梅雨（tsuyu）- the rainy season

Here comes this season again. In Japan, June is the rainy season which is called tsuyu in jp. Most people don't like it cause it rains all the time which makes them depressing. yeah, that's true but I kinda like it personally. Don't know why but I don't mind the rain. Plus, during this season, we see this flower called ajisai everywhere. cute, huh? I don't remember if I saw this in the U.S. Is there?

One more thing about June. June has another name; June Bride. It is said that if you get married in June, you can be happy forever. Just a legend but why June? I don't wanna have a wedding on a rainy day, you know. is this June Bride thing only in Japan or all over the world??

Factory Work partⅡ

it's a bit while ago but let me write a little bit about the factory work.
So yeah, I was making friges for hours and hours... that was soooo stressful. check out my last blog for the details. but you know what, I did learn some things.
I was able to experience how hard it is to do the factory work. You can't imagine how tiring it is to just continue doing same thing for 8 hours a day. We shouldn't forget that because of them, we are able to make products and do business. Also, I knew that so many people are involved to make one prouct. of course, machine does most of it but still human hands are necessary. Human needs to watch the machines if it's working well, machines can't tell if they're doing it wrong, robots can't fix the problems, machines can't do small things (like taking off the tapes, connecting the right wires together), and they can't see & check the quality, safety, looks. And if you include the people from producing to shipping and sales, I bet hundreds and thousands of people have touched it till it gets to the consumer's hands. I was like, "wow, so many people are involved to make one single thing... because any kind of people must use man-made products, humans can't live by themselves. People help each other to make our life better." This may be too exaggerating but I was moved.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say this before it fades out from my memory. It was interesting but 1 day is enough. I would never ever do this again. Never.

And this week, I'm finally doing my "work"! Don't be surprised but I'm doing Accounting. Why? yeah, yeah I know it's not me but don't ask... it's a long story. I'll just say that's the Japanese Company. I'd never thought I'll do accounting either.

So next time I think I'll write about my work "accounting".

Factory Worker

so now, I'm doing factory work. haha. so much fun...
why am I doing this?? Ask my company!!!

well, there is a concept though. You know I'm working for a electronic company, right? we make products. so my company wants us to know the Genba (isn't this English word like sushi? it means "actual place where things are happening"); know how products are made, experience how hard it is to work at the factory, they want you to "feel" something by actually doing it and use that in our own field. Yes, this is very good and meaningful.

However, it's soooo tiring!!! Imagine you have to work from 8:30 am till 5:10 pm, only 45 min lunch break and two 5 min break in the middle. and guess what I'm doing, I'm making fridges!!! more specificly, I'm taking off tapes and small boxes from the fridge before it goes to the quality check point. Of course we can't do something difficult or important cause we're non-skilled worker. so don't worry, I'm not making defective product. I'm probably touching more than a hundred fridges an hour! It makes me crazy just doing this whole day... so stressful. I did understand how hard factory workders are working.

Some of you might be thinking "isn't things are made automatically by machines?" Yes, that is true but most of our products are made in other countries such as China, Europe, South-east Asia, U.S. and there, it is automatic mass-production. But since it costs more to make products in Japan, we are taking small but various kind-system, more value-added product. So, we do have machines working but in some parts we need human hands.

Anyway, that is what I'm doing these days and will be doing this next week also. ahh, I'm having muscular pain... can't wait till it's over.

性善説

性善説：the view that humans are born inherently good
性善説とは広辞苑によると、人間の本能は善であり、仁・儀を先天的に具有すると考える孟子の説である。（逆は性悪説by荀子）
私は基本的に性善説だ。人間は基本的に生まれたときから悪い人はいない。どんな人でも自分の家族は愛しているだろう。もし犯罪を犯してしまったのなら、なんらかの理由があるか、周りの環境によって人間を変えられてしまったのだと思う。精神病なども、それは環境のせいであり、その人自身のせいではないと思う。自分の家族を殺してしまった人もいるが、それはなんらかの原因がある。原因もなく殺す人はいない。もちろんどんな理由であれ、人を殺してしはいけないが。

Anyway,突然こんなことを書いたのは、また人に「あなたはすぐ人を信じるでしょ。人を簡単に信用してはだめ。」と言われたからだ。しかもあまり話したこともない、人生いろいろ経験してそうな45歳くらいのおばさんに。今まで何回このようなことを人に言われてきたことか。。高校卒業のとき、もう当分会わないであろう友達に「まゆは将来絶対人を信用して騙されるよ。お願いだからそう簡単に人を信用しないでね。気をつけて」と忠告され、それ以降もいろんな人に「人をすぐ信用する。」「誰でもすぐいい人って言うよね。」といわれる。う～ん、そんなにすぐ人を信用するのだろうか？確かにちょっとやさしかったら「いい人」と思ってしまう。友達曰く、「そんな表面上はどんな人でもいい人だよ。実際その人がどんな人かなんかわからないよ。」また、私の周りに1人完璧な性悪説の人がいる。その人は周りは基本的にみな敵だと思っているらしい。だから人と接するときは疑いから入るし、裏切られてもあまり傷つかないらしい良いらしい。やっぱりなって感じで。確かに私はこの人いい人って思っていたのに、そう思っていた分、裏切られるとショックは大きい。また、危ない目にも何度かあったなぁ。。これを読んでる人の中にも思い当たる人いるよね・・？ごめんねぇ。。なにせ私が言いたいのは、またこのようなことを知らない人からいきなり言われて、ちょっと真剣に考えさせられた。これはいけないことなのか？でも皆口をそろえて、忠告する。まぁ危ないっちゃあ危ないし、私の事を思って言ってくれてるのだろうけど。でもこれは私の短所でもあり、長所だと思うんだよね。傷つくこともたまにあるけど、信じてみると、いいこともいっぱいあると思う。人って冷たいと思うことも多々あるけど、意外とあったかいよ。でもでも、最近ちょっと怖くなってきたなぁ・・・これからより人との出会いが多くなるなか、人をどこまで信用していいのかわからなくなってきた。。

みなさんはどう思いますか？興味あるので、意見聞かせてください！

There is a theory that humans are born inherently good. This theory was said by Chinese philosopher called 孟子（Moushi）　back in the B.C. 3c. I basically agree with this opinion. There are no humans who are bad from bottom of their heart. Even a murderer loves his family and probably will do anything for them.　Mental disorders must have had some kind of outer influence to be in that situation. Murderer must have a reason or cause to murder. No one will kill someone without reasons. what if your beloved child was killed?

Anyway, the reason I wrote this is because someone said to me "you trust peole very easily don't you? don't believe people so easily", and that was from someone I don't really know. How many times have I heard this from somebody else... On my graduation day back in high school, one of my friend's last message was "You trust people too easily and will be betrayed in the future. Please don't trust people and be careful. " and still I'm often said the same thing. I don't know why but I tend to think that if a person was nice and friendly, I would think "oh, s/he's nice!" and my friends will be like"how can you say that? of course people will be nice to strangers. You never know what that person is like from the outside." Yes, exactly. I have one friend who has the opposite theory; humans are born inherently bad. He thinks people are basically enemies so when he meets people, he begin from suspecting that person. If you trust the person and get betrayed you'll get hurt but if you haven't and same thing happend, you won't get hurt. You'll just think "oh, s/he was a bad person as I expected", he says. True, when the person who thought were nice wasn't a nice, I get terribly shocked. This happend a few times in the past... My point is I was shocked that some random person guessed this which made me think again... Is this really bad? I used to think this is my bad and also good point. I agree that I need to be more careful but good things will happen sometimes if your trust people. A lot of people are very cold these days (especially I feel this in Japan) but there are warm-hearted people out there. But now I'm a bit scared... I'll have more chance to meet people from now on and I don't know how much can I trust others. I don't know if I were able to explain what I wanted to say. Hope you could understand though.

so, what do you guys think? I would like to hear your opinions plz!

finally,

I'm done with this sales training! thank god, it's over.

I had a day off today since i had to work on weekends(just this month) and I had a wonderful time; relaxing in the cafe reading books and also I went swimming. I swam for 1.5 hours strainght! wow, huh? Swimming and tennis is the only sports I can do... oh, I almost forgot dancing! I can't swim fast (actually so slow) but I can swim forever:) I usually get bored and stop swimming. you'll get so bored after 30 min swimming. I usually think a lot while swimming, enables me to concentrate, think about myself & mylife.

Anyway, today I'd like to share my thoughts of what I learned through this sales training.
First of all, I realized how much consumers are influenced by sales person. (excluding foods and clothes choice which is more about individual taste and preference) I think 70-80 % depend on the person who you are recieving advice. There is another staff from other company (let's say company T) in the vaccum cleaner area and from my experience, I studied that if I get the customer first, people buy my product and if this other staff gets them first, they tend to buy T's product. Isn't this interesting? It's not about the product itself! It is how we introduce the product to the customers, how we lead the conversation and let them want to buy that product. Of course we have to know the product; it's feature, performance, differences compared to others, but we don't need to tell them all. Listen to their needs, tell them the info what they want and relate that to your product! Then, they'll think "oh, this is the thing that I was looking for!" YES, it is difficult. Especially when you have many competitors and you're not competing by it's the price. If it's cheap, you don't need sales staff. People will buy it. Problem is when it is expensive. But expensive=valuable. One advice is, if you are confident about your product and love the product, it's easy to sell. I was sure that our product has the best quality so I could sell it with confidence. and that will show to the customers.
Also, putting this story the other way around, don't trust the sales person! yeah, for sure. depending on the person, s/he maybe a spy trying to sell specific product. Like me, people didn't know I was from electornic company. They thought I'm just a staff in the store like everyone else. Be sure to compare the products before deciding especially if it's a valuable thing.
Another thing I thought is that if you're good at sales, you can sell anything. any kind of product, service, your-self, doesn't matter.

It was a good experience to actually listening to the consumers voice and learned how difficult it is to sell. I'm sure this will help in my future.
and now, here goes the next training from next week!

営業研修終了！うれしすぎやわ。上には書かなかったけど、なんせ暇で暇でしょうがない。
今が一番売れない時期らしい。。GW後で人はお金使いたがらないし、雨ばっかで外にはでないし。
最悪の時期に営業研修をすることになり、かなり暇。
まぁでも、少ないなかいろいろ学んだこともあります☆

＜営業について感じたこと＞

まず、どれを買うかは商品その物ではなく、営業マンに大きく左右されるということ。もちろん、食べ物や服など、個人の趣味・好みで買うものは違うが、専門知識が多少いるもの、店員のアドバイスを得て商品を決めるときは、本当にスタッフによるなと思った。客は気づかないかもしれないが、店員は自分が売りたい商品を売っていて、本当に良い商品を売っているのではないということ。その証拠として、私が接客したときはうちの商品を買い、他メーカーの営業者が接客した場合はそこの商品が売れる。商品の性能によるのではないということ。これっておかしいよね？普通は良いものが売れると思いがちだが、営業者に操られている部分は大きいと思う。もちろん彼らは嘘はいっていないので大丈夫だが、欠点や他メーカーのことを言っていないことが多い。高価なものを買う時にはきちんと商品の性能比較をするべきであろう。
逆を返せば、営業の話をあまり信じてはいけない。彼らのｵｽｽﾒ＝一番良い商品ではないからだ。
その他気づいたことは、まず、営業は客の話を聞き、彼らのニーズをつかんで、それを商品につなげる。こうすると客は「こういう商品がほしかった」と思い、その商品が売れる。そうするためには、こっちが会話を誘導し、客の関心をそそらなければならない。確かに難しい。でも、おそらく営業の出来る人は、どんな商品・サービスでも売れると思う。これも一種の強い武器、私も欲しい！！

店頭に立つことによって、実際に消費者の生の声を聞くことが出来た。また、営業することの難しさも学んだ。今後の仕事に役に立つことだろう。
次週からは次の研修！もう研修ばっかりや。。

Sales Training....

Haven't written for a while. that's because i was sooo tired from sales training everyday.
I'm off tomorrow (finally) !! Only this month, I have to work on weekends and am off on weekdays. It's actually quite good cause you get to do shopping when there's less people. In Japan, weekend shopping is terrible... so many people and makes me dizzy.

Anyway, about this sales training, since i'm in the electronic company we make the product. To make a good product, we need to know the market and demands. Consumer's needs are everything. So, even though you are not placed in the sales possition, everyone (i mean EVERYONE, even accountings, engineers, human resources) have to do sales training. I do understand this and I do think it's important but what really suck is that you have to do this for 3 weeks, 8 hours standing everyday!! Oh gosh, this is sooo tiring. I'm half dead on my feet. .. Each of us are put into a big electronic store (something like Walmart in the U.S.) and we have to sell our company's product. Most people sell LCD TV but I'm in charge of vacuum cleaner, haha. Ask me anything about cleaners, i'm an expert now! anyhow, the problem is, the retail company we are working at are very strict. I colored my hair black just for this! and I have to wear so ugly looking jacket. I can't show anyone this... but my friend came to see me the other day (thanks Buyonn!) The worst thing of this training is... it is soo boring!!! No people!!! Sometimes there are more staffs than the customers. Like yesterday, I think I only served 2 people to explain about my product. I was either just standing or cleaning the whole time and that made me two times more tiring than usual. Times passes so slow...:( painful...
But the good thing is, all the employees working here are very nice. I heard some stores have nasty bosses so I guess I'm lucky. Good working environment is one of the most important thing for good work.

1 week has past and I'm doing good so far. Each of us are given our sales quota, how many we have to sale during our training and my assignment is to sell 12 cleaners in 14 days. (not any type of cleaner, only my company's latest model counts) First I thought this is difficult. Our product has very good quality and powerful but it's expensive. Can you pay 300-400 bucks for a vacuum cleaner!? and there are so many other cleaners that are cheaper and have good quality in the store. So it really matters with your talk, how you sell it. But guess what, I've already accomplished my task (12 cleaners) in 5 days!!

I wrote too long. I will finish for today and write more about this sales training when I finish. about what I learned, what I thought etc.

久しぶりの更新☆
今は営業研修受けてます。メーカーは「現場を見よ」ということで、売り場の現場勉強してます。
当社の掃除機売ってます。掃除機のことなら何でも任せてください。まじ詳しくなったよ～。
それより本当に立ち仕事はしんどい！8時間ずっと立ってるのは辛い。しかも客が全然いないもんで、それが何よりも辛い。まだ接客してたりしたら話してるわけだし、時間も経つのが早いけど、何もすることがないとほんましんどい！！商品拭いたり、商品の研究したり、周囲の掃除したりするけど、それも全部やりすぎた。あの掃除機何回拭いたことか（笑）でもまぁ人がいい人たちばかりでよかったです。やっぱ人間関係は仕事をする上で大事だよ～研修をさせてもらってる量販店は厳しいで有名だったからびくびくしてたけど、そんなひどくないよ。（私はそう思う）

この営業研修1週目が終わり、結構うまくいってるかな。それぞれに目標台数が与えられ、私は14日間で当社商品（機種限定）12台やってんけど、5日目で達成しました☆でも結構みんなも達成してたよ。最初はうちの商品ものはいいけど、高いし、他に安くて良い商品もたくさんあるから売るの難しいなぁと思ったけど、意外と売れる！？説明したら結構みなさん買ってくれてる。でもやっぱそれも売り手によるなぁって思った。同じコーナーにT社のヘルパーがいるけど、その人が接客したらT社の商品が売れるし、私が接客したらうちの商品が売れる。まぁこの研修についてはまた終了してから詳しく書きます！
なので今日はこのへんで☆

明日は久々の連休で超うれしい♪思う存分Enjoyします(^o^)

博多☆Hakata City

Golden Week　9連休！！大手企業に勤めてる特権ですね。休暇制度がきっちりしてます。

そこで博多に行ってきました！超楽しかった！
博多の人はまじいい人！！うちらは全く下調べもしないまま、ただ新幹線に乗って行ったので、何もわからなかったのですが、博多人にたくさん助けてもらって博多旅行充実しました☆道を尋ねるとわざわざ一緒に歩いて案内してくれたり、紙にｵｽｽﾒの場所書いてくれたり、おいしいところ教えてもらったり。

とりあえず、着いて即効博多ラーメン♪友達に教えてもらって「一蘭」にいきました。仕切りのあるラーメン屋は初めての経験でわくわくしました。おいしかったよ！
そしてﾌﾟﾗﾌﾟﾗしてから念願の屋台へ♪本当に屋台があちこちにあってびっくり。普通に大通り沿いにある。全部で3件いったよ～！最後の屋台で屋台のお兄さんや、他のお客さんと盛り上がってすごく楽しかった☆店長さんに「今年一番おもしろいお客さんだよ～！」って言われたし（笑）。　ちょっと酔ってたしテンション高かったからかな？しかも気づけば隣の人が代金払ってくれてて、ラッキー☆ちゃんとお礼は言いました。また行った時ここの屋台行きたいな！

次の日はキャナルシティーに行った。きれいでびっくりした。ってか博多の建物や道路は基本的にきれいだと感じたのだが、新しいのかなぁ？そして最後にもつ鍋食べた！初めて食べてんけどおいしい！！ほんとおいしくてびっくりした。味噌味がいいね。

ってこの旅は食べてばっかりだったなぁ。。帰ってダイエットしないと。。

Time flies...

今週、塾の先生が亡くなった。
原因は癌。中学のときからお世話になっていた人で、勉強だけでなく人生や考え方などいろいろなことで影響された人。最近はあまり会わなかったが、年に何回かは今でも会いにいっていた。

先生は決して良い先生とは言えない。タバコ超吸うし、お酒も超飲むし、いいかげんだし、やさしくないし。。でも人間としては素晴らしい人で、なぜかみんな惹かれてしまう。だから先生の周りにはいつも人がいたし、塾やめてもみんなしょっちゅう遊びに来ていた。私はもう10年以上の付き合い。先生とはいろいろあったなぁ～。ムカついたこともあったし、もう嫌！と思うこともあったけど、私たちのことを真剣に考えてくれてるから嫌いにはなれなかった。倒れてからも塾だけは続けたいと決してやめなかった。生徒といること、塾が生きがいらしい。

そして先生のお通夜にいってきた。たくさんの人が来ていた。5年ぶりに会う人や、遠くに行った人なども大勢いて、先生のお通夜というよりは塾の同窓会みたいだった。私が教えてもらっていた先生や私が教えていた生徒もいて、うれしかった。これも先生のおかげだね。先生がみんなを引き合わせてくれたみたい。

先生はきっと幸せだったと思う。もちろんやり残したことはあるたくさんあるだろうが、自分の思うように、好きなことばっかりやってたし、そして何よりも最後に多くの人に見送られたから。その人がどれだけ周囲から好かれていたかはお葬式で分かると思う。本当に大切なひとのお葬式には参加するだろうから。先生のところには多くの人が訪れていた。

最初は先生がもうこの世にいないこと実感がわかなかった。そんなにしょっちゅう会っていたわけじゃないし。けど、帰る前にもう一度先生に会いに行ったとき、じっと先生の顔を眺めているとどんどん悲しくなってきた。もうあのうるさい声が聞けないんだ、困ったとき相談しにいけないんだと思うと。前会ったのは去年の10月。お見舞いに何度かいったが、もう話せなくて会話はできなかった。そして元気なときに、もっと前に会いにいっとけばよかったとすごく後悔した。その後悔がだんだんと大きくなって涙が出てきた。

その時、私が数年前に教えていた生徒が隣にやってきた。そして私が「もっとたくさん会いにいっとけばよかった」と言ったら「僕もそう思う」と。そして「これからおばあちゃんとかおじいちゃんにもっと会いにいったほうがいいですよ。おばあちゃんたちのためじゃなくて自分のために。後悔しないよう、自分のために会いに行くんですよ。」と。その通りだと思った。

ということで、今日おばあちゃん家に行ってきました！最近は体がどんどん弱くなっていって、あまり元気がないから心配。私すごくおばあちゃんとおじいちゃん大好きだから。私が会いに行くといつもすごく喜んでくれる。これからは本当にできるだけ会いに行こう、そう決めました☆

なんかちょっと暗くなっちゃったね。すみません。。m(._.)m

Sorry to those of you who can't read JP. But I'll write a little bit about it.

One sad thing happend to me this week; my teacher died. I've known him for more than 10 years. He was my teacher when I was in junior high and since then, he taught me so many things, not just studies but also about life and advised me when I had problems.

He's not the best teacher cause he smokes a lot, drink a lot, not nice, do what he wants....but he was a great great person. He had the character that attracts people and he influenced many people including me. So even though he's like that, there were always people around him.

I think he passed away happily. Many many people came to say goodbye to him. I think you can tell how much that person was loved from the number of people who came to the funeral. First, I didn't realize that he's dead because I didn't see him often recently but when I lookedk at his face, tears started to fall. When I thought I'll never hear him yelling at me or I can't ask his advice anymore, tears came out. I regretted so much that I should've seen him more often and talked to him more.

Then one person who I used to teach years ago came next to me and said, "you should see your grand parents as much as you can. Not for your grand parents but for yourself. You should see them for yourself, so that you won't regret." He's right.

So today, I went to see my grand parents! My grandma has problem with her legs so not very well so I'm worried about her...:( I like my grand parents so much that I don't know what I'm gonna do if they are gone... don't wanna think about it. I'm gonna go and see them as much as I can from now on.

Anyway, sorry it's a little sad story. I just wanna say that you should see your grandma, grandpa when they're healthy and spend time with them as much as you can! And also your parents. If you can't meet them, call them and talk to them. Time flies so fast, you know...

Great great people I met in Spain

Dear friends I met in Spain,

Thank you so so much for making my trip wonderful! I had a great great time with awesome people!
For those of you who were on the tour, I really enjoyed travelling with you all. It was my first time travelling alone so I was a bit nervous but everyone was friendly and fun to hang out. I'm so happy to meet you cool people! I miss those days we went party-ing and we all felt sick the next day from drinking too much. Many people (including me) said we're not gonna drink that much but we kept drinking the next day... haha, that was fun. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide and bus driver, we saw many cities and experienced many things. My favorite city was Seville and Lisbon. I also enjoyed the Fado dinner. Which was your favorite??
Anyway, we are all spread out in different countries but that means we have friends all over the world! How cool is that? Hope to see you guys somewhere again in the future!

Till then, Adios amigos!!!























for more pics, see
http://spaces.msn.com/mayumayu1222/

お花見☆ Hanami!!

さっそく今週末、会社の人たちとお花見をした。同期は80人くらい集まり、先輩社員も15人くらいか来てくれた。会社の人たちとお花見とか社会人になったなぁ～って実感した。桜は満開☆桃の花も満開で、超きれいだった☆お花見をしてるとき、そしてそれを心から美しいと思えるとき、日本人でよかったなぁって思う。もちろんどこの国の人でも花はきれいだと思うだろうが、日本人の桜に対する想いはただ単に花の外見を美しいと思うだけでなく、咲き方や散り方、日々の変化、お花見の雰囲気、昔を思い出したり（私だけ？）など人それぞれに感じ方が違うと思う。桜っていいなぁ。。
そしてその後はビジネス系同期だけで飲み会！こっちもまた60人くらいいたかなぁ。まだしゃべったことない人と話すこともでき、楽しかった☆これから一緒に頑張っていく仲間、それぞれ何か光るものを持っているはずだし、まだそれぞれの本当の姿知らないと思うから、はやく仲良くなりたいな。

This weekend I went to Hanami with my company's co-workers and other staff. There were about 100 people total. Hanami is Japanese traditional way of enjoying cherry blossoms. We go to a park to see cherry blossoms and usually eat & drink under the tree. There are many food booth around too. The main purpose is to enjoy the beautiful flowers but most are there to have fun drinking with their friends, haha. I am very glad to be Japanese when I enjoy cherry blossoms from bottom of my heart. Of course, any people from all over the world will enjoy the beauty of flowers but I think Japanese feelings towards cherry blossoms are different. Not only the beauty of how it looks but we also enjoy the process of the daily change. From the bloom till when it falls. I love the part that when petals falls like snowflakes because of the wind. and I also like when it is about to bloom. Not the full bloom. I can feel that tiny cute buds are trying hard to bloom. It reminds me that spring is coming and our new year is starting. (in Japan, school starts in April) It makes me happy and exciting.
Those of you who are planning to come to Japan someday, you should come in April!!! It's the best season!!