80's Music

80's music is my treasure. It reminds me of my days as a school boy. Sheena Easton, a Scotland singer who got the Grammy awards in 80's, has come to Tokyo to perform on stage. I was thinking to see her performance, but I was feeling not to go because of my work schedule.
Then, I decided to go to the live house first and try whether I should do.

http://www.tokyo-midtown.com/en/shop/32/index.html

The URL above was the place for her performance. I went to the counter and asked for a ticket.
The clark said 'You can get a ticket for you, but Sheena will not perform tonight. Her back band will play her songs without her." I was like "What??"

I asked him "so you mean, I will not hear her voice at all?" He said no.
It is a bit interesting. I was still thinking of my job for tomorrow, but I missed her performance at the same time.

Anyway, the place is located in a very sophisticated area of Tokyo. I like the atmosphere.

Meet new friends

I was invited a small home party tonight. I tended to think I wanted to take a rest in weekends because I am busy all the weekdays. And today was the same. However, I was feeling I needed to go out and make new friends, too. It links a question, "what is my life? what kind of a man I want to be?" Yes, I do not want to be lonely, I want to enjoy my life. In order to enjoy my life, I need friends.

Now I came back from the party and it is fun. I met a singer, a patissier, an associate professor, an entertainer who is known to many people through a big and international company's advertisement, a photographer, a businessman, and a woman who works for a clothing company in an investors relations section. With drinking, we talked about ourselves. I was there for 3 hours but I felt it was like an hour. I was thinking of myself. Everybody seemed to live by her/his own, but what about me? I lost some self confidence. At the same time, I was feeling some happiness. There is actually some good moods and I could feel it. Today's gathering is the one I want to continue to keep the relationship.

Feel the globe through markets

To tell you the truth, I am not interested in economy in general. More interested in human communication... but now, I have to admit how interesting to understand the structure of globalism in economy. Especially, a stock market.

Today, most of Japan's news programs talked about the Sub prime loan issues and the US ecomomy. In addition, the decline of the Shanghai index and the SENSEX in Munbai, India was discussed. Why? Because, these things influence the Japan's market. Yes, I can feel that I live in globalism in economy.

The FRB has just announced their decision to cut the federal fund rate. I predict that the Dow
will go up, but it seems hard in reality. That's the way it goes, and I feel that I need to study more about the reason why they do not accept the FRB's decision positively.

I can imagine my friends staying in New York when I hear the news such as the Sub prime loan.
It is not "other people's news", but "my news".

Free on communication

When it comes to communication, I feel stiff a little in Japan. There is some assumption that people should share personal information or backgrounds at first stage. I mean, people tend to care about job status, the level of income, married or unmarried, the age, and the like. Once people understand the basic information, then they select suitable topics. This is a way to protect themselves. It seems that they tend to classify friends, rivals, and enemies in communication. When I was in the U.K., I felt comfortable. It was easy to make friends much more than Japan. Actually, they tend to ask where I am from, but it is natural. People who I met in the U.K. focused on the topics such as what I am interested in, what kind of thoughts I have, what I want to be in the future and the like. I was delighted to talk about my experiences in the past, and they welcome to listen to. No jealousy, no frustration. I am too sensitive on this, but I felt the communication with Japanese in the U.K., they tend to think of the level. The number of native friends, the way of pronunciation, the speed of understanding in English conversation... it seems like competition. Of course, no need to compete each other. Maybe I am afraid to say that I have some elements to compete with others in my mind.

Global Society

On 4th of January is my first day to work. I understand the fact that we are living in global society. During the time Japan was in holidays, most of countries started their jobs. Some data indicated the U.S. economic growth was getting slow down, and this reminded people who invest Japanese stocks of the recession on global scale. The Tokyo stocks are sharply declined yesterday, and the decline was the historical record as a first day of a year. There are many stocks which do not have strong link with US or other countries' situation such as pharmaceutical manufacture or railway but more than 90% stocks in the Tokyo stocks were sold yesterday. It must be too early to say this indicates the start of global recession, but there is one question: why people cannot buy Japanese stocks? Korea, Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore-- other Asian markets rose. I assume there would be something in Japan which let the investors avoid to invest to Japanese companies. Anyway, a first day of the Tokyo stock market was disturbance.

Happy New Year 2008!

I would like to say Happy New Year to everybody. Hope this year will be fruitful and wish to have peace of mind through this year. Everyday life is very busy and I only tend to think of myself. I have noticed that it is necessary to imagine how others may feel.

I got a news that my Indian friend would get married soon. I wish I could join the ceremony, but it seems difficult. I am not so familiar with the Indian style of wedding, but I will try to catch up to celebrate it.

Well, I will try to write much more this year. Hope you will enjoy this.