together with your significant other (i.e. a second Valentine's) and if one is unfortunately single, get together with a bunch of friends and get drunk (i.e. the same role as New Years in the West). I, on this joyous day, happen to fall into the latter category, but before I go off getting drunk somewhere, I would like to get some sober writing finished. So, like I was saying, being single on Christmas is an unfortunate thing here in Japan. So, to help reduce my misfortune, some people have been asking me what kind of girls am I looking for (of course, since it is Japan, the question is generally ethnocentric ). So having stayed in Korea for awhile, I tend to say that I have an interest in Korean girls (which I indeed do, not lying) to which the stereotypical response (from anyone, not just the Japanese) would be something about plastic surgery. Indee...

Sometimes even I myself wonders exactly why some many thoughts about racial divisions race through my mind when I live and work in a country known the lack of it (almost everyone walking down the street dress the same way, talks the same language, sports the same behavior, and racist enough, really does look very similar to each other underneath the same makeups...) And I, with my salary-man outlook and behavior , does not exactly stick out like a sore thumb as most other foreigners seem to experience. So I thought, until someone at work opens his/her mouth and start going off on their knowledge or willingness to learn more about...those foreign people. Oh, do they just love saying that word, especially in these days of globalization. "We the Japanese need to learn English (or any other non-Japanese language, for that matter) so we can better communicate with those foreign people." Indeed, they certainly do need to speak better English, but that kind of attitude really mak...

My story from the last post was not quite finished and I will continue my thoughts in this post...So, as I was reflecting on the indifference of Japanese people toward their helpless compatriots throwing themselves into the train tracks with horrifying frequency, the train arrived to take me home (fortunately, no one jumped the tracks here). As with my usual behavior, I look up at the little TV screen above the door after I got in the train. The news of the day was on. And surprisingly enough, it was about a guy who randomly stabbed 17 people amidst the weekend crowd of Shinjuku shopping area, turning the happily commercial country into another self-inflected bloodbath. The headline of the news quoted the arrested stabber: "I don't want to live anymore." The train full of people, in the same way as they reacted to the 「人身事故」announcement, just went about their business as usual, playing games on their PSPs or having quiet conversations. "Well, another one just s...

Ok, sounds like this is gonna be another one of those cynical posts criticizing Japanese society....so let me start on a "high note" for this topic. One of my favorite horror movies of all time is a Japanese classic called "Suicide Club" (or 「自殺サークル」 in Japanese). It portrays a modern-day Japan in which large segment of people simply lost the will to continue living. Suicides, in the forms of jumping off buildings, cutting themselves, and what not become so common in everyday life that people, especially the young, started to take life as a joke and suicide as a game. I recommended the movie to people in the States and got absolutely horrified responses. In a Western culture were the continuation of life is probably the most basic human right there is (well, guess thats true everywhere, but the outer manifestation of that willingness to protect life is just so powerful in the West), the idea that people can possibly take the voluntary destruction of it as a laug...

As both my blog content and readership expand in size, some negative feedbacks are bound to arise. To be fair, I have been a writer of controversy, and I fully admit this point (and am quite proud of it, despite the "unfriendliness" I sometimes receive). But as a paid full-time white-collar worker that I have now become, the trigger-happiness and the joy of lashing out at anything and anyone I feel like, inherited from my college days, may become a serious liability to my future directions in life, career, and plainly said, amount of cash I will receive. Yes, I am talking about the many job-related posts I have been writing on this blog. All of them have been shared on Facebook, on which I already have many "friends" who are from Rakuten, not to mention some who happen to be in very high places and can easily derail my long-term plans in the company by putting in some light complaints. Right, an easily replaceable new graduate with a big mouth, certainly an unco...

In my original motivation to begin , I did mention that I will write at least "a few" posts in foreign languages (i.e. other than English)...It took me literally took me more than 5 months before I actually go back to fulfill that promise. So 76 posts (more than 45000 English words later), I give you my first post in Chinese. The article was originally written with an intent to publish in Taiwan (where I was actually mentioned once in a negative fashion), Hong Kong, or North America. So the article was written in Traditional Chinese, which is used most often outside mainland China. Of course, the decision to put the article on here is also a little SEO strategy to draw more traffic from these areas (Blogger is blocked in mainland China anyways, so no point doing SEO for that market...)

So last week, I finally get my job assignment at Rakuten after two months of "training" that involved brainwashing us with Rakuten ideology. After weeks of anticipation and should I say, annoyance and anxiety, we the new guys were finally given our assigned places at a rather formal-looking ceremony on Tuesday morning. On the surface, everything appeared calm, but below the tranquility some jumped for joy while others quietly shed tears in their hearts. All the poetic stuff aside, I have to say that most of the assignments are, really honestly, quite puzzling in many aspects. Yes, I did mention how the company have absolutely no idea where to place us , but the randomness of the end result goes much beyond just "let's put this guy there and see what happens." Not to mention the language ability and communication problems, the type of work and the field of studies for each individual just see little connection if any. But all in all, it somehow feels that the...

Recently, a deadly volley of North Korean artillery shells killed 4 people on a South Korean-held island near the disputed maritime border near the DMZ...South Korean government vowed revenge, American government launched immediate condemnations and sent in an aircraft carrier, while the Chinese called for calm while sending high ranking officials to meet both the North and South Koreans. Amidst all the scrambles for reactions by each government in the aftermath of the bombing, Japanese government seemed to be completely aloof...the only thing it did was agreeing with the Americans on calling for the Chinese to help more and condemning the bombings as inhumane. The all-talk-and-no-action stance of the Japanese government is an obvious contrast to the scheming actions of the Chinese, the North Koreans, and the Americans. Part of the blame is of course the same lack of leadership that plagues the short-lived Japanese administrations, which have largely been ridiculed by all functional ...

The fact that China and the US is competing on everything from currency to coal mines throughout every corner of the world is no longer a matter of speculation in many ways. The battles of words and speculative skirmishes in the cyberspace is only a sure sign of what will become the biggest national rivalry in the world since the Cold War. But while the Cold War remained largely "with us or against us" for both sides throughout, the current "frenemy" (friend + enemy) relations between the two involves much interdependence and overlap of interest. And in that overlap of interest emerges a group of players largely torn between the two giants, forced to play a balancing game between the two for political, military, and most importantly, economic reasons. Probably the most important of these middling powers is Japan, who sees China as the biggest trading partner (imports and exports) and the US as the biggest political one. To please but not over-pleasing either one...

I just came back from a tiring day trip to the city of Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture. The round trip from my home in Kamata took more than five hours; I was totally surprised by how far the place is...but the fall leaves are coming in really nicely in Kairaku Garden, one of the Big Three historical gardens in Japan (with today's trip to Mito, I have now been to all three). But, as is the case for Japan, the transportation fee ate up a huge chunk of the budget, forcing me to withdraw more money to support myself for the near future. I take my passbook (通帳, or the record book that can be used for ATM instead of a cash card) to the local ATM to get some cash...but I show forget my password (a totally random 4 digit number I wrote on a piece of paper in my room) during the use of the ATM. So unsuccessful tries later, I was told that my passbook has been locked and I now need to go to the local bank branch during business hours to get it unlocked and withdraw cash. Now, this whole fiasc...

So speaking of traveling as I did in toward the end of the last post , I remembered another classic travel story that may shock the normal person. Witnessing poverty and inequality is perhaps one of the most important reasons that I travel by myself to places not particularly considered touristy in anyways (kind of like what Che Guevara did in his Motorcycle Diaries). But it is these kinds of situations that really makes trip memorable, beyond any exotic cultures or natural wonders. Boarding a Greyhound long-distance bus from New Orleans to Atlanta, I was joined by a young white lad who sat next to me in a usual crowded bus. He was quick to open up. A coal miner from rural Wyoming, he told me about the accidents that took away a few of his fingers and shaky relations he has with his family.“Oh, once I caught two black guys trying to steal my truck, so I killed them with a shovel.” His loud yet nonchalant statement coming out of nowhere instantly sent my eyes wide-open and a chill ...

Nowdays, I simply do not get enough days where I have excess time to do things not work-related in any way. In fact, I do not remember a time like today where I have absolutely no plans with any coworker or assignments that I kind of have to work on for the company. Oh right, I was thinking about where I want to go for work in the company after this month's training is over, but that can be saved for tomorrow when I actually have access to the company organization chart. I am sitting here daydreaming about what my future will be like...but keeps getting these interruptions from the usually active mind that tells me to move on to something more productive. So far for the day I have checked all the recent news articles and good opinion pieces on the Economist magazine...so moving onto my second post for the day (At least the mind is countering this one, writing is pretty high up on the list of priorities even when I am this busy with work) So within these even-rougher-than-usual...

So this blog was started AFTER the end of my college years to rationalize where my life will go now that the days of being a student are completely (well, at least temporarily) over...and perhaps now, that months-long exploration of directions may finally come to something useful in the next week or so as we the new graduates of Rakuten are put to the spot of choosing our career paths within the company. While the choice does not really determine our lives (people get next assignments in a few years at most after getting into one department), a short conversation with the head of HR department does sort of determine which direction each one of us will head toward, as the first choice will certainly throw at least some limitations on where the individual CAN go based on the skills he or she can learn in that very first assignment. So, gauging the intents of my colleagues, a few trends are already very clear. First, almost everyone is determined to head somewhere where international wo...

As hard as people work here in Japan, there is always a need for holidays and vacations for the average salary-man like me just like white collar workers in any other part of the world. The "getting away from it all" sort of feeling is especially necessary in a city like Tokyo, where the endless concrete jungle simply let her residents feel a complete segregation from nature. But big words and feelings of adventure aside, people sometimes just need a reason to congregate and socialize, even in an environment where they seem to see each practically everyday for some serious matter. As I stated before , the separation of meeting for work and meeting for fun is so completely possible without a slightest hint of awkwardness. I thought that "meeting for fun" with your coworkers somehow stayed in the vicinity of the local drinking spot to complain about how difficult work is, but the past weekend was a real eye-opener for understanding how intimate a bunch of young profes...

Another Saturday, another meet up with some coworkers for some English "lessons" and lunch. The topic somehow (and quite logically) came to the issue of how Japanese salary-men and Office Ladies spend their weekends. Not surprisingly, the typical answers were "taking it easy, hanging out with friends, and having a few drinks," but extent to which all of these mix in with work-related stuff is absolutely shocking for a foreigners used to a complete division between work and life. Sure, being good friends with your similar-aged coworkers and hanging out with them outside of office is of course possible and understandable (same reason why I am there every Saturday). But lets take a closer look at what we were doing: the lunch conversations frequently merged into classified technical fields of the company, interlaced with insider information each departments and their heads. This was happening all the while anything about the company is off-limits for everyday convers...

There was a particular example often raised when people talk about how picky Japanese people can be regarding, well, everything they buy. The Kit-Kat chocolate bar, started in the US with one original flavor (um, chocolate) somehow morphed into 27+ different varieties over its decades of development in Japan. While the Kit-Kat bar remains the same and popular in the States, in Japan, flavors come and go as consumers magically get tired of them a few months after introduction. And Kit-Kat bars certainly isn't an exception. Everything from soft drinks to sausages always seemed to carry some extra ingredient that is not thought of even in their countries of origin. Food flavors comes in and goes out faster than fashion trends, leaving companies forced to constantly innovate their products. Now, if food flavors in Japan are like fashion trends elsewhere, you can bet that actual fashion trends have pretty much no comparison. Well, everyone is a fan of innovation. Better designed p...

Company employees going out to drink after work and on weekends is pretty common phenomenon. (I did last night...and I am still feeling a little, um, unnatural in my stomach as I write this post) Even bosses and senior colleagues would likely to join for a few. The atmosphere is generally pretty rowdy as people's characters start to reshape toward a more spontaneous side after few. To such a biological certainty, one colleague said it well after a couple of beers, "I may get drunk,but I will not lose my consciousness." To someone from the West, that may just sound like the guy bragging about how much control he has over his alcohol-infused mentality, but the phrase, I realized, sort of takes on a double meaning in the Japanese context. As with anything else in Japan, the hierarchic power structure of any group environment can clearly be felt and is expected to be maintained even as rowdiness takes over. Even as alcohol renders the body incapable of performing prohibitiv...

I knew this day would come, but just not in such a desperate and tiring way...the day when my blog goes from a daily (and sometimes hourly) inquiry into my ever-randomly thought-generating mind to a complete afterthought in the shadow of daily work assignments and the lonesome life of a Japanese salary-man. I did not know that the shadow would be so spacious and chilling. People says the ever-increasingly non-relevance of Japanese companies is due to lack of innovative ideas in their ranks. Before, I used to find this sort of pointed commentary racist. Brainpower is biologically equally distributed and any society, rich or poor, is capable of generating rebels of some sort. How is it that the Japanese society has been automatically deprived of "innovative power"? Now I have a clearer understanding. The basic pretext of an innovative thought being generated are two: (1) a societal stimulus passes through the mind, whereupon the mind sees the stimulus' lack of consisten...

Heading into the grandiose welcoming ceremony for new employees, I was utterly surprised by the scale of Rakuten's ambitions to become global...well, on the surface, at least. Dozens of foreign employees from across the globe (especially a group of Chinese students directly hired from the mainland) and the whole ceremony was conducted in English. It seems that Rakuten takes its promise to become English-speaking very seriously. But, as the ceremony continues, the Japanese side of the company really began to take over. Even as (heavily-accented) English continues to fly, the ceremony was no different from any other Japanese one. The big bosses and the little new guys all bowed solemnly, and applause and cheers were not to be heard at any point. Even after the ceremony at a little welcoming snack session, the CEO passing through the room was treated as if homecoming of a celebrity, with us the new guys herded around him for a highly scripted (and highly unnatural and awkward) ...

It is common logic that laws are only enforceable where individuals can be tracked down when crimes are committed. The ability to identify and track down the criminal is perhaps the most factor preventing more people from harming others for personal benefit. Seriously, if one knows that one is guaranteed that one cannot be found by the law-enforcement agencies, where is the risk for doing something illegal? In the modern world, this sort of "disappearing criminal" logic still works in two circumstances: international relations and the cyberspace. As for international relations, I don't need to elaborate. A country can easily make up some bullshit reasons to invade another in the name of "justice." And domestic laws can easily be overridden when foreign fishermen are concerned. The logic is clear, the criminal with more power, as defined by greater technology, greater economic strength , and even greater size becomes good enough reason to replace the bound...

After looking at the ongoing boat row as a financial damage to Japan and as a personal experience of getting negative treatments in Japan , it is perhaps necessary to look at the whole reason why border disputes between nations are so hard to resolve. Some tend to argue that the issue is largely economic. The whole reason there are disputes over Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is over the seabed oil fields nearby, and the whole reason why Japan still argues over islets with Russia and Korea is also over fishing fields and trade routes. According to these arguments, somehow Japan's economy/economic security can be greatly boosted through control over a few islands. But aside from a few decades of cheap fish and oil, the short term benefits are just as hard to establish as long term strategic interests. An essentially Euro-centric Russia sees no reason for war in sparely populated Far East for further expansion, and Japan should not see itself powerful enough to go at it with nuclear Russ...

So it seems these days when Chinese walks around in the streets of Tokyo. Of course, unless we open our mouths, no one would know, but public opinion is public opinion after all...just seeing the guy next to you on the commuter train reading a newspaper article titled "China's Ambitions to Take Over the East Sea" can't possibly be very pleasing for myself and millions of other Chinese who are in this country. And then comes the news that Japan rejects Chinese demands for apology and in exchange issues a demand for financial reparations. I really wonder if the government is heeding the call of the people on this particular issue, on both sides. There are few bilateral economic relationships as close and interrelated as the one between Japan and China, with goods and personnel constantly crossing the borders. As much as citizens on both sides have certain negative images about each other, no one, even on the extreme right, can deny the existing benefits of economic c...

Finally, today, I sent my grandmother back to Nanjing, ending my pretty much self-imposed three-week house arrest. Watching my grandmother behave in public for one last time (in a long long while, at least) as we head our way by train, it still makes me think how older people behave in China. Maybe a lot of what I say here is peculiar to my grandmother, but basically, all the social vices we perceive that Chinese people have are incredibly prevalent among elders. For instance, cutting in line is normal (quite humiliating for me to watch when my grandmother does it because I can't follow her in that particular act). Also, for her, words like "Excuse me," "Thank you," and "Please" are never to be used in public toward strangers (even customer service people)...and, smiling toward others is just not something to be done logically. Ironically, when foreigners first think of Chinese elders, bearded wise smiling old men (like Confucius) are probably the...