Fill the Missing Link... Tokyo - Beijing - San Francisco

Do Not Abandon Topic Ideas

2012-05-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Writing articles is lots of fun. People enjoy posting their opinions on article submission sites. Many have blogs they update daily. Though writing is enjoyable, it can be difficult. Time-management is important for article writers, who need to continue learning effective ways to write. We must remain open to the things we see, listen to, and touch so that we can obtain article ideas from our surroundings. We must improve our creativity to form interesting article ideas. Anyone who writes articles or blogs is likely to experience problems on topics. Many of us sometimes cannot think up a topic no matter how hard we try. It is not easy to find and keep a topic that enables you to write a lengthy quality article. There are some web-based services that give bloggers and writers topic ideas. Many blog hosts provide bloggers with ideas. This shows that there are many who have problems coming up with topics.

Since finding a topic is an important process in article writing, I have my own method to finding and keeping topics. The followings are the list of my action items to find, keep, and maintain my ideas:

- Pay attention to a shift in emotion

- Write a topic idea with questions

- Take note or make a list of ideas

- Regularly or irregularly revisit listed ideas

- Do not abandon topic ideas because of difficulty developing a story

- Review used topics regularly. They are seeds of new writings.

No matter what I am doing, whenever I feel a shift in my emotion, that is the key to my topic. This may happen when I am reading a book, watching a TV program, watching a DVD, or walking my dog. Whenever this happens, I write about it, which shows how and why I felt that way. I also write down any questions I have. If my PC is available, I open my word processing software, name a document with the topic idea, and save it to my PC desktop. When I am out and away from my PC, I write my topic ideas down in the notebook I carry everywhere. I also use voice recording on my smart phone or call my home phone and leave a message with my topic idea. I then save my ideas to my PC desktop when I am home.

In this way, I constantly keep five to ten topic ideas. When I feel like writing based on the topic idea that has just come to mind, I start writing. When I find it is not so easy to write a quality article about my most recent topic, it is saved on my desktop to wait. Some topics stay there for a long time. However, in most cases, I use these ideas saved on my PC desktop within a few days. I do not abandon any topics.

I review unused topics regularly and irregularly. I revisit my list of topic ideas at least once in 2-3 weeks. It is somehow funny, but a topic once was difficult to develop a story become a good topic to write over a time. Used topics are still useful, too. Many of them give me a new idea of writing. I revisit used topics at least once in a month.

Using this method, I keep track of all my topic ideas. The topics will not abandon you, as long as you do not abandon the topics.

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5 Stages of Decision-Making Process

2012-05-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

When one study on successful people in human history, he may find that these people listened to others. In addition, they had selected persons to whom they could listen. It is, however, not all they do for decision-making and implementation of their plans. First they think. Then, they listen. They use opinions of others to think again. It looks as they had certain cycle of decision-making and implementation process. They are as listed below.

1. They think by themselves.

2. They listen to others, whom they selected as opinion makers.

3. They think again with others opinions.

4. Finally they make a decision.

5. They implement the decision.

It is essential to point out that they had their own opinion before they listened to others. They develop their opinion first and then listen to others. Therefore, they can judge others' opinions in view of own opinions. It is useful to evaluate and judge others' opinions. If they did not have their own opinions, they would not be able to assess if others' were right or wrong. They always have their trusted people who give valuable opinions. Those are people who can give opinions, which are neutral, unprejudiced, facts-based, valuable, or unselfish.

The crucial here is above No. 3. They use opinions of others, but they do not blindly obey or follow the others. There is a lot of leaders, who at a glance, look like respectable leaders because they accept their subordinates opinions and follow them. Many of them failed due to lack of their own views over the opinions of others, even from own people. Real, capable leaders do listen to others and use their opinions. Final decisions are, however, not by their subordinates, but by themselves in case of capable leaders. Sometimes, exemplary leaders looked inflexible because they did not change their own opinions. In this sense, they can adopt or reject others' opinions based on their judgments.

They listen to their people, but the decisions are theirs. They make decisions based on theirs and others, but they take full responsibility of decisions. They never blame others for inappropriate decisions or mistakes. They must be this confident. Otherwise, they would not be successful on what they planned to do.

The decision-making process lacking any one of the above 5 process is not complete. If it were lacking any one of these, it would incline to lead to wrong decisions or mistakes. They are as parts of the automobile engine, power distribution mechanism. If one were missing, a car would not move an inch. Others' opinions and leaders' opinions are like both sides of car wheels. If missing either side, the car would circle around and go nowhere.

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Balance Sense

2012-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

There is an old song in Japan, which sings about Judo. The song goes; "Do not think you are winning. You will lose." It meant that if you hope to win too much, you will be over pressured and lose. This is true. If a fighter thought too much about the result of the coming fight, he would lose flexibility. His body would not function like normal. As a result, he would lose the fight. The question is if the fighter should not think about win or lose at all. The dilemma is that he would not be able to win if he did not hope to win.

Everybody hopes to win in fighting. The point is if one had too much hope, it changes shape to be a desire. The desire takes the form of greed. When one became greedy, the state of mind desiring endlessly, he could no longer control his mind. As a result, he will lose his freedom of thinking and moving. If one does not have freedom of thinking and moving, the one would never be able to win a fight. A fight requires a lot of flexibility and free mind to win.

At the same time, however, if one did not have any hope to win, he would not train him, he would not think on his strategy how to fight, and he would not take pains and effort to prepare for his fight. Under this condition, a fighter will lose. It is as if too much is as harmful as too little.

As observed, too much is not good. Too little is bad, as well. There is a delicate balance point where one can walk on a tight rope stretched in the air. If weighed too much to right, the one would fall to his right. If weighed too much to left, he would fall to his left.

Let us consider an example of Japanese Sword Art, Kendo. When the opponent swings down his sword to cut you, if your head is half an inch far from the tip of his sword, you will not be cut. You are safe. In addition, if you keep your body as close as half an inch to your enemy's weapon, you are close enough to effectively counter-attack. If you are three feet away from your opponent, you are safe, but you are not close enough to strike-back your opponent. This space of half an inch between the tip of sword and your head is the balance point. If you keep the space, you will win.

As this physical example, there is a delicate balance point of mind, too. It is essential to keep the balance point. Hope to win so much that brain and body maintain energy to be ready for a fight. Be careful not to hope too much to become greedy or disparate to win. This theory appears to be useful not just for a martial arts, but also for success in business, academic achievement, and happiness in lives.

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Chain Reaction

2012-05-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

In Japan, there is a short saying about chain reactions: "After the wind blows, coopers make money." This comic saying is about an unlikely chain reaction that could occur. There are several pseudo logical explanations to how this could happen.

First, when the wind is blowing, the air gets dusty. Dust will get into people's eyes, and will cause problems. Those who lose their sight will become shamisen players. Japanese shamisens use cat skin. It is a Japanese tradition that sightless musicians play this instrument. The more cats that are killed, the more mice there are. Mice bite barrels, damaging them. Barrel owners need to repair or replace barrels, which is why coopers make money.

Obviously, this is a kind of joke. Most people would never believe it to be logical. However, in the real world, things more peculiar than this happen.

Hisashi had never thought about moving from his apartment in San Francisco. It was one bedroom, and good enough for him and his wife. Later, his wife's mother moved in, and one bedroom became too small. They looked for a two-bedroom apartment, and found a house to rent in San Mateo, south of San Francisco near the airport. They decided to rent it, and then Hisashi's wife wanted to get a dog.

Hisashi wondered if the rent agreement allowed them to keep a pet, but his wife bought a puppy anyway.

When their landlady found out they had a dog, she told them that renters were not allowed to keep dogs. Therefore, Hisashi's family was forced to move out in 30 days. They looked for a new place that would accept the new family member, a puppy. They found a house for sale in East Bay. Although they thought it might cost too much, they believed they could afford it and decided to buy the house. It appeared that the puppy gave them an opportunity to buy their first house.

This narrative is based on a true story. People might think they are lucky, and everything that happens is accidental. What if they had decided not to keep the puppy? What if they had decided to sell the puppy and keep their residence? There seemed to be a reason why it happened the way it did. However, some people might think that the events were coincidences. Others might believe that the puppy was a godsend, and the result was a blessing.

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Self-Employed and Being Employed

2012-05-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

When one stayed in the same environment, he got so much used to it that he took it granted. It would be okay if one kept staying in the environment. If, for any reason, one needed to get out of his long-stayed environment, he would get lost for various things. It is true in a working environment. If one were working in an office of relatively large organization, he would take it granted for some certain things, which his organization provided. He would lose supporting function. If he was in sales department, he had marketing, accounting, finance, delivery, and, in many cases, technical support from his company.

If he decided to go for his own business and resigned his organization, he is not quitting his company. He is quitting these supports, too. One gone independent sometimes found him to get lost, losing all supports he used to get. In his office, someone else planned, drew, and printed, and brought his own company brochures so that he could give them to his clients. Being independent, he needs to prepare a media, even not a brochure, which explains who he is and what he does. Somebody else used to take copies for him when he needed them. He needs to take his own copies after his independence. Papers! Who prepare papers for his copies? He needs to do it.

Facing a difficult client, he had office fiends, who he could discuss the situation. He now needs to consider and decide his action by himself. One needs to be careful on his mental situation in dealing with this change of environment. There are people who are depressed with these changes. Some may become even sick.

There was a real estate agent who went independent quite recently. He used to work in a good and wide office. He did not have to worry about who run his financial. He had support to do basics for him. His assistant took copies and stapled documents so that documents were ready for submitting to his clients.

He needed to take his own copies and stapled his documents for his clients. He could not invite his clients to her office, because his office was simply his garage room. He did not get depressed. He thought he should play smart. He tried to use resources of others as much as he could. There were several related people with his deals, such as banks, title companies, financial institutions, and agents from his counterpart, sometimes buyers' or sometimes sellers'. Oh, yes, he should not forget about his clients. His clients are prestigious people, since they are the ones who buy and sell properties. They had resources this independent real estate could use. He started to use PC in his client's home. He took his copies, using printers they had. He emailed documents and asked recipients to print. Gradually, this agent started to lose trust from his clients. These seem trivial things. However, human relationship could be harmed from small things. These are the ones, which people gone independent, should pay attention.

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A Medicine for Chapped Hands

2012-05-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

It was family medicine in ancient China. The family was engaged in dyeing fabrics in cold water in the winter. The family was suffering from chapped hands that were caused by cold water and wind from working in the winter. They developed a special medicine to treat chapped hands. A traveler heard rumors that this family had medicine to treat chapped hands, so he visited the family and offered to buy the medicine, its prescriptions, and instructions. He wanted to prescribe the medicine, so the traveler offered the family 10,000 yen to buy the medicine, its prescriptions, and instructions.

The family discussed the proposal. Their dyeing business had brought them less than 1,000 yen. The offer was more than 10 times their normal business. So they decided to sell the instructions, prescription, and medicine to this traveler. The traveler took the medicine to the northern part of China and told a local king that he had a special method to treat chapped hands for soldiers who fight in the winter. Recognizing that this would give their soldiers an advantage against their enemies, the local king hired him as an army surgeon. He soon became an army general surgeon, thanks to the effectiveness of this medicine. His kingdom continued to win wars against their enemy, thanks to this medicine. Finally, the traveler became a premier of this kingdom.

In contrast to this traveler, the family spent all the money from the sale of this medicine and returned to their old dyeing business. They remained in a dyeing business and never became rich or held high position.

This is a story appears in ancient Chinese philosophy book of Taoism, Zhuangzi. The medicine, powerful enough to raise the traveler to the number two position in a kingdom, was, when treated as just a medicine for a dyeing business, not an effective tool in making the original family successful.

The story is somewhat scary to consider. We may be in the possession of something as powerful as this medicine, but, unlike the traveler, we are not using its effectiveness to the full. Many of us are more like the original family in this story. We do not realize the powerful nature of the thing in our possession and waste its value. I believe that the story teaches us the importance of paying attention to the real nature of things and analyzing how to use them. In addition the story tells us the importance of thinking outside of the box. It is amazing to think that this story was written more than 2000 years ago.

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Do You Want to Be on a Leash?

2012-04-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Naomi was seriously ill when she was young. She was the second daughter in a family of five in the Russian-facing part of Japan, a cold and snowy region. At 23, she graduated from the local university and became a teacher. This was in the 1940s, and it was unusual for a Japanese girl to graduate from a university at that time. She said she was lucky to be sick, because she could keep reading books in bed while her sisters and brother needed to work in the rice fields. That was her attitude; it may have looked like sickness negatively affected her for a while physically, but it could not get her spirit down.

She became a teacher of the Japanese language. She had her own style of teaching, which her principal did not like. She had continuous problems with her principal and vice principal during her first year. She was just 25 years old, a new teacher, and she was not expected to disagree with her elders. She was expected to say "Hai - yes, sir" to her supervisors. She hated that feeling. She did not like to take orders that she did not agree with and did not understand. She thought many times that she might have agreed with them without arguing if they had tried to convince her, explain things to her, and made sure she was comfortable with their orders. However, in those days, things did not happen that way in Japan. Most of time, they just ordered her to either stop what she was doing or to do as they did. When she asked why, they just said to do what they told her. No explanation was given.

She started to explore possibilities for getting out of her difficulties. She began attending hairdressing school at night and obtained a national license to be a hairdresser.

When she received her license, she resigned from the school and took a train to Tokyo. She opened a small hairdressing shop in downtown Tokyo. While she was making plans for opening her shop, she met an architect who helped her design the shop and later married him. She had unleashed herself.

Her friends laughed at her because she had abandoned a respectable job as a teacher to become a hairdresser; however, she did not care. Her shop was busy because she opened it close to a geisha place, and many of the geisha girls went to her shop because it was close to their workplace. As her business grew, she hired two additional hairdressers. When her husband became ill with diabetes, she continued to work in order to support her husband who had to be hospitalized and to buy the proper medications. She saved enough money to buy her family a house in the western outskirts of Tokyo and decided to retire at the age 58. When she was 69, her husband passed away. Her savings enabled her to buy the property where her hairdressing shop had been located and build an apartment complex, which provided a constant income.

Today, Naomi is 87 years old and lives in Tokyo. When her son wanted to return to Tokyo to take care of her, she said, "No" because she wanted him to follow his dreams as she had done. In fact, she is the largest investor and most reliable partner in her son's company.

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Reactions From Others Are a Mirror Image of You

2012-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Human beings are weak creatures. Others easily upset us. They make us remorseful, fearful, or angry. We usually say he or she upset us. They made me fearful, or angry. Is this correct? Once a philosopher said, "When you give love, you will receive love. If you give hate, you will receive hate." If you give anger, you will receive anger. If you are thankful, you will be thanked. Although I cannot determine if this is a universal principle, this advice gives us useful tool to understand why we come across happiness or difficulties in our lives.

This is a story of a dog and an old owner. Once upon a time in Japan, there were two old men living in a nearby village. One was friendly and honest. The other was distrustful and unfriendly. The friendly old man was "Yosaku". The other was "Gohei". Yosaku's dog was "Taro". Yosaku was poor, but he loved his dog, Taro. Taro seemed to love his owner Yosaku, too. One day, Taro was barking like crazy in Yosaku's backyard. Taro was barking at a corner of his yard. It appeared that Taro wanted Yosaku to dig the part where he was barking. Yosaku dug his yard where Taro pointed. Yosaku dug out wooden boxes full of gold nuggets. He became rich.

Gohei was watching what happened with Yosaku. Gohei asked Yosaku to keep Taro for several days. Yosaku allowed Gohei keep Taro for several days. The second day, Taro started to bark. Gohei dug the place where Taro barked. He found two boxes. Gohei opened the boxes. There was no gold nugget. The boxers were full of sands. Gohei got angry and killed Taro. Gohei returned Yosaku Taro's body, the next day. Gohei told Yosaku that Taro died because he fell from a tree branch. Yosaku was sad. Yosaku cremated Taro's body and gathered his ashes. Yosaku noticed the next day that the place, where Taro's ashes were, grew beautiful flowers. He believed that Taro wanted to bring flowers to Yosaku. He scattered Taro's ashes amongst the trees in his backyard. Despite it having been the middle of winter and those trees were half dead, trees started to bloom flowers as soon as Taro's ashes touched them.

This is a story for Japanese small children. This story ends right there. It does not say what happened with Gohei, later. It does not say how Yosaku lived after that. It appeared to be teaching children that happiness never comes to bad people. Only happy people can receive happiness. Again, if one gives happiness, he receives happiness. People's reaction is the mirror image of your attitude. Next time when you are angry, you may want to think if you are not giving anger.

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Musashi, the Strongest Swordsman in Japanese History

2012-04-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Musashi Miyamoto is this swordsman's name. He fought sixty times in his life and never lost one. There were so many famous fights. There is an infamous one, too. He killed thirteen years old son of Sword Master whom Musashi killed in earlier duel. The students of this Dojo brought this thirteen years old boy, son of the late master, into the duel. Musashi killed the boy to confuse thirty Dojo students. He killed more than ten swordsmen in the duel including the boy and escaped. It might have been the only way for him to survive. Later, Musashi was writing to regret that he killed the boy. He explains that he was the head of this Dojo's group, thirteen years old or not. He must have killed the head to win.

The most famous duel is the one against his rival, Kojiro Sasaki who was famous for skills and speed of steel art. Kojiro used six feet long sword with no problem and could cut fast flying swallow twice during the bird was flying in front of him.

In the duel, Musashi was late about 2 hours to appear in the place. Musashi was waiting for the time when he could position behind Sun so that Kojiro's eyesight would be hampered by sunlight. Kojiro tried not to be upset. However, he could not control his emotion. When Musashi appeared, Kojiro rushed to him and pulled out his six feet long sword and threw out the sheath. Musashi said to Kojiro "You are already lost. Your sword has no place to be back in." In addition, Musashi to fight effectively against long sword of Kojiro's prepared the seven feet wooden sword which he made from boat oar. Musashi kept his sword behind putting the tip of it into the ocean water so that Kojiro could not see the length.

When Kojiro approaching, Musashi was measuring the distance. Musashi figured the moment and distance, which is too long for Kojiro's sword to reach Musashi, but short enough for Musashi's wooden sword to strike Kojiro. Musashi took that short moment and swung down his wooden sword. After two hours wait for Musashi appeared on the duel scene, the fight ended in one second.

Musashi won the duel despite that Kojiro's skill might have been better than Musashi's. Musashi's strategy was to deprive Kojiro of his stability of mind. Kojiro did not expect Musashi would use longer blade than him. Musashi knew his own weakness and covered it by mind control and physical preparation. Musashi was the one who kept his stability of mind including the time preparing for his duel. Despite of his skill and speed, Kojiro lost because he could not maintain "Status of Peace" in his mind. There is something, which one can learn from the fight. The stability of mind is essential to be successful.

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When You Hurry, You Detour

2012-04-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

When I started working for my previous employer, I used to be overwhelmed by the amount of work I need to process. There were a lot of paper works, correspondences, telephone calls, meetings, etc, etc... After a while, I learned that I need to speedily process any work brought to me no matter how the result could be, good or bad, satisfactory or not satisfactory. In 10 years, I found myself to be pretty good at doing this to the extent that my boss tells me that he likes my speed putting results aside. I still wonder he tried to praise me or insult me, I do not know.

An age of Personal Computer and Digital Technology has come. People started to like speed. There are management people who even teach their subordinates that it is more important to speedily finish their works despite that the output is good, OK, or no good. My previous employer liked my approach of outputting in speedy way in the shorter time than anybody else. I myself have thought that being speedy is important factor in business. It still may be true today.

In reading spiritual books, many blogs, and mail magazines, I started to doubt if being speedy ignoring output result is right approach or not. I heard some people say that his answer is "No" if you need his answer "Now". I believe this is good answer. If so, doing something or thinking something taking some time is important factor in doing business.

There is a Japanese saying that you should take your time thinking and doing when you are in hurry finishing an important work. "If not hurry to go, you would not have been wet by rain, rain finishes after you ran into the rain." is one of them. Another one goes "when hurry, you detour".

There were 2 main route to reach to Tokyo from West 500 years ago. One was shorter using boats to go across a big river. The other was the way to go across the river by detouring over a bridge. The route over the bridge was about 2 miles longer and people liked to take boats. But, the history tells that so many people drowned to death by boat accidents or storms. Instead, there are no people died going over the bridge.

Looking back what I have done, there is almost nothing left from my speedy outputting style work. Instead, I gained a lot from long slow training of languages and Martial Arts. Sun Zu, an ancient strategist in China, once also wrote that if you find your enemy strong, take your time. Is not it the time now to think again if the speed is everything?

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Karate Forbids First Strike

2012-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

There are several translations of this Japanese. "Karate is for defense only." "Karate is not for attack." "Karate is not for fighting." "There is no first strike in Karate." All translations are correct. As a principle of teaching, learning, and practicing Karate, it is safe to say Karate does not allow first strike. Karate is for defense. It has a long history of defense.

The origin of Karate is Ryukyu Kingdom's Martial Art, "Te". The pronunciation of this word, "Te" is almost same as "tea". Historians believe that, in 15th - 18th century, Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa Prefecture, Japan gave birth to their original martial art, Te. Te means "Hand" in Japanese. It was Martial Art focusing human body to be a weapon. Te started to gain an influence of "Kung Fu" in China around 16th - 17th centuries. They started to call "Te" "Karate" in 18th century. The word, Karate, consist of 2 Chinese Characters. First one means "China". Second one is "Hand". Originally, Karate meant a Martial Art from China. Later, it meant Martial Art with bare hand. As famous, it now means Martial Art without using a weapon.

Okinawa is now part of Japan. It was an independent kingdom until feudal domain of Satsuma attacked and occupied Ryukyu Kingdom. In 1613, the occupation army of Satsuma gave an order to prohibit to possess and use any and all weapons. Satsuma was afraid of potential power of Ryukyu would defeat Satsuma to regain independence. The people in Ryukyu needed to develop Martial Arts, which do not use any weapon. This was the reason Karate was developed in Okinawa, then Ryukyu.

The reason why the people in Okinawa developed bare hand Martial Arts was not fighting against then ruler, Satsuma. The real reason was to defend themselves from violent treatment from Satsuma soldiers. Satsuma soldiers were armed. Okinawa people were not armed due to the no-weapon order. Okinawa people needed to develop an art, which can defend them from weapons. They trained their own bodies to be the most reliable weapons. This is the reason Karate training includes "Shi Wa Ri", trial hits and kicks to check they are strong enough to break woods, ice, and roof tiles. Karate hits must be strong to break and defeat enemies. If the first strike is not successful, he would be the one killed by his enemy. Their attack must be strong enough to shut up their enemy.

Karate became deadly art to kill with one stroke of arms or legs due to their ruler's weapon prohibition order. It may be only Martial Art, which was designed to fight in bare hands against enemies with weapons. There is no wonder that masters in early age of Karate banned to use Karate for attacking. They banned the first strike to destroy their enemies. Karate is for defense only. Therefore, Karate does not allow the first strike. This is the first lesson and the last lesson of Karate.

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Be Helpful, Useful, and Friendly

2012-04-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Do not make mistakes like many do in carrying out your own business. If you are ex-employed person, you must be aware the difference between self-employed and being employed. The difference is you make a decision instead of taking orders from your bosses. Being a self-employed requires whole lot different approaches from being employed. Typical example is Risk Management. Established companies try to avoid risks. If more than 5% risky, they would not go ahead on a project. But, being self-employed must take risks. Otherwise, nothing happens.

In this way, taking a successful employee person and try him to carry his own business may not work. Successful self-employed may not be continued to be successful for leading a big organization for this reason, as well. It is not good or bad. They are simply different. Their qualifications and requirements are different.

However, there are some common elements as long as you carry out a business, any business. It is very basic. It is "Spirit of Help". When your pick up your phone and call a company for service. First thing you hear put through to across live person is "May I help you?" This person may not sound helpful at all. But, this is not just a saying. It is basic about business. It is the core spirit.

It is important to know about this and not to forget in carrying out business. Why does your customer pay their money and buy your products and services? It is because your products and services help them. So, this is a top of my business principle list. "Being Helpful". "Being Useful" and "Being Helpful" are the face and tail of coin. If you are useful, you can be helpful. But, if you are not friendly, nobody wants to talk with you. So, adding "Be Friendly" to these factors could complete outer triangle. 3 factors are "Be Helpful", "Be Useful", and "Be Friendly".

Now let us talk about inner core triangle. Almost all of successful entrepreneurs talk about mental strength. What forms mental strength and maintain it? "Vision" and "Passion" do.

Even if you have a map to the top of Mt. Everest, you do not expect yourself to be able to reach the pinnacle. You will never know how difficult it could be to actually reaching to the mountaintop, without climbing it. Your map can show roads, rivers, woods, elevation of land, but it does not show you when it rains, snows, blizzard, or sand storm. You may come across a bear or fierce animals. You will never know these just by staring at your map.

In order to cope with all these unknown factors and reach to the summit of the mountain you are climbing, you need to train, gain, regain, and maintain the mental strength. If you have "Vision" of your business, and promote it with "Passion", you will be able to gain "Mental Strength" and maintain it.

3 factors in gaining and maintaining control of your business are "Vision", "Passion", and "Mental Strength". All these changes or get thinner and vague over time, you need treat them as dynamic and continue to revisit.

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Psychological Barriers

2012-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

When one challenges something new, there are many difficulties and obstacles he needs to overcome. If one is starting own business, the list of action items is miles long. What should be the trade name of his company? What products or services the company is engaging? Where can he get the money? How shall he spent the money? How many employees shall he hire? He cannot list them all. In exact meaning, they are not difficulties or obstacles. Those are action items. His mental obstacles might be bigger than those exciting action items.

He doubts if he is making a right decision. He fears if he fails. He worried what is their family or friends reaction. He worries if he can get enough money. He worries if he could develop the products he wanted. His worries are endless.

Although he can worry about almost everything, there are only 3 significant psychological barriers for his challenge:

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1. Fears for new decisions
2. Objections from friends and families
3. Middle of success obstacles

No matter what one is trying to do, the first large barrier to prevent one to start is himself. He thinks it is a terrific idea. He thinks it works. However, he cannot be sure. He cannot be confident to make it happen. He first needs to address his fear based on himself.

Second psychological barrier is one's family and close friends. When he talks with his family and close friends, 95% of the people show opposition to what he wanted to do. Because they are his family and close friends, he will be strongly influenced. Some objection comes with emotional background. It can depress the one, even.

Last barrier is the hardest for one to overcome. After a while, he could come over those barriers. He started his business. He struggled for a while. He made all the effort. Finally, he was leading the business successfully. He was happy and satisfied. He would be ready for the next challenge. Then, something happens. It is almost always something terrible. For example, your trusted accounting colleague ran away with your money. Your engineering key person got seriously sick and would not be able to come back to work. He could be sick and would not be able to work for next 3-4 months.

Even for people who could successfully overcome the first and second barrier, it is not easy to come over the last obstacle. It happens with serious emotional impact because it happens in the middle of the smooth operation. Unfortunately, however, it will happen. The one needs to be prepared for this difficulty and ready to cope with it.

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Tokyo Is Like Heaven in Spring

2012-04-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Japan is a beautiful country in many ways. The Japanese islands are surrounded by the ocean, which is always good for relaxing our eyes and brains. Japan has many different types of ocean scenery, from the tender warmth of the beaches to the powerful, masculine rock ridges. Mountains cover 60% of the land. The mountains form picturesque scenery filled with trees, forests, lakes, and even volcano activities. Japan's 2,000 years of civilization has provided many historical places. Thousands of temples and shrines could be found in all over Japan, and all have historical meanings. Unfortunately, the capital city of Tokyo is usually not so pretty. However, there is one time that all of Japan, even Tokyo, becomes like a part of heaven.

That time is springtime, specifically a period from the end of March to early April when cherry trees come into full blossom. Wherever you go in Japan during this time, you cannot avoid seeing cherry flowers. All the flowers are pretty, but cherry flowers are unique. Cherry flowers have a light pink color that is almost white. When they blossom fully, the trees have flowers, but no leaves. There are some popular places to see cherry flowers in full bloom.

Good places to view cherry flowers in Tokyo include Ueno Park near Ueno Station, Somei Graveyard in northeastern Tokyo, Asukayama Park in the north, Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo, and the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo. In addition, there are many other popular places that have cherry flowers in Tokyo or other areas in Japan. Japanese schools usually have between three and ten cherry trees. Many students always remember the cherry blossoms at the entrance, especially at the beginning of a new semester or at graduation.

My mother lives in the western outskirts of Tokyo in a town called Fuchu-shi. The city has more than 1,000 cherry trees that blossom fully each spring. There is a road that has cherry trees lining both sides. When these cherry trees blossom each spring, they form a tunnel of cherry flowers. This is the only time of year when even Tokyo looks like heaven in Japan.

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Do Not Be Afraid of Making Mistakes

2012-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

One fundamental reason for people not to do something new is a fear to make a mistake. If one made a mistake, he would be embarrassed. He would consider his friends laughing at him. His boss would reprimand him for his mistake. Making a mistake would be embarrassing on top of all these. Please take a moment to think about these factors, which made him afraid. These were things that he imagined. These were things that had not happened yet. These all might not happen. One may not make a mistake doing something new and different. His supervisor may admire him trying something new, instead of being angry.

One has no way knowing what will happen in the future, as long as he is not a psychic. If one was busy enough to take care of things happening today, he should not worry too much about tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day. He may be glad he did it tomorrow. The first suggestion for not being afraid of doing something is to think positively. Do not imagine anything negative may occur.

The second noteworthy suggestion is that one should know that making mistakes is just a learning process. According to a reliable source, a human being cannot learn something without making mistakes. Especially, one is learning something complicated, such as selling process, marketing process, engineering studies, computer usage, or foreign languages. If one recognized making mistakes as a learning process, it would not be so hard to make a mistake. One can tell himself that it is reasonable to make a mistake, since he is in the learning process. He could be even willing to make mistakes, since he would be one step closer to mastering it.

It is especially true in learning languages. It is impossible to master foreign or second language without making mistakes. If one did not want to make any mistake in learning a language, only way for him is not to use the language. If one does not use the language, he cannot master the language. Remember children make a lot of mistakes, but as a result of their mistakes, they gradually develop their speaking and writing skills. In a language school, the ones who acquire language skills are to be 5 - 10% of students, they say. These 5 - 10% students are the ones who sit in the front row of their classroom and intervene the lesson by asking questions in the language they are learning. They are the ones who gain the language skills.

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Find a Silver Lining of Cloud

2012-03-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Betty was working as a sales manager for a high-tech Information Technology related company. It was late 1990's when "dot-com" company business was soaring. Many talented business people formed their own SOHO business. The need for Information Technology products was high. The market was large and growing. Her business expanded as the market became larger. She needed to travel seventy to eighty percent of her time for meetings with customers and meetings with supplier people.

Although it appeared there was no problem for business growth, Betty and her boss met to discuss on development of customer base, preparing for growing out of their existing customers. They listed potential customers and called them to visit for possible supply of their products.

Based on her strategy drew with her supervisor, Betty flew to the West Coast. She was East Coast based as many of her competitors were. She visited the company, which was on the top of the list, for her first time. She, being skillful and experienced in sales presentations, conducted the meeting smooth. The people whom she met were open-minded and friendly. They appreciated her for coming for the meeting. She thought the meeting went pretty well.

Betty and her potential customer held several meetings for product evaluation. They agreed to conduct an evaluation for Betty's products. It looked going well. One day, when Betty was in her office, she received a phone call from the key person from this potential customer. He told her that his company strategy changed. They were unable to conduct the evaluation. Since she could not get enough explanation, she traveled to this company for recovery of the situation. Her boss joined upon Betty's request.

Betty and her boss did not understand fully why they decided not to evaluate their products. It became clear for them that this company would not do it no matter what they tell them. Betty was disappointed. Her boss told her that she did her best. He told Betty; "Every cloud has a silver lining." He continued that it depended on the one if he could get it and use it. She decided to keep contact with the key person.

Later, Betty moved to another company as a business development manager. In her business development effort, she happened to meet the key person then working for a different company. This time he agreed to take Betty's products, and his company became the largest customer for Betty. She was happy that she did not disconnect the contact with her key person, despite that she had been so angry with him when he had rejected her products before. Betty found the silver lining of her cloud and got it.

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Legend of California Gold Rush

2012-03-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

All the states in US have nicknames. New York is Empire State. New Jersey is Garden State. California is Golden State. Its nickname came from the California Gold Rush in the history of US. California Gold Rush started on January 24, 1848, when a carpenter and sawmill operator, James Wilson Marshall (October 8, 1810 - August 10, 1885) discovered gold in Sutter's Mill in California. This discovery triggered more than three hundred thousand people in and out of United States of America rushed to Northern California. It set the nickname of California to be Golden State. Because the number of miners came to California reached its peak period in 1849, all minors were called "Forty-Niners". Later it became the name of San Francisco Football team.

It is about three hours drive to visit the original area of California Gold Rush. One can use Interstate 580 East, Interstate 205 East, Interstate 5 North, Route 99, and Route 88 to reach Sutter Creek. Just right before driving into the mining area, visitor can get a rest in downtown of Sutter Creek. California Gold Rush created people's movement to the West Coast and formed a period of Wild West. The downtown of Sutter Creek keeps appearance of days of gunmen.

Fifteen minutes drive takes him to the entrance of Gold Mines. The Mine is now only for sightseeing purpose. They are not digging gold any more. There are no flashy signs or Las Vegas style neon signs. However, since it is original entrance, a visitor should respect it as the testimony of the history. The gate shows "Mine Tour", but the entrance is small and old. The visitor should be careful not to overlook the entrance to the parking, since there are no direction signs to which the driver can refer.

The tour provides visitors a tram tour to the deep area of the mine. The inside of mine is lighted, but some parts are dim to be almost dark. There are area brightly lighted and have wax dolls showing days minors were working. Entering into the cave, the first thing one will see is a bird in a cage. Now in the Mine Tour, the person and the bird are imitation of wax dolls. It shows that they kept a bird to know when gas is spreading in the mine. The poor bird is the one first die to let minors know there is a danger of gas.

Although minors inside are wax dolls, they exhibit real machine tools and hardware. Many of them look heavy and awkward. Inside of the gold mine looks complicated structure. A visitor finds a deep straight down-hole after long gentle down slope continues for a distance. It shows that they did not have a specific plan of digging. They dug in the way the gold vein guided miners.

A guide tells the authority is estimating still two hundred million ounce gold lies underground. Now the visitor must answer the last question of the tour guide if he hopes to be a minor.

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Cherish Today

2012-03-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

There are people who almost always complain about yesterday. He should not have eaten too much yesterday, since his weight is half a pound up today. He should not have been late to work yesterday, since he has too much to do today. He visits foreign countries and regret that he should have learned the foreign language. He continuously thinks about things, which he should not have done.

An ancient story in China tells about a young boy who liked horse riding. One day, this boy fell down from his horse and broke his leg. He regretted that he should not have ridden a horse the day before. One year later, a war broke out, but he did not have to go to the war, since he had leg problem. Things happened in the past change their meanings as time goes by.

On the other hand, there are people who always worry about tomorrow. He worries about the presentation scheduled the day after. He cannot be convinced if his preparation is good enough to impress people for his business. He worries if someone asks a question that he would not be able to answer. He would not be able to sleep when he thought about what happens tomorrow.

Modern times are full of uncertainties. People worries about their retired life, income after retirement, human relationship, business security, marriage security, health, money, or loneliness. Accessing therapy site in Internet, there are so many people expressing their anxiety about the future.

Past is past and never repeat it. Everybody agrees that he has nothing he can do to change the past. Future has not yet come. It does not help to alter or modify one's future even he worries about it. In this sense, either regret for the past or anxiety for the future is the illusions you created. The important thing to understand is that he regretted about what he cannot change. Also, he worries what he will not be able to know.

One should realize that he feels miserable for the illusion he creates, if he regrets the past and worries about the future. Instead, he should enjoy and cherish today. Feeling down regretting something in the past, one can ask him what does it help. He would easily understand there was nothing he could do. Similar can apply to one's anxiety on his future. Feeling blue thinking about the future, one could think he would face his future in the future, not now. It is the future. So it may or may not occur. Let us consider if and when things happen.

Common advice from mental professionals is; "Cherish and enjoy now, today. Do not worry about the past and the future, or worry later. "Yesterday was so long ago that I forgot. I never make plans so far ahead as tomorrow."

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Too Much Is As Bad As Too Little

2012-03-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

History sometimes tells us paradoxical expression conveys a truth. We say that too much is as bad as too little. One trains him to be good at, for example, martial arts. After his painful training with sweat, tears, and blood, if he found it harms his life, how sorry he would be? Some historic tragedy happened not because the historic figure was not because he was poor at some skill, ability, or consciousness, but because he was too good.

Yoshitsune Minamoto is his name. His older brother is "Yoritomo Minamoto", who founded the first Samurai Shogun Government in Japan in 1192. This Minamoto brothers' father was defeated and killed in a civil war. Their enemy clan's leader, Kiyomori Taira was somehow merciful and did not kill these brothers. Yoritomo was exiled to East. Yoshitsune was still a baby. He was sent to a Shrine. Yoshitsune was destined to be a priest.

Samurai must have been in his blood. Yoshitsune never liked academic study of Shinto Shrine. Instead, he grew up with martial arts training. His legend tells that his training mates were bears, wolves, or wild cats. He grew stronger and stronger. A myth says that an imaginary spirits of Shrine Mountain, Tengu was his teacher of martial arts. Tengu has a red face, big and long nose, wings in their back. Tengu could fly like a bird. It could jump over tall trees. It had special skills of martial art. Nobody could defeat it. People believed it was a part of god family of the mountain.

After grown up, Yoshitsune joined his older brother, Yoritomo for fighting against their father's enemy Taira clan for their revenge. Yoshitsune was not only a martial arts master, but also he was believed to learn strategy from Tengu, too. He won whenever he fought. He defeated his enemy Taira clan in a relatively short period.

On his way back to his brother Yoritomo, his brother's army stopped Yoshitsune. Yoritomo was concerned about his younger brother's ability of fighting and maneuvering troops. Yoritomo thought that his younger brother Yoshitsune was a potential threat to him. Yoritomo sent his army to fight against his own younger brother. A powerful family in North East Japan protected Yoshitsune for a while. When this supporter passed, his son betrayed Yoshitsune and killed him.

It was an outstanding achievement to defeat their family's enemy in a short period. However, Yoshitsune must have demonstrated his ability too much to his brother. When one demonstrates something, which he is skillful, he could use his caution not to do too much. Somebody may become jealous or anxious about your skill. It may backfire him.

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Old Sacramento, Town of Pioneer Spirit

2012-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sacramento is the capital of California. It makes a foreigner puzzled why large cities are not state capitals in the US. The capital of New York State is Albany, not New York City. Illinois' capital is not Chicago, but Springfield. California's state capital is neither Los Angeles nor San Francisco. It is Sacramento. Some Japanese book was stating that Americans hoped to separate politics from business activities. It makes sense and makes a foreigner envious, since, in many Asian countries such as Japan, the city functions were confused with politics. Tokyo may be a typical example of this confusion. Tokyo is the capital of Japan. At the same time, it is the center of business, culture, academic activities, or almost everything. Japanese have been talking about moving the government to some other city for a long time, but never been realized or even planned partly due to government and business association.

Sacramento is a good size, quiet, and peaceful city. It is about two hours drive from San Francisco to North-North-East. John Sutter founded the city as a colony. Sacramento was expanding as a trading base from the early period. The city was important transportation base in California Gold Rush days. Now Sacramento is the center of politics and administration in California. This city keeps a place which preserves lives of the nineteenth-century. The district is located on the Sacramento River with twenty-five-acre of historic landmark.

A visitor can leave his car in the public parking. One can drive in some part of Old Sacramento, but this is the place one would walk in and walks about, feeling becoming a cowboy or a gunman used to be. The first thing he comes across would be a coach running on a street. Different from carriages in New York City, the carriages in Old Sacramento is totally Western style. Buildings were preserved in their original forms in the nineteenth-century architecture. The most of them looks like appeared from cowboy films. One would not be surprised even he saw Doc Holiday drunk on the front patio or Billy the Kid appears from behind the swinging doors.

Inside of the buildings was also kept like originally built. Some might pay attention to the inside of a building, which looked like, a bar, a restaurant, and a hotel coupled together. Mezzanine came out to the lobby hall. One may imagine Calamity Jane shouting in the Mezzanine. People watched the scene of a western film a shot gunman falls breaking the Mezzanine handrail to the first floor. Behind the door in the second floor, Wyatt Earp tried to take the bullet out of his brother's leg.

What is noteworthy on Old Sacramento is that the city has lots of museums. They include Military Museum, Sacramento History Museum, California Indian Museum, or Railway Museum. Especially, Railway Museum is the one, which one must visit. In addition to all ages steam locomotives, they exhibit history of railroad grew with Sacramento at the time of Gold Rush, Wild West, or Modernization. They do not run any more, unfortunately, but one can ride on many locomotives to see how the people in locomotive days traveled.

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Bombay Garden, an Indian Restaurant

2012-03-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

I was working in the Tokyo office of Japanese Electronics Company in 1996. That was the year I became a Section Manager of Business Development for the emerging market countries. I ended up visiting India six times in six months, during that year. I, like all Japanese, especially all Japanese kids, like curries; however, it was the year when I first encountered authentic Indian curries and cuisines. I loved them. When I was transferred to San Francisco the following year, I looked for an authentic Indian restaurant in the Bay Area. I dined out in several Indian restaurants in San Francisco and the Bay Area, until I found this restaurant that I liked and decided to keep going back to that place at least once every two weeks.

It is a restaurant named "Bombay Garden." It is located in downtown San Mateo, which is close to the San Francisco International Airport. From the center of San Francisco, one can take Highway 101 South to get to San Mateo. To reach downtown San Mateo, one can exit Highway 101 at Third Avenue, the San Mateo exit. One can even take Third Avenue west. Here one will find the restaurant located on the left-hand side. It is about a 30 - 40 minutes drive and very simple.

Third Avenue, San Mateo, has many restaurants where business people usually eat lunch and take their business associates for dinner. There are lots of food choices available in a variety of cuisines, such as American, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, or Indian. My recommendation for this Indian restaurant on Third Avenue in San Mateo is for the lunch buffet. Bombay Garden serves a lunch buffet every day. It serves the same basic selection of foods with a change in the main food choice on a daily basis.

Customers do not have to worry if they come on the wrong day for the wrong thing. There is always something new.

The restaurant's dining space is not big, but is clean and tidy. The inside is decorated like a typical Indian restaurant, with traditional Indian pictures and dining furniture. The picture of the Taj Mahal, which hangs in the center of the main wall, is impressive, and is surrounded by smaller pictures showing ancient Indian life.

The restaurant has an L-shaped buffet counter in its far corner. You can fill your plate with salad-there are both regular and Indian-style dressings to choose from. The buffet also has a choice of rice pilaf or vegetable fried rice. You do not have to worry about looking for naan (Indian bread) because your waiter will serve it directly to your table. After you pick up some tandoori chicken, you move ahead to the curry section. The selection of curry changes daily. Generally, the restaurant serves chicken curry, spinach and cheese curry, bean curry, or mutton curry. On some special occasions, they serve fish curry or shrimp curry, which are superb. Bombay Garden is also famous for serving traditional Indian desserts and fruit ice cream, including mango, orange, and strawberry flavors.

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A Song of a Puppeteer

2012-03-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

My mother was a beautician. She worked more than 10 hours a day when she was young. In my childhood, my grandmother took care of me all the time. She sang for me, told stories for me, or played with me. Among the stories she told me was a story which was quite helpful in analyzing one's behavior. It was half-story and half-song. It is about a puppeteer and puppets. Unfortunately, I cannot show its melody. The translation of the lyrics is as follows:

"Here comes a puppeteer. He has a puppet box hanging from his shoulder. The box has puppets inside. Will he take out angels or monsters today?"

Later I found this song in a Zen discussion book. According to the book, its interpretation was that human beings carry both good and evil natures. In reacting to things happening, one can decide to be nice or to be nasty. Buddha said that human beings carry a poison snake in their mind. They are saying the same thing.

Further, this says that there is morality and law in human society. Morality is a direction that one feels the need to follow from his heart without being asked. Law, on the other hand, is the rule which authority or a third-party force people to obey to keep the order in society. The monster puppet, which this song describes, is the evil side of human nature, and if not stopped by good nature, it will come out often. Suppose there are no angel puppets in the master's box, and all he grabs and takes out of his box are monsters. The song is teaching people to use one's morality to control his evil nature. The morality can be nurtured by Zen practice or any religious discipline.

My grandmother's interpretation was a little different. She told me that the puppeteer could decide which puppet he should take out, depending on the child to whom he is playing on the day. If a child is naughty, he will take out evil to confront the child's evil spirit. When he plays with a nice child, he will play with angel puppet. In this way, one's reaction to whom I am facing is determined, not by him, but by me. In order to receive a nice response, my grandmother taught me to be nice to everyone.

This may be my grandmother's own interpretation. However, it contains an absolute truth. If one is angry, the other people facing to him will be angry, too. If one is happy, he makes others happy, and will receive nice and happy reactions from others. Even though it is my grandmother's personal opinion, since a Zen statement has so many different interpretations, her view would not be totally wrong.

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Shaw Funami

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E and O Trading Company Restaurant

2012-03-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

Some restaurant guide websites categorized this restaurant as "Fusion Asian." This restaurant is worthy of its category. Their own website describes themselves as "Southeast Asian Grill." Their dishes consist of Malaysian, Indonesian, Singapore, Philippines, and Indian cuisine. Their range of dishes is not only confined to Southeast Asia. Their category also includes Chinese and Indian, which belong to East Asia and South Asia respectively. Unlike most of the combination type restaurants, the menu and dishes of this restaurant reserves the ethnicity of each food. At the same time, they have original inventions of combination that can be known as fusion.

The restaurant's name is nothing like a restaurant. The author imagines that they have some other Southeast Asian-related business in addition to the restaurant. The restaurant is located in a convenient place for customers. Located on Sutter Street between Stockton Street and Grant Avenue, it is within walking distance from hotels in Union Square. It is one block south of Chinatown. On a sunny spring or summer morning, it would be enjoyable if one could walk from one's Union Square Hotel room to Chinatown and have lunch in this restaurant on his way to exploring Chinatown.

Stepping into the restaurant, one will find the restaurant dining floor is very large. On the right side is a bar with a counter. The dining area surrounds the bar and expands deep inside where the kitchen can be found. The customer can have the enjoyment of seeing the kitchen activities whilst dining on the counter positioned in front of the kitchen. The restaurant has a mezzanine-dining area, which is recommendable for family or friend occasions. It is not entirely isolated like a private room, but is half private. Some may find it more amusing than a totally private dining room.

Menu comes on the wooden base plate and has several pages of colored printed papers. One can select from the small dishes, big dishes, and the beverages. The menu describes an original ethnicity of the dishes. It is fun to talk with your dining friends over the menu about the dishes. Their menu covers diversified Southeastern cuisine, Indian cuisine, and Chinese foods. The author's recommendation is to take Naan with curry source to complement with some small dishes. They have so many kinds of small dishes to choose from. How about a Combination Barbecue platter and corn fritter? Their grilled big dishes are superb. The author's suggestion is to have battered fish or grilled steaks, teriyaki source. A visitor must try a variety of their seafood if he or she likes fish. If one does not wish to go for fish, the poultry choices are recommendable, as well.

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Shaw Funami

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Little Shen Yang, the Restaurant for a Taste of Homemade Chinese Food

2012-03-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

It has been a year and half since we moved to East Bay. We found that its Asian population is increasing and discovered Chinese communities in East Bay. There are Asian food groceries, Japanese one-dollar shops, and a Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant, named Marina Mall, in the Union City mall. Our general contractor, who repaired our house right after we purchased it, told us about a restaurant that served homemade northeastern Chinese cuisine. The restaurant name is "Little Shen Yang." Because the mall is located near a college, lots of students and young people seem to eat lunch in this restaurant.

The mall has two entrances, one off Alvarado-Nile Road and the other off Decoto Road. The restaurant is located in the deepest part of the mall. Since she was originally from AnShan-shi, which is close to Shen Yang, Mainland China, my wife was very interested in Little Shen Yang. There were two northeastern China-style food restaurants in the Peninsula, and we tried them, but all were bad experiences: my wife either did not like the restaurant because it served general, not authentic, Chinese foods, or we found that the restaurant had gone out of business due to too much competition.

One weekend, my wife and I went to Little Shen Yang for the first time. It is a relatively small restaurant with minimal decoration in the dining area. We noticed from the outside that the menu items were hand written on colored paper and hung on every wall. Although I could not understand exactly what they were, since they were all written in Chinese, the additional menus excited my wife.

I decided to leave all the choices to my wife, since I had no clue about what the additional menu items were. She ordered three dishes. The first one was a pan-fried Chinese style cake made from wheat floor. The second was Chinese cabbage sour soup with meatballs in it. The third one consisted of shredded beef with green onions. Later, she additionally ordered sweet and sour fish and fried pork, Japanese Tempura style.

The cake was lightly salted and freshly baked. We finished the first round in about 10 minutes and ended up ordering the next dish. Cabbage soup with meatballs was the one which made my wife jump up and down inside the restaurant, as she loved it a lot. She told me it was her first time to taste an authentic northeast-style soup since she left China. The dish of shredded beef with green onions was the one I liked the most and would highly recommend. Sweet Chinese sauce was similar to Teriyaki sauce and the tender shredded beef was superb. The pork tempura was crispy and fresh. It was better than a similar meal served in any Japanese restaurant.

Since we ordered much more food than we could eat in the restaurant, we took home about half of the food. When we reheated the food at dinnertime, we found that it was as good and fresh as it was in the restaurant. We had never experienced some take-away meal taste so good like this one did. We still go to this restaurant at least once every week if not more often.

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Shaw Funami

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To Win, You Lose

2012-02-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

Everybody would agree that some paradox contains truth. It is not unusual one gets opposite result from an action he takes. For example, Japanese says, if you were in a hurry, you would take longer route. It is similar to English expression "hurry makes waste." If one were in a hurry, he would make a short cut, and find him in a traffic jam. If one over-speeded, a police might stop him, resulting in taking longer time. The longer route would have less traffic to take one to his destination quicker. As English version is saying, if one needed to accomplish a difficult task in a short time, he should take a deep breath, relax, and do it with peace of mind. Then one would not make waste. Japanese sword art, Kendo, teaches trainees that they "lose to win". In other words, "If you want to win, you lose. If you lose, you will win."

There was a sword master in 15th century. The master had only one student in his life, a boy. The boy asked his master to teach him sword skill to defeat his clan's enemy who killed the boy's father. The master moved by the boy's enthusiasm, taught him skill for about a year. One day the master called the boy and told him "You are not strong enough to defeat your father's enemy. There is just one way, however, you can defeat him." The master told the boy it was risky. The master asked if the boy hoped to try it.

The boy asked how he could. The teacher said; "Plan to fight against him twice. The first fight you will inevitably lose. Be careful not to be killed in the first fight. You will win the second one." The boy was puzzled but he fought the first fight as taught. The boy lost, badly wounded, but survived. One year later, the boy asked his enemy to fight again. His enemy was surprised the boy is still alive, but agreed the second fight.

In his second fight, the boy successfully defeated his father's enemy. The boy told his teacher that his enemy was not even half the man in his first fight, still puzzled. The teacher told his student that his enemy was in his half way defeated, because he was shocked by the boy survived, and still want to fight despite the first fight. The teacher continued that the boy acquired stability of mind by losing and almost being killed in the first fight. Instead, his enemy was so relieved by the fight he son, and lost his mental stability shocked by the boy's survival and determination to fight again. The boy's stability of mind reached the point that the skill cannot overcome. The master told the boy that he knew the boy would win.

The teacher is "Itto-sai Itoh" the boy is "Tenzen Mikogami". Both are legendary masters in Japanese sword art, Kendo. It shows the importance of mind stability, which can make a difference between win and lose, or life or death. It is also intriguing that this story teaches people the mechanism how one could gain or lose the stability of mind.

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Shaw Funami

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