SOFTWARE, JAPAN, SELF-ACTUALIZATION AND

Today included a few firsts.

At lunch 2 of my coworkers and I (all of us gaijin ~ foreigners) went to the local supermarket and got “bento” or a lunch plate.  We took our lunch in its bag to the local shrine that is across from the office.  This was my first time going to the shrine - it was quite a nice place.  The real first here though, was we sat down on one of the benches inside the shrine and ate lunch.  I didnt realize that many Japanese go to shrines and eat their lunch, read a book, or relax - I assumed it was only for visiting and praying.

After lunch I travelled with one of my coworkers to a very large bookstore in Shinjuku.  This was the first time that I’ve seen a foreign book section large enough to bother  looking at.  Although not a Books-a-Million, I did spend about 30 minutes standing around the shelves browsing some books I have been interested in (like Guy Kawasaki’s most recent book on business, and a few classics like “As a Man Thinketh”)

After perusing the bookstore I found my way back to Sasazuka where I was able to hitup the local supermarket before it closed.  And much to my delight a ton of prepared food was marked down 30-50% off (biki).  I bought a dish of takoyaki (delicious dumplings with “tako” in them, aka octopus), and a dish of yakiniku (japanese bbq meat on a stick).  At 50% off, you just cant beat it!

Tomorrow I wont write a post.  Ayako and I will meet another of her senpais (senpai = older friend) late after work.  He was once the regional manager of the company Ayako works at here in Tokyo.  He’s now an entrepreneur with a growing business under his wing, and seems to be doing quite well.  Although that is interesting, we arent meeting to talk business.

Instead her senpai is chock full of good advice (so says Ayako), and definitely a good friend to have.  He’s of American descent, but grew up mostly in Japan (although lived in the States for some period of time).  He is married and has children in their late teens that they have also mostly grown up in Japan.  We hope to get some advice from him about marriage and living abroad, as well as other insights into life in general.

So thats it from me.  Oyasuminasai (good night)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 6:31 am and is filed under life in Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.