Tokyo Commuter

Cultural Rebellion

As I prepare to return to the  U.S., I find my subconscious preparing for the re-entry. I now walk only on the right side of the sidewalk, even if I have to knock down on-coming pedestrians. I speak English more often, even if it creates communication catastrophes. I am less patient with the customs of train conductors.

Micro-equity 2

Micro-equity is a combining of micro-credit, which has done wonderful things in the world, with venture capital, which creates new economies.

The transaction size can be bigger, up to US$10,000, but the micro-finance firm retains a 50% stake in the recipient firm. The concept has two advantages over micro-loans:

1) The Micro-equity firm is highly motivated to assist in the success of the investee.

2) The Micro-equity firm earns a profit through capital gains at exit, which profits can be used to launch the dreams of even more entrepreneurs.

Downside:

1) The transaction size is so small that the Micro-equity firm is de-motivated to analyze business plans.

2) The cost per transaction, particularly for fixed costs of the fund and for sourcing potential deals, is extreme.

Hints for adults with ADD

Some of these are taken from Edward Hallowell’s excellent book, Delivered from Distraction

1)      Focus long enough to read through this whole list; none of the suggestions are too trivial, for from small and simple things are great things brought to pass; for ADD people, life failure often comes from failure in doing the details

2)      Marry the right person (you need a person who loves you for who you are and is patient and who can fill in the skill gaps, but won’t take over and become a parent)

3)      Find the right job (focus on what you are naturally good at and find others to do the rest; stay away from a boss who will demean you for weaknesses)

4)      Put a basket near the door for your car keys and other things you must take with you when you leave home

5)      Don’t expect perfection, as everyone makes mistakes

6)      Attack those piles of papers, etc that you have around your house

7)      Put enough waste paper/trash bins around your house; quit hording bits of paper that might seem important at first glance

8)      Do what you are good at, rather than spending all your time trying to improve what you are bad at

9)      Focus on diet: ADD people often use carbohydrates or drugs to medicate; instead, take Omega-3 fatty acid supplements every day

10)  Hire someone to finish projects if you can think of a way to arrange it; don’t let your spouse do all of it; hire accountants and lawyers, etc. to take care of details

I'll post more soon. Please consider these

Introduction to Micro-Equity

The trainmasters’ inhumanity to man is not the greatest evil in the world. Other issues need addressing more than my snivelings and rantings in this blog.

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I believe that our Heavenly Father is unhappy with us because of the economic differences among His children. He is not surprised, as he knows the beginning from the end, but he is incensed by our indifference and blindness. He looks upon the poor, and weeps. He looks down upon the inattentive rich in front of their plasma screens, and he is exasperated. We pray for the poor. We ask why God does not free them from poverty. Then we turn on an NFL game, which is the opiate to assuage our consciences. He will not force us to do good, so we continue to pass the chips around while watching American Idol.

    Since the days when Dickens began to bring the issue to light, many strategies have been attempted. From Marx to LBJ, most of them have focused on using the power of the sheriff to steal from the rich (and the slightly-less-poor people) and giving it the poor in exchange for votes and support from the poor. These “do-gooders” have fomented class envy, but have not solved the problem. Today’s poor suffer less than the poor in times past, only because capitalism (in the few instances it has been allowed cultivation) has created a rising tide that lifted all ships. But capitalism has not solved the problem either: inequities still exist.

    Pursuit of profit is not the cause. Pursuit of hedonism is the problem. Selfishness is the root. Socialists love to harangue capitalists because it is a system which encourages selfishness. Capitalism can indeed facilitate the spiraling of a society into depravity. But statism has not encouraged selflessness, and furthermore has not added any value in the pursuit of happiness for anyone, except for those few insiders who have jobs in the bureaucracy and can use their positions to gratify their own pride. Statists often do create organizations that benefit society, but are completely unable to dismantle those organizations when they are no longer needed, even when they become harmful. The degenerating effects to society of LBJ’s programs are well documented.

Now, I am certainly not an apologist for capitalism, but I see few of its critics removing their posteriors from the sofa to do anything to solve economic inequities. I think that criticizing capitalism—the only rational system in theory or in practice—takes our focus away from actually doing something.

    Enter the social entrepreneur.

Whereas the real value of capitalism to society lies in the entrepreneurial aspects (creating value, creating jobs, producing in sectors that are currently needed for society, building etc.), many people believe that applying entrepreneurial principles and practices to the non-profit sector to solve social problems is the way forward.

Is solvency possible?

Jesus said “the poor always ye have with you.”  Was this His recognition of our unwillingness to share, or was He expressing a prophetic resignation to reality? I don’t know; I only know His heart to the extent that I can say he wasn’t encouraging or even giving up on the problem. He was just proposing an umbrella solution to all problems faced by the world in any and all ages as a higher priority.

    Decreasing the economic gaps may or may not be possible, but we must to the right thing anyway. That is the aim of Pavant Capital. More to come in the months ahead.

Slouching into Maturity

Soon, companies in Japan will induct new graduates into their companies. The trains will be full of giddy young folks, on their way to their new jobs. The first two weeks will be playful, sitting in meetings and partying in the evenings with the other new inductees. The young men will be learning how to comb the mops on their heads, the young women how to walk in a suit and heels. They will all pretend to be adults. Then suddenly the orientation will be period will be over, and they will be adults, weighed down by the cares and responsibilities of adulthood. Their shoulders will soon begin to slump as the train lurches and chugs toward the gray-walled offices each day.

Too little information

The reason I am late getting home is because I got lost in Tokyo station tonight. I’ve walked through this station hundreds of times over the years, but decided to come from a different direction. I just followed the signs, but the direction signage was designed and placed by an evil person who will have to answer for his actions someday. Maybe he feels insecure about his marriage or he is angry that the sports team he supports got whipped. So we are all his victims. Should I say “he or she?” I think not, as everyone with the authority to hang train stations is male.

Japanese trains peeve me

My single biggest peeve related to Tokyo commuting is how the stations are constructed.

No one who is allowed to give input on the construction or modification of Japanese train stations has even been handicapped or known a handicapped person, has ever met an elderly person, has ever known someone who had children. And none of them could have possibly ever been children. None of them have ever walked in high heels or carried luggage such as a briefcase. Otherwise they would design the stations to accomodate people other than young men who are traveling alone and empty handed and who like to be compressed next to other people. And no one who works for a train company has ever ridden a train.

Tonight I was in a train car that was full of people who wanted to sit more than they wanted air. They literally dove across the aisle everytime they thought a seat might become available.

Close quarters on the train

I have been blogging on this topic for one month now, and I realized today the thrust of the issue. I realized today that my biggest complaint about commuting in Tokyo is my gluteal muscle.

This is an uncomfortable topic, but is at the heart of the matter so must be disclosed. The issue is this: standing in such close proximaty to other passengers, my buns will inevitably be touching other people's buns. I don't like it at all. I have several strategies for posterior confrontations, but the confrontations still do occur sometimes.

This one issue could change my plans in Japan.

Back at Japanese Immigration

I am back at the Japanese immigration office today, filling my lungs full of dioxins from the plastics being burned at the public incinerator next door. Now I am begging for refuge for my family members.

The two Japanese members of our family that we adopted (see www.adoption.jp) don’t need visas, but the other four of us do.

I had rushed here, standing on a train so close to other people that based on tradition, the fathers of every girl on that train should have insisted that I marry their daughters. Now we jsut sit and wait. We are surrounded by people representing dozens of nations.

Dreaming of a new business opportunity

I would like to ask for advice from you, dear reader, about the hamburger sales business in my dream.

Last night I dreamed that I had purchased a hamburger joint near a college campus somewhere in Idaho. It was losing money, and I was desperate to succeed. It was called College Dairy, or something like it. The old man who was managing it insisted that we needed to achieve economies of scale by opening a second store. I believed that we needed to make the first one profitable first. I was sure that instead of investing in a second store, I could use that investment for marketing the first store.

If you had a pretend hamburger establishment, what would you do?

- open a second shop, and hope the two can synergize?

- solve the fundamental problems at the first shop?

- fire the manager and bring in fresh blood?

- get out of Idaho, as I know nothing about the market dynamics other than what I have learned from watching Napolean Dynamite?

- stop fantasizing about burger sales and dream about walking down the street in my underwear like everyone else?

I have been thinking about it all day, and appeal to you all for a solution which will help me sleep peacefully tonight. Maybe tonight I can dream that I am three days from high school graduation, but I realize that I have failed to attend my calculus class or take any tests for the previous four months, a nightmare I experience twice a year or so.

The places I've visited

I used the www.world66.com site to create a map of countries visited. Give it a try. Below are all the states that either Julie and I can remember visiting:

Travel Turning Chinese

The face of the global travel industry is changing. It looks more Chinese.

The travel industry in many places is focused on Japanese office girls, who travel in groups of two to four. In places such as Guam, each business reaches out to Japanese tourists, who are the lifeblood of the industry.

But now Chinese have disposable income and are sending out their tourists. This will change not only the marketing end of tourism, but also all our customs. Not only will Mandarin-speaking tour guides also be in higher demand, for example, but non-Chinese tourists will have to adjust.

Example: I was sitting in a reclining beach chair on the beach recently, and a middle-aged Chinese man sat on the chair next to me. He lit up a cigarette and began blowing smoke my way. In the Middle Kingdom this must be acceptable, so I now need to learn to enjoy it. I might learn to say "Dude, do you mind putting out your cigarette?" in Mandarin. I might master the tonal inflections and be able to say it flawlessly. But am I willing to say it to 1.2 billion people? I should instead adjust, or stop traveling.

So I have decided to embrace the future:

- men in track pants and plastic sandals shuffling through the hotel corridors

- multi-generational families traveling together

- ramen restaurants inside the resorts

- learning Kung Fu in order to defend my spot when waiting in line

But I won't speak Chinese to souvenir shop clerks in Europe. I have my limits.

Train Life Improving

When I first began commuting to a job in central Tokyo in 1991, the train companies treated people more abominably than now.

The Tokyu Train Company (corporate motto: "there's always room for one more passenger") and Japan Railway (corporate motto: "the passengers are here for our amusement") seem to be running more trains, so they are less crowded. Even the Metro line ("board this train, if you dare") is doing better. Or perhaps it is because I avoid the peak hours.

Coming in to the office after riding a packed train can be very exhausting. How can one be expected to work after expending the entire day's worth of energy just to get to work? So I decided to arrive late every day I can justify it. Now I am much more productive with less time. I am no longer a victim of insensitive train train pushers.

Driving me crazy

I drove on the right side of the road for 5 days while overseas. Tonight, back in Japan, I had to drive on the left side. Oh, except for the time I decided to change to rules and pull out of a parking lot onto the right side and drove into on-coming traffic.

I am hoping that such antics will alert people in Japan to the fact that they are all driving on the wrong side. If they would just follow my lead, they could learn to drive on the right side. Then I won't have to adjust. Let them all adjust to me. This will be much more convenient for me, but may continue to tramautize my family for a while during the inevitable adjustment period. So buckle up, kids. Leadership requires going against the grain sometimes.

Terrorism makes me thirsty

A couple of hours ago, I came to the airport with six water bottles because I get thirsty in airports and on planes. But a person who had squeezed herself into her uniform wouldn’t let me bring them in. Water is the new face of evil. Some terrorist used a liquid in a plot to hurt a plane. Now no one is allowed to have liquids. So I stood in front of the luggage scanner and guzzled two of the water bottles.

Why did terrorists choose airplanes in their plot to annoy the West into submission? Why didn’t they choose some place I don’t like to frequent, such as adult bookstores or reptile research facilities or health food stores or jogging tracks? What if jogging tracks suddenly became ultra-high security areas with huge delays? My life would be easier.

I really need the flight attendant to bring me a cup of ginger ale which is all ice because the airline wants to save money on ginger ale.

Revelling in Revealing Beaches

I am on the beach in Guam. Everyone is wearing a swimsuit, so now I know more about everyone than I would have otherwise. Sometimes it is "too much information."

My question for today is "why did the Great Creator create so much variety in body composition among his children?"

Narita Airport

The key to success in life is choosing the right line to stand in.

Currently I am at Narita airport. I had to choose which check-in line would be the fastest. My faulty-logic brain chose the shortest one. After 20 minutes of not moving, a woman came back and apologized for the wait. She bent her head toward the woman operating the desk we were waiting for and explained, “she’s a trainee.” No other apology was necessary.

I realized that I always choose the wrong line. When I am faced with a choice of lines, complex algorithms in my brain calculate which line would be best. But I am always wrong. I choose the line with a person who is trying to smuggle a bird cage full of endangered-species birds. Or I choose the one with the person who plans to request the paperwork to apply for diplomatic immunity, after which their qualifications are carefully investigated while I wait behind them in line. Or I choose the person who doesn’t get an ideal seat and won’t leave until are they compensated with a free upgrade (“do you know who I am?!”)

As I wait, I realize I need a new policy. I am refining my mental formulas for line choosing. I have plenty of time to figure it out: what else will I do as I wait in line? A refugee in front of me has asked to wait in line while his extended family is airlifted from his home country in Central America.

痴漢

The train companies are really cracking down on chikan, or perverts that touch other people on the train. Sounds like Japan is catching up.

But I am concerned about the hypocrisy. The train companies fill the walls with erotic advertisements, pack the passengers up against each other, then they feign surprise when they touch each other.

This week's commute

Coming home yesterday, the train was so crowded that some velcro on my coat became attached to a middle-aged man's sweater. When I tried to de-board, I pulled him off the train with me.

Wednesday, Valentines Day, was even more crowded. My train was cancelled because the wind was blowing. (Japan Railways, JR, really is the least conscientious company on the planet. They could have slowed down the driving speed and been completely safe.) So I found a different train company with more courage, then walked four kilometers from a distant train station to my home so I could be with my valentine.

Year of the Pig

According to Chinese Astrology, this year is the luckiest year in 500 years in which to be born. It so happens that we are having a baby this year. How auspicious for us!

And by the way, it is a wild boar, not a pig.

Asia is the Future

I am an American who has lived in Asia for about 14 years. I am often surprised by what I hear coming out of America (as amplified by CNN). But I am much more amused when I hear particular Europeans consider themselves to be "internationalized" because they act concerned about events in other European nations. They learn other European languages and feel very cosmopolitan, like New Yorkers who in times past congratulated themselves when they went on holiday to Texas or California instead of the Hamptons. A European involving themselves in the affiars of other Western European nations doesn't make one "global."

The result of insular thinking is that I see relatively fewer European companies aggressively building in Asia. They prefer to congratulate themselves when they succeed in Spain.  Eastern Europe is the absolute frontier.

Despite what Europeans think, I believe that America's shift from West to East is viewed by Europeans as Americans ignoring the rest of the world, but it is actually just ignoring Europe. Americans are still in love with European culture, but recognize that Asia is the future. Hence over the past few decades we have seen a shift of a lot of power from America's east coast to the west coast. More and more people in the U.S. are looking to the future.

Unfortunately we are forgetting our roots, our past, in Europe.

Immigration Philosophy

Today I waited in the Tokyo immigration office to apply for an employee’s visa. My observation is that the immigration process is the Great Equalizer. Various people were applying for professional visas, hostess visas, student visas, and refugee visas. Yet we were all the same. We were all refugees, begging for the refuge of Japan’s concrete shores.

America’s immigrants included “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore,” according to the Emma Lazarus poem. But Japan considers all its immigrants to be refuse. In fact, the immigration clearinghouse office is next door to a massive waste incinerator complex.

As I breathed in the carcinogenic fumes from the incinerator, I felt affinity with the other huddles masses. We are all the same.

Response to "Dweebs"

In response to "Dweebs in the Train," an observant reader made this observation: "Pringles must be very popular in Japan because they are "uniformly shaped.  Like they stay in line, and don't try to stand out."

Dweebs on the Train

Japanese culture is very obssessive about teaching people to not eat on the train. So why do I have Pringles* potato chip crumbs in my pockets tonight? Some unruly high school girls sitting next to me on the train were loudly chatting as they stuffed Pringles into their mouths earlier this evening.

All the train commuting rules are suspended for those that ride the train car I happen to be in.

In cross-cultural studies, this is my Dweeb Corollary. It states that the examples/models we use to judge a culture are often the abnormal members of that culture. When one visits a foreign land, the non-mainstream people often gravitate toward the visitor. So our information-collecting and analysis functions are skewed.

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* clarification: we all know that Pringles are not potato chips; they are made of compressed parts (like particle board) that come from those who were not chosen when the real potato chips were choosing teams

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Alternative Investments

Now that every investment manager in Tokyo is building out their Alternative Investments divisions, I wonder when Alternative Investments will stop being called Alternative Investments. Once it is mainstream, it is no longer Alternative. Soon the category will be sort of like Alternative music, which has been around so long that now it is hardly an alternative form of music.  This opinion is offered as an Alternative to the conventional wisdom. If you disagree, please feel free to offer an Alternative explanation.

New Commuting Rules

After finishing dinner at El Torito last night, my car was pulled over at a sobriety checkpoint, and I was forced to breath into a microphone which measured my blood/alcohol level. Since the last time I drank alcohol was when my mother gave me Nyquil cough syrup in 1974, I didn't register high enough for booking and was allowed to continue on (though I was ready to try a Jedi mind trick had it become necessary to escape.)

Driving on my way, I realized something about train commuting in Tokyo. Commuters are constantly reminded by station masters to be polite. Announcements continually stream over loudspeakers, on the platform and inside the train, with the fervor of an Arab call to prayer: don't eat on the train, don't sit impolitely, don't dive into a train as the doors are closing, don't pinch other passengers' posteriors, don't use a cell phone around other passengers.

Bad breath is forgiven, yet it bothers other passengers far more than a quiet cell phone conversation. I am starting a movement to change the rules. Beginning March 1, the station master should enforce mandatory breathalizer tests, randomly administered. Anyone who hasn't brushed their teeth for a over a week would not be allowed to board the train.