Ogakijin Blog

Busy? Was okay. I gave small presentation, in English, with update to one executive. Went well? Well, I would say, the feedback was somewhat bitter. Definitely, thing of last time was better for me. Hehehe.

Executive was surprised with the constraint that I got for this project. Not of my fault.

After tough meeting (!), I went out to Roppongi. Yeah, night place!
I was invited to "Membership Tavern." Yeah, you need to be a member to get service.

My friend was one. That's why I was granted to mysterious place.
People working for the bar was extremely nice and look so great. Handsome and beautiful.
Lady served my table was extremely nice and CUTE! Yeah, I almost (did?) asked her out! (no kidding).

I asked her simple question, though. "HOW COULD I BE A MEMBER?"
She never gave me a clear answer to my question. I believe that she shouldn't share such information.
I believe that other member can recommend someone to be a member... otherwise, no one can be a member.

I guess, that's the system. It not, I should have got the answer from that beautiful lady!
Hmmm.

Well, no need to update. Right? I have been busy all day long! Still busy for now. I shouldn't work on this one. Rather, I should stick myself to the work that I face. Not much time allowed for me. I should keep working!!!

Small presentation I gave entailed los of discussion issues within the meeting. Hmmm.
About now, I sent first two months as business consultant. Do I like it? Sure. Do I enjoy it? Well, don't feel such yet...
How do you want me to describe the job? How's consultation like? How's my everday?

It were a drilling process. You want to go thru a big mountain to make a tunnel.
Sometimes, the drilling is easy and you make great process. You would feel like, "Oh yeah... I can get this done very smoothly."
Sometimes, you got stuck. Cannot drill even an inch. Don't know the problem pushing you back. Then, you tell youself, "What's wrong? Have I missed anything? I never get this through?"

Big up and down... you see the difference everyday! That's what it is.
Got it?

What's up, folks?!
Got a call with quote fixing my fountain pen by Sailor Pen.
I was told, it would be $40.

FORGET IT!

The problem with that pen is nothing but the loose screw within the cap side.

Just tightening it costs that much of money?! Don't you have such question if you heard the same thing?

I told NOT to proceed. $40 isn't something that I can afford at this moment.
Person over the phone seemed very surprised. Didn't believe me for the first time.

Well, I will fix that problem in long term. Just not now.
Sailor one isn't for my primary use... that's why no hurry. Pelikan and Montblanc are the first to come. Hehehe.
I haven't decided the brand for next pen yet.

New week... fresh start? What about yours? Mine was okay. No meeting today. In fact, tomorrow, Thursday and Friday... I should preside meetings respectively. Friday one is the most important because I have to face off against the executive. Face off? Hahaha.

Mostly today, I used Excel and Access. Access? I am not that proficient in that application. Hmmm.

For lunch, client and I went to Chinese restaurant. Rice dish for 800 yen. 7 dollars.

For whole afternoon, I was quietly working on data... lots of them. More than 20,000 line items. Oh boy!
I have to have some (at least tentative) conclusion from such data for the meeting. Otherwise... nightmare. I cannot move on to coming weekend without the conclusion.

I left work after my client around 7pm. Yeah, I wanted to leave soon as possible then. Took the work home, though.
Came home. Took bath... and then began working at 10pm. Finished around half hour passed midnight. Wow!
Extra two hours and half work home.

Saw bad weather this morning... made me stay home all day!
What did I do then? Watched TV for very very and very long time!



Oh I need to GET RID of those frames immediately! Hehehe.
Just received them from New York. Whoever wants one of those... should let me know so!

This week... work is definitely going to hectic. Last week of the month and the requirement is raised at higher level than last week or even before.
For sure, I will hang in there! Hehehe.

One of two Japanese baseball leagues comes to open today. Since my TV has two tuners... I could watch two different channels on the single screen. I fully took advantage of such feature for the first time today.

Since one program relayed two games back and forth, I can call another channel with another game... It means I could have seen three games on same TV. Yeah, this was great!

Didn't buy that TV because of that feature. Rather, I bought this which came along with subwoofer. Double tuner option was totally alternative. Well, I am quite happy with this TV anyhow.

I still prefer watching game first hand to watching on TV. Well this year, I hope I can come to see a few games in actually stadium. Will see.

A little frustration from work for today? That was because I lacked some technique for data analysis.
Good news is that it was Friday! It means that I can (actually I did) come to the weekend for rest.

In fact, I left work around 7pm and ran into the train bound for Sagamihara.

Sagaihara? Sounds familiar? Yeah, that was the place that I used to live for last job.
What occasion? Last company that I worked for threw some party for those who recently got promoted or took new position.
I was also counted in as the guest since they didn't held official farewell on me before.

Lucky me!

I really enjoyed myself being among old friends and coworkers. So fun! Plus, SO DIFFERENT.
All reminded me of old days...

Great stuff! Stayed with them from 8pm until 10pm or a little later than that. I could have gone with them to Karaoke then. Though, decided not to. I rather chose coming home tonight.

Weekend is now beginning!

What's up, folks? Well, Wednesday was off... made this whole week pretty short!!! Don't you agree?
Big meeting took place in the morning. My client happily came back from that. He informed me that the things I prepared for the meeting was "good eye-catching." Cool.

Well at the same time, he brought me back some sensitive issue about workload as well as time constraint. Hmmm.
Should I be happy or disappointed? That's the question.

I face 9,000 lines of data for analysis. Not all, though. Just beginning...
Moreover, I am expected to collect more data from 5,000 to 12,000 next week or thereafter. What do you think? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? It does to me!!!

Will have time for discussion with Project Manager tomorrow. Will see how things are to be handled.



Yes, got paid... so ready to pay off the debt? Already made payment!!! Cannot wait for next pay day! (BANG!)

National holiday today! That means no work. Yep, it is so to usual people. Do I get counted in such category? Well, I planned to work previously... turned out to be minimal work. I didn't motivate myself enough to get lots done. Rather, I finished what I just needed for next day.

You know this kind of situation... you just do the homework for tomorrow... and you worry about things due day after! Hehehe.

Big meeting is scheduled on Thursday... though, I am NOT required to attend. It means that I am not that important... yet.
Hahaha!

Finally, new bed is in! Yeah, no more Japanese sleeping style. Am so Westernized! (true?)
Delivery was made in late afternoon. That really tied me up to being home all day long. Hmmm. Too bad.

I like my new bed!!! It's black. What about bed linen? Pink? Red? Purple? Will see...

Not, It's OMEGA (BANG!).



This is pretty darn old watch... I presume that it was made in late 50's or possibly early 60's. Who knows? Well, that's what I was told upon buying this while was in London... back in 1990's!

Wow, I use this for that long time? Precisely.
I never have any antique watch but one here. Yeah, this is definitely exception. Probably, this is last antique one that I purchase. Also, this is last OMEGA watch for myself. Hehehe.

Just happened to put it on my wrist for work today.
Its cumbersome to wear this since I have to adjust the time every time... yeah hectic like my fountain pen! Hehehe.

Yep, this is it! Hehehe... for long time I really wanted to have one for myself.
This is the Paul Smith suits that I recently bought. Pretty darn expensive (at lest to myself).



Can't tell much about this style? Well, let's leave it in that way!!! You can tell firsthand upon seeing me in face! Hehehe.
Anyway, you can tell such unique design even from this photo.

Work in progress... hahaha, that's the phrase for the day. I kept myself inside... didn't go anywhere.
Then, I opened up two laptops and connected to company's network for information.
Downloaded data and I worked on some data analysis. Hmmm.
Did I learn from those for my goal of the project? Well, somewhat...

MoonFlower was busy for something else and I worked home pretty much all day long.

Seemed to be cold outside... it was wise to let myself stay inside. Hahaha.



You can see how I worked home. TV was on... while two computers were also on.
Well, I didn't have to look at the screens all the time. I still could afford myself watching TV time to time.

Will be easier tomorrow with today's work? Hmmm, to be honest with you, don't know.
Hope it to be that way rather than in vain.

Will see how much luck I have for this. Ha!

Since I was invited to sales of LOEWE brand... MoonFlower and I went to Ebisu.
Didn't expect anything to buy since I really thought that the brand was for ladies. I was wrong. Really wrong.
It got both men's and lady's.

In fact, I bought a tie for myself. Only 7k. Not bad. Never had one from this brand before...
I need to make my tie collection conservative... dumping all funky ones!!!
Definitely, LOEWE tie helped me to be super conservative.

Can I really BE super conservative? That's THE question, huh!

Anyway, tie was the only thing that I got from the sale.
MoonFlower didn't get any for herself. I refused paying for her wants!

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars, we went in to Westin Tokyo, hotel not too far from where we just shopped then.
We had cafe and sweets. 20 bucks each! Wow...

This hotel was pretty luxury. Small, though.

How's it going? Yeah, weekend has come! Finally? I thought it was rather quick.
Well, it was difficult moment today.

What did I do?

I was given 30 minutes to present idea of what I am working on for the project to one of top executives.
Yeah, given 30 minutes seemed too long...

From 1pm... a little after 1pm to be exact, my time started.
All in English. First time since I left Thunderbird? The language skill didn't go away from myself too much.
At least I communicated all necessary well.

My client was happy with how thing went with the executive. Big relief to me.

Hurdle...somewhat still low one... that I went over. Am sure that another one with higher requirement to be here SO soon.
I better prepared.

Anyway, weekend is here. I shouldn't think too much about the work.
One thing for sure, though. From the time around 1st half of April... I will be extremely busy. Yeah, extremely.

Very tied... I must have been exhausted.
In almost every morning, I do have hard time to get myself out of futon.
Surely, I don't have good wake-up. Rather, I feel some fatigue and don't have clear head.

That gives negative impacts to my work motives, huh! Sure it does.

I should make this coming weekend to be full of sleep? Don't even know if that's good idea or not.
What do y'all think?

White Day? What about it?

Remember of St. Valentine's Day? Yeah, one month later... we come to "White Day" in Japan.
On that particular day, all men are REQUIRED to send something in return to ladies who sent some gift on St. Valentine's Day.

Wait. The condition is only if you received something exactly one month ago.

Hahaha, am NOT! I don't even qualified for this event. I am free! Risk-free!!! Hehehe.

Wait. That means I am NOT popular among ladies at all. Oh boy! That's something. (BANG!)

Worse than Monday... it was. Well that was so as totally expected. Hehehe. No damage, though.
Monday, I was quite productive. Today, presided a meeting... Funny thing was that I led the meeting... with limited knowledge. Everyone else in that same place has known the issue of the project for a long time. Of course, I was quite intimidated by surrounding! Hahaha.

Though, I somehow managed it through. Good deal? Well, was so-so.
Then, the hurdle was raised. Friday, I have to face another issue with higher management. Hmmm.

Left work at 7pm. Had to go then.
Went down to Roppongi for drink. Well, for talk to be exact.
Was for talk about SOX compliance. Yeah, sort networking.
Wait. Heineken costs me 1,000 yen? (8 dollars) - SUPER EXPENSIVE!

That was why I stopped drinking after 1st pint! Hahaha.
Late to be home tonight. Was at 11pm. Hmmm, almost bed time!

Israel of Mexico NOT coming. Oh... that's fine. Whenever you want.
Then, who's next?

HI folks. I held a meeting in this morning in order to clarify the issues remained unsolved from previous week. As a result, cleared the issue and my proposal to raise the quality level of my input as well as visibility of my work, holding daily wrap-up meeting, is accepted.
Cool. Some progress made today.
The meeting lasted longer than planned. It made my lunch time extremely short.

Then, I depended upon lunch box from convenience store.

In the afternoon, I was busy "thinking." Didn't do produce many PPT slides then. Rather, I kept writing my idea in my note. I like that kind of work!!!
Tomorrow's agenda is set from that action. I drew theory today and I will back it up with factual data tomorrow.

Left work around 8pm. My stakeholder told me that I better hold good control about how much time to spend for work day to day. Surely, I will do so. Plus, I have to leave work early tomorrow since I have some appointment in Roppongi after work!

All right, folks. Good night.

Man, weekend is over! Bad weather today! Terrible unstable climate really made me feel down!
It was busy day for me, though.
Went to Mitsukoshi in Ginza for pickup of my new suits. Wow, yeah... I bought new suits!
Since coming home... the number of suits that I bought... is FOUR.

This time, pretty darn exensive. Spent nearly 1K!!!
The brand of them is called Paul Smith. One of my favorite brands. Yeah, my dream came true!!!
The suits - piece of work! Great one. I love them.

Came home quickly once. Brought back the suits as well as dry cleaning.
Went down to Chiba to meet MoonFlower.
We came back to Tokyo area. Kinshicho, precisely.

Wanted to see movie, "Dream Girls." In vain. We didn't make the movie theater on foot since hard wind and rain really disturbed us.
Probably, we'll see that movie next week.

Instead, she came to hold great deal with cosmetic items. For me, I came to find a cheap leather shoe for work. Oh gee, good stuff! Wait. That means, I bought new shoes two weeks in a row! Hmmm.

Am I going to wear Paul Smith tomorrow? Good question. Least likely, I would say.
I may not wear them as often as I do other pairs. That's what I think at this point of time.

Tomorrow... I have to bring it up the meeting with client. Yeah, don't have choice. I will be quite BOLD then.

Ok, Saturday is here. Weather is okay... cloudy. Not bad, though.
Woke up and get things done like laundry and drop-off at dry cleaner, etc. Definited routine on every Saturday! Yep, chore thing.

Akihabara. Went to several stores to check some stuff out. Didn't buy any, though.
Ayumi Hamazaki's latest album... decided to download from iTunes instead of buying the hard copy.
Reason? Price. 40 bucks on hard copy. 25 bucks for download.

40 bucks include special DVD along with music disc. Don't need it. Clear.

Tokyo Station. Finally, made OAZO shopping complex this afternoon. Requested repair on my fountain pen. Due in two weeks. WOW!

Minami-Sunamachi. Why there? Well, furniture retailer NITORI is there. Remember i bought a coffee table from that place? About three weeks ago or so.
This time, bought a bed. Frame and mattress. Costed about 780 bucks! Hmmm, darn expensive.
How can I recover this amount of money? That's the remaining question for me... right now.

Okay, folks! Now about time for us to go into weekend!!! About time! Hahaha.
For me, it was somewhat tough week this time. I should get some cool air in so that I can freshen up myself from such tough situation. Not precisely stressful, though. Somewhat learning for sure and somewhat difficult to face the facts, etc.

Stayed at work until 9pm. Yeah, late. Though, not that bad.
I wanted to stop by the OAZO so that I can request repair of my Sailor fountain pen. Well, didn't make it today.

I straight came back to my station, Koiwa.
On the way back from the train station, went to Ramen noodle shop for supper. I know, that's not best kind of meal... I wanted to have, though.

Afterward... (men, that noodle was terrible!) I came home. Watched TV for a long time.

No plan tomorrow. Oh boy!
Oh... I heard that Mexico's Israel is planning to visit me in early April.... That means I have to get ready to welcome the first guest from foreign country to my apartment room! Hmmm, I should get out and buy BED!

I will do some important shopping tomorrow then.

PS. Yes! FIFO is of course effective in Europe as standard process! Thanks, my ex-Boss!

Good job? Good work today? Let's presume that! Hahaha.
Just heard from some student at Thunderbird.
Also heard from some alum...

Wow, what's going on? Hahaha. Good stuff? Somewhat so.
First, Japan trip stuff. Finally, things are moving on. However, I haven't obtained any detail yet. Sure, I requested so.
Second, new opportunity already? Hehehe.

Will see. Will keep y'all informed.
About Japan trip... don't even know who is in charge to organize it all. Hmmm.

Popular TV drama, "Pride of Temp Staff" is now over. The series has one more episode to go. Wow, almost over? That's too bad!
Work wasn't that bad... though, more and more blurry about the scope... what to happen next? Myy boss gets confused as well. The biggest event, the update meeting, was over in this afternoon and I have no big stuff for this week. Instead, next week thing gets a little complicated than previously thought.

Let's get back to the drama stuff.
There is a super efficient work-only (no socializin) temp staff... working at $25 per hour!
She solves all kinds of issues in the office.
People, particularly about permanent employees, get driven crazy by her... because she's just work-focus.

Not comedy... just drama.
That super lady always talks back with same phrase... "So what?"
For instance,
"You just told me to do this job... SO WHAT?"

This gives me a big relief as well as laughter!!!
I really like it. Too bad... next week it comes to an end...
I may buy the DVD collection if becoming available. Am sure that it will.

Um... get busy to shine my shoe for tomorrow...

Ogakijin is expected to get back to sales role? Don't know. Just a talk. I thought that just started consultation, right? Hahaha. Well, you never know what kind of job I do in even half year.

Had internal meeting this morning... half of it was easy to understand... the other was nothing but complication.
Well, I'll figure it all out sooner or later... probably within this week.

Early afternoon, I had a chance to first meet the partner of the company. I thought that it would be a casual talk since first meeting with that person. It turned out to be business reporting opportunity. Wow, wasn't that well-prepared. At the end, I continued my talk for 30 minutes or so. Impressive? Of course not... rather was so-so.

Then how come issue about sales role was raised? Good question... will see how this story to be developed.

Finished work around 7pm. Rest of stuff to do became take-home. Hehehe.
Didn't come home straight, though. Made a BIG stop over Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza.

Purpose of visit? To check out Paul Smith suit. Bought? Well... no comment (BANG!).
Three days to go... If I don't wrap up the issue I have within this week, next week easily becomes nightmare. I better recognize this aspect of the current assignment. I should be dead serious!!!

Three days... I still do have 20-some hours, easily. Think about it.

Weather is crazy? Will be very cold again?

Did you feel that? That was very strong wind! Spring wind? Man, way stronger than we all expected! Oh, don't even underestimate such natural phenomenon because this wind made all trains over Tokyo delayed.
I wanted to leave the office early so that the impact of weather cause could be limited. Well, too late. I didn't leave the office early enough. I totally got encountered the delay!

Usually 40-45 minutes between office and apartment room. Tonight, took me more than one hour and 20 minutes.
Soon as caught train at Ochanomizu, the train didn't move much toward Akihabara. Only 2 minute way became 20 minute ride. Oh boy!

Gee, stock market cannot change the downward trend? What happened? Well, better stay optimistic and it will eventually gain the stability sooner or later.

Work. Did lots of data analysis... Yeah, my FAVORITE stuff to do! Hehehe. No way. Least favorite!
Download the data from ERP, put it in Excel format, cleanse the data, analyze the data, visualize in graph, and complete PPT slide.
I did this process over and over... all day long.

No wonder that I drank lots of liquids from coffee to juice. Hahaha.
I have a meeting tomorrow... at least what I have done for the day would be helpful... let's hope so. Hehehe.

Went out to Chiba City with MoonFlower. We didin't have any specific plan for the day. In fact, she woke up late... later than usual and we didn't come to talk to each other about today's plan until late morning.

No particular purpose in Chiba. Ate lunch and look around in the department store. That's it.

Wanted to fix Sailor fountain pen... though, the shop personnel said to me that it would have to send the pen to the factory for repair. Well, thing wasn't that serious. The pin is sort loose. If shop had required tool, it could have been fixed right away. Well, I will look for other place for such service.

Now almost midnight... getting read for new week. Wait. Am watching this:

"Giselle"

Have you seen such ballet? Well, I am watching this in order to fulfill MoonFlower's recommendation (requirement?).
Pretty cool stuff, though. Hehehe. With large TV and good sound system, you can enjoy this kind of stuff and I am exactly doing so!

I used to like musical... a lot when I was in UK or US. I still like it. Now I may start liking something like this. Hahaha.

Good night!

Late start today. Went to bed around 2am last night and got up around 10am.
Almost late to bring my dirty shirts to dry cleaner. I made it, though.

Around 11am, bookshelf that I ordered got in.
Am so glad that the color of that piece of furniture matched to everything else in the living room. Cool!

Thus, I got space to organize things in this apartment. I will sort things out and clean up particularly around the area of kitchen counter. Got many small things over the counter... since no place to go.

Now it looks all better.

No major event for the day. Oh, I went to haircut. Usual thing.
How's your weekend so far?

Yes, called me trader! I got an invitation from some T-bird alums... and I showed up in Shibuya after work today!
Wait. wasn't it Super Friday today??? Yep, it was.

Work was flat and I didn't have much problem today. Two meetings and both were okay. I was extremely sleepy then, though. (BANG!)
I still need to catch up with things around. Yeah, I eventually will.

Man, my client offered me lunch. We went to pretty expensive Japanese dish. More expensive than one I had yesterday!
This is the center of Tokyo... no surprise that everything is priced high. True.

After work... well, I finished working around 7pm. Rushed to Shibuya.

Toshi - Ogakijin and he were in the same cohort at Thunderbird.
Takeshi - Ogakijin and he graduated together in December 2006.

Three of T-birds got together over dinner and drink tonight. Those gentlemen were in great shape along with hard working.
Great to see you both!!!

Takeshi seemed ready to have endless night with full of drinks. While, Toshi ran out of his energy. So we wrapped it all up before missing the last train for the day. Next time, I will deal with whatever Takeshi wants! Hahaha.

Pity end last month... While, sort warm and calm start this month. Almost exam week at Thunderbird?
Had internal meeting over the lunch and some learning session in the afternoon. Otherwise, it wasn't that bad. Hope this sort of thing continue to happen in this month so that I feel more confident to dedicate myself for this particular project.

Lunch - $10.0
Dinner - $4.5

Wait. That should be the other way around? I should've paid more for supper? Yeah I know.
Well, let's say this way:

Lunch - no choice. I had to "appear" capable for expensive lunch.
Dinner - true Ogakijin style (BANG!)

At night after work, I went down to Takadanobaba... to pick up my pants that were repaired.
With apology from the store, I was offered full exchange... I could've chosen anything I wanted in the store.

Rather, I gave the store manager a counteroffer. "I want a dress suit. Can you rather give me discount on that purchase? I am okay with those two pants that you fixed for me."
The answer was positive... right away. So I chose following:

-Back dress suit (for party, wedding, and funeral) - priced $700 @ 50% off
-Tie $60 @ 30% off
-Cuffs $50@ FREE
-Dress shirt $60 @ 20% off
-Handkerchief $20 @ FREE
-FREE delivery

Yeah, almost (exactly) rip-off? Hahaha!
One more day to go! Yey!