Gomen!!!!
Well, I haven’t been excellent at posting on the weekly page. I have updated my journal though, and posted all of it on my other site today. Here is the massive backlog.
August 7th 2006
Kimi gets back from a trip to Nagoya tonight. I guess she just has a strong love for that part of the country. She is even turning into a big Chunichi Dragons Fan.
I spent most of the day today sitting at other desks. I sat for a while at the Credit Derivatives Desk. Ren Kuroda, who was working with Landon last year gave me a great overview of what his area does. We talked for almost an hour and a half. It was pretty fun. I am set up to sit with a couple of other people in his section. I’m looking forward to it.
Now, on with the backlog. . .
June 26th ___
I finished one of my books today. This fulfils part of my professional goals and personal goals. The book is called “The wisdom of crowds.” My boss Brad suggested it to me. The book talked about how, under the right circumstances, a crowd can make exceptionally accurate and intelligent decisions. Pretty interesting thought, very good delivery. I’m not sure I believe everything that he has said, but a lot of it makes good sense. The best part of the book are the case studies.
July 3rd ~~
Got a bit closer to one of my professional goals this week. I have been talking with one of my supervisors. He seems keen on having me come back. I don’t know about the position, but I guess it is good to have the options.
I have forgotten how hard it was to find my way around to someplace new. When I have just and address, it is really tough to find a place. So far I haven’t really need to find anything that wasn’t a landmark. This weekend trying to find a restaurant just off the address was tough. Props to the missionaries trying to track down referrals. That was fun that I’m glad to forget.
July 10th ~~
Greeting from Tokyo:
Today I was assigned a bit more challenging project. It is a credit report like the others, but it is not necessarily just a standard review. We don’t do a whole lot with the company, so the margins are not that high, the risk is not that high, but I get to assign the rating by myself. Of course before it is submitted my boss, Thomas, will look over the whole thing and make sure it is okay like all the rest, but this time, he said I should find out what the rating I felt was warranted by the company. This feels like a significant increase in responsibility. I feel very grateful that they are very concerned in seeing me progress. Thomas has been particularly helpful, and I think that he hopes just a little bit that I would come back for full time work.
I started by getting all the relevant information. I started with Bloomberg: major news stories over the last year, plots of equity price and other securities issued by the company: information on their credit rating. Next I got the Moody’s/S&P/Fitch rating analysis off the web. I guess a lot of my opinion will probably match what they say on their reports. Normally I guess a credit officer would us the ratings to determine if there was consensus, not as a basis of his report, but I’m not really a credit officer. Finally, I got the annual report and spread their financials. Just getting, and going through all the information took the better part of the day, so I guess I will start my analysis tomorrow.
July 18th~~
Howdy to Josh and Jon, it was good to see you in Gifu this week.
I finished another book this week. It was written by the President of Monitor group, and was about the Japanese financial revival, he called it a renaissance. It was very interesting. He said that we need to be Modern Samurai that are strong with the sword and pen. It was very much a different take that what was written in the “Inside the Kaisha book.” I can’t say which argument I agree with more, and despite their conflicting paths, they actually came to similar conclusions about Japanese business. I would definitely suggest this as a read.
My work in CRM continues much the same as before. I update credit reports, file rating reviews, and spread financials. All good things that I’m glad I had the experience to do. I think that it will help in the future.
We had a great dinner tonight with the Regional head of Credit Risk Stefan Boecker. We went to a really expensive feeling Italian place that Akemi Yamaguchi (the office staff secretary) has connections with. I ordered what I was going to have last Friday.
I started off with a trio of appetizers. Melon with smoked salmon, a foie gras mousse thing, and a salad with raw ham. It was all very tasty. Then I skipped the wine, but really enjoyed the assorted meats and cheese platter. The meats were amazing, sausages, a bit of meat cut from the smoked leg of a dear, really tasty pepperoni, more raw ham, and a couple of others. Then I had a great pasta, that was a bit small for how much I wanted to eat, and a piece of fish that had bacon on it. Wow, that was an amazing taste. Finally, I had a crème brule and a piece of chocolate mouse cake for dessert. Amazing. Amazing that it was only like 40 dollars a person. I guess I would have felt like I was really getting my money’s worth if I drank wine. Some people had four or five glasses. But then some didn’t drink really any as they had to go back to work when it was done.
More interesting than the food was the conversation. Thomas is a great guy and I have had fun working with him. He basically offered me a job in CRM, I don’t know if he was serious, but he said that he thought I would be good in the position if I wanted it. I like the people that I work with. I like the hours and the pay that I would get. But I don’t know if I love the work. It is interesting in some respects, but it just isn’t what I’m looking for.
July 24th ~~
It is weird to be on the downslope. I feel comfortable in my job and responsibilities, I feel like I have learned a lot.
I really love Japan. Working in Japan and Dendoing in Japan are of course very different, but both provide similar experiences. In both you have an opportunity to really get into the none-tourist Japan. You have opportunities to get behind the tatemae. You see the parts of Japan that doesn’t show up in Lonely Planet. I have loved getting to know my co-workers. Brad, as I sit next to him every day has been an excellent mentor. Armin and Thomas, two of the Germans in this German Bank have been very good at teaching me new skills. Among the Japanese, Kohei is an a typical salaryman, but a good example of what I think the modern Japanese businessman will be like. Ken is a really typical salaryman (I think he stays at least an hour later than anyone else) has been a great resource to discuss the company and working in Japan. The three OL’s have been a lot of fun. Very helpful always with a lot of stories, and they all keep on telling me to come back again. Very good people.
As for work, I was originally planning on being in CRM for the next couple of days, I spent most of today going back and forth between desks working on a couple of things for Brad and for Armin. It was okay. For Brad, I was working on follow-up with Honma-san and the OR-Losses. We don’t want to have to teisei the teisei, so we were triple-checking the numbers today. For Armin, I was finishing a rating review. A very busy day, and I got home pretty late today.
July 31st ~~
Well, Today was lunch with Warnick Sensei. He is traveling around doing kaisha-kankei stuff. What a restaurant. The grill was called Lawry’s. I had a giant piece of prime rib that about put me to sleep when I got back. It was a good lunch. Mitch talked for a while about what it is that they are looking for in the interns. Dr. Warnick talked for a while about what the interns are looking for. Rebecca and I talked for a while about our experiences in Japan. It was good. I felt bad a bit though when it was done as I forgot to really thank Dr. Warnick for providing the experience.
Anyway, things have been good at work. I finished another month. Averaged about 65 work hours this time, so a bit of an increase, but I didn’t really notice. I guess it was a bit easier to stay a bit later now that the Lewis’s have gone. I was trying to get home earlier to see if I could be out doing things with them. But now, I just work till I’m done. Crazy that it is already August. I can hardly believe that I have two weeks left.
Also, next week, Brad has encouraged me to visit other areas while he is in Taiwan for the rescheduled workshop. I have already set up a couple of appointments, so I hope that I can use the time well.
