Friend in South Korea

I was exchanging messages on Messenger with an American friend who lives in South Korea now. She came to our university as an exchange student when I was a graduate student. She and her colleague from America visited several schools in Matsuyama City and we, some Japanese students, helped them to conduct lessons by translating. I checked flights from Osaka to Incheon Airport and the fare was much reasonable than I expected. If she is available on some weekends in January or February, I’ll go see her just to say hello. I want to make good memories in the foreign country.

Documentary on Netflix

There is a Japanese idol group, Arashi. The group is going to be on hiatus starting on December, 2020. I watched a TV ad about Netflix program. The program is a documentary of Arashi. I watched the first episode of it. In the first episode, there were interviews of them and reviews of their songs. They have released more than 400 songs so far. At the end of the episode, there was a digest of the episode two. However, the next episode is still not available. I realized that Netflix is not released the episode two on purpose to make time for the users to look around other works in the streaming service. If all episodes are available right after being advertised, new users may stop subscription after only watching the Arashi’s documentary programs. However, in order to keep users on Netflix, users need find that other programs are also fun and it is worth to keep using the service. Netflix shoots commercial of the documentary on TV using huge budget. Releasing new episodes little by little is a good marketing method to acquire users. I thought about it after watching the first episode.

Rich Canadian

I played tennis yesterday. The tennis courts were owned not by the city but a Canadian businessman. He has a huge house in this city and there are two tennis courts inside his premises. He lives in Takamatsu City and works as an executive for a foreign company. I don’t know about his details though. He has a beautiful Japanese wife, a daughter, and several luxury cars. I’ve never seen such a rich person in my life. I thought the building next to the tennis courts was a hotel or something, but one of the tennis club members told me that it is his family’s house. I didn’t have any chance to talk with him, but I’m really curious about his personality. He made me realize that if you earn a lot, you can play tennis inside your premises every day. The private tennis courts and big house motivated me to work harder to be like him.

Pictures at The Cafe

I’m a big fan of Mr.Children, a Japanese rock band. I’m a member of their fan club. Once in a few months, the fan club members receive a booklet that introduces their recent activities and interviews. I got the latest one on January first. The book cover was the picture of the four members smiling at the café. I was really curious where the café is. I looked very closely at each picture which was taken at the café. Finally, I found the name of the café and it turned out that the café is Shirokane Lounge in Tokyo. I live very far from Tokyo, so it’s difficult to get there soon. However, I’ll definitely take a picture at the café just like the band members do on the booklet. I want to pursue my interests without being swayed by trends and by what everybody likes.

Job Application

I’m looking for a new job for the next fiscal year. The online programming school where I studied programming provide its job introduction service. The users can apply for jobs through the online school. It’s not 100% guaranteed that the users can get a job from the first choice, but it is easier to look for a job by using other websites. Since I completed the two curriculum in the school, I believe I can give a good image for the companies on the list. I applied one of them yesterday. It is an IT company and it has headquarters in Tokyo. Also, there is a branch in Makati, Philippines. The website says “if you hope to work in the Philippines, you can work there.” I thought the job is for me, because I can work as a programmer in a foreign country, especially an English speaking country. I’ll be getting a reply from the person in charge of the company soon. I hope to get the job and to work in the Philippines.

Environment

When you are in a challenging environment, you will work harder. A famous author said that in his book. His sentence made me realize that I need to put myself in a more challenging environment than the place where I am now. Making an appropriate environment is the first and the most important step to keep effort continuously. In my case, starting to work for an IT company will be the ideal step for my career. Once I join a new company, all I have to do is to catch up the colleagues and contribute for the company. I hope that I can hone my skills at a new company in 2020.

Resolution

This year’s resolution of mine is to become an engineer. While working for the school, I realized that I like to study English with elementary school students, but as long as I don’t earn enough money to live without being worried about money, I can’t have confidence in myself. In other words, only doing what I like is not the best way to pursue my ideal life. I will look for a job and study programming for the rest of school year. Once I can have confidence in myself, I believe I will be able to make better relationships with friends and expanding my relationships worldwide.