Cultures

Just as I mentioned before Tokyo is a amazing city because of many facts. Cuisine, temples, technology are mixed in a very well planned urban area. However, I consider that in top of all these factors, there one thing that defines how extraordinary is Tokyo and that is its people.

I remember I read from George Friedman last summer, that societies, just the same way as human beings, have their own behaviors. These behaviors are shaped by several factors such as: aging of the population, history of the societies, current events, economical factors, etc. Moreover, Friedman states that the United States is still a very young society, you can say a teenager. Just the same way a as teenager can be kind of adventurous, vital, paranoid, and a little bit maniac, the US society is also shaped by these behaviors.

On the other side, I find the Japanese society, that seems to be an ancient society. Ancient societies should be related to ancient qualities. For example Wisdom, patience, serenity, with a little degree of skepticism. Personally I think I find some of those behaviors in Japanese society. For example: I appreciate the quality of being patient and moderate embedded in the behavior of the Japanese culture.

There are a lot of examples of this: from the size of portions in their meals to the planning of all the transportation system, which is perfect. Also their water and electricity systems are designed to be very efficient. Additionally Japanese society seems to be very aware of ways for live in sustainable ways. As a conclusion patience and moderation are the qualities that impress me the most about Japanese.

So, I this theory is right, there are some questions in my mind and one conclusion that come to my mind. First, the questions: Is the mexican society a child society? If so, which behaviors, as mexicans we have? How being a child society, defines how our society behaves? Second, the conclusion is that I wish that some behaviors of the Japanese society could be learned by the American society and the mexican society. At the same time, there are some behaviors from the american society and the mexican society that I wish I could find in the Japanese society. Im a way I will be happy to have more Japan in the world, but also more world in Japan. (Wait a minute this sounds familiar to me.. hahah)

The confidence of the American society is remarkable, its entrepreneur mentality, allows them to become with the best innovations, that later are used by all the globe. Mexican culture by its side, believes in the family as the elemental organization of society, mexican society will look for the way to solve its owns problems with the resources available, even it these resource are limited. You can identified a mexican miles away, because in general he will be try to start a conversation with the person standing aside. Doesn’t matter if the conversation is so irrelevant, such as the conversation about the weather.

I dont know is this perception is correct or if it is just a cliche… anyway i still believe that a person is victim of his circumstances. In this sense Im glad to have multicultural circumstances, I believe that this will be enhance my capacity of understand other ways of thinking and will allowe me to increase my framework of personal abilities to be more critic. Isn’t that what is Fletcher all about?

After these thoughts some pics that is the attractive part of my blog jajajaja.

Japaneses friends

I have always believed that Japan is a beautiful nation, because of its ancenstral culture, its delicious food, and its great sense of community. However, I think that my high afinity with the Japanese culture is a result of the great friendships I have made with Japanese people. Im very glad that this trip to Japan offered me the opportunity to meet with my dear Japanese friends.

Yukiho Nonaka was my first Japanese friend. We meet each other almost 10 years ago, while she was studying Spanish and she working as a volunteer in Mexico. By the time I met Yukiho, she was a kindergarden teacher in the mornings and all nigth-party DJ. Nowadays Yukiho works in the aromatherapy business, eventhough, she is still worring about social issues (she gives aromatherapy to senior people) and still party like a rock star! 😀 I’m glad I could meet her again and I looking forward to meeting her husband and family in the next weeks.  

We went to Kanda area to have dinner and of course to have some drinks. I loved the restaurant because it was very traditional.

I met my friend Jo in Fletcher. Jo is a master student in International Business at Fletcher. Currently he is doing a double internship in Japan, one in a healthcare company and he will start his other internship at July in a financial company. BTW, Jo is a great fan of Fletcher’s Professor Jaques! We went to have dinner also in the area of Kanda, there I finally had the opportunity of knowing his girlfriend Marika. I’m sure that Jo and I are going to do many different plans in Tokyo during our internships.

Naomi is a 2011 fletcher alumni. She is a very good friend of Alejandra and now a very good friend of mine. Naomi speaks English and Spanish perfectly, which its a great relief from my difficult mission of understanding Japanese. Naomi knows Mexico very well, she has been in Mexico city, Guanajuato and i think the Riviera Maya. She understands what is to eat a real taco and how exciting is to visit the Zocalo in sunny Sunday. She works for a well-known technology company in Japan, which by the way is a very important competitor of Hitachi :S Lol. Naomi invited me to visit Kamakura with her and two friends (Kanako and Weny).

We went to a several temples, to have a delicious dinner, to the beach, to have some drinks and finally to a very nice Korean restaurant. I really had a magnificent time with Naomi and her friends and I hope we can have more opportunities to hang out and to practice my Japanese.

I meet my friend Yumiko last year at Fletcher. We were classmates in Econometrics and we also were group partners in this course. Yumiko also can speaks perfectly English and Spanish. I was so happy, when Yumiko told me she studied in Cuernavaca. When I arrived to Boston I never imagine to know someone in Boston that knows Cuernavaca. Yumiko just finished her master program at Fletcher last may. Now she is looking for a job, although she already had several offers, she is still waiting to take the right choice.

We went to visit Shibuya district, where we had dinner, we walked and we visited a temple. I loved to catch-up with Yumiko.. Although, we spend almost a semester working together, we never had the opportunity to talking a lot. This time was the perfect occasion. Yumiko’s birthday is coming the next week so I believe we will have the opportunity to meet us again.

Finally last Friday i meet Yamano-San, Daisuke-San and Rachel-San. Yamano-San is a Fletcher 1994 alumni, he works for the international division at Hitachi and he kindly organized a dinner with Daisuke-San (Fletcher 2011) and Rachel-San (Fletcher 2011). Daisuke and Rachel met each other back in Fletcher. He works at a Japanese law firm and Rachel works in the Mexican consulate.

We had a great dinner in a Spanish restaurant. The night was perfect because the music, the food but more importantly because of the amazing fletcher stories that we share during the dinner. So far I have met some of my Japanese friends but still there are some of them missing I hope I can meet them soon.

Nipon working machine.

My office is in the 21st floor in the UDX building in Akihabara.
In the office we are around 57 persons, I will say that the average of ages in the office could easly be 34 or 35 years old (it is a very young office)
The work is divided in several business units, each of ones,with topics that range from economical analysis to live and living research. Im part of the
Technology Research group.

My analysis is focusing in the analysis fo the global dynamics of competitiveness and how these affects industrial sectors such as manufacturing. So far my
research has been focused in issues related to American competitiveness and I am eager to extend that to a deep analysis on the Mexican competitiveness.

Also, I was exicted when I realized that the main philosophy of Hitachi is to build products to create smart cities. Of course, I know that many of my
experience here will be appropiate for my thesis topic, which is related to smart cities that can promote innovative societies.

In other aspects, people in the office offered me a very kindly welcome. I had a entire round of meetings with all the business groups, in which I had the opportunity of
knowing everyone’s projects and more importantly I could know a little bit more about their personal interest and passions. Just as I expected, Japanese
pleople are amazing host and very professional in their day a day treatment.

I am really loving the opportunity of learning this great culture through its people. I have always believe that if you want to learn how other societies think
you have to have great conversations with them. So far my main objective is to get to know as many Japanese persons during this intership, share great and
deep conversations and have really good meals.

Sometimes while working in a think thank, I remember me my time in Promexico. Moreover, through me colleagues here, sometimes I remember La UIN (Unidad de Inteligencia
de Negocios). Thanks to this experience I have recoignaize many areas of improvement that the UIN could implement but more importantly I have also identified
many streghtens that the UIN has and that I will love to teach to my co-workers here.

私の家 (mi casa)

As I mentioned before my apartment is located at Akihabara zone. My apartment is in the 12th floor from where I have a beautiful view. 

 

 

The apartment is approximately 50 mts2, but it has all the appliances needed to live. It has a little fridge and kitchen, washing machine, fax, t.v. and the famous intelligent toilet.

 

Yesterday, for the first time I use the kitchen to cook some food. In order to get use to the culture, I cooked some rice with beef and egg. 

 

Anyway the bathroom is a little different from the american type of bathroom. Everything seems to be in small portions, even the size of the shower. 

For those not familiar with the intelligent toilet, let me explain you what is so special with it.  The system of the intelligent toilet is based on the idea that the best way to clean your butt is by using water. So the toilet has a small hose that spray pressure water.

 

The bedroom is the half of the apartment and it has a little desk with all the appliances needed to study. I thank god also that the apartment has A/C, because the weather has been getting warmer in the last days. 

 

 

 In terms of location my apartment is about 15 minutes from the Hitachi office, which is super cool, considering that for most of the people in Tokyo this trip is in average 1 hour by train.  

In conclusion I really feel very fortunate of having a good place to stay, for the next couple months this place is going to be my home. A place in which, I will try to follow the tons of dreams I have in my mind, where I will put all my effort to do this experience one of my best in my live and a place in where I will be always remember my love ones;  My Chinita linda!

Tokyo style

Woa! That’s what came to my mind the first time I saw Tokyo. Narita Airport, where I arrived, is Airport located at the Chiba prefecture, that is around 40 min away from Tokyo. While I was in my way to Tokyo Station where I was suppose to meet my co-workers from Hitachi, I saw the industrial part of Tokyo, which is located next to the atlantic sea. It was an amazing welcome from Japan, the sunset made the sky look so clear and kind of reddish. 

Then after 45 min I finally arrived to Tokyo station, there I had to wait like and hour for my co-workers, thus I decided to make a little round in the station. My first impressions in the station were 1) Tokyo station seems to be a very energetic place with a lot of young people 2) Everybody seems to be in a rush, I taught that time in Tokyo must pass very quick just like in Mexico City.

At 8:00pm I met my HRI co-workers, Shikano san and Sumi san. They took to my apartment (which i will write about in another post) and later we when to have dinner at a restaurant in the Akihabara area. Shikano San is a 32 years old Japanese, Shikano’s passions seems to be latina girls and automobiles. He seems to love his car very much. Also Shikano has a deep passion in photography, he actually has amazing pictures in his cellphone. On the other hand, Sumi San is a 27 years old girl from Japan. She studied Spanish as a major in Japan (although she waited to the last moment of our day to tell that she speaks spanish). Also Sumi has a perfect english because she was working at Hitachi in New Jersey. 

The restaurant at Akihabara was a traditional dinner in Japan. The Japanese restaurant use to serve a lot of type of dishes but in a small portions, so you can eat a lot of type of food in a same meal. Of course you can have beer but also you can drink the traditional chochu, which is a type of whiskey.  

Finally, I went back to my place. While walking back to my place, I walk a very particular area of Akihabara, in where you can find electronic shops and manga shops. The area is full of light, music, extravagance outfits and costumes. So far that was my first night at Tokyo.

The beginning of my journey.

So… my  journey to Japan began in a very particular way. I wake up at 4:00 o clock in the morning took a quick shower, then I started to storage the last stuff that was missing (Mainly our mattresses, towels and a carpet). As some of you already knew, I had to storage all our furniture, cloth and belongings in the basement of our apartment. After struggling for 30 min with the mattress, our taxi just arrived to our place. Ale and me started to put the bags in the taxi (4 luggages in total). Before taking the last luggage, I remembered that the cellphone was plugged in our room, thus i went to the room I took the cellphone, walked out the house and locked the door. Then 1 second after I remember that my little luggage was still at our place!!!! We knocked the door of our neighbors walked through the basement and found all the doors lock. Oh my good this is great I going to Japan with the half of my cloth 😦 Funny thing is that all my summer cloth is on that baggage!

I called my roommate Natalya, Angela my landlord everyone in Medford. There was nothing we can do! I just decided to leaved like that I left my luggage behind. By the way Ale  took the taxi before me, I had to call another cab. thank good I arrive on time to my flight. Alejandra is on her way to Mexico and I have 12 hours remaining before arriving to Narita.

I hope this incident doesn’t reflect some kind of premonition about my time in Japan.