Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Friday night: A 2-hour farewell drinking party followed by all-night clubbing; Saturday night: an early afternoon symposium on international education followed by another 4-hour farewell drinking party, followed by another almost all-night clubbing; Sunday night: another farewell drinking party will be happening a few hours from now...my last weekend here in Tokyo has surely been an emotional exhilarating (and physically damaging) one...(I am at home so rarely that I can barely muster a couple of hours outside of intense sobering-up sleeping sessions to write my weekly post) Too much fun, just too much fun, that I would not be able to have if I had my mind concentrated on work...and too glad, just too glad that after 8 months of randomly meeting people both inside and outside the company, there are so many people who are willing to spend sleepless nights with me to celebrate my future and enjoy my "companionship" one last time. Of course, the regular drunken comments take ov...

"The Yokohama Chinatown is the biggest Chinatown in Japan and by far the safest Chinatown in any part of the world..." The nonchalant, robotic announcement coming over the tourist bus in Yokohama blasted to an equally nonchalant and robotic domestic crowd lazily looking outside the window as the bus passed by one Chinese restaurant after the other. The announcement cannot help but bring a little smirk over my face. Yep, certainly nothing racist there , just uttering the truth, as anyone who has been to Chinatowns across the world knows so well. And going to Chinatowns I have. From the overtly tourist ones like San Francisco and Sydney to more hidden and functional ones like the ones in Seoul and Calgary, I have seen perhaps every major Chinese population center outside the Sinosphere. At first glance, every Chinatown seems the same. The restaurants, the shops selling imported Chinese goods, and street vendors ruthlessly gawking at every passerby, the spirit of commercia...

In a previous piece , I argued that while the public can serve the purpose of monitoring any unethical behavior, the lack of concrete structure of the volunteering public means that its monitoring power is not nearly as effective in maintaining high level of ethics as well-developed government agencies. How complete the government monitoring system is often the difference marker between a developed country with stable socio-economic conditions and a developing country with a "wild wild west" feel. Of course, being subjected to a constant social fluidity based on affinity to illegal activities can seriously hurt a country's long-term development, but in the short-term, is such fluidity completely negative? I would argue that the answer is not entirely a flat "no" in the developing world. In fact, often the illegal distribution of certain ideas, goods, and services is the only way to make them cheap enough and widespread enough to be trickled down to many outl...

Reading major newspapers around the world, optimism for the developments in the so-called "developing countries" have become increasingly common in the past few years. The stories of newly wealthy middle and upper class families in places like China, India, and Southeast Asia excites businessmen and commoners alike. The sheer numbers of people who are now living a modern "Western lifestyles" and the rise of major cities as international metropolises continue to entice people from the developed world to set foot upon these previously impoverished lands. Even besides the obvious "White Man's Burden" way of thinking with "Westernization=modernization," the stories still strikes any careful reader with the sheer biases in the description. Of course, it is good to present the "developing countries" as "not that different" places where people from the developed world can visit, but by entirely ignoring the continued plight of...

These days, I have really been feeling like writing these blog posts have become more and more mentally stressful...and time-taking. Just sitting down and pumping out words on a blank screen used to be such a simple task, but now it feels like I have to repeatedly question myself whether each word I am using is indeed correct and suitable for the situation. And not just blog posts, each email in English and whats more, each sentence in English I write or say under any situation has become more of a mental exercise and a battle with self-doubt. Yes, I am losing English. While my Japanese speaking and writing abilities have been growing by the day as I call up more and more merchants on the phone , the ability to relaxingly do the same in English has been going down in an increasingly obvious way. Putting together any sort of fluent, long-ish sentence, not to mention a logical argument, have, surprisingly, become easier in Japanese, and I am fearfully finding myself trying to transla...

Taking a day of work today, I went through a colonoscopy at the local hospital. The once-every-few-years periodic exercise will be conducted throughout my life to check on whether I have been passed down the "colon polyp gene" from my mother. Needless to say, I have done it several times in the past, all of them happened to be in the States. Although the anesthetic is made much weaker to suit the Asian physique, my first and potentially only time in Japan has been without any problems. In both countries, with their well-developed medical systems, what shines even more than the state-of-the-art medical systems is the sense of professional responsibility displayed by all staff at the hospitals. All legal documents are signed upfront to explain the associated risks, and fee structures with clear denotations of every cost are provided to the patients. Users of medical services in both US and Japan can expect the exact same treatment at the exact same cost shown on the docume...

Just another day on the Internet and just another day of reading ridiculous spam messages in my mailbox, Facebook wall, and anywhere else that I can come to collect personalized communications. "OMG, see who is stalking you on Facebook!" seems to be the latest fad to go around. Those who cannot resist the temptation of finding out click on the link and without them knowing, the same message is transmitted to their friends, who will likely to repeat the cycle. Obviously, the temptation does not get you the answer you want. No names of "stalkers" are released and the link-clicking curiosity only leads to belated apologies to a bunch of mildly amused (and later on, irritated) friends. Even so, what is for sure is that, next time when there is another link with equally tempting message inscribed, the chances are, people will click on it again, and again, and again. Netizens just keep believing that at least of those sensationalizing messages they receive everyday h...

In many ways, Japan, and Asia in general, is a socially liberal country just in the same way as it is socially conservative. While the sense of strict social hierarchy and expectations of youth obeying elders are completely in line with traditional Confucian beliefs , there are other physically obvious phenomena that would make any loyal adherent of Confucianism raising a doubtful eyebrow. Today, I would like to focus on the commonly accepted female dress code. Confucius argues that family is the most basic formation unit of society. And to keep the core family stable is the first thing needed to keep the entire society stable. Chinese classics are filled with stories portraying prostitutes and those who carry on extra-marital affairs as evil. And even in "post-Confucian" Asia, more than anywhere else on Earth, has strong hatred toward prostitution, divorce, and illegitimate romantic affairs, if as social attitudes and legal codes have gradually relaxed. The modern way o...

I have been sick these days...really really sick. Things already started to look pretty bad at the beginning of the week when work as usual started on the 20th floor of Rakuten Tower. In the sales floor where nothing besides smooth sales talk is usually allowed during work time, I can hear coughing and sneezing across the floor. Yes, someone has brought in this summer's first cold virus from somewhere, and his or her determination to come to work no matter what has allowed all of us to share his pain and suffering. When you are crowded into an office space with (literally) hundreds of people sitting right next to each other and no air circulation (besides barely operating AC system to save electricity ), there is just no way you can escape a spreading biological terror. I was feeling fine at the beginning of the week, by as people right next to me began to succumb to the disease, I know it was only a matter of time before I fell apart. And, fell apart I certainly did. Still c...

Finally getting back to Tokyo after a three-day trip over in Kyoto for the Japanese Golden "Week," the first thing on my (and apparently, many others') minds were...eh, partying. One day of work on Friday was followed by another regular two-day weekend to close out the maddeningly long vacation period that is oh-so rare for the Japanese salary-men. And to help close out (mentally) the vacation, I had the opportunity to attend another nomikai of the 2011 Rakuten new grads. I have to say that these guys just never fail to impress me with their unique characters, whether sober or drunk. While it is impressive enough that they can still manage to pull together more than 100 people for a drink after work, but it is simply astounding that these guys, even after a month of grueling training program and systematic brainwashing by the company ideologies, they still manage to maintain their personalities and characters. 個性 (individuality) was the word of the night. From my pro...

I have to be honest: I have always been a very shy person. Right, it certainly does not seem like it now, but because I spent so much of my life moving around the world (average of about one new place every two years), the impossibility of developing long-term stable friendships eventually become a sort of hidden inferiority complex. It has been a personal habit of mine to not really aggressively "sell" myself to others since I would move away soon and potentially never see the people I met again anyways. With such an inferiority complex larking underneath, it is no surprise that over time, I develop a highly proud and often arrogant way of presenting myself to others. Professing to be truly "worldly" and not entangled (or even remotely interested) in those little up-and-down emotional relationships among individuals, I often take a self-isolating stance to meeting others. Not meeting others and connecting with them deeply is the best way to prevent unnecessary...