Business Cards

OUR MEISHI (BUSINESS CARDS) STORY

      For Japanese people business card has probably higher importance than for European and Americans.   Everyone here has one. Exchange of business cards is a special process.

     You have to hand in a card with two hands, card should face another person, at the same moment you should bow. 

     For the CEMS business projects we had to meet with company top management soon. For that we were advised to prepare business cards both in English and Japanese. Thanks to a friend of Larry, we got a nice deign (two sides, in color, one side features our home university, another side features keio university). Bob has adjusted all designs and put our names. 

     It took us quite a long time to figure out this business cards printing and design issue. Usually students print them in a special place called COOP on campus. They send name, address and other details and in 7-9 days receive a standard Keio University business card.

     As we had a different design, we needed to find another place to print the cards. On top of that, I have only one day to print those out. Larry and Bob have told me about some secret place, where we headed together with Bob on Monday morning. 

     The place was nothing else that someones apartment. An old Japanese guy is working from there: his home-located company prints business cards and other things. Usually, the normal process includes sending him the file and payment, and then receiving the cards by mail in a few days. By we are foreigners (and we needed the cards fast) - so we came directly to his home on Monday morning at 9. 

    This time I was prepared: the files for business cards were on usb. Additionally, last night I asked Japanese friends to write on a piece of paper (in Japanese) all specifications for printing that we needed. Thus I simply needed to hand the guy this paper and a file. 

     So we came to his place, called him and he came down. We have given him a piece of paper and usb, it was fast. He speaks no English, thus to answer us, he took out his smart phone, said something in Japanese and the text appeared in English on the screen. I confirmed everything and he confirmed that the cards would be ready in the evening. 

    In approximately an hour I received an email in English, first sentence said "Translated with software". In the text the guy asked us to confirm the details for printed. We confirmed in Japanese. 

     The whole day we were at school. At around 5:30 I went back to the place and picked up the cards. They were nice. We paid approximately 25 and 32 Euro for 100 cards double-sided in color (different paper).

     That evening I returned back from boxing around 9 and found out that one side of the cards was printed incorrectly. Let me explain. We gave two sets of cards to print: 100 for me and 100 for Emma, our CEMS colleague. Turned out, that my cards were ok, but on Japanese sides of Emma's cards my name was printed. .. We had to act fast, as Emma had a business project the next day in the afternoon. 

     I have checked the file and it was correct, so this was completely printing mistake. I went to Japanese friends and asked him to help me translate an email I was going to send to the guys. In the email I was explaining the situation asking to reprint the cards by 11 in the morning. The situation was more complicated than that, as next morning I had to attend the company meeting. I wanted to ask Ondrej to return bad cards and pick up new ones. He wasn't at home and didn't pick up the phone... Neither did Emma. We discussed the situation with Bob and Larry and agreed, that next morning I will take wrong cards to Bob and put them in his mailbox, and then around 11 he will pick up the new cards. 

     Next day in the morning I did as agreed, took cards to Bob's dorm and left them in the mailbox. Around 9 I received a response from the guy, saying that he was apologizing and was already printing new cards. We called him up to confirm and the deal was set. At 11 our guys went to pick up the cards and Emma received even better cards! The businessman is a really nice person! 

     By the way, one of our friends was really wondering how this could ever happen, it is Japan, things like that do not happen here =) 

METRO IN RUSH HOUR

     I have heard about some non-japanese people who want to visit Tokyo and experience rush hour in Tokyo metro. This sounds so strange to me, especially after we had to go my metro this Tuesday morning. 

     I have seen crowds in Moscow and St.Petersburg, but never have I seen such organized crowds. People line up after another and no one seems to want to go faster and break the rules. 

     Luckily for us, Hiyoshi is the end station, so the trains starting here are empty - possible to get in. People create organized lines in front of every door. The station has metal fence between the platform and rails, fence has automatic doors that open when the train comes. This is done to prevent people from falling during crowded hours. 

     The train gets really crowded at some point and people have to use hands to get in a subway car - otherwise they simply won't get in. This is such a nice feeling, like flying: you can life one leg, then another - you are still standing, the crowd is holding you =). It gets really hot also. Even though it was only 22 degrees this day, everyone was sweating (because everyone is wearing a suit mostly). 

     No wonder they have special cars of pink colors where only women are allowed to enter from 7-9 a.m. This little Japanese girls and ladies were almost smashed in this crowd, smashed against and by guys from all sides... 

CEMS BUSINESS PROJECT: LAWSON

     In the beginning of this semester, all CEMS students were divided into groups and assigned different business projects with companies to work with. Our group has received an internationalization project for Lawson - chain of convenience stores in the country (second largest after Seven-11). 

     This morning we had a first meeting with the company representatives in the company headquaters. We were very warmly greeted by the Head of HR and other colleagues of him. Then the traditional exchange of business cards was done. Two of the company representatives spoke not very good English, however I was really impressed by the Head of HR department: very nice person, with great sense of humor and perfect English. 

     The meeting lasted for around 3 hours, however all the info discussed there is confidential and won't be mentioned. 

     It is very exiting to work on real life issues with such a large and interesting company. Looking forward to our cooperation with Lawson. 

JAPANESE PEOPLE ABOUT RUSSIA

     It is always a pleasure to talk to my boxing team mates about Japan and Russia. It is funny how they all seem to know "pirozki" (cakes), borsh (famous soup), matreshka (doll), Putin, Medvedev and Sochi 2014. I wonder why those things. Russia is so big and has so many interesting cultural things, why do most Japanese people know about pirozki, borsh and matreshka...