Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

As the news of my imminent departure from Japan and Rakuten continues to spread like a wildfire within the company, the compilation of reactions is certainly becoming a tool for me to further understand what it means to be a salary-men. The stability-seeking middle class backbone of Japanese corporate world, so loyal to their companies and so diligent in fulfilling top-down orders day in and day out , becomes something very interesting when even they become disillusioned with reality within the current work environment. But before talking about disillusion and all, it is important to note just how "stability-oriented" Japanese education and job-search processes really are. Because of continued tendency for mass hiring, job posts are generally specified for new grads, nor are job posts really open to selection by the new grads themselves. Unless the new grad in question have seriously strong skill in one aspect, he or she will simply be placed, along with most others, in ...

With the end of the last call yesterday, my sales experience in Japan has officially topped two and a half months. Even though I am still without a single success to my belt, it feels as if, at least from a socio-cultural standpoint, I am starting to see what exactly is the role of a salesman here in Japan. In an IT company whose success is largely defined by aggressive sales rather than technical innovation, understanding the place of sales and its practitioners in Japanese society would be not only necessary but fundamental. In a previous post , I already established that sales skills are obviously not a cookie-cutter ability applicable in the same way to every country out there. But I am coming to realize that what is more important for the difference in sales across countries is social status and function rather than sheer approach and methodology. People would tend to listen to salesmen if the salesmen are perceived to carry more of a social significance, rather than just so...

"I have decided to graduate from Rakuten and go become a teacher in Uganda!" The tone from an outgoing coworker cannot have sounded more optimistic and forward-looking to a globetrotter like me. A sudden message indeed, and no doubt caught most of the people on the recipient mailing list with great surprise. While I am reading and feeling absolutely jealous and in complete respect for the courage of making such a risky move, I at the same time wonder how others are feeling about the same announcement.

Waking up in an Internet café in Nagano after a hasty overnight stay to avoid the downpours, I was refreshed in excitement as I went back onto the streets at 6am. The clear blue sky offered not a trace of clouds, and the empty morning streets were completely devoid of any moistness. Breathing in the crisp (and cold…I can see my breath!) morning air, the traveler would not have known that incessant rain made the town as bleak as it can possibly be just a few hours ago. An adventurous traveler can be offered nothing more exciting than fine weather. As long as the weather does not slow him down, the traveler seems to have the entire world to his own . As the sun introduced a bit of warmness to the chilly morning air, passions and energy are reignited, and the traveler just cannot wait to run through the streets, putting his full-packed day of travel planning into execution mode. It is just too unfortunate that everyone who wants to travel has to suppress the urge to do so during weekd...

Night has fallen as the slow train pulled into its final destination in Nagano . Even though it is a prefectural capital and host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, amid the unending heavy rain, its bleak darkness could not have been less welcoming. Watching people rush past to avoid the downpours, I chewed on a burger in the MacDonald's in front of the main train station. "But I ask, what really is good about the democratic system?" I suddenly heard a young but confident voice amid the noisy banters in the fast food joint. The determined (and highly uncharacteristic and out-of-place) conversation continued, "before Pearl Harbor, America was anti-war in its entirety, so the presidential candidates, knowing that war was about to happen, still played the pro-peace card!" No doubt, I was thoroughly surprised. Nowhere in Japan have I ever heard such confident and bold talks of politics, and nowhere in the world have I heard such talks in a fast food joint. In a population...

I have always believed (and probably always will) believe that language is a tool of expressing culture . Language detached from culture can never be truly considered a true language as it is then effectively detached from all cultural nuances essential for generating deep conversations. Thus, a person without cultural knowledge associated with a particular language can never be considered fluent in that particular language no matter how effortlessly the person can speak it. The above logic is the fundamental reason I am against all efforts to introduce English ( or any other language, for that matter ) as the working language for a non-English-speaking environment. Because English, as known by her native speakers, ignores all socio-cultural customs of the non-English-speaking locality…this is especially true in Japan, where the various unwritten social rules of embarrassment and isolation so commonly used is practically unknown in the Western world where English originates. However...

The rain gets stronger, the wooded mountains more isolating, and the journey on the slow local train continues into the rural areas as night falls on the flatlands of central Japan. Every time the train stops and temporarily shuts down her engine, the only noise that can be heard is the sound of the rain showering the ground. There are no longer any malls, or even any stores and houses, outside the passing landscape, and seeing pedestrians of any sort is quickly becoming more and more of a rarity.