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... 

Haircut

     It's almost a month that we are in Japan - time for haircut :) I have asked Japanese friends for a place to go. They send me a map with directions. 

     To be on the safe side I needed someone who spoke Japanese well with me, so I took Jason. We arrived at the place -it was completely full. We started wondering around Hiyoshi area searching for another one. On the next street there was a nice hairdresser shop. Cut was 3150  yen (24 euro). Jason helped to explain what I wanted. Actually, the whole purpose of this post is because of this: the procedure was the same as in Europe, but after The haircut I was offered a massage (shoulders and back) at the same chair. Quite strange, abut maybe it is usual practice. Will go there again 

INDIVIDUALISM vs. COLLECTIVISM

     This morning I have read an interesting article saying that Japanese school children view individualism as the biggest threat to their society. For me it seems to be a very interesting thought. 

     In Europe most people try to stand out from the crowd, in behaviour or style. Here the social norms are opposite. However being a foreigner you will always stand out. On top of that, foreigners often behave in a way they are used to behave in their country, but which makes them stand out even more (talking loudly in public places etc.). So it is a two way paradox: to stand out and became D-level celebrity any person of non-Asian origin can simply come to Japan. I heard, there are approximately 1% of foreigners living in the country, extremely low number. 

Boxing

     As I have already mentioned, I have joined Keio university boxing team. Trainings are fun, team and people are great. Training lasts for almost 3 hours and is every day, except for Monday. Quite a strange schedule, especially for a person coming from Austria (in Vienna almost nothing is open on Sunday). 

    Before joining the team, I was always wondering, why sports team do those strange sounds. To be honest, I am still wondering. For example, in the middle of warm up someone shouts out loud something that sounds like "aida" and all others say "hey", this can be repeated multiple times. Seems like it is a way to cheer up others and to share positive energy. 

     At one of the sparings today I was quite slow on defence and received a nice jab right in the left eye. My first bruise in Japan. =) Looks pretty decent. 

     Now I not only draw attention of other people everywhere because I am a foreigner, but also because of a blue eye. 

Keio Media Design

TRAINING ROOM

     As I have already mentioned, many Japanese people are small. But they are very ambitious and hard-working. In our training room some Japanese guys know how to workout, but most of them seem to be newbies in this thing. But they are ambitious as I said. They sometimes start out with weights they barely lift, and after a few repeats and trapped under a heavy bar. But none of the other gym participants is hurrying to help... In gyms in Europe when someone takes a big weight, he asks others to set him up and help. Not always, of course, but it happens. Yet haven't seen it in Japan... 

Entrance to the gym

KANJI CLASS

     Today I have attended kanji writing class. It is a class for Kanji beginners (other classes clash with my main courses, so I have to take this one). If I were a new by and had never studied kanji before, I wouldn't be able to catch up. The teacher just writes a kanji with stroke order on a blackboard, pronounces its readings and goes on. Sometimes she says the meaning of the word in English, sometimes not... For me such a speed was perfect, but I was really wondering how real beginners felt...

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDIA DESIGN

     Finally (after the school is already going on) an orientation for the use of campus facilities was planned for today. We were given a small tour around campus (which we already knew pretty well) and then were greeted by the dean of the KMD. 

     The KMD building itself is very modern and new, I have already mentioned that before. There are millions of yen invested in the equipment and the building itself. The dean explained, that it was a state of the art building, with air conditioning triggered by ice cubes (not really familiar with that technology). It was also earthquake free.

     The presentation had a welcome format, but some things were new and important knowledge. This semester we were involved in a business project, working closely with real companies in real projects. In Japan the company culture is very different from Europe.

     Here are few tips we received today: 

- in summer Japan gets really hot and humid, this it is almost impossible to work in wearing a suit all the time. That is why some Japanese companies (but no all) allow employees to switch to "cool biz" dress code, something similar to business casual, without suits and ties, with light colors and short sleeves. 

- There are certain siting priorities. In a taxi cab the most important guy sits behind the driver, least important is next to the driver. In a room the most important person will sit farthest away from the door, the least important will be the closest to the door. Elevator: most important person stands behind the guy who presses buttons, the least important is in front of the door with buttons. 

     After the presentation, a lecture on storytelling was given to us. I like the formats of the lectures at KMD, as they have more of a workshop-style approach, which I find more effective and more fun. 

Uni and more

DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY

     Design ethnography as an elective for a business master? This sounds strange, but in the end it isn't. It is and will be a great class expanding the scope of thinking and seeing the world. 

     The first class was full of exercises and was a workshop-style. We have done an exercise with a sound ball, with music and sounds. Then we were split up in small group and had to do an exploration exercise (one of us had to be a human and had to explain, what banana or shoe lace was. The others were aliens, they had to listen and ask question, as they were not familiar with those objects). The discoveries were quite impressive and takeaways were also important. 

TRUCK FOR TRASH

     At a certain time on a certain date  people take out their separated trash (usually in white transparent plastic bags) and put it in a special place for a recycling truck to collect. The great thing about this track: it is so tiny (as many streets in our area are tiny) and it plays music (apparently this is a function of all trash trucks). The music is not intended for the driver, but for those who are outside. This is a very Japanese music that reminds me of some ring tones on old phones.

Innovators seminar: Robots and stuff

INNOVATORS SEMINAR

     Second real day of school. In the morning as usually gym, the class starts at 14:45. Today it was at the campus near our dorm, in the Keio School of Media Design building. 

     The building itself is pretty modern with many loft areas. On the ground level there is a fitness center, drug store, cafe, supermarket and a bar.

     In order to get in to the section of Keio School of Media Design, you have to scan your student card and the doors will open. 

     The class room was huge and very modern. In the middle of the ceiling there was a huge sony projector, and 3 smaller projectors to the sides (so 4 screens). Every table has lan connection as well as a plug for a computer. In the back of the room stands a video camera which tapes the class and sends in to the web so that student can virtually participate in the class session or watch the video of the class later. 

     There were not too many participants. One of the girls was giving traditional Japanese cakes to everyone (Japanese tradition). The class itself started with scanning of student IDs (there is a bar code on the ID, so it was scanned by a scanning device). By the way, the same procedure is to be done after the class (checking out). 

     The main professor has very strong Japanese-English accent and often repeats"soda" which means something I don't know in Japanese. However the whole class will be a set of guest lectures on innovation. 

The rules of the class are as follows: classes are graded only by attendance. Absence = -1 point, late to class =-0,5 points. A student with -2 or more fails the class. However it is possible to watch the class online, you simply need to submit your IP after. Additionally, we will need to write a half-page report after every class describing our thoughts on covered topics.

   Today's speaker was a very famous professor at Keio, professor Tachi, founder of Tachi labs.  He was talking about human augmentation in different aspects. The lecture was really interesting and informative. Finally I felt I was in Japan! 

Professor Tachi explaining virtual reality

     He was creating robot-dogs even long before I was born. Now he has lots of inventions like lots of robots and other augmentation devices. 

     After the class we were invited to visit hi slab where product prototypes were available to try. This is amazing place!!! This is real Japan!!! 

     One of the things was a robot that you can control. You put on a mask and gloves (this time without gloves) and you can see through the eyes of the robot, turn your head around, even see yourself sitting in a chair.

     Another thing was a special coat that you can see through: you simply put it on, then others look through a special device and they see through the coat.

     One other cool game: you get to play with a small virtual fairy that responds to your movements. You look through a special glass and see a fairy there. Then you put your hands in that box too and can move her around, play with it. 

     Very cool one was a simple set of plastic glasses linked together. On the bottom of there is a transmitter. When you put something in one glass (like small plastic balls), the other class makes vibrations and sounds as if you were putting those into this glass too. 

     The biggest thing we got to see was twister: it is a huge machine. You sit inside, it rotates and shows you 3D images of surroundings. It also adds sounds and smells to make your senses stronger. Here is how it looks

CONCERT

     In the evening we went to a concert, Japanese bands that we met at Keio campus were playing in club Asia. 

     Entrance was 4 euro and it was worth it. Inside we were the only non-Japanese people. Some of the musicians and guys recognized us and were happy to see us. 

     8 bands were playing tonight, each 20-25 minutes. All of them are from Keio university. KBR modern Shacks have rocked the dancefloor the most. We were dancing, jumping and enjoying the great atmosphere. When some Japanese people saw how we were having fun, they also joined us. 

     It was great. After the performance the musicians cam to us and thanked for coming out, we thanked them for great music. 

BURGER KING

     We stopped to grab a burger quickly. 2 things that I should mention here: there was green fanta in menu and on one of the tables two Japanese girls were sleeping. Seemed like they have been sleeping there for quite a while... At it was like 9 in the evening.

FASHION

     On the streets on Tokyo you can meet so many different characters. You have to come here ones to see and experience: anime girls, punks, girly looking boys, people in black suits, school girls - literally everyone. Styles differ so much like probably in non other city in the world. Will try to get some good pictures later.