Originally, Japan is the culture of the tatami mat (thick straw mats that cover the floor). Most Japanese people sit on the floor directly. In such a situation, Japanese people cannot feel warmth adequately by kerosine stoves and so on. Because air warmed by such heating devices remains above the room. And also Japanese people have no shoes and slippers in tatami mat room, so their feet are chilled. Therefore, they select “KOTATSU”. Please refer the following URL in order to know the detail of “KOTATSU”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu

 Many Japanese people love “KOTATSU” because they use far less energy than other heating devices and it’s especially relaxing to lie with one’s legs outstretched under the warmth they radiate. And also it is good for female’s skin. Because it doesn’t warm up a whole room, so air in the room doesn’t dry up.

 For your information, a body of wild animal is getting bigger and bigger in appearance as they go up to Northern area.

 Without the stable supply system of vegetables, general consumers cannot purchase them. Therefore, it was natural that consumers should get them at the neighborhood super market.

 It is starting a boom which consumers purchase them via Web site. We are considering it should be the influence of the boom regarding organic vegetables. The number of consumers, who are considering they would like to eat safety vegetables even if they have to pay much money, is increasing recently. The meaning of “safety vegetables” is that they are grown with chemical-free or low-agricultural chemical.

 We had better pay attention that there is another element to make the super market in Web site familiarity.

 It should be the management power of administers, which carry out “the depth of assortment” and “thorough quality control”. In order to carry out “the depth of assortment”, they have to provide and maintain the circumstances which ordinal farmers can participate in the system safely. That is to say, they have to carry out “visualization”. The meaning of “visualization” is that member farmers can recognize the present sales aspect by easy operation, and they can respond to consumers directly. Such systems bring the increasing of “customer satisfaction measurement”, the repeat ration and new customers.

 They have to create hot articles in order to keep the buyer’s motivation. There is the following example. The management found there were many children who dislike carrot. Therefore, they considered that most children should be able to eat carrots if they could provide them with far sweeter taste. According to such a considering, finally, one farmer could create “Carrots under the Snow”.

 There is Hokkaido in the Northern area of Japan. Because of heavy snow, the people who live in there had had to make efforts to keep vegetables in winter. There has been  “Carrots under the Snow” from a long time ago. They have high sugar content. They are stocked under snow during winter, so they increase the sugar content in order not to be frozen.

 The success of the super market in Web depends on the management power. Indeed they can appeal its
merit easily, but customers and member farmers should apart from soon without finely-tuned services.

We can purchase various goods by Japanese Yen 100 there. It is almost equal to US$ 1. What kinds of goods can you purchase by US$ 1 in the Northern America?

 There are so many goods, i.e. Cosmetics, Daily necessities, Health & Beauty, Interior goods, Kitchen utensils, Foods, Electric appliances and so on. Females and Teenagers with inadequate pocket money love these shops very much.

 Indeed the price is low, but the quality is not cheap. Because they are making every effort to reduce the cost. Most of them are, so to speak, fabless companies. That is to say, they don’t have their own fabrication facilities. By ordering in volume, they succeed in decreasing the cost.　

 “Daiso” is one of biggest “One Coin Shop” companies, is dealing with 90000 kinds of goods. Please see its following URL ( http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/english/products/ ).

 There is Daiso Bldg in our town. It has five stories and we can find “One Coin Shops” from the 1st floor to the 5th floor. It takes at least 3 hours if we find each shop and goods patiently.
Recently, tourists from Japan outside are familiar to these shops. They can find many rare goods as souvenirs with reasonable prices.

 Although its business model is treating various kinds of goods with low-margin high-turnover, it is one of industry sectors, which are growing rapidly.

 It is hard to say that such a person can share his 10 years of its experience to his business. Indeed he has learned about reading and writing, but he has never learned speaking. His ability of hearing is not so good. Therefore, he cannot negotiate with a native speaker.

 If he once has an experience which he could not understand a native speaker’s English, he try to avoid to talk with a native speaker. Even if he is resident officer in USA, he is to take the same action.

 But he has good ability regarding reading and writing. As a third party is not in front of him, he can read and write without feeling any pressure. There are many business men who do not send phones but emails in Japan.

 It seems that most westerners are accustomed to reveal their wills definitely. We Japanese cannot do so easily, excluding sentences in emails. We believe there are many westerners who are surprised at emails with strong expressions from such Japanese.

 He advises against American people that they can be heroes if they dive in the sea, against British people that this should be glorious action as gentlemen, against German that this should be rule, against Italian that a lovely female already dived, and then against Japanese that everybody already dived.

 I don’t know whether all comments excluding that of Japanese people are collect or not. I can agree with the comment of Japanese in some degree. Most Japanese people dislike to spearhead in order to so something. They avoid standing out.

 It teaches the important sales strategy to Japanese companies. If you would like to sell your machineries as much as possible, you had better be ranged against the company, which is a leader in the industry, as a first target. If so, remain companies, which belong the same industry, should scramble to obtain your products.

 According to some driver, the golden hour for drivers start from 10 pm. Because the additional cost should be charged from this time zone. Therefore, they are doing so. According to another driver, an inside of taxi is not only a nap place but a smoking area and a dining room.

 The total smoking ban has been carried out within taxi from last year. Driver cannot smoke inside now. The control against the illegal parking has been getting severe from two years ago. They cannot depart from their cars even 5 minutes. Because of these two reasons, the existence of the Rank of Aoyama should be precious for such drivers.

 By the way, do you know the following chewing gum and scary story. One time, a taxi driver picked up a female passenger. When he reached the destination, he could not find her at all. He attempted to touch the face of seat and found it was wet in very much.

 Somebody says that a daily sales amount of taxi is getting down around from Japanese Yen 10,000 to 15,000 recently. This fact should be far more scary for drivers than such a story.

 Most business men in Japan usually use electric trains and buses to commute to work. The network of electric trains in an urban area is advanced very much. For example, the number of online tracks into Tokyo, i.e. Shinkansen bullet train, JR, private railway, sub-way and so on, is over 60.
 Please refer to the following URL.

http://www.meik.jp/2rosenzu/tokyo_route_map.html

 Therefore, you can go to some station on foot within 10 minutes if you are in the center of Tokyo. You need not to worry about the departure time. The reason is that such transportation is operated at intervals of several minutes. This timetable should be kept severely. If you are a business man, you had better be a punctual person in Japan. You had better reach five minutes before the appointment. If you came in late for it, you had better avoid use the delay of timetable as excuses.

 During morning and evening commute, there should be filled with passengers like oil-sardines, in each electric train. On seeing many people entering into a gate of subway, one American person, who visited on business trip, said they were walking as if aunts marched toward burrow.

- Software and Urban Traffic Network-

 Urban traffic network in Japan is to resemble something out of Internet. There are plural routes to the same goal. According to routes, there are various fares and necessary time.
 According to make use of a software, you can find regarding the shortest route and lowest fare easily. In order to know such things, you can make use of the following site without any charge.

http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/

 You will be able to feel virtual journey and be happy very much, if you make use of the above plus Google Map.

- IC Card System-

 Train fare in Japan should be decided by the distance. It is not the flat-rate system. It is inconvenient to carry small charge to purchase ticket.
There are many stations, where over tens of thousands of passengers use a day. It is not good to check and collect tickets at gates. Therefore, some engineer created IC card system to avoid such a situation.

 You can use this card at almost transportation facilities in Tokyo. And also you can purchase goods in super markets and convenience stores. This is prepaid card. You need to pay Japanese Yen 500 as deposit in order to get this one. You can charge it at vending machine corner of a station when there is insufficient balance in a card. Please try it when you visit Tokyo. The following thing is the URL of Invitation Map of subway in Tokyo (Tokyo Metro).

http://www.tokyometro.jp/global/en/ticket/pasmo.html

 Even if the number of defective products found was only one within 100 products, they are to stop to shipment until finding its cause and improving. They believe it is quite important to keep their good reputation in any market to increase their sales amount.

 The way of thinking of Quality Control was proposed by Dr. William E. Deming, Iowa, USA. Japan succeeded in innovating their product systems and increasing the economic power, according to study his proposal.
 It is important to think about the way of thinking proposed by Dr. Deming, I suppose.

 The son said that my father had always declared I could speak Japanese language fluently, and they came here to make it prove. It seemed that the son was pushing his father to start speaking in Japanese.

 At last, the father began to speak in Japanese. He said that my son would graduate from Harvard University soon. Although his inside was not rich, he had food expenses shortened and remitted money in order his son to be able to graduate from it.

 The father would like his son to return and be useful person for his mother country strongly. But his son declared not to return and stay in USA. The reason why the father came USA was to persuade his son to return.

 I asked the son why he disliked return, although his father had strong desire to do so. The son said that his major was Computer Sciences. He disliked depart from USA, where it was the center of Computer Sciences. He was afraid that is was impossible for him to grow in Taiwan. This was the reason why he avoided to return.

 Both were saying right things. In ordinary case, the conversation between father and son is not so smooth at any country in the world. This night was very good chance for them to talk with each other thoroughly. I encouraged them to do so, and then I said good-by to them.

 I wonder where the son was, Taiwan or USA.